Route 28 "south" goes compass east from the canal and compass north from Chatham.
The Cape is a Terminal Moraine. Sand with a few big rocks. This means almost all of the wading is on solid ground, in fresh and salt. A big advantage is that by law you can "navigate, fish and hunt" below the high tide mark of any shore. You can also wade around ponds successfully just following the shore and staying in the water on firm footing and off private property. No boat necessary! This is also true for hunting (given the 500' relief from "a dwelling in use"), birding, etc.
"East is least and West is best"... ( wind for fishing ).
In the Cape Cod Canal and the mouths of many estuaries, the best fishing takes places close to the times of slack water. On bigger open water, the best fishing is often during the maximum flow of mid-tide (causing rips and current eddies)
Stripers appear partial to blue and white, bluefish to green and yellow. These are good colors to start with anyway.
Cape Cod ponds are kettle ponds formed by large calved chunks of galcier left buried in the sand. When they melted they left DEEP holes. Holes still 50' to 80' deep in even little 25 acre ponds! Some ponds are just flooded marshes barely five feet deep (look for the dam) and others will surprise you. Check map and chart data and your sonar often.
Cape Cod Weather is Appalachian. Twenty degrees cooler than the our mainland in the summer and twenty degrees warmer in the winter due to the surrounding ocean. The Cape is the third windiest place in the country, averaging 14 knots of wind all the time. Great for sailing and surfing and staying cool in the sun. Less helpful for boating and pass shooting. Be prepared.
The fishing in the canal is consistent with bait and often boom or bust with lures. Plan accordingly and check often to find out what's been happening recently. The favorite bait is herring (live is best) and chunks fish. The popular lures are: Atom Poppers, Gibbs Pencil Poppers, Bomber Swimming Plugs, Kastmasters, Crippled Minnows and a big white Leadhead Jig (1oz.+) and Pig tail. Top flies are: Decievers, Mackeral patterns and Sand Eels - short backcast room dictates shooting heads.
If you troll through the canal while you traverse it by boat, you will be stopped and fined. The whole length of the canal is monitored by radar and camera.
Sea Ducks generally fly into the bays and harbors after sunup following rivers and channels. Combine this with a head wind for maximum pass shooting. Decoy with three or more painted bleach bottles, heavily anchored.
Stripers eat everything but get hung up on expecting certain foods at times. Guides know this so if you don't know what they're on , take every kind of bait you can get: squid, american eels, sand eels, herring, scup, sea worms, crabs, clams; anything you can keep fresh. Keep changing baits and presentations. From a boat, drift vs troll. From shore sinker vs. drift. Change until you hit the pattern.
Where there is one striper during the day, there are ten at night.
Time and tide wait for no man. Count on it and plan ahead. But the tide can be hurried or slowed by the wind behind or opposing it by an hour or more. Give yourself some "leeway".
Remember in planning your deer or predator hunt that the prevailing wind on Cape is Southwest. The backside of a storm is usually Easterly backing to North and a good time to be afield after game that was holed up during weather.
Sea Ducks (Scoter, Eider and Oldsquaw) see movement above the horizon like a head above rocks or above a blind but ignore solid structure like breakwalls and blinds made of poles and burlap; get behind and look through not over for success. You can pick up a lot from a guide in one trip.
Cape deer live in plots not forests and become extremely habit bound within their limited habitat. Pattern them once in an area and they are likely to repeat that pattern year after year; like arriving at the bedding area about 7:A.M or following trails paralleling roads with doe trails closer and bucks further away.
The National Seashore may only allow 22 cal. rifles ( like all the Cape) for predator hunting but the open nature of the dunes and the extreme carry of a rabbit call provide ample opportunities for a good shot under a 100 yards.
The number one Cape bait for those eel pots is a horseshoe crab, cut open and with the tail removed for easier handling, nothing beats 'em. But mussels are a close second.
The best way to get your trash raided at night is to put lobster shells out after a big meal, wait to put them out 'til morning and save the cleanup. The number one raccoon bait for havahart traps is lobster shells.
Cape Cod Oaks are short and often too branched to allow for the effective use of a climbing tree stand. Carry a small limbing saw to trim dead branches and you may get 12' up with a careful choice of tree.
