The canal was loaded up this week. I mean the bite was hot hot hot. But if you’re reading this, you don’t need me to tell you that. Just pull up your Facebook and you’ll see a hundred posts of anglers holding up big dead stripers.

I won’t talk about the canal here, because when I started this thing, I decided I would mostly just ignore it as a fishing spot (inside the actual land cut from shore, that is). The Big Ditch gets enough publicity–both positive and negative.

But, I’ll wax poetic on the subject of my eternal hatred for that man-made ditch in a different post. We’ve got a fishing forecast to talk about.

The New Moon Pulled Up the Bass

*Note: ‘The Moon Pulled Up an Acre of Bass’ is a book you should absolutely read.

Don’t you just love the new moon? So many possibilities. So many bass feeding on top. So much current. This morning, I enjoyed a glass calm incoming tide in Plymouth Bay, and found big school of small fish feeding on silversides and possibly small squid. They seemed to like pink and olive clousers. After a few schoolies I switched to a sinking line and a big mackerel pattern, which was picked up and broke off almost immediately.

Lots of the charter guys in the Three Bays were reporting big fish this week. I think these fish are mostly still in the bay.

Those pogies we talked about last week up the coast of South Plymouth to the Gurnet? Oh yeah, the bass found them. Fishermen in the area reported BIG bass blitzing them for hours at a time from Gurnet to Marshfield.

I pulled a double header today and ran out of Plymouth before work and after work and couldn’t find any sign of said pogies (the afternoon run was rough, so I may have missed them)

But I’m thinking these pogies have moved up North, past Brant Rock. The SE wind should continue to push them north. I have a mind to follow them up the coast, and I just may tomorrow if the sea conditions allow it. I’ve got a couple Pogie patterns I want to throw with the fly rod.

I’m very surprised the blues didn’t find these schools. Hopefully we see the yellow-eyed devils this year.

Fishing the Gauntlet Tomorrow

The wind looks right tomorrow to fish wherever you want in the Bay. My pick will be to start at the East End and try to find some feeding fish outside of the land cut. We’ve got lines off at 4am tomorrow to try and get there before the crowds. There are two large tournaments happening tomorrow, and I have the feeling this area is going to get a little dicey. We’ll see if any fish actually make it through the Canal.

We’ve got slack tide around 5am. Once that current starts running, I think we’ll see some fish feeding aggressively. The mackerel have moved in and out of the Canal with the tides, so bass should be on their tails. We’ll look to load up the livewell to fish live mackerel, but throw big topwater plugs like Guppys too.

Sandy Neck to Scorton has not produced like it did last year, but with the new moon happening right now, now’s as good a time as any to turn on. I’m predicting we may get a decent bite there tomorrow. This is really a trolling game, so get your wire line jigs or tube and worm setups ready.

Race Point a Fallback (really?)

Race Point and around the backside has slowed a little bit. After our decent trip last Sunday, there was supposedly a good bite that happened on Monday, just in time for commercial day. Most of the commercial guys are still struggling to find large amounts of 36″+ fish, but there were some decent fish caught.

But hey, I’ll take a blitz of 34″ fish every day of the week. If I hear of a bite over there, I may make the decision to head across.

After a quick lull, it all seems to be heating up again in time for the July new moon. Get out there and catch a few this weeknd. The season is flying by.