Fishing Calendar

The 1999 season in review
 
EVERYTHING depends on water temperature, weather, the migration of baitfish, and the whim of gamefish. Below is a timeline for fishing the Cape based on a decade of notes. Last season was great in every respect, notes from last season are in italics. The information below is only my best guess.

March:

The first herring are in the streams of the south side, marking the first real fish news since last November. Expect the full run to start around tax time. Where there are herring, there are stripers. A guess is four more weeks before the first schoolies are caught. Bass River usually gives up a fish or two in March. Scorton Creek holds fish all winter.
 

April:

Week 1: Herring starting to move through the Mashpee run off of Route 130. Go fish for trout.
Week 2: Schoolies, maybe, in Mashpee at the Popponesset Spit. Go fish for trout.
Week 3: Schoolies possible on the south side. Birds beginning to work the shallows from Falmouth to Osterville, picking on the schools of herring. Fish also showing up in the Cotuit area. Early for Chatham, Bass River may produce. Hit or miss.
Week 4: You never know, depends if the season is a week early, or a week late--see next week's guess. I always try to fish this week. If you catch fish, you're going to wish you tried last week. If you don't find fish, then you can rest assured that you didn't miss the start of the season.
 

May:

Week 1: My birthday falls in the first week and I always take a couple of days off and fish. This is the official start of the season for me. I've always done pretty well this week. Bass are usually in. Every tide can produce fish, day or night. Try Bass River, Cotuit's Oregon Beach, the Centerville River. Tidal rivers are a best bet. Anywhere on the south side where there is moving water. The herring run at the Cape Cod Canal is probably attracting the biggest fish in the region. Lots of schoolies in Pleasant Bay. Action at Sesuit Harbor, where some keepers may be found harassing the herring. Red River. The herring runs should be loaded. It's early for Monomoy, but some schoolies can be found and they're usually a little bigger.
 
Last season I took a 36" fish from a jetti on the south side on a small deceiver, surprised me!
 
Weeks 2 and 3: Bluefish should be everywhere along the south side beaches. If so, anywhere you go, you can't miss. Falling tides are the time to fish but early morning and late afternoon are great for fishing the flats with poppers and wire for some major bluefish. Squid are usually present and showing up in the weirs. The flats from Falmouth to Chatham produce bluefish. Popponessett has a reputation as one of the first and best places to find blues. Some schoolies may mix in, especially around the mussel beds, and may surprise you by taking a bluefish popper. Look for keeper bass inside of Cotuit Bay. This is the time of year when the big bass lurk high inside of Cotuit and Osterville to hit the herring entering the Marston's Mills Run. Lots of bass inside the rivers, including Centerville and Bass River. Pleasant bay can hold keepers and the backside beaches are loaded with schoolies. Cape Cod Bay can be alive with Big Bass. Watch for big fish at Sunken Meadows (I always miss out on this). Town Cove holds lots of schoolies. Blues hitting on the south side from Harwich to Monomoy.
 
Last season there were good numbers of schoolies around Monomoy with the occasional keeper mixed in. Twice I saw 12-14lb. blues blitz on the schoolies and tear them to shreds. Sight fishing for the blues was awesome as small hungry pods patrolled the edges and chanels.
 
Week 4: Bluefish are probably dominating the south side of the Cape by now. Big bass inside of Barnstable Harbor. The outer beaches could be good. Not much different happening at Monomoy.
 
 

June

Week 1: Bluefish should be everywhere. Schoolies thick in the back rivers from Harwich to Woods Hole. Craigville, Bass River, Herring River, Poponnessett, the New Seabury rock, South Cape. They're on the surface in the morning. Big bass taken from Bass River. Monomoy is starting to happen for the boat fishermen. Ten or twelve schoolies for every keeper. Great action along the Falmouth shore at the openings of the ponds. Schoolies galore. Bluefish on the southside at Hardings Beach. Cape Cod Bay may hold bigger blues. Schoolies inside and the back side of Strong Island in Pleasant Bay may hold some keepers. Fish are starting to run strong on the outer beaches. Nauset Inlet has lots of smaller fish. Chatham Light is a good bet. Monomoy probably isn't red hot yet.
 
Last season's log shows a lot of schoolies. Took my first fish of the season on a crab.
 
Week 2: Bluefish are probably moving out of Cotuit, but there may still be a lot of one to five pounders. Bigger fish at Succonnesset. Monomoy should be picking up. Outer Beaches may hold keepers. North side for bluefish. Mixture of blues and bass in Cape Cod Bay with some bigger fish still around Wellfleet. Mostly schoolies on the outer beaches, including Chatham Light. Blues and bass in Pleasant Bay. Bluefish at Hardings Beach.
 
Week 3: Bluefish continue to be the main action along the south side, hanging inshore off of Falmouth, Waquoit and Cotuit. Stripers are throughout the region. Monomoy has the best action on the inside flats on the western shore of the island. Big bass still in Barnstable Harbor. Bluefish everywhere, Hardings Beach is a good bet, and lots of action at Sesuit Harbor. Bass are everywhere. Sunken Meadow in Eastham is the surfcasters choice, not too many keepers off the beach they are there. Monomoy is starting to turn on the afterburners, but the action really is on the flats. Barnstable Flats holding many schoolies especially for the first few hours on incoming tide.
 
Week 4: Monomoy rips should hold keeper-sized bass. Bluefish around on the flats of Cotuit and Dead Neck, but are beginning to become a bit more picky as the water temperatures rise and they seek cooler water in the rips a mile or so south of the Cape in the middle of Nantucket Sound. Brewster is hot. A dropping tide is still best but a boat is almost mandatory.
 
