What’s Biting in May on Cape Cod?

Upper Cape

By Captain Dave Peros

Shifting Sands and Spring Bluefish

I was checking Facebook for interesting fishing news and saw that someone had posted an aerial photo of a sandbar at the entrance to a body of salt water, inviting folks to guess where it might be. Along with several others, I correctly surmised that it was Bourne’s Pond in East Falmouth. Although I often drive by this area, it was really striking to see the size of the sandbar from above. It got me thinking about the changes to the Nantucket Sound shoreline this past winter and how they might impact angling.

When the movie A River Runs Through It aligned with the presence of incredible numbers of schoolie stripers in the early 1990s, Bourne’s Pond became a magnet for both visiting and resident flyrodders. In fact, it was common to see a picket line of fly anglers along the western edge of the channel up inside the bridge.

At one point, I caught some grief for my column in the Falmouth Enterprise, in which I mentioned that the members of the Connecticut Fly Fisherman’s Association (CFFA) would be making their annual trip to Falmouth and recommended locals avoid the Bourne’s Pond area since this was the group’s favorite place to gather. That raised some hackles among the CFFA folks before they realized I wasn’t a grumpy local badmouthing them, just someone offering a suggestion that folks might want to check out other areas. 

This past January, I was reminded of the pre-eminence of Bourne’s Pond when talking with Art Crago, one of the “Falmouth Fishing Physicians.” My call to the good doctor concerned flyrodding the Elizabeth Islands, the subject of a talk I was preparing for Trout Unlimited. Art mentioned that Bourne’s Pond was one of his favorite locations for wielding the long wand from shore. This surprised me since nothing about that area is out of the public view, and I know Art likes his privacy when he fishes. 

At the March meeting of the Cape chapter of Trout Unlimited, I caught up with Fran Smith, who is renowned for his work restoring the Quashnet River and its native brook trout. According to Fran, a number of rivers on the Cape once had native brookies, but the Quashnet is now one of only two rivers with a thriving population. 

I broached the subject of Bourne’s Pond, since it had been on my mind that day, and Fran offered a story about fly fishing it back in the early 90s with Art Crago and Brian Tucholke. It was an early June evening, and they were into nonstop schoolie action. Fran laughed as he recalled that he caught and released 78 schoolies, at which point he stopped fishing because it was a cool evening and he was freezing.  Obviously, one can fish this area at night, thus reducing the number of people one might run into.

Chris Clark, who lived to fish the Menauhant Beach area, generally from one of the jetties marking the beachside beginning of the entrance channel to Bourne’s Pond, told me he always fished the wee hours of the morning before work so he’d be gone well before the flow of people and traffic along Menauhant Road began. To add a little bit more “color” to Chris’ dedication to this fishery, he was known for his tattoos.  His masterpiece was a panorama on his back featuring himself fishing from his favorite jetty as first light appeared over Nantucket Sound. Now, that’s hardcore!

In the Facebook post mentioned earlier, the original poster mentioned dredging planned for the entrance to Bourne’s Pond. Several years ago, a dredging project deposited a large amount of sand on Menahuant Beach, and I suspect that the bar is at least partially a result of sand from this project finding its way out to sea due to storms and shoreline currents. The question is, what impact has these manmade changes had on the fishing at this one southside area where bass fishing was so good that folks made trips just to wet a line there? 

One factor that has to be considered is the current state of the striped bass stocks, with far fewer schoolies in the population. I also wonder how changes in water depth, current speed and direction, and the like have impacted this area. 

I see fewer people fishing there, and the reasons might be outside of anything I have thought of. Then again, there might be some sharpies who have dedicated themselves to learning how the passage of time and movements of sand have resulted in fishing that they have kept to themselves.

