Fishing the Cape Cod Canal at night is a wonderful and sometimes downright eerie undertaking. There’s certainly no absence of interesting characters, creatures and odd noises down at the rip-rap after dark. Even so, if you are looking to substantially improve your odds of reeling in an immense striped bass from shore, then heading to the Cape Cod Canal during nighttime could indeed be for you.

The night fishing on the Canal starts to crank out big fish with the arrival of the very first keeper-size striped bass. Generally by Memorial Day substantial striped bass have settled into the Canal-this is when the night time fishing actually begins to start up. At this point of the season, after dark outings can be a hit or miss proposition as significant packs of stripers migrate inside the Canal right through into Cape Cod Bay. Put differently, you might hook big fish one night and then fail to entice a single take the following night. Once the next push of big striped bass moves in via Buzzard’s Bay, the big bass start showing up again inside the Canal.

By summer the after dark bite will become much more dependable. The bulk of the striper base has settled back into their summer months haunts, which usually makes Canal fishing a little less hit or miss. It is very possible to catch keeper bass every night of the week, granted you have the ability to zone in on the most productive fishing spots.

The vast majority of the stripers that are hooked after dark are caught on bait, jigs and subsurface lures. Traveling up and down the service road, in search of surface feeding striped bass is obviously not a possibility. Having a solid understanding of the best locations and tides is even more critical when angling at night, then when fishing during the day.

Focusing on spots filled with holes, ledges, gulleys and rips will dramatically enhance your prospects of tying into a big fish.

Fishing jigs on the bottom in these areas, or swimming a lure or eel in a rip is a surefire method to tempt a big bass. A large number of Canal veterans choose to fish artificial offerings when the tide is running, then turn to live or chunk bait during slack. A handful of the best stripers ever hooked in the Canal have been caught on a piece of bait fished on the bottom during slack tide.

Subject to what the biomass of stripers elect to do, fall at the Canal may be either excellent or disappointing. If a biomass of striped bass opts to move through the Canal on their southerly migration, then the fishing at the Canal will be stellar. But if the main body of bass opts to swim around the arm of Cape Cod on their migration, then Cape Cod Canal anglers will be out of luck.

Nonetheless even during slow years fishing the Cape Cod Canal at night during September and October can result in substantial stripers. As always, focusing on fishing the best Cape Cod Canal fishing spots during the right tide is the most crucial component for Cape Cod Canal striped bass fishing success. You just never know unless you go!

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