Destination Cape Cod: Three Favorite Kayak Locations

By Gene Bourque

As tens of thousands of anglers have discovered in the last decade or so, it's hard to beat a kayak for fishing protected waters. You're able to get into skinny water that someone in a powerboat can't even approach and do it silently. So much so that striped bass in a feeding frenzy have literally bounced off the side of my Old Town Loon 120. Another bonus is the ease of launching. No need to locate a suitable ramp and deal with the parking problems that often come with using a vehicle and trailer. Just park in a normal spot, plop in the kayak and away you go.

I've been fishing from my kayak for about ten years and while there are certainly times and places where it is not an appropriate craft, it has allowed me access to some fantastic fishing. I live on Upper Cape Cod in West Falmouth and there are dozens of estuaries and salt ponds within an easy drive of my home. Not only do I fish from my Loon but I often use it to gain shore access to places that are ultra private, knowing that Massachusetts law guarantees the right of access for fishing as long as I stay below the high water mark. The three areas below are a few of my favorites but with some investigation you can find similar spots around the Upper Cape. Keep in mind that those estuaries and salt ponds are the nurseries of myriad forage items that stripers find irresistible. That's why the bass are there, and you should be too.

West Falmouth Harbor

I'm fortunate to live about five minutes from this harbor and it fishes well from late April right into November. In fact - and maybe it's only because the harbor is so close - I usually catch my first and last stripers of the year here. You'll find just about every type of water that exists in a Cape Cod estuary, from muddy coves with grassy banks that hold all kinds of bait, to fast running outflows and sand flats, and even a few rock piles.

The best place to launch is next to the town dock on Old Dock Road. This ramp is well used at the height of summer and parking can be a bit problematic but most of the time you can drop the kayak and easily park at the dock. You will be just about at the middle point in the harbor and from there you have plenty of options depending on the stage and direction of the tide and the wind direction. I like to launch just before dawn or at sunset and initially head south into the large bay to the left as you face the mouth of the harbor. The grassy point on the east side of the bay is always a good bet because the water is slightly deeper there than out in the middle of the bay and fish feed right up into the grass at higher stages of the tide. In fact, if you see any sign of surface feeding fish here, quietly beach the kayak and fish this edge from shore.

Farther up in this bay you'll see a bridge. The small boat basin and rocky point near the bridge are good bets for stripers, especially late in the season when baby menhaden are often in residence. In the late spring an amazing worm spawn happens in this part of the harbor and although it's hard to predict (I look for it in mid to late May around the time of a full or new moon, on a day when low tide happens in the late afternoon) if you're there when it happens the fishing can be off-the-charts good.

As you look toward the mouth of the harbor (west) from the launch area you'll see a very picturesque point with a house on it. The rocky point in front of it often holds fish and the deepest part of the harbor is also there. This is were all the currents from each part of the interior harbor come together and both stripers and bluefish can be found there in the early morning for most of the season. When the boat traffic gets heavy you can forget it but you wouldn't be fishing then anyway, would you? Proceeding around the point and into the outer harbor you'll come to some great sandy flats with eelgrass and clear patches of sand. This outer harbor area has plenty of current and while the obvious place to fish is the channel that runs along the south side those flats hold plenty of bait and fish. The jetty that protects the harbor has a smaller channel along its inside edge - not easy to spot but I'm convinced the stripers use this channel as a highway during both the incoming and outgoing tide. Right in the entrance itself is also a very good bet but beware of boat traffic and an outgoing tide against a stiff breeze here can make for some hazardous kayaking.

Megansett and Squeteague Harbors

The next major harbor to the north on the Buzzards Bay side of Falmouth is Megansett, and farther inside, and intriguing piece of water called Squeteague Harbor. From Route 28A, go west on County Road in the center of the village of North Falmouth to a small town beach, ramp and dock. Parking is restricted here in the summer to town residents but before the Fourth of July and after Labor Day you'll have no problems. Back in the days when we had huge schools of menhaden in our waters, Megansett was a premier bluefishing spot. This past spring I was pleased to find a good size school of adult menhaden in the upper part of the harbor and under them were both some good sized blues and my first substantial striper of the season.

Assuming the wind isn't too strong, you should start fishing around the tip of the jetty at the entrance to the boat basin area. I wouldn't waste a lot of time here however if you're not hooking up almost immediately. What makes Megansett such a cool place to fish is that the stripers and blues usually head for the inner area rather than hanging around in the more open boat basin. This part of the harbor is very protected from the prevailing southwest wind and as the harbor narrows into what almost appears to be a river it deepens out considerably. The prime spot is right where the "river" turns to the north. A large hole is there and the deeper area extends for a hundred or so yards farther in. This is where the majority of the fish hang out.

I actually do as much shore fishing here as fishing out of my kayak. I will launch at the town ramp, paddle directly across to the sandy spit on the other side, then fish on both sides of the spit, including down to the hole I just mentioned. That "river" is very interesting. On the other side of the spit you'll see a much larger harbor. This is Squeteague. That name is intriguing to me - I've never known anyone to catch a squeteague (AKA weakfish or sea trout) there but it must have gotten its name for some reason (!). I've done very well on the north side of the spit where the river opens up into Squeteague. In fact, this is one of my absolute favorite early season fishing spots on Upper Cape Cod. In the fall, Squeteague is often filled with huge schools of baby menhaden ("peanut bunker") and the fishing can be spectacular almost until Thanksgiving. The deepest water is on the north and west sides. That's were the stripers will be.

One final note about this water. That "river" has the disturbing habit of reversing itself for brief periods of time when the tide begins to flood. An oceanographer I know tried to explain the phenomenon but it went way over my head. All I can say is: if the fish stop biting because that incoming tide goes slack after only an hour and begins to go out, hang in there. It will begin coming in again before too long.

Monk's Park

Farther north in the town of Bourne is an area called Monk's Park. This is a town recreation area with plenty of parking and a dirt ramp. It's located off Shore Road about a mile south of downtown Monument Beach. The small hand-lettered sign is hard to see but the road in on the west side of Shore Road is Rose Lane. Rose Lane is not marked with a sign however.

When you get to the parking area you'll see the extension of Tobey's Island directly across from the launching area. The tip of the island is a good place to start and this is another spot where I'll usually beach my kayak and fish from shore rather than stay in the boat. The hole at the tip of the island is a good bet, as is the channel that runs along the south side of the tip.

Inside the large protected harbor between Monk's Park and Tobey's Island is where most of the action takes place. Water depths are fairly uniform from the small bridge on the Monument Beach end, all the way down to the gut between the parking area and the tip of Tobey's with a maximum of about 10 feet or so. In the fall you can expect to see some serious bird activity as schools of baitfish are harassed by stripers and bluefish. This area is perfect for kayak fishing because it's well protected from all but the strongest wind and you won't have to chase the fish very far. Although I've caught fish here in the spring and fall, I think of the middle area of the bay as a fall spot.

My "ace-in-the-hole" at Monk's Park is the small cove on the far (west) side of the bay. The water is surprisingly deep here and the stony bar that connects one end of Tobey's Island to the other is submerged at high tide. During the incoming tide, stripers set up just over the lip of the stony bar and will hammer a lure or fly tossed up current and allowed to tumble over the edge. When the tide is falling, look for the fish to feed on the outside over the cobblestone beds there. This is a fantastic area to fish after dark just about through the entire season and we've taken stripers well into the 20-pound class here.

My only caution about fishing Monk's Park is that the parking area is a popular hang-out for teenagers and a slightly older party crowd. I never feel entirely secure leaving my vehicle in the larger parking area if there are a few cars and kids lounging around so I'll usually park just to the right of the railroad underpass, away from the action.

So there they are - three of my favorite places to paddle and fish. They all offer better than average fishing for stripers and bluefish, good access and fairly protected water that can be learned in a reasonable amount of time. If you see a beat up blue Old Town Loon 120 in any of those spots, paddle over and say hello!