I don’t know about you, but to me, it feels like the summer is flying by. In just a few short weeks we’ll be talking about the fall run. But until then, the summer fishing is going well around the Cape with stripers, football bluefin, bonito and blues.
South Side and Islands
The most exciting news this week, to surf fishermen at least, was the good bass bite on the South Side of Martha’s Vineyard. Steve at Larry’s Tackle said bass in the 20-pound class have been biting well in the surf on SP Minnows and Super Strike Darters for the past six days. There are some fish during the day, but after the sun sets, the fishing really picks up. Access has been a challenge at times, but anglers willing to do some walking are getting into fish. The fish, Steve said, have been covered in sea lice.
Football bluefin, fish in the 40-pound range, are hunting the waters south of the Vineyard. Fishermen are catching them on striped bass gear and having a blast. Tracking down the fish can be a challenge, but once fishermen find them, the action is great.
I fished Lucas Shoal on Saturday, hoping to hunt down some fluke. We had plenty of bites from undersized sea bass, scup and sea robins, but in the end, only three fluke hit the deck. The lone keeper came from 50 feet of water. According to Steve at Larry’s we should have been targeting deeper holes. The fluke fishing is good, he said, but not great, in some of the deeper areas and spots like Tom Shoal.
The bottom fishing for sea bass is a little better in the shoals of Nantucket Sound. Keeper fluke are mixing in there as well reported Jeff at Forestdale Bait and Tackle.
Wire-line trolling with parachute jigs continues to produce keeper stripers on the Vineyard Sound Shoals. The stripers there are glued to the bottom, so keeping the jig deep is essential to getting bites.
Bonito are popping up around Martha’s Vineyard as well. They aren’t thick yet, but fishermen trolling Rebel Fastracs and other minnow plugs are connecting with fish most days. When the bones aren’t biting, 8- to 10-pound bluefish are serving as a nice consolation prize.
Closer to shore, smaller bluefish in the 1- to 3-pound range are popping up at the mouths of the salt ponds and harbors. There has even been a report of snapper blues showing up in the bays.
Cape Cod Canal and Buzzards Bay
Sea bass fishing in Buzzards Bay has wound down according to Andrea at Red Top Sporting Goods. Fluke fishing has filled in to some extent. While the fluking isn’t great, Andrea said, it’s improved from a few weeks ago when very few fish were being caught. Andrea said most boats fluke fishing in the bay are reporting catching keepers.
The Canal was pretty good this week. The fishing doesn’t seem to be following the usual pattern of breaking tides bringing sunrise blitzes. Instead the fishing seems to pick up later in the morning, or on the start of the west tide as bass follow baitfish in the Canal. Fish larger than 30 pounds were taken in the Canal this week. Plugs are working well, as are jigs. Eels are a great option after dark this time of year in the Canal also.
Outer Cape and Cape Cod Bay
A big school of stripers has settled in off Chatham, and fishermen are catching good numbers of stripers there on some days. Other days, the bite has been tough. Dan at The Hook Up reported a large number of 30-inch fish in those waters this week.
Race Point continues to produce some fish, but the action is a shadow of what it was back in June.
Cape Cod Bay has fewer fish than Chatham, but the ones there are large, often 20 pounds or more. Tube-and-worm trolling is the preferred tactic according to Jeff at Forestdale.
Bluefin fishing is still spotty east of Chatham, but the fish there are giant-sized. Dan at the Hook Up got an 81-incher this week. Another fishermen caught a 76-incher, both on the troll around the Regal Sword.
One boat, hoping to salvage a slow day of tuna fishing, dropped some cod jigs on a wreck out there and did well with groundfish.
Freshwater
Largemouth bass are biting well in the lilypads on weedless frog lures. Fishing after dark with jitterbugs has also produced bass.
Trout are biting well in deep, cool water in ponds like Peter’s and Cliff.
Best Bets for the Weekend
Striper fishermen have to ask themselves, quality or quantity. For quantity, hit Chatham with diamond jigs. For quality, try Cape Cod Bay with the tube and worm. Getting skunked is a possibility, but if a rod goes down, odds are, it’s a big one on the other end of the line.
For bottom fishing, go deep for fluke and hit Nantucket Sound for sea bass.