Frog legs, a delicacy, are more easily obtained by trickery than stealth. Give up the net and use a long pole with a few feet of sturdy dacron and a big black fly. Bouncing it in front of big bullfrogs is sure thing, and you'll catch enough for a meal in an hour. Waste not, want not, go catfishin' in the mornin' with the remains or make chum.
Everyone knows to watch for bird activity on the ocean to find bait and fish. But watching even one bird pass by can tip off the location of a fish. Terns will drop their head and look down if they pass over a fish below. Cast there.
Flyfishing for Largemouths in the summer can be extremely productive using big hair poppers (Dahlberg's) in brown, black and white and tied very weedless with mono loops. Work the pads where spinfishermen have chewed it up and fish SLOW. Dawn's best.
If you know you've shot a deer ( bow or gun ) and can't find it even after a careful and methodical day's search, return quietly before light the next day to the same locale. Remain hidden and wait for the crows. They find all the carrion and will announce their good fortune, if not disturbed, and will lead you to your prize.
Net up big Blue Crabs at night in the shallows. Tie a 5 gallon bucket to your waist and walk the shallows with flashlight and net. Try to let them swim into your net for best success and ice them as soon as you get home, they die quickly. Don't forget the license!
Razor clams can be caught on bars by identifying their dimple-like holes and pinning them sideways with a quick side thrust of the fingertips through the sand. Then dig them out with the other hand. Under water the thrust must be dead slow.
You can bowhunt Canada Geese from a canoe. Paddle upwind and then drift and paddle gently down onto the birds. A few will let you within 30 yards or less. Use broadheads and aim at the waterline (aluminum arrows float) for an effective shot (instantly down). The lead as they rise is a scant foot in front.
Try very slow trolling for Stripers with an 18" red tube and Worms trailing from the hook. Wire or lead line may be necessary to get this rig to the bottom where it counts. This often works better than ripping diving plugs or jigging in channels.
Snapping Turtles are hard to kill with less than a Ford F150 unless you aim for the brain close behind the eyes, not further back. Don't pick them up if you like your fingers. Any bow will pierce their shell with a field point, fish arrows also work well.
Kayaking for Sea Ducks (and Geese)is easy but dangerous. Easy to paddle up within 30 yards again and again. Dangerous when the water is frigid, the wind rises or waves break. Think twice and take sufficient precautions to prevent hypothermia from wind and soaking. A guide may be a welcome companion the first time out!
Trout feed the wind line (windward side) of a pond for midges. Little peacock hurl flies work well. Bigger Trout like shiners near the bottom from a boat or under a bobber from shore. Biggest Trout like deep slow trolling with wire line and swimming plugs or big shiners.
Big Bluegills fall to big poppers fished at dawn and big nightcrawlers fished deep, 15' or more, off weed beds and dropoffs, unweighted. Using a big nightcrawler prevents smaller fish from taking and attracts the occasional Largemouth and Northern Pike. Hook it once through each end with a "Y" rig and two hooks!
When fishing Bluefish, make sure to use a black snap to prevent one blue from snapping at the silvery flash in front of another hooked fish. Or use steel leader, 12" is enough, but you'll catch more Stripers without steel.
When together, Bluefish often feed on the surface with Stripers below picking up the scraps. Reel fast to catch Blues up top. Or weight your bait to get down to the Stripers before a Blue sees it and chops it up.
Missed a bite on an eel and see cuts in the skin of your eel? It wasn't a Striper. Put on a steel leader before you feed the Blues!
Canadas can be decoyed with only two or three dozen decoys in you choose a setup where you've seen the birds come naturally, away from human traffic, and make sure your blind is a good one. Be patient and call sparingly, Canadas trade all day on the Cape due to changing tides and other human activity.
Pheasants are often stocked on Monday, Wednesday and Friday at the larger put and take stocking areas. But they are stocked other days in lesser numbers in many more places. Call MDFW for a complete listing of stocking sites to avoid the crowds.
If you are hunting Pheasant where they're stocked the evening before, watch the trees beside the path. Often, birds roost for the night up high while getting their bearings. Telltale feathers in the road and the marks of boxes in the dirt and start/stop tracks of the truck may indicate a stocking site.
Take the time to set your LORAN points in advance of that early morning outing to prevent being fogged in and disoriented instead of enjoying the fishing. LORAN is no help without setting prior waypoints. And check waypoints often while on the water to offset occasional reading errors, like " North-4505 miles" that happens when a station goes off line.
