The annual striped bass migration begins in the early spring in their breeding grounds of either Chesapeake Bay, Delawre or the Hudson River. After their spring spawn the fish move back into saltwater and start their migration north to feed.  By late May and early June the fish make it to Massachusetts waters starting with the smaller school sized fish and follwed by larger keeper size later in the month.

Each year the June new moon signfiies a large tidal fluctuation between the High and the Low creating strong currents and alot of turulance which shakes up the bait ecosystem and really ignites the cape cod striper fishing for year.   With a mean high and low +/- 2 feet of water on each side of the tide this Months new moon saw a 14ft drop in tide which is 4 foot more then a typical tidal range.

For this trip we decided to target the stripers with top water lures and have live mackeral as a backup plan.  Its a good thing we did becuase the top water bite was not there the fish all wanted live bait.  Now Race Point holds fish due to its steep dropoffs and strong currents which disrupt the clouds of sandeels that live on the sandy bottom of Cape Cod bay.  The entire edge from Wood End up to Race point was holding schools of medium sized stripers in the 30-36" range.  This weeks saw some larger fish added into the mix as our largest of the trip was a 42" - 25lb class fish.  Also had confirmed catch up to 30lbs mixed in to the schools.

There are reports of larger fish further down the backside but can confirm that the schools thing out as you head east towards peaked hill and south to the golfball.

All in all it was a great trip with over a dozen stripers and plenty of action as long as you had live bait.  I expect the large fish to move in this week and the fishing to really light up for the end of June.  There is plenty of bait around between sandeels, mackerel and herring schools.  There is also large schools of adult menhaden down the backside which is what is attracting the larger fish.

Stay tuned for our next trip report as we move into the peak of the Massachusetts striped bass season.

For more information about fishing race point check out our detailed fishing spot reviews.

TIght lines