We’re getting there, folks. The season is wrapping up. The fishing will rise to a crescendo somewhere between two weeks ago and the end of this month, before falling to the silence of the off-season. The trout fishing will remain good through the end of the year, but the fish that we’ve gotten so used […]
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Stripers, stripers, stripers. It’s all I’m thinking about. But where are they? That’s the real question. Well, I think I have good news. I’m willing to bet that we’ll all know the answer to this question by the time the weekend is over. Spring Migration We always picture the Spring migration as a wave […]
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At this point last year, miles of migrating micro and schoolie-sized striped bass had invaded the rivers, estuaries and ocean fronts of Buzzards and Cape Cod Bays. This year? Not so much. But I just need to keep telling myself this, as I pour over blue-colored water temperature maps and reports reading “not here yet:” […]
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No two days spent fishing are ever the same. This is especially true when dealing with trout, for one reason or another. But it’s what keeps us coming back, time and time and frustrating time again. Last week, we had a day that finally felt like Spring. I was thinking that the stocked trout might […]
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I’m going to gush for a second. This time of year–this exact moment in the fishing season–is so cool. I just finished reading my fishing reports and scouring the online forums for any recent reports of outings, and I’m sitting here on my couch smiling. Honestly. There’s just such optimism in our little fishing sphere […]
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Friday morning began with a picture of a trout from Pirate. “They’re eatin’ Bill,” his text said. “Get down here.” The clock on my work computer said 9:41 am. “I’ll be there in seven hours,” I texted back. The work day eventually passed, and I drove an hour to the pond in the bright, late […]
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I went out Monday in search of the “other” holdovers that exist within our geographical fishing sphere–the kind that eat bugs and hooks dressed up to look like bugs (if tied correctly on a size 18 hook). Yes, I’m talking about holdover trout. We consider holdover trout the fish that survive between trout stockings. It’s not […]
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With whispers coming through the proverbial fishing grapevines that the stocking trucks had begun their semiannual pilgrimage to the various kettle ponds on and off the Cape, I immediately began concocting plans to make my way down to one of these ponds with the fly rod, even if it meant breaking through a thin layer […]
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UPDATE: We’ve got stocking stats https://www.mass.gov/service-details/massachusetts-trout-stocked-waters I was browsing the state stocking program website this morning (like I do a few times per hour this time of year), and saw an update. We’ve got stocking stats, folks. It reads: Spring trout stocking — Close to 500,000 brook, brown, rainbow and tiger trout will be stocked this […]
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It felt like Spring this morning. Not the temperature. No, it was freezing. But that smell. And the angle of the sun. And the way the clouds just barely hung over the pond, not a breath of wind to disrupt them. There were some robins in my front yard, contently plucking away at grubs in […]
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