Outer Cape Beaches (Cape Cod National Seashore)

The ocean beaches of the Cape Cod National Seashore, from Truro south through Wellfleet to Eastham, are the Cape's "Back Side": miles of open surf where striped bass anglers read the beach for bars, cuts and deep bowls. The Fisherman's writer describes Ballston Beach in Truro as fabled ground, and recalls a night there when bass up to about 59 pounds were feeding in a single bowl. It's wild water: sharks hunt seals right off these beaches.

When to fish

• Night on the dropping tide: the writer's approach at Ballston. Check your tide, and remember the Seashore bans fishing from its designated swimming beaches from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. between mid-June and Labor Day.
• Rough conditions: floating weed ("mung") and heavy fog can shut the fishing down for days.

Where to fish

• Bowls and bars: the writer's advice is to walk the beach at low tide in daylight, note where the bowls and bars sit against landmarks on the dunes, and come back after dark to fish them. At Ballston, the hot spot was a big bowl just north of the parking lot, where a bar dropped into deep water.
• Cover ground: on the falling tide he worked every bar, trough and cut for a mile or two up the beach and back.

How to fish it

Live eels are the Ballston writer's go-to: cast onto the bar and let the eel drift off into the bowl. On his best night the bass wanted nothing but eels, so bring plenty. Use inline circle hooks with eels or other bait for stripers.

Getting there

Seashore parking lots close at midnight; to park and fish between midnight and 6 a.m., get a night fishing parking permit at a visitor center. Driving on the beach requires a Seashore oversand permit and the required equipment, and rental vehicles are never allowed. Don't leave fish remains on the beach. Great white sharks feed on seals close to shore here and have bitten people off Truro and Wellfleet, once fatally; the Park Service advises staying out of the water near seals, schools of fish or murky water, which matters if you wade. The state bans shore fishing with large baited hooks on long wire leaders along the Outer Cape. You need a Massachusetts saltwater fishing permit, and striped bass have a slot limit.