The Cape is a changing place, especially the shoreline and especially around Chatham. Don't expect sandbars, channels and holes to be where they were last year or before a storm. Do expect rocks, grass, fog and bouy lines when you least need them.
Walking in the woods in the dark and see a black place in front of you? Its a hole, water or cliff. Be cautious!
Don't follow the other guy into trouble on the water. He may not know or care what's under his hull or how close it is! Look around for yourself and decide if the route is safe using your own judgement and observations.
Yes, we have Lyme Disease carrying ticks. Yes, its bad if not diagnosed and treated in its early stages. Don't panic. "They" say it's transmitted by ticks that have been attached at least 24 hours. You can feel them walking on you long before that and remove them. Use bug spray on cuffs and pants and just check at the end of the day. No big deal. If you find one that's been feeding on you, save it for your doctor who may then prescibe antibiotics and testing.
Many sporting goods stores have a few chairs set up somewhere. These are for the locals talking local news, sometimes fishing and hunting news, every day. Usually these discussions occur when the store opens. Get there early and listen.
A fellow motored over to me one day in thick morning fog. We were close to land but out of sight of any land features. "Are the bouys in the same place as last year?", he asked. "No", I said.
The prevailing wind is SouthWest, about 10-20 knots. That's a beat to the Islands from the south coast and a run back from a full day's sail in the sound. In Cape Cod Bay a little wind can get bigger and build interesting waves, watch for it. The big swells are East side from Chatham to P'town, be careful after a storm.
Always go fishing when the wind is calm. Its a rare day and you can hear them feeding from a half mile. Pop. Pop. Pop.
Always go duck hunting in a Nor'easter. Get to the mouth of a bay or cove to windward of the open water and hunker down for heavy action. Bring more shells than you think and remember that a bird almost motionless from beating into a fifty knot wind still needs a lot of lead ( and steel ). A guide may help you face the elements on this one.
Walking a beach and watching for tracks (goose, fox, raccoon, deer) can turn up some interesting and unexpected wildlife information. Considering the tide line of erasure and the line of the tracks can tell you the time they were made.
When duck hunting the beach without a dog, toss out drift wood tothe current and wind effect. You can sometimes find conditions that will float downed birds to you, eliminating the need for a retriever and freeing up your choices of shots. In a pinch a sturdy beach rod and floating plug can retrieve close birds.
White Perch usually are deeper than their yellow breathren except in spring when they come up to 8 - 12 feet of water to spawn. Try small white/yellow marabou jigs and minnow plugs. They'll sometimes take the smallest floating plugs worked slow or a bead head fly pattern like a dace or herring.
Out in the fog and can't find the fish? Turn off the motor and listen for the birds. Their sound of crying can carry miles in the moist air and lead you to the action. Stop and reconnoiter often.
If you plan to walk into the woods in the dark for an early stand for deer, plan your route well. The uniformity of short oaks and pines is deceiving in the dark and the rolling ground can turn you. Consider glow tacks or other shiny markers to waypoint your route.
Chubs (Killies, Killie-fish, Mummichogs) by any other name make an excellent bait for Fluke and in their bigger sizes (4"-6") for Blues and Stripers as well. Chubs can be trapped in the shallows at night, netted or seined by a team. You'll find more near salt marsh banks and attract more with clam bait. They are very hardy and stay on the hook well. Try these native "minnows" as an alternative to sand eels and squid strips.
THE Cape Cod freshwater fly is the Woolly Bugger in brown. Tie 'em small for trout and perch, and bigger (up to #1) for Pickeral, Smallies and Largemouths.
Having trouble setting the hook on Yellow Perch with your flyrod? Take Al's advice to me, "when you feel the bite - stop - let it sink for a count of ten, then lift the rod tip - don't strike!!! - and you'll have 'im". It works!!!
Always eat your catch as soon as you can. This is especially true in the heat of summer and with Bluefish. Store your catch in a fish box with a lid and add fresh water often to keep them alive and/or cool. ( A guide should do this for you! ) Clean it as soon as you return home and prepare it for eating immediately. If you want to eat fish that's old (more than a few hours) buy it at a store.