If the weather allows, try hunting down the football bluefin south of the Vineyard with spinning gear. Bringing some live eels or live legal-sized scup would be very wise as some white marlin have been spotted patrolling these waters as well.
I am a Doubting Thomas regarding fluke. I’ve kept records since the late 80s. Fishing either Middle Ground or Lucas Shoals (shallow or deep) I’ve gotten my limit of fluke every trip for every year since 1988, until this year. Three trips to MG or LS this summer (six hours each trip) and I have a total of two fluke. Last Saturday I fished MG for 2 hours and LS for 3+ hours. I saw one charter boat land one fluke and that is the lone fluke I saw landed. As the report says, tons of immature scup and sea bass everywhere, but no fluke. Where did the fluke go?
Where did the fluke go….they are being over fished everyone and their brother and sister have fished for them and to many people are keeping undersized fluke. Any thoughts?
Overfished for years, habitat destruction you name it. Used to catch huge fluke in green pond of the bridge
drag netters are RAPING the ocean floor. Zero regulation and zero enforcement. Go to woods hole and watch drag netter after drag netter coming in with hundreds of fluke.
Fluking is definitely slow on M.G. this year. Went today and averaged one fish/drift with 3 rods in the water. Way off the norm.
Like you I have been fishing Vineyard Sound for the past 30 years. I keep a log of my outings and track location, size, and number. There has been a significant decline in the size and the number of keeper fish. There have been a lot of juvenile fish, a good sign for the future we can only hope. My theory of the decline, particularly the last 5-8 years is to “blame” the poor management of the fishery over this time. There were a number of years over the past five where the size limits were such that we were catching the mature female and limiting the spawning cycle and fish. This has been adjusted now, but it will take some years to rebuild the breeding stock. The random regulations from state to state has also been problematic for example the RI, MA, CT regs for season, size, bag limits I believe have also contributed to the problem. The bigger fish are caught in RI before they reach the waters of Buzzards Bay or Vineyard Sound MA. I have actually gone down to Breton Point to fish for fluke when things were not great in VS or BB and done well. How crazy is that!? I have done fairly well with flaking this year as far as limit for keepers. However, nothing larger than 21 inches and only three since June 1. The Hooter and Buoy 30 have been productive. Good luck, Joe
you can thank the Marine Mammal Protection Act
actually, seals are the reason i’ve stopped fishing the cape. it’s really sad to have all that beautiful beach and inlets locked down. otherwise we’d spend weekends out there post-labor day surf fishing, staying in cottages, buying groceries, eating at restaurants, etc. as it is no way
Can’t blame the seals for doing what seals do, where they have been doing it since long before we were here. There is still plenty of great fishing around the cape, ya might just have to look a little bit harder now. All that great fishing of years past was caused by an unbalanced Eco-system. Are there lots of seals? Sure there are, that’s because there are still more than enough fish to sustain the seal population, even with all the recreational and commercial fishing. Doesn’t look like the seals are going anywhere either, so either adapt as a fisherman or stop fishing. You can bet that seals or no seals, I’ll be keeping my lines wet.
right on brother! If you’re a Mass resident, you know that there’s no way in hell this state will do anything to disrupt, harm, dislodge, disappoint or otherwise f*** with the seal population here. There’s too many liberal environmental types here. So I say, “shut up and fish or move to Oklahoma and target those silly landlocked stripers in Lake Chuckafuck or wherever. LOL
Seals will continue to bring great white sharks. Like “Jaws”, when a few swimmers get torn up the outcry to Big Nanny to “do something” will override
the Eco fascists. Funny to watch politics and the stupidity of man. Years ago the
eco fascists made it illegal for farmers to kill wolves in Minnesota. Deer overpopulated, ate the bark off of trees and destroyed tons of forests. Solution:
allow hunting of wolves and save the forests.
Definitely the commercial fishing has decimated the fluke population in Vineyard Sound. We where out there one morning and saw a trawler pull up a net full of bounty. How many short fluke, sea bass and scup made it back in the water and survived? I bet not many.
I know the canal has been really good the whole week. Does anyone know how it was this morning? I am thinking of going tomorrow morning and wanted to know if the action is still great. Also does anyone think it will still be good tomorrow even though the tides aren’t great. Thanks for any info.
Tight Lines
Also when has the good fishing been happening. I know it is down the east end. But has it been good down the east end with the west/slack tide occurring in the morning???