Nerdy Angler: Fishing In The Cape Cod Canal

Fishing for Striped Bass in the Cape Cod Canal is a truly unique experience. It is the world’s largest sea-level canal, in that it hasn’t any locks. This means that the water flows through the canal unhindered by obstacles. This fact, and the tide differences between Buzzards Bay to the west and Cape Cod Bay to the east results in a very strong current that changes direction about every six hours. Fishing from a boat is not allowed throughout the seven mile land cut channel. The whole canal is lined with rocks. The rocks, fast current and abundance of baitfish make the Canal an ideal Striped Bass habitat.

Successful Canal shore fishing requires careful attention to the tides and mastering techniques that take into account the fast moving current. The five most common techniques are 1. Jigging 2. Surface Plugs 3. Swimming Plugs 4. Live-lining Mackerel 5. Chunking with cut bait. The tricky part is knowing when to use these techniques. The most important thing to do is to try to match whatever the fish are feeding on. Striper candy that can be found in the canal include: squid, river herring, sea herring, mackerel, sand eels, american eels, menhaden, silversides, and small pollock just to name a few.

Jigging can be productive throughout the Striper season which runs from May to the end of October. Due to the strong current you will need 4oz or more to get your lure down to the bottom where most of the bigger fish hang out. Bucktails, Savage Sand Eels, and Al Gag’s Whip-Its are the most popular. For bucktails I prefer white or chartreuse with or without a pork rind strip or Berkey Gulp. With the plastic baits like Savages and Al Gag’s white or a green mackerel pattern both work well at certain times. Starting around the middle of August and through October I sometimes use metal lures like Kastmasters and Crippled Herring to match the small baitfish that are so abundant at this time of year. Very large Bluefish also make an appearance about this time and the metals will usually catch them.

Surface Plugs work best between first light and just before sunrise. If there’s a current change occurring just before the sun comes up that’s even better. During the current change there’s a short slack period. Throwing surface plugs just before, during the slack period, and just after the current changes direction is very productive. Pencil and Polaris type poppers both work well. Best colors are white, yellow, mackerel green, and pink.

My favorite swimming plug is the SP minnow. I use this more than anything else in the earlier part of the season (mid-May) when fishing near the Herring Run.

Live lining Mackerel - Really a no-brainer. If the mackerel are abundant catch a live one, put it on a 7/0 circle or octopus hook and let it drift in the current. If a striper hits. let it run with the bait, count to ten, set the hook. It’s that simple.

I don’t do much chunking.

The Striped Bass is king in the canal. I mentioned Bluefish but there are other species in the canal to target as well. These include: Winter Flounder, Mackerel, Black Sea Bass, Scup, Fluke, and False Albacore.

Here’s a few photos that I’ve taken at the Canal in the last couple years.