The Great Cape Cod Canal bite of 2015

By now the great fishing some are experiencing is no secret.....
Even if not posted on the internet...it's on Facebook...fishing publications...etc.....

I thought I would ask for feedback and opinions for anyone who is aware of that bite or who has friends fishing there...

At this point in time, I have quite a few friends who have driven up there to fish multiple times...some with fantastic results...some with mediocre....

They are those who would say...
"Hey that's whay they call it fishing not Catching!"

I think we all understand there will be things that cause a trip to be good or bad...there are so many variables.....wind, weather, tide stage, moon stage, to name just a few....

That Area is ground zero for striped bass fishing during July-Sept.....the epicenter of the East Coast striped bass biomass..
What I want to do in this thread, is talk about some of the conditions that have caused this fishing to be so inconsistent.....

Feel free to add your thoughts...
I'll come back and fill in when I get a chance.....

I'm going to add the exerpts from this region to the Stripers and Anglers Coastwide bass assessment from now on.
http://stripersandanglers.com/Forum/...of-the-fishery

Thanks...:HappyWave: :fishing:

I can add a little to the thread. I don't live close but it is not that far from me either. If you go everyday you will definitely find fish. It really is bait dependent on what they are feeding on at that interval. Inconsistency is because the stripers are more concentrated now. There are pockets of activity. Miss them and you miss out. Hope that helps.

Thanks for the feedback, dogfish.
Observations and opinions are helpful in getting fishermen to see the big picture....thanks to all who can share...:HappyWave:

Had a bunch of canal fish pics sent to me.....
This is just one of em......
I'll try to come back and post more thoughts when I get a chance..

Grass is always greener on the other side.
Fresh from the internet. Fishing up here isn't what some of you are counting on:

"They were schooled up thick today!!! New York, Jersey, Conn, RI oh boy! Lots of long faces and longer drives. It amazes me how far people will drive to catch bass when they have them in their backyard. Heard they banged them in Raritan today too...Heehee Tough when you are chasing asterisks in tide charts and it doesn't work out."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dogfish

Heard they banged them in Raritan today too...

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The only thing I heard they were banging in the rb were some fluke and manta rays. Yes it is funny how the grass is always greener on the other side. Both sides.

Thanks for your opinions and feedback, people....:HappyWave:


Here is something I posted back in August of 2014.....
Canal Bite of Summer 2014

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkSkies

Being able to fish a bite, at a moment's notice....

I'm not talking about blitz fishing here....but the fishing when a solid bite develops..
Some folks are able to drop what they're doing, and in some cases drive a hundred miles, or several states away...to find fish that are not in the usual areas....

During the last 2 weeks, a bite developed in a state North of us.....
I first heard of it about 2 weeks ago....I can talk about it now because it's fair to say it's mostly played out....only the locals have a fair shot at the isolated pockets of fish that remain.......

I just couldn't rush up there...I don't have that kind of committment-free luxury in my life...
However there are some people who can.....and do...being able to travel at a moment's notice...
And that's what makes the difference...sometimes it's just one or two nights of good fishing....


The list of out-of-staters up there read like a "Who's Who" list of the surf fishing world....A friend, one of the best fishermen I know...
Recently went up.....he only had 24 hours,,,,and got nothing....while another friend had double digit fish to 30# the night before.....
That's part of what I mean by the insanity of this all....:kooky:

And the reality that we are seeing less fish around....lack of a sustained pattern to plan your fishing by.....
forcing people to gravitate toward bites like this.....




I got feedback that although this bite wasn't highly publicized on the internet....the fishing was shoulder to shoulder....




That's not my kind of fishing.....:viking:..and for that reason I wasn't in a hurry to get up there......

It has become, for some, a mad rush to jump in the car or truck, to get to the one shining area that month, where there is a good bite....if you miss it your numbers for the year will suffer.
**Just thought I would share...the ridiculous attempts some of us will go through to get into some decent fish.....:learn:
It really ain't that easy lately, to catch bigger fish from land....
If some folks can't look at this, and see how bad things have become, for most of us...creating frenzy conditions whenever a decent land-based bite develops..then they will never understand how far down, the quality of fishing for bass has fallen in the last 8 years....

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I agree. I used to go up there several times a summer. This year I will wait until Sept. To put it into perspective it's not just the Canal it's all over. From a report I read today

"Got to fish a little on MV the last couple days. Found nice inflow one night and threw jigs, Rebels and Sluggos. Lots of small bait, but nothing on them. I had a school of squid a couple rod lengths downtide from me, messing with my Rebel, but wouldn't get hooked...well, one did for a minute and I reeled in a tentacle. I did a little daylight fishing mostly for recon, and caught a 3" searobin on a snapper spoon! I was hoping for snappers...saw lots of spearing/silversides, but no fish. Dragged some diamond jigs and bucktails hoping for a schoolie or fluke; threw some poppers too...no hits...no follows. Daylight is the wrong light...beautiful day though. Water was cooler on MV than the Cape, but still very warm."

No fish in the canal ever. All Jersey and NY guys stay home.:moon: :laugh: