Fluke Fishing at its Peak, Bonito Season Starting Strong

As stripers seek out cooler, deeper water, other species have been moving into the hot water washing across most of the Cape. Bonito, marlin and mahi all showed up in Cape waters this week, and more summer visitors are surely on the way. This isn’t to say the stripers are gone. The commercial fleet off Chatham continues to focus on the large concentration of fish there, and fishermen in Cape Cod Bay are finding some stripers as well.

Starting at the tip of the Cape, it seems the bluefish – which have been so noticeably absent from the Lower Cape this season – showed up all at once. Jim at Nelsons said blues from 2 to 15 pounds invaded the Race and Provincetown waters on Friday and have been ravaging the area’s bait supply since. Stripers have been mixed in with the bruiser blues as well, making for fun fishing all around P-town.

The fishing for blues in other parts of the Cape has become a bit spotty. The Canal and Buzzards Bay have little in the way of bluefish, but Nantucket and the Vineyard still have their fair share. Cam at Bill Fisher Tackle said there have been tackle-busting 8- to 12-pound bluefish all around Nantucket. These fish are awesome just about any way you can catch them, but if you can get them to hit a topwater, catching these big bluefish rivals just about any other fishing experience in the Northeast.

Also feeding around Nantucket have been bonito. Cam said Great Point and West End are both producing bonito on both tides. There is a ton of bait around the island, and Cam expects big numbers of bonito to pop up very soon. Bonito have also been caught on the Vineyard, according to Chris at Bad Fish Outfitters in Falmouth. Last year a fair amount of football bluefin were mixed in with the bonito at the Hooter (south of Wasque), so be ready to go on the chase if you hook something unstoppable out there.

For stripers, everybody with a commercial striped bass permit seems to be sitting on the concentration of teen-size bass off Chatham. On Fridays and Saturdays, when the commercial fishing for stripers isn’t allowed, there should be more breathing room out there. The vertical jigging that worked so well last year isn’t as productive this season. Trolling wire line and parachute jigs has been best as the bass seem to be hugging the bottom.

Reports of stripers in Cape Cod Bay are still coming in despite warm water temperatures. Chris at Bad Fish said Billingsgate Shoal was one of the hot spots. Scorton Ledge also had some fish, but anglers are logging lots of hours on the troll to pick up a couple fish. Tube-and-worm rigs have been the best bet.

Buzzards Bay has been slow for stripers reported Red Top Sporting Goods, but Quick’s and Robinson’s holes down in the Elizabeth Islands are both holding fish. The key has been deeper, cooler water.

Canal had an influx of fish in the east end the past couple days. Fish to 30 pounds were caught according to Mike at M and D’s. Being there at daybreak is the key, and there’s no doubt that the recently northerly winds have helped nudge some bass toward the Big Ditch.

Bottom fishing is going well. Fluke fishing picked up substantially according to Tom at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay. Cleveland Ledge and the surrounding waters are holding good numbers of keeper summer flounder. Deep water in Vineyard Sound is holding fluke as are the waters east of Nantucket.

Some bluefin have finally made it to Stellwagen according to Jim at Nelsons, but there can’t be too many of them as Tom at Red Top reported slow fishing on the Bank. The bluefin bite east of Chatham has been steady. Captain Eric Stewart at the Hook Up in Orleans has been catching on a daily basis just about, and many other boats fishing east of Crab Ledge have been hooking up regularly as well. Trolling has been the ticket for the most part, but live bluefish are catching fish as well.

Best Bets for the Weekend

The Oak Bluffs Monster Shark Tournament is this weekend, so if you were hoping to target sharks… I’d recommend against it. There will be a lot of chum in the water and a lot of boats out there looking for a winning shark to hang from the scales. The silver lining: instead of targeting tuna or the white marlin that have showed up a short run from the Vineyard, many of the area’s anglers will be preoccupied with doling out chum and watching shark floats. Hopefully the surprising number of white marlin just 10 to 14 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket will still be around as seas settle over the weekend. The recent wind shift may send these fish packing, but if it doesn’t, effective tactics include live eels, legal-sized live scup, and weightless-rigged soft-plastic Hogys in white.

It finally seems as though the fluke fishing is reaching its peak. Keeper flatties were caught from Nantucket around to Buzzards Bay. Bucktail-and-Berkley-Gulp combos are working as are strip baits. In Vineyard Sound, the best fluke action seems to be in 60 to 70 feet of water, but some good-sized fish are being caught in shallower water as well.

For stripers, fishing Chatham on the commercial “off days” could be a good call. Wire-line jigging is yielding the best results lately. The big schools of bluefish around Provincetown are another fun option, especially considering that there have been some good-sized bass mixed in.

Don’t forget the bonito either. The Hooter, Great Point and the waters around Nantucket have plenty of bait and a good amount of bonito moving in. These green speedsters should become more abundant over the next couple weeks provided the baitfish remain abundant.