It's hard to believe that it is already August. It seems like yesterday when I was staring at an eight foot snow drift, trying to conjure up the best way to shovel my car out of a jam packed, iced over street in Boston.
Fortunately that snow drift did eventually melt as Spring slowly made its way into New England. May and June coughed up some phenomenal fishing. The Cape Cod Canal did exceptionally well, along with some areas relatively close to shore.
July proved to be a bit more fickle. One trip would produce well, while the very next trip was a struggle. The bass were here one day and gone the next. Certain schools crushed baits we threw at them, and then magically shut off as they settled into "lockjaw" mode. Nevertheless we managed to land some beautiful bass up to the 39 pound mark.
And now it's August, my second favorite month (next to September) to go fishing on Cape Cod Bay. If history repeats itself we should have some fantastic weather over the course of the next 31 days, and some phenomenal fishing as well. I'll be pretty happy if last night is a sign of the good things to come.
I had the Pennsylvania crew onboard this past trip. Brett, Austin and Ed were up for vacation and hoping to bag a few nice bass for the grill. They had plenty of freshwater fishing experience, and even a little time logged in at Montauk-the "Mecca" of the striped bass fishing world.
The guys came onboard with great attitudes and a willingness to do whatever it took to catch fish. After some searching around I managed to mark a real nice batch of bass, whipped the boat around, and had the guys pitch the baits.
It wasn't long until Austin had a nice bend in his rod. This fish took some serious line, and really dug for the bottom once it saw the boat. Little different than bluegill fishing!
After a few more minutes Austin eased the bass towards to the port side of the boat. A quick gaff shot broadside and we had the fish aboard. She tipped the scales at an impressive 35 pounds-Austin's first and biggest legal bass of his life.
Ed and Brett both landed bass over the 25 pound mark throughout the trip. At one point Austin and Brett doubled up on what seemed to be two nice sized stripers. I noticed something funky was going on due to the angle of both of their lines. I couldn't believe it when I landed Brett's bass and saw two eels and two hooks embedded in its mouth.
The 25 pound bass was so aggressive it had eaten Brett's eel and Austin's eel. Not only that but one of the eels had been previously chopped by a bluefish before getting hammered by the bass. That is a first for me!
We were even treated to watching bass and bluefish harass our baits at boatside. The fish didn't care about the boat, or the spotlight I was shining directly at them. It was quite the show.
Final tally was around a dozen bass from 10-35 pounds and a few chomper bluefish. The guys had enough by 11:30pm, allowing me to get some much needed rest!
Thanks guys and enjoy the rest of your vacation!
For more reports and articles visit www.myfishingcapecod.com
Tight lines and good luck,
Ryan
