Cape Cod Fishing Report - October 22, 2015

It’s officially late October, but the stripers are still running on the Cape. Most of the fish caught this week were shorts, but keepers are still being caught.

The weather this week was beautiful, and many anglers tried their luck hunting down bass and blues. The Canal had great action on small fish in the East End early this week. The end of the west tide and beginning of the East Tide produced the most action reported Bull at Red Top Sporting Goods.

In the West End of the Canal, anglers are catching tog reported AJ at Red Top. Green crabs are the top bait, and can be easily purchased at tackle shops, but fishermen can also catch their own tog bait by flipping rocks along the Canal banks and grabbing the small Asian shore crabs that scurry out from underneath.

The beaches of Cape Cod Bay from Plymouth to Sandwich were producing bass and blues Bull reported. Most fish ranged from 20- to 26-inches, but every once in a while, anglers were pulling fish up to 38 inches out of the schoolies. Small swimming plugs have been productive, especially when paired. Lee at Riverview also heard goof reports of bass on the bayside around Sesuit. Fishermen have also been catching some winter flounder off Sesuit.

On the South Side, the fishing for bass and bluefish is sporadic in the Sound, but good in the Bass River. The backwater bass have been schoolies, but it’s definitely possible to pull a keeper out of the mix. Soft plastics, like the Zoom Super Fluke, rigged on a ¼- to ½-ounce jighead will rack and stack the schoolies day and night, but in the mornings and evenings, small topwaters like the Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow will produce some of the last topwater action of the season.

Tog fishing is good in the Sound, Lee reported. Bishops and Clerks Reef, Great Island, and some of the other rocky areas off Hyannis have been producing keeper blackfish.

Chatham Inlet is producing stripers according to Lee. The fish are a wide range of sizes with some quality bass mixed in with the schoolies.

Freshwater fishing is fantastic right now. Bass and pickerel are ravenous as the water temperature in the ponds. The recent trout stocking is providing great opportunities for fishermen throwing small spoons and spinners to catch feisty rainbow and brown trout. Big largemouth bass also take advantage of the fall stocking by feeding on the freshly stocked trout. Fishermen using large, trout-imitating swimbaits connect with their biggest bass of the year in the fall.

On the Vineyard, it seems most fishermen are coming down from the frenzy of the Derby. Julian at Larry’s Tackle said there wasn’t much to report this week.

Best Bets

As tackle shops switch over to their winter hours and many devoted fishermen morph into devoted hunters, reports get a little thin this time of year. Rest assured there is still some good saltwater fishing ahead of us, and fishermen who stick it out will be rewarded with another memorable trip or two. The East End of the Canal and the surrounding beaches offer the best shot at striped bass action right now. Most of the fish are small right now, so scale down your tackle and crimp your barbs when catching these schoolies.  Careful catch and release with these small stripers will increase the chances of them surviving long enough to return to the Cape when they reach “cow” size. The South Side bays and bass river are another good bet for schoolie action. Stay mobile. There is a lot of dead water around the Cape, so keep moving until you find baitfish or breaking bass.

If you can step away from the striper fishing, the trout, bass, and pickerel action is fantastic right now. Hit the large deep ponds for trout, and the small shallow puddles for bass and picks.