A Canal regular shares his assessment of the 2021 season on the Big Ditch.
My favorite place to fish is the world famous Cape Cod Canal and I try to get there every day from the end of April to mid-November. I made casts from just about every stop along the riprap-strewn bank this year and spoke with dozens of anglers including experienced Canal Rats like professional photographer and retired Bourne Police Detective John Doble as well as retired Braintree Fire Chief Bob Dyer who also serves as the President of the Canal Sportsman’s Club. It’s always fun to look back, so those rich conversations with other Canal regulars combined with my own experiences have created lasting memories of the past season.
Spring
Early May saw schoolies arriving at the Herring Run just as mackerel made a brief appearance in the east end before moving out to Cape Cod Bay. There were some shoals of bunker and squid, but nothing hinted at what was to come later. Sometimes the spring striped bass fishing was anywhere from typical to less than productive, but fishermen were happy with their early catches because it seemed fantastic compared to the previous spring which had been a big disappointment. The breaking tides were producing slot stripers with a few larger ones mixed in, but the bite was usually only hot for one day, not three or four like some other years—no pattern to be used as a guide. The 39-pounder caught by Bob Weir on an Al Gags Whip-It Fish, however, set the tone for his eventual season total of over 350 fish including several in the 30-pound class. Bunker imitations were the hottest jigs thrown last year as everybody seemed to be bouncing them along the bottom of the Canal. Just as in other months, May was most productive at first light especially when the bunker stuck around in big schools.
Summer
The arrival of adult menhaden and more mackerel, along with the early appearance of peanut bunker, provided forage for linesiders and a reason for them to take up residence in the Canal. Breaking tides in June and July were producing sometimes, but many of the larger stripers – over 30 pounds and some tilting to 40 – were caught by bait soakers and lure sharpies alike during off tides. Vito Marsico had a successful summer with multiple nice catches including a hefty 45-pounder that he landed near the Railroad Bridge. In fact, Vito’s superior angling skill, persistence, determination and ability to jig in the middle of huge crowds with multiple lines in the water at that spot were the keys to his success. August was reminiscent of 2017 and 2018, baitfish entered the Canal and never left. Photos of big fish were posted on social media resulting in banks jam-packed with fishermen along both sides of the 7-mile stretch. Instant cell phone communication combined with a substantial increase in the number of motorized bikes created a mobile surfcasting society. Anglers were zipping back and forth on bikes along the service road in hopes of landing a monster. Most of my fish were caught on 5-ounce white Hurley Canal Killers that quickly found bottom through the swift current. I like this lure because it becomes a swimmer when a tight line lifts it off the bottom and the powerful tide resistance forces the paddle tail to kick in with vibration.
Fall
Silversides, sea herring, mackerel, squid, butterfish and halfbeaks were everywhere in the fall. One morning I saw an enormous school of peanut bunker packed so tightly together that the surface was disturbed for 100 yards. The “all-you-could-eat” bunker buffet produced some of the fattest fish I have ever seen! For instance, I have caught many 38-inch fish in previous years that weighed 17 to 20 pounds, but this fall it was not uncommon for a fish of that length to weigh over 25 pounds. Some experienced surfcasters swear that September and October were the best ever and even conservative anglers say that this fall was the best in many years. Some claim that the more recent fall runs in the Canal peaked in August and fizzled after that, so we were all very grateful for the outstanding fishing this year beginning around Labor Day and continuing on and off into October and beyond. The magnificent sight of acres of big fish ripping up the surface like there was an earthquake below, inspired huge crowds with many fishermen experiencing the joy of landing the largest fish of their lives, like the 40-pound cow caught by Jack Barton under the potent strength of the Hunter Moon while using his homemade creation of a worn out, almost clear from paint loss, FishLab Mad Eel attached to a 4-ounce Joe Baggs head. Kenny Nevens was just shy of 100 fish to his credit working the bottom with white jigs by Al Gags and FishLab during the first two weeks of November and Steve Colleran landed a quality striped bass several inches over slot on the 10th day of the month. As November wore on, striper reports continued to pour in, schoolies were caught on Thanksgiving weekend and a schoolie blitz exploded off of Scusset Beach on afternoon in December. The 2021 Canal season closed with the highly-publicized sighting of a humpback whale swimming below the Bourne Bridge in mid-December.
The Combat Zone
Over the past several seasons, the surest place to hook a huge striper has been close to the Railroad Bridge on the mainland side and this fall was no exception. The Combat Zone, as some call it, filled up fast daily, with tired anglers sometimes staking out their spots as early as 2 a.m., resulting in numbers approaching 40 casters squeezed into an area that should really only hold two or three! Casting in organized succession often kept lines from being tangled, but not always. One man reeled in a heavy linesider during the first week of October with the lures of five neighboring anglers strung along his braid plus another line wrapped into the mess with a fish on! Intense frustration is part of the game for those that fish in the Combat Zone, but they would tell you that fishing is worth it.
As always, soft plastic jigs by Hurley, Gags, FishLab and others caught the most fish while bounced off the bottom, but many surfcasters found success with swimmers like the SP Minnow and Ocean Born Wideback Minnow. Still others preferred to see the surface explosion of a striper hitting a pencil like those made by Guppy, Gibbs and others with some fishermen plugging topwater exclusively. The simple fact is that all methods caught fish and all of them caught their share of big fish.
Why was the fall so terrific this year? Statistics show that 62% of striped bass heading north in the spring are funneled through Buzzards Bay into the Canal, but only 30% take the same route back through in the fall. Most migrating fish swim by the Big Ditch in autumn and make their way east around Provincetown before continuing south, but this time many more decided to use the Canal shortcut! The incredible abundance of bait in the Canal most likely contributed to the altered travel route and resulted in great fishing. Lastly, the water temperatures were much higher in the fall than usual so global warming may have contributed to a delayed or prolonged migration.
Conclusion
Overall, striped bass fishing was terrific. Bluefish appeared from time to time throughout the season, usually in the east end, but they weren’t prevalent like in the past. One Canal Rat jokingly attributed their absence to space limitations, “There are so many stripers in the water that there’s no more room for the blues!”
There were rumors of some 50-pounders caught, but as far as I know never confirmed. Then again, confirmation standards may be getting lower out of sheer necessity. Stripers, other than slots, must be quickly returned to the water, so a 50 can’t be weighed in at Red Top, Maco’s or Canal Bait and Tackle. We can speculate based on photos as well as length and girth measurements, but most guys don’t carry a scale as accurate as those you will find at a tackle shop.
Successfully landing a large striped bass in the Canal takes a certain level of skill acquired from years of experience while balancing on slippery rocks. The beauty of those seven stripes coming into view with the dorsal breaking the surface, hearing that whoosh of their powerful broad tail can be habit-forming, or as Bob Dyer says, “It’s addicting.” Acknowledging the powerful desire to come back for more driven by the sweet sensation of a heavy fish bending the rod while tugging on his line, John Doble proclaimed, “The tug is the drug!”
Doherty is a retired Massachusetts District Court Clerk-Magistrate and the author of SEVEN MILES AFTER SUNDOWN Surfcasting for Striped Bass along the World Famous Cape Cod Canal.
