My buddy is heading up to the Cape Cod Canal for a few days in the next few days. I stopped and fished there during one of my return trips from Martha's Vineyard just to see what it's all about. Well, for me that day, not much. It was June and there wasn't anything going on up top and almost no anglers out. But it was cool to check out.
The Cape Cod Canal is a special place for a lot of anglers. Has been for decades. It has a kinda Montauk feeling to it. Me writing this is no spot burn. It was built from 1909 until it was completed in 1914. The 17-mile canal connects the Cape Cod Bay to Buzzards Bay. The current rips through there and it isn't a place for the casual angler, although I am sure they catch fish from time to time. There are bike paths along the canal but to fish it you must venture down to some pretty not so pleasant terrain of slippery and not-a-sidewalk placed rocks.
It can be fly fished when bass push bait, like squid or mackerel, up into the shallow waters or even up into the rocks. I have only seen that in some videos over the years. I'm thinking 2016 or 2018 was a year the squid were in there thick. Below is a On the Water magazine video from 2011.
Last year at the Fly Fishing Show I picked through the Keogh bins and scored some nice saddles. I thought they were perfect for what I needed, but realized when I got home they would be better for mackerel colored patterns. This past fall at the Long Island Fly Fishing Show I stopped by Bard Buzzi's
booth and found saddles more to my liking and tying, so I swapped them out. I took his home and and this past week at the meeting in Seaside Park I offered him my trade. Little did I remember that I was going to try and tie up some mackerel flies for my buddy. So I had to dig through what I had to make due.
I tied two up for him, one on a 5/0 Owner and the other on a 6/0 Mustad. While not perfect in any way, I thought it might good enough for him to have in his quiver if he breaks out the fly rod if the bass are moving bait into the rocks. What I realize now is that I should have tied in a bunch of peacock herl along the back since the backs of mackeral are almost black in color. Hopefully there's enough hanging out the back to fake out a striped bass into biting.