Don't overcook seafood. If its soft but firm like a banana, its just right. That's a one pound lobster boiled for just seven minutes! An inch of fillet at about the same time at 450. Hint: cook food that starts at room temperature throughout, microwave first to warm a refrigerated center if necessary.
Spring starts with the best tasting fish on Cape, Yellow Perch. Prospect any pond of 1 acre or larger from a boat by checking in the 3' to 6' depth range with bits of worms and pencil floats. Small bits more closely match their early food size of about 3mm chironomids. From shore and wading, use the lightest slip sinker possible to make your cast. You can attract and hold schools of Perch by "ground baiting" or chumming. We're talkin' Perch up to a pound here so don't miss out.
THE BRIDGE Here is an actual count of the number of people trying to cross THE BRIDGE on Friday or Sunday 'til midnight. If you don't want to be counted in, pick another time. Any other time.
Moon tides, full and new, are the big ones. Higher highs, lower lows and most set (current). As a rule of thumb, you can count on high tide at noon and midnight on these days.
Great Blue Herons come to the Cape in LARGE numbers in the summer. To find up to a hundred together at a time, look for large flats with grass and a foot of water (rising) at first light. Barnstable Harbor and Pleasant Bay, on the right tide, come to mind....
Lookin' for fish bait at midnight? Supermarkets sell fresh and frozen squid and clams and other fish (and are open around the clock)!
If you are fishin' the salt from a boat, don't anchor in marked channels. The fish may be there but you become a danger to navigation. Its also ilegal. And a nuisance to everyone else. The bouys are an indication of the "preferred" channel, you can almost always anchor just outside with plenty of depth.
If you are fishing at night, get one of those small flashlights that come with a spare red lens and hang it around your neck. It will save much of your night vision for more important tasks like finding your tackle box on the beach and seeing where your cast is landing.
If you catch a trophy, take pictures as soon as possible to record color and shape. Then keep it cold, treat it with care and get it to a taxidermist as soon as possible. The Cape has some gifted game artists. Ask your guide or at your local sporting goods store. About $10.oo an inch or more to mount a fish (and do it right, see below).
An inexpensive but incredibly useful piece of gear are five gallon plastic buckets with lids. They carry big saltwater tackle, are strong enough to sit on, they float, can hold about 8 six pound bluefish, they keep your camera out of sight and out of the sun, can double as a "potty" away from civilization or on a boat, and on and on....
Please don't toss overboard your used mono. Even short lengths are a nuisance to props and wildlife. I have video of a Canada Goose, its legs tied together and cut to the bone by a tangle of mono. Recycle it into weed guards for flies, parachute jigs or just trash it properly.
Water conditions in the Bay will not be the same as conditions on the Sound or the Ocean. That is, wind direction and even distant storms can cause the Sound (south) to be flat while the Ocean (east) has five foot swells and the Bay (north) a lively chop. Check first for safety and to plan your outing.
There are Herring (Alewife) Runs all around the Cape for bait (or pickled Herring). Check with the town for location and restrictions. They all have rules that are posted at the site. Read them carefully. If you hope to keep them alive, you will have to bring a tank with active oxygenation or they will quickly die. Take only what you know you will use, waste not...
Snapper Blues (young of the year, 6" - 10") can be eaten like corn on the cob. First catch a bunch near docks or in inlets (watch for them chasing minnows to the surface) on 1/16 oz. white jigs or tiny spoons. Gut 'em and fry 'til golden. Holding the head and tail, nibble away the rest like corn on the cob!
Sea Ducks taste best when fresh and just barely cooked. Overcook if you like leathery liver taste. Or, bring to a simmer in milk and discard the milk then eat the ducks.
Have you eaten an eel lately? Probably the richest wild food I've ever had. Smoked they are incredible. Here's how: kill (easier said than done), skin, gut and section. Fry, bake or broil. Like I said, rich. No wonder the Stripers like 'em!
Have you caught an eel lately? They prefer fresh fish for bait in freshwater. Use a snelled hook so you can disconnect the snell from a snap and drop the whole thing in a bucket. Unhooking a live eel from a hook is..well..a challenge. They get to 3' long, as thick as your arm and 5 lb.s or more!
Trout stocking starts on Cape in March. This year stocking will start March 3 for ponds and rivers around the Cape. Don't miss it! Grab the kids and come on down!
