The hunting or fishing may be very good in your backyard, on the grounds of a local club or at the wildlife management area down the road, but every sportsman envisions a dream destination that can offer up a spectacular outdoor experience. Here are nine of the best spots the U.S. offers:
Fishing on Cape Cod, Mass., for striped bass can yield some impressive results.
Striped Bass
Nearest city: Boston Handy websites: Massachusetts Department of Fish & Game, mass.gov/ eea/agencies/dfg; Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, cape codchamber.org
Cape Cod, Mass.
36 HUNT & FISH | SUMMER/FALL 2015
While you’re there: The Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass & Bluefish Derby celebrates its 70th year in 2015 from Sept. 13 to Oct. 17. mvderby.com
autumn migration, which begins in September and extends into late October and early November. The spring blitz spans parts of May and June and is triggered when water temperatures top 50 degrees Fahrenheit. In autumn, many south-swimming fish head around the cape — an ocean route that brings hot nearshore action. Other stripers plunge through Cape
Cod Bay, swim through Cape Cod Canal and move on to Buzzards Bay. No boat fishing is allowed in the canal, but the angling from shore can be spectacular. Boats are great for chasing the blitz on the ocean and bay sides of the cape, but plenty of good fishing can be had from jetties, in the surf and around Martha’s Vineyard and other islands south of the cape.
REEL DEAL FISHING CHARTERS; CHRIS MEGAN
The migrations of striped bass down and up the East Coast are known simply as the blitz, which describes acres of stripers attacking acres of baitfish near the surface. Stripers range from Nova Scotia to northern Florida, and a blitz occurs each autumn and each spring. During the fall, stripers leave the cool waters of their northern range to follow baitfish southward. In spring, they move north to follow the same baitfish and routes. Anglers on the East Coast intercept the runs, which are heaviest from Maine to Virginia. In between are places famous for stripers, but few yield as many huge fish — including a thenworld-record 73-pound striper caught in 1981 by a local icon, the late Tony Stetzko — as Cape Cod. Capt. Dave Bitters, who runs Baymen Charters out of Duxbury, Mass., says shorter days are the harbinger of the