Striper caught on April 12 a few years back...you don't have to wait until May to start Striper Fishing!
The trout have been stocked and you have caught your fair share braving the cooler temps in March. While that was good fun and certainly got the fishing rust off, now it's time for something else that tugs maybe a little bit harder than hatchery raised trout.
What's on tap for April?
In freshwater, April usually brings temps sufficient enough to begin small mouth and largemouth bass fishing in earnest. As water temps start to approach 50 in early April, first small mouth, then largemouth will begin venturing into shallower, warming water. Although neither will really begin their full blown spawning rituals until late April, early May in most ponds, they will begin shaking off their winter funk and begin feeding more aggressively.
Depending on weather and temps, fishing slow with shiners, rubber baits and suspending jerk baits is the way to go in the early part of the month. For years, the Goose Hummock would hold an annual school vacation week long kids fishing contest. We were always astounded what a kid could catch fishing all day with shiners about a month before the adult bass fisherman would seriously think about beginning their bass fishing. Lots of 5lb plus largemouth and 3lb + small mouth. The problem was, alot of the trophy sized fish were females chock full of eggs. The moral and ethical dilemma of promoting and encouraging the targeting and transport of these critical pre spawn females caused us to switch over to a one day , fun kids fishing derby with the focus shifted to the put and take trout fishery of the ponds of Nickerson State Park.
The point being, you don't have to wait until May, as the conventional wisdom dictates, to start catching big freshwater bass. Just realize that these are pre spawners. When you catch one, take a quick , in water pic and make sure you are able to release quickly and successfully. Shiners can be brutally effective in early spring, just make sure you watch your rods and set hook as quickly as possible to avoid throat, gill, stomach hookups.
On the saltwater side- While the old adage of waiting until Mothers Day is mostly true if you want to catch fresh run, migrating stripers, the local populations of hold overs will begin to kick around the middle of the month. It's no longer a big secret that stripers will winter over in certain parts of Barnstable Harbor, Pleasant Bay,Town Cove, as well as some of our bigger saltwater rivers/ creeks.
Now, this type of fishing is not lights out, blitz style fishing. To be honest, it can be a fifty-hundred casts for one or two fish...particularly the first two weeks of April, but, it can be done. I have records of catching 3-4 schoolie sized stripers in a light snow fall in the second week of April down in Chatham or off the docks at the Goose( see pic above) the day after they are put in first week of April. We generally catch these holdovers on a chart/ white 2/0 clouser on a fly rod or a white RONZ in a 4 or 6 inch.
If the weather trends warmer the last two weeks of April, we might begin to see the first fish being caught on the Nantucket Sound side first in the Upper Cape, then down as far as Dennis on the mid Cape. These fish will be keyed in on the also migrating herring and squid.
So get out your freshwater bass and striper gear... we are only a few weeks away now!
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