Canal Timing

I went to the Cape Cod Canal fishing yesterday morning. As I did last Friday, I started at the Herring Run and worked my way east. I suspected the fishing wasn't as good as it had been based on the number of cars in the parking lot. While, the lot was full to capacity last week, Thursday the lot was barely a third full.

From the Herring Run to the Sagamore Bridge I saw three or four guys fishing. Last week guys were evenly spaced every 50 yards or so. Past the bridge, there were a few more fishermen up to the pilings. I was amazed that in a two mile stretch I saw maybe twenty fishermen. However at Pip's Rip I saw an easy hundred guys in a two hundred yard area.  From there, some guys were on the jetty.

There was no way I was going to muscle in and fish with all these guys. It did cross my mind that they must be bunched up for a reason. I watched them for ten minutes. There were a couple of fish breaking on the other side of the canal.  I did see one guy get a big schoolie. It was the only fish I saw all day.

The weather was disgusting. I hoped there would be an ocean breeze but the air was hot, humid, and thick. I sucked it up and fished various spots until 11 am (high tide was about 10). It was so hot, I really didn't enjoy myself. I never got a hit. Other than the one schoolie, I didn't see another fish. No one had a keeper on a string or walked out with one. In all the spots I fished, I didn't see bait anywhere.

I caught two fish Friday morning last week and I saw multiple fish caught including quite a few keepers. There really wasn't anything Friday afternoon. From my understanding, fishing had been very slow since. Those reports you are reading about how hot the Canal has been and all the forty and fifty pound fish that have been caught are true. Unfortunately, those reports are ten days old.

I was at a movie today staying out of the heat when I got a phone call. When I returned it, I found out the Canal was loaded with small keepers today. Apparently, this morning a lot of fish came through. The phone call started with "Nick your not going to believe this". Actually I was not surprised at all. From what I have learned about the Canal, is you have to be there at the right place at the right time.

Actual surf fishing in Rhode Island, requires you to think about, the tide, season, wind direction and bait. Know how a place fishes during those conditions and theoretically you should be successful. Other than slack tides at dawn, there isn't any rhyme or reason when stripers will show up at the Canal. I'm sure like most places, if the bait is in, so are the predators. That said, fish can and will feed at any stage of the tide. Time of day and brightness do not seem to matter. Last week I fished under cloud cover all day. Yesterday, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and the canal seemed lifeless. Again today, there wasn't a cloud and fishing was great.

The other interesting thing is no one can predict how long the fishing will be good. It could be bad yesterday and great today, then bad again tomorrow. Or fishing could be great for two straight weeks.  It was good almost the whole second week of July. There was a time period last year where keepers were stacked up between Sagamore and the Herring Run for three weeks. It was a slaughter. You just can't predict it.

Since the Canal is an hour drive, I've come to accept these facts. I mentally prepare myself to be ready for a big fish. I want my gear to be in perfect shape if I hook a 40. That said, I know there will be days where no one catches a fish. I'm okay with that. I'll go back a couple more times this summer. Hopefully, one of those trips will be a red letter day. That is my advice to anyone going to the Canal. Expect to catch fish, but don't be upset if you don't. You just can't predict it.