Wow, what I saw last night was spectacular. I knew the Cape Cod Canal had fish because my son, Ben, has been fishing there with good success, averaging about 5 keepers an outing. He has been fishing some days both morning and night, scoring equally at both ends of the day.
Yesterday, I decided to give it a try in the evening. I went down with my sons, Matt and Ben, along with Matt's friend Mike. Things were slow at first with a couple of fish here and there in the daylight. But, once dusk came and darkness arrived, the fish turned on big time. The four of us landed over 20 keepers caught on a combination of Hogys as well as mackerel colored swimmers. We had nothing huge with mostly fish in the 30-36 inch range. But, I saw a good number of fish dragged out of the canal that had to reach in the 40-46 inch range, some fish that easily weighed over 40 lbs. All the reports claim that this hot fishing has been going on for over a week now and these reports are absolutely true. This is all being fueled by an influx of bait, mainly small mackerel, butterfish and sandeels. On any given tide, there are well over a hundred fishermen lining the canal, and at times everyone is hooking fish. My son, Ben, reports that a couple of days ago he estimated at least 200 keepers were landed in a short stretch of a couple of hours.I am guessing there are more keepers from shore right now in the canal than the entire state of RI has to offer from shore. It's a good night if you can get one or two keepers from shore in RI. On the other hand, you have fishermen who are landing 15-20 keepers in just a couple of hours when the action is hot in the Canal. On Fire!