Every one of us has learned or been taught that catching stripers is best in well-oxygenated and moving or turbulent waters. I have been fishing the Elizabeth Islands for over 60 years and each of the holes, Quicks and Robinsons, have produced some amazing catches for me and my crews, but Woods Hole is, in my estimation, the most challenging of them all. Located between Nomanesset and the westernmost tip of Penzance Point in Falmouth, Woods Hole is a turbulent, twisting passage between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound. With exceptionally strong tides and currents and intimidating names such as Devils Foot Island, Coffin Rock, Great Ledge and Hadley Rock as well as numerous shoals, everywhere you look on the chart there are signs and notations of unnamed rocks and ledges. Why would any sensible individual want anything to do with such a daunting area? The answer is stripers, a species that thrives in these difficult environments.
The facts are, that many of the larger fishing vessels from nearby New Bedford and Fairhaven avoid this shortcut and take Quicks Hole as their primary entrance to Vineyard Sound. I should note that I have a friend and former mate who operates a tugboat hauling barge loads of sand through this area and the most serious problem is other boats and not the structure. The reason we fish there is because it is one of the areas that usually holds stripers and numerous bottom fish in these cool, highly-oxygenated waters that are very active during the daytime hours. Stripers and blues are right at home in these swift and swirling waters that push baitfish out of cover and allow the predators that are built for these environments to thrive. Those predators will explode out from behind cover to overtake the scup and juvenile sea bass, along with herring and pogies that have sought shelter and sustenance in these prime areas.
When you want to escape the southwest winds the north side of Woods Hole is a great place to access structure from the Buzzards Bay side by entering at the north entrance between Penzance and Uncatena Island. As soon as you enter Timmy Point Shoals you may encounter bait and breaking fish, usually tailor blues, or schoolies and occasionally a pod of bonito or albies later in the season from September through early November.
Three years ago, in late August, we were heading towards the Hog Island channel with a friend who wanted to try to catch and measure a big bass for a ‘catch-photo-release’ contest his club was hosting. As we approached Timmy Shoal I saw terns working schools of mature silversides which were being harassed from Penzance Point to well up inside just at the edge of the turn into the channel to Great Harbor. He had a popper on his spinner while I had a Crippled Herring on my own. We both hooked up on our first cast. After several swipes and misses he finally hooked and released a healthy 5-pound schoolie while I was fighting a 5-pound bonito. He changed over to a Deadly Dick and immediately hooked up to a bluefish that went airborne.
We were missing our date with the old canal channel but we were enjoying the action, with only a sailboat under power heading north for Buzzards Bay to cause us a moment’s pause. I caught enough of those feisty tailor blues for grilling while my deckmate accounted for another small bass, at least five bluefish and one bonito. I had a dozen prime live eels and two dozen big seaworms in bedding in the cooler so we scrapped the Hog Island trip and broke out the tube and worm rods. I moved up to a gnarly stretch of rocks where some of them broke or were just under the surface. We made passes from Bull Island, abreast of Uncatena and close to the navigation buoy from 13 to 24 feet and caught stripers, from 25 to 39 inches, not long enough for my friend to place in the striper contest, but willing to attack the worms before the sea bass could shorten them to nubs. I also hooked a sub-legal tog which brought our total species to include stripers, bluefish, bonito, black sea bass, one dinner plate scup and the tautog.
You have the option to enter from Buzzards Bay but that is a high traffic area where the commercial ferries operate. There may be shoreline points in the hole where my friend, a Falmouth resident of 60-years might not want you to know where to legally access one. You can’t blame him, Woods Hole is one of the fishiest spots along one of the most storied stretches of New England striper water.