Early May is still a good time to study what has taken place along the southside shoreline and the impact inside the backwaters and on front-beach fishing. One trend that has continued (and to this day breaks my heart) is the piddling nature of the bluefish action from South Cape Beach to Popponesset. For me, this was the essence of shorebound fishing in May; sure, there were bass arriving in greater numbers, but if you were baptized in the waters of this stretch as I was, you couldn’t resist grabbing your favorite casting stick and joining the fun.

In organizing my books and magazines in February, I happened upon my last copy of the original issue of On The Water and interrupted my work to flip through its pages. In particular, one story tugged at my heartstrings. Written by publisher and editor Bill Hough, who, along with Chris Megan, gave “birth” to OTW back in May 1996, it was titled “Shore anglers don’t have long to wait for the first blitz of bluefish.” While rereading the piece, one detail caught my attention. Bill had spoken to “Don Mohr, a veteran angler from the island [Martha’s Vineyard, my note], ventured a guess that blues would arrive off Wasque on May 13. Actually, his prediction is a little more than a guess; for the past eight years he’s kept a record of the date he landed his first blue of the season, which follows: 1988 – May 11; 1989 – May 10; 1990 – May 13; 1991- May 11; 1992 – May 9; 1993 – May 12; 1994 – May 22; 1995 – May 17.”

Along with the article was a photo of anglers at South Cape Beach standing shoulder to shoulder and launching casts in search of May bluefish. It has been decades since I cast a Gibbs’ Skipper, Spofford’s Ballistic Missile, or Roberts Ranger from the beaches I grew up on, but I still talk to folks who do, and the gist of our conversation is always, “What happened to the springtime blues from South Cape to the spit?” There are moments when you may hit bluefish from these beaches in May, but it’s the consistency that is missing. Nowadays, it seems like most folks commit to Cotuit as the starting point for the type of action Bill wrote about in his article.

If a historically dependable fishery wanes, there are logical reasons given for its demise. As with Bourne’s Pond, perhaps it’s a lack of fish in the population. The second premise concerns changes in migration patterns, something often discussed when addressing why the classic “fall migration” in the sounds doesn’t shape up the way it once did. Of course, one can fall back on the old saw, “No bait, no fish,” to explain what is happening. Finally, one can go with “Hey, things change.”

Given the solid bluefish action in the rips for boat anglers in Nantucket Sound in May, including some of the best I have ever experienced from East Beach to Wasque on the Vineyard, what is up with what I would have deemed “old reliable” even a decade ago? Once again, I can’t help wondering if it has to do with sand. When it comes to the impact of shoreline renourishment on surrounding waters, negative impacts can be relatively simple, and I suspect that’s the case with what is happening in the South Cape/Popponesset area. Perhaps attempts to stabilize and protect shoreline properties have caused a widespread “leveling” of the bottom. When you continually move sand, you are going to cover bottom contours and structures that impact fishing.

In Bill’s article, he talked about the importance of squid to the May bluefish run along the beaches, and this connection holds true today. But, where do the squid trawlers and the recreational squid-jigging fleet concentrate their efforts today? They’re east, out toward Cotuit and Hyannis, not from Waquoit to the spit.

With plans to increase the size of the outer entrance channel into Popponesset Bay as well as continued efforts to dredge inside to allow boats of length and draft, what will the impact be on the May fishery for dedicated shore anglers who fish this area? 

I have a Geological Survey chart from 1939 that shows the Popponesset Spit overlapping the Cotuit shoreline all the way down to what is called Rushy Marsh Pond, a clear visualization of what Leonard Peck describes in his book, For Golden Friends I Had, a recollection of the history of Cotuit and his family’s involvement in the town. I was amazed when he recounted that, at one time, to get into Popponesset, boats had to go inshore and parallel Cotuit’s shoreline. Given the state of the spit today, Mr. Peck’s words boggled my imagination until I saw what he saw on paper.