Last season's log shows the first signs of big stripers. Fishing was tough.
 

July

Week 1: Good numbers of large stripers at Monomoy. Still some large blues around but expect that the competition for bait pushes them off of the flats.
 
Last season's log shows tons of large fish. Fishing was tough. Bait was very small.
 
Week 2: Monomoy can be fantastic. On the south side the sharks should be in. Dowses and along Craigville Beach are the places to look. Bluefishing is good at Dowses and Wianno Ave. Loads of blues off of Cotuit. Nauset and Chatham are crawling with bass.Waquoit is coughing up some keepers at the jetties. Blues at Succonessett and the Horseshoe. Barnstable Harbor is a mixed bag of blues and big bass. The northside beaches are all worth fishing. Lots of action off of Brewster. The place to be is Monomoy. The fish are on top, in the first wave of the rips, banging at surface patterns. Sand eels are the dominant bait. The squid have moved on.
 
Crab fishing extraordinaire last season.
 
Week 3: The summer slowdown is here, according to most reports. Big bass should still be at Monomoy. Sand eels dominate the backside beaches. Not too much going on at the Chatham Light.
 
Fooling lots of big stripers on crabs and small streamers last season. Sun is high, water is clear. Cocktail blues all over Monomoy.
 
Week 4: Bonito and bluefish on the western half of the south side. From Falmouth to Succonnesset the bonito are starting to fill in. Rabbit fur, white strips, and Clousers are the pattern for these fish. The blues are into poppers and the occasional epoxy sand eel streamed through the rips, but the bonito are all over the place, doing their usual unpredictable show of popping up first here, then there, then here again.
 
Still lots of big stripers on crabs and small streamers. Cocktail blues all over Monomoy.
 

August

Week 1: Monomoy hot. Bonito running along the Falmouth Shore. The channel at Chatham Harbor to the north of the lighthouse is good from a boat. Fish being taken all over the beach at and south of the light. Very big stripers in Barnstable Harbor off of the East Bar. Brewster is still popping.
 
Last season there were large stripers on the flats and large blues hanging around the dropoffs. Great fishing.
 
Week 2: There is a lot of bonito from Osterville to Falmouth. Right off of Cotuit and the entrance of West Bay. Bluefish still at the Horseshoe. The Falmouth shore is steaming with huge schools of bonito slashing through the shallows. Monomoy still good.
 
Big blues and stripers all over the weedbeds. Lost a striper that exceeded 25lbs. when a knot failed.
 
Week 3: Snapper bluefish are all over the backwaters, right on the edge of the grass at high tide is the time to be there.There are pogies in Cape Cod Bay. Lots of small schools of Bonito crashing into thick balls of sand eels around the Waquoit jetties. More bonito along the Falmouth shore between Green and Great Ponds. Bluefish also. Small bass on the southside. Snapper fishing is great. Little blues off of Cotuit jumping around and acting like bonito. Monomoy and the Nantucket shoals are excellent.
 
Week 4: Chatham has fish in the channel under the rocks, and first light bass from the beach at the lighthouse and spit. Monomoy is cooking. The bass are on top, taking poppers, plugs, and squid patterns. Flats of Brewster have been great. The bass are going nuts all over the north side, from Brewster to the canal, nailing lots of bait.
 

September

This past season I concentrated on Bonito and Albacore for most September and all of October. Fishing was excellent.
 
Week 1: Chatham Light is hot. Monomoy is good. Daytime stripers between Wellfleet and Sandy Neck. Action at Barnstable Harbor. The bonito are still doing their thing on the western end of the Sound. Woods Hole may produce spanish macks. The bonito are making it is as far east and north as Craigville. Blues are making a comeback along the shore from Craigville to Cotuit. The blues are into the bays.
 
Bones and albies showed up around Monomoy.
 
Week 2: The bluefish continue to please in Cape Cod Bay along the Brewster and Eastham shorelines. Monomoy should still be okay.
 
Week 3: Osterville to Waquoit to Oak Bluffs to Menemsha. Fish off of Popponessett from the tent down to New Seabury. A mixture of bluefish (3 to 5 lbs.). albies, and schoolies. A good concentration of albacore off of Waquoit. Albacore and bonito are up as far as Craigville Beach but you need a boat to get to them. Chatham Light and Nauset Inlet. Monomoy flats to the west.
 
Week 4: From Woods Hole to the Waquoit jetties False albacore are busting up all over, bluefish are closer to shore, and schoolies are mixed in as well. The game fish are nailing the usual sand eels as well as a new charge of baby blueback herring coming out of the many herring runs along this coast. Big bluefish inside of Cotuit Bay. Wianno Cut may hold Albies. Monomoy is thick with bass. Brewster Flats are still a good bet. False albacore mixed in with some bonito, a lot of three to four pound bluefish and the inevitable schoolie from Hyannisport to Cotuit. Stripers along the beaches at night.Gorilla bluefish at Cotuit. Fly fishers are doing well at the entrances to any of the bays between Hyannis and Woods Hole. False albacore inside of Waquoit Bay, the estuary between Mashpee and Falmouth.
 

October:

I always read of the GREAT FALL MIGRATION in October, but I've rarely experienced anything like it. There are some large stripers around, and some blues as well. Sometimes the migrations takes an offshore route and the flats are quiet. Last season the fishing for albies was outstanding. Fishing in October is completely weather and storm dependent. I look at every day on the water in October as a gift. My wedding anniversary falls in the third week and I expect fishing to be basically over on the flats by then.
 
So, that's how I remember the season, it starts in the first week of May when I was born, and ends on my wedding day! Just kidding.
 
 
 

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