First freshwater fishing in the spring, other than trout and perch, starts in April. Largemouth Bass move into the sun warmed shallows of coves on the North and EAst sides of ponds. These fish are slow but bite well on small spinners (see below), 1/16 - 1/24 oz., in white and chrome. Fish just above the bottom and as slow as you can make the blade turn over.
Ultralight gear catches more fish of all kinds than heavier gear. On Cape ponds, you can land 5 lb. fish on 4 lb. test because there are usually few sticks and stumps to tangle. Lighter line also lets you throw those deadly 1/16 to 1/32 oz. spinners and jigs.
While the big surfcasting reels may run 24 - 30 lb. test line or more for throwing 6 oz. sinkers, most casters from shore or boat should use less. 17 lb. test is strong enough to land fifty pound fish and still light enough to allow lures their proper action. I use 14 lb. without any breakoffs.
Skeet and Sporting Clays are shot at the Nauset Rod and Gun Club off Oak Leaf St. in Eastham every Sunday Morning from 0900 hours. Cheap and a bunch of fun.
If you plan to fish for a trophy or are entertaining the idea of paying for a mount, talk to a taxidermist in advance. You may recieve very helpful information that will save you hassle and heartache. Like, the best fish mounts are fiberglass and don't require you saving the fish! Just measure it and photograph it, if possible, then release it or eat it, your choice. Skin mounts are very demanding and frequently bleed oil eventually. The painting is everything anyway.
The round snaps, "Duolock", allow free swing of the lure eye in both directions for best lure action. A small thing, maybe, but....
For casting saltwater lures of up to 1 1/2 oz.s, you'll need 14 lb. test line or better. You can break 12 lb. test with the force of the cast from a 7' rod. 17 lb. test line is safer still but its stiffness starts to cut down on casting distance and lure action. A trade-off.
Look at your line. Is the last 6' to 10' getting whiter or frosted looking? Strip it off and dispose of it properly, it was breaking down from stress and untraviolet.
The Cape Cod Saltwater fly is the Deciever. White, black, yellow, green. #6 to #1 will catch 'em all. Sand Eel patterns, Poppers, "Surf Candy" and Clousers, will fill out your box.
Having just found the fish, you should take a bearing before the wind or tide carries you away from that hole or channel edge. Look at your depth sounder and line up a couple of shoreline features to find your way back. Write it down if you want to remember it later in the week.
If you are a biker, you can carry what you need for a fishing or a hunting expedition upon your bike by mounting tackle bags and bungees or even tree blinds on the frame. Coasting is always easier than carrying with your back.
Wild animals may notice the smell of smoke if you are a smoker but they really only become alarmed by the movements involved in smoking. Give it up for a few hours for greater success at remaining unnoticed in the field.
Insect repellant may be necessary at times to survive a fishing trip. But if you get it on your bait it will repel fish as well. Apply to the backs of your hands, spreading it to neck or arms in this manner. Wash the palms of your hands carefully if there is any chance of contamination.
Make and carry a fish marking float out of an old sash weight, enough cord for the depth and a bleach bottle. Toss it over when you hit fish drifting and don't forget to pick it up when you leave. You'll be surprised where you actually were sometimes.
Take two anchors with you in a canoe on the Cape. The usual wind is such that you will spend too much time paddling to hold position or spinning on one tether if you don't use two. They needn't be heavy.
To surprise ducks or other wildlife from a boat in estuaries or tidal creeks, plan to explore at low tide. This will lower you below the saltmarsh and allow you to approach corners without being seen.
Going fishing someplace crowded like the Canal or a jetty or river mouth? Take the time to watch awhile. You'll often see one fellow catching a lot more than the rest. It could be his technique, his lure or the place itself. Figuring out which can teach you a lot.
Use a couple of wraps of tape on your favorite fishing rods as a measure of the minimum legal length for the fish you are after. Make the distance from the butt to the tape the length but measure to the far edge in the field to be sure.
This page is also a collection point for local know how and experience. Share with us your successes after you read of other's. Where did you go and what worked and what didn't? And don't worry about the crowds, we're all just tryin' to get by and don't all feel like Bogey about company. A lot of experience goes into getting the most out of a place like the Cape and Islands. Let us know how it was for you and how it could be better. Leave us an E-mail at outdoor@capecodoutdoors.com and we'll incorporate your learning and your pics into the page when we can.
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