No doubt, with natural changes to our shorelines happening at a greater pace and human intervention as well, it should be no surprise that we will see impacts on our shorebound fisheries. While May is certainly a great month for fishing, it’s also a good time to walk your favorite shoreline locations to see what the winter wrought. Time spent studying the water, including where it intersects with the land, could be a real eye opener and a key to a more successful season. 

Outer Cape

By Jimmy Fee

Big Bass Flood

The first wave of big bass to hit the Lower Cape isn’t a subtle thing. It’s rarely a slow trickle of large bass here and there mixing in with the schoolies. Instead, it’s a torrent, a school of big bass arriving on a single tide, feasting on herring or bunker or mackerel or squid—whatever the baitfish du jour happens to be. And, it will happen sometime in the next month.

In 2023, the best striper fishing happened in May. Big bass showed up ahead of schedule, plowed through the Canal, and fed across the expanse of Cape Cod Bay. Captains reported the finest big-fish action they’d ever seen in May, casting topwaters at schools of surface-feeding stripers. Unfortunately, we then learned the meaning of “The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long,” as the action quickly tapered off in the early summer. 

The early action on big fish is a bit more run-and-gun than the fishing later in the summer when the bass settle in at the rips and shoals. Fish in Cape Cod Bay school up and chase bait, so cover water and keep the binocs handy while looking for evidence of feeding fish. Of course, with May being one of the foggiest months here on the Cape, you’ll need to rely on your electronics for both safety and to help find the fish. A finely tuned radar can help locate flocks of birds through the fog. 

Some bass will round Race Point and feed along the backside beaches, and both boat and shore anglers can find good action around Memorial Day. Monomoy will also be filling up with bass as they migrate east through Vineyard and Nantucket sounds. The fishing at Monomoy’s rips was excellent in 2023, with fish feeding in the shoals from the last week of May almost straight through to the middle of November. 

Must-have lures for May include a big walking topwater plug (like the Drifter Tackle Doc or Madd Mantis Plank), a paddletail plastic (like the Tsunami Swim Shad), a soft-plastic stickbait (like a Slug-Go), and a subsurface glidebait (like the Savage Gear Freestyler V2). 

From the beach, fishermen should fill their plug bags with minnow plugs, pencil poppers, paddletails, and glidebaits. As with the boat, covering ground will help locate the fish, but focus on areas with increased current flows compared to the surrounding waters.  These areas include cuts between sandbars, channels in the flats, and outflows and inlets. 

Many tuna nuts take an exploratory run this month. Giant tuna usually make an appearance this month, but their numbers and reduced feeding activity make catching them tricky—but not impossible. A couple years back, one group of anglers had a bluefin eat a bunker spoon they were trolling for stripers in Vineyard Sound in the middle of May! Giant tuna are believed to move in from the east in the spring, so Stellwagen and the waters east of Chatham are the more likely locations to encounter an early bluefin. For recreational-sized fish, those under 73 inches, they’ll likely show up by the end of June. Rumblings as of April indicated good numbers of small bluefin already in the canyons, showing up as incidental catches in monkfish nets. 

Anglers will also be making some early forays to Nantucket Shoals following the opening of the Massachusetts fluke season on May 24. The peak season for big fluke is usually June, but with the popularity of the fishery, the early bird just might get the doormat. 

Winter flounder fishing continues through this month on Cape Cod, with several captains continuing to run trips until the demand for striper fishing overwhelms the demand for these small, but tasty flatfish.

This past winter was a bit colder and March seemed to be a never-ending rainstorm, but it’s still a safe bet that big bass will be here on the early side this spring. Last year, I returned from an early May trip to New Jersey to hear about 50-inch-plus bass already being caught in Boston. Whether fishing by boat or by boot, have your big striper gear ready for the first of the month. 

Related Content

Weightless Soft-Plastics for Backwater Stripers

Winter Flounder Fishing on Cape Cod

Bluefish: Surfcasting’s Wildcards

Topwater Walkers for Striped Bass

Source: https://onthewater.com/whats-biting-in-may-on-cape-cod

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