Schoolie Striper Fishing Excellent

“Keeper” Bass Hitting in the Rivers

Black Sea Bass Opens Saturday, May 11

With each passing day, more (and bigger) bass are being reported in Cape Cod waters. This week, we heard reports of fish all the way to the outer Cape and plenty of “keepers” along the south side and in Buzzards Bay. Tautog fishing is excellent, and black sea bass should be on fire when the season opens this Saturday in Massachusetts. (You can check out the complete Massachusetts saltwater fishing regulations here.)

I started my day with a phone call from our back-page columnist Charley Soares, who reported that it’s been a great spring so far for stripers around Fall River. Charley said he has been amazed at the numbers of 26- to 32-inch fish in his home waters of Mt. Hope Bay. The bass are focused on chasing herring into the rivers. Dick at Buckos in Fall River expects more bass to join in, as the huge schools of smaller stripers off Rhode Island filter in through Narragansett Bay. Dick also reported an excellent tautog bite, with fishermen catching on clams and worms down by Tiverton and using crabs for bait further upriver.

Schools of stripers have been moving into Buzzards Bay in waves this week, often appearing on top under birds. The few fishermen who have been out chasing them in boats are doing well with small soft-plastic shad baits and stickbaits. Opt for single-hook lures for fast catch-and-release fishing of these mostly throw-back bass. Shore fishermen are catching by focusing on warmer water in harbors and rivers. Bigger bass to 32 inches have been hanging around rivers with active herring runs, and fishermen are catching these herring-focused bass on Sebile Magic Swimmers and Red Fins.

Capt. John Curry has been targeting schoolie bass cruising the flats in Phinneys Harbor and sight-casting to small pods of fish in the 18- to 22-inch range. He predicts that bigger fish will arrive shortly as the waters have been warming quickly through the 50s.

Andrea at Red Top reported a good tautog bite in upper Buzzards Bay and more bass in the Canal this week. Most of the activity has been focused around the Bournedale Herring Run, and most of the fish are in the 26- to 32-inch range, but I expect a few 15- to 25-pound fish to appear within the next week. At the East End of the Canal, you’ll find schools of mackerel, oblivious to the thousands of hungry 20- to 30-pound migrating bass still down south that will make their way north and into the Canal sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Martha’s Vineyard is “surrounded by a slug of bass,” reported Coop at Coops Bait and Tackle. It’s mostly small fish, but there are a lot of them, from East Beach to Menemsha and places in between. The table is set for bigger bass, with squid and mackerel reported this week. Fishermen looking to make bait (or calamari dinner) are hoping that the squid fishing, which has been slow, picks up this week from the dock in Woods Hole and for boaters in the Hyannis/Cotuit area.

Coop also reported loads of black sea bass off Gay Head, which will make plenty of folks happy when the season opens this weekend. There are also big tautog on the rock piles around the Elizabeth Islands.

Along the south side of the Cape, stripers are filtering in to the salt ponds and rivers from Woods Hole to Harwich, according to Sports Port in Hyannis. Late-afternoon worm hatches in the salt ponds are bringing bass to the surface, but these fish can be incredibly picky. Fly-fishermen have the advantage, but small soft-plastic baits fished weightless along the surface can also fool a few fish. We continue to hear reports of occasional weakfish caught while targeting bass along the south side of the Cape. After a long absence from Cape Cod waters, fishermen are hopeful that this big year-class of 22- to 24-inch weakfish is a sign of good things to come.

Out at The Hook Up in Orleans, they’re seeing keeper bass starting to come from the Cape Cod Bay side. Barnstable Harbor has stripers feeding on sand eels.  Flounder are in the bay as well, and the Target ship is giving up some tautog.

Toward the tip of the Cape, stripers finally showed up this week, according to Capt. Bobby Rice. Things are certainly running a little behind compared to last year, but the fishing should catch up soon. Bobby has been heading out to Stellwagen to target pollock, and like many groundfishermen this spring, he’s run into some porbeagle sharks.

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod and the South Coast

The freshwater fishing is still an excellent option, but most anglers are itching to get out and catch their first striper, or perhaps their first “keeper,” of the season. Look for schools of feeding fish on top in Buzzards Bay, or target salt ponds, rivers and harbors for good action. Keeper bass seem to be concentrated around the herring runs, but it won’t be long before they start chasing squid or hunting the mackerel schools in Cape Cod Bay. Black sea bass season opens this Saturday, and the bite should be fantastic if it’s anything like last spring. Make sure you are up on the latest regs, which have changed significantly from last year.