Cape Cod Canal and Cape Cod Bay
It was another good week in the Cape Cod Canal. Schools of small peanut bunker brought big numbers of schoolie and small keeper stripers into the Ditch. Several large fish were taken, including a 50-plus pounder weighed in at Red Top on Thursday morning. While there has been action throughout the Canal, the East End has had the most fish (and the most anglers).
Mornings have been productive, but the smaller schoolies are biting in the evenings as well reported Ben from Forestdale Bait and Tackle.
Boats are still having good success fishing eels in Cape Cod Bay from the East End of the Canal to Barnstable Harbor. The commercial season for striped bass is supposedly ended on Thursday, which should think out the fleet that descended on the lower bay every Monday and Thursday.
Small stripers and big bluefish are being caught around Billingsgate reported Paul at Blackbeards Bait and Tackle. Trolling has been working best.
Middle and Lower Cape
There’s been surprisingly good action on some of the Outer Cape beaches reported Paul from Blackbeards. Stripers have hit the beaches at Nauset, Marconi, and Coast Guard, with fish over 20 pounds chasing adult bunker onto the sand at times. Topwater plugs have been working during these flurries of activity.
Boat fishermen are doing well in the same area reported Ben at Forestdale. Diamond jigs are working best, but at times topwaters have been working when the bass chase the bunker onto the surface.
More good surf action is taking place at Race Point where bluefish are being caught early in the morning on topwater lures and metals.
South Side and Martha’s Vineyard
The bonito fishing is slow. Boats that hit the Hooter over the weekend reported big blues, but no bones. Cooper at Coop’s Bait and Tackle said the bonito fishing has been really sporadic at the Hooter, with boats catching five or six fish one day and finding only blues the next.
Some bonito have been reported in Menemsha Channel. Cape Poge and Tashmoo have also had a few bonito reported Julian at Larry’s Tackle.
At least one albie has been taken out by the Hooter, a monstrous 17-pounder. More albies are being reported off the Cape’s south side. Bill at Sports Port said false albacore have been hooked off Centerville. Christian at Falmouth Bait and Tackle said boats have spotted slashing albies off Falmouth as well.
Striper fishing around Martha’s Vineyard is slowing reported Coop. Night tides are still producing some fish. Julian at Larry’s said boat fishermen were doing well chunking bunker and trolling tube-and-worm rigs off Squibnocket.
There have been some monster bluefishing feeding around the Vineyard and Nantucket reported Coop. He thinks we’ll see some Derby records broken if these big blues stick around.
Snapper blues are making a stronger showing in the harbors and salt ponds allowing. The baby blues are still a little too small to make a meal, but they are great fun to catch on ultra-light tackle, especially for kids.
Scup are biting well throughout the sounds, and keeper sea bass are still being caught. Fluke are biting well on Bishops and Clerks, with good numbers of keepers.
Tuna and Offshore
It looks like the water finally warmed beyond the comfort level of the bluefin that had been feeding south of the Vineyard since mid-July. The hot water at the dump has brought in mahi, marlin, and skipjack reported Steve at Chaser Offshore Fishing. Even in the canyons, tuna have been scarce with billfish and mahi again dominating the catches. Captain Terry Nugent had a banner day of mahi fishing on Tuesday, catching big numbers on spinning and fly tackle.
East of Chatham, the fishing is picking up, but almost all of the fish are of the “giant” caliber. On Tuesday, boats trolled up tuna to 90 inches.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
Stripers are still pretty well spread around the Cape for boat fishermen. Squibnocket, Cape Cod Bay, and Chatham all have schools of nice-sized stripers right now, with different tactics prevailing at each location. In Chatham, vertical jigging is the ticket, live eels are doing a job in Cape Cod Bay, and chunking is the method of choice off Squibby. Shore fishermen will find bass on the banks of the Canal or the Outer Beaches. Blues seem to be biting well at first light on Race Point. For bluefin, East of Chatham may be your best bet, but make sure you are loaded for bear—the fish have been running big.
I don’t usually write comments, in fact this is my first one on this site, but I felt compelled to say something. Actually, two things. First, I may be over-reacting, but I feel it is irresponsible to show a photo of someone holding a bluefish by the lower jaw, the way you might safely hold a striped bass or a black sea bass. Clearly this bluefish is dead, but this photo might give an inexperienced reader the mistaken impression that this is a safe way to hold a live bluefish. It certainly is not. I don’t think any of us wants to be responsible for the consequences if that were to happen. Second, What’s with the ad for ChineseLady.com? Seriously, guys, this is really tacky, and just gives fishermen a bad name. I cancelled my subscription to SWS when they ran a tobacco ad earlier this year. I am not only a subscriber to OTW, but also an advertiser. I really do not want to be associated with a publication that runs ads for what is clearly a thinly veiled prostitution racket. Get it together guys, or I’m out.
Thanks for the feedback – we’ve added a note on the photo and tweaked the settings on our Google Ad server so that it shouldn’t serve any more inappropriate ads.
Arrrr,
Ye all need no lighten up. Not all of us are panty wastes like Capn Kurt. I hold Blues in a lip lock since I am as hard as woodpecker lips to begin with. I only fish in calm seas of 15 foot or better all while smokin a pipe an drinkin whisky. The wife filets the blues and the Sharks by reaching down their mouths and turnin I’m insides out. When I go sharkin I swim around until I see one and punch it in the snout. Back in the day we walked up hill both ways across the Sharks back to go offshore fishin
Jay Kapur you are the first man I have ever seen crazy enough to lip a bluefish.
I remember the first time I held a fish.
Maybe if we put our heads together on an article on various types of fish and wildlife, that we encounter, to use as a reference from keeper fish and catch and release to the best way to helping them survive being hooked and when to just cutting the line and also to hooking yourself! Seen in the water a lot bellied up fish floating around because people think that they are just swimming away to only die later because of the way they were handled, along with birds injured in attempt to unhooking them.
Tobacco is a legal product in America. Yes we all know it is not good for your health. More people die every year in America due to alcohol related health problems and accidents than tobacco . So my question to captain Kurt is “are you also against alcohol ads and are you against sugar ads?? I do not want my fishing news to be interrupted with more nanny state over reach.
Tight lines my friend.
AdBlocker guys. Get it together.
Yes, tobacco is legal, but only for adults. I objected to the tobacco ad in SWS because that magazine makes a point of appealing to children. They run kids’ photo contests and other programs and articles intended to encourage kids to fish, which I think is not only admirable, but an integral part of their mission, and that’s why I thought it was out of character and inappropriate for them to run a tobacco ad. Ads for tobacco were banned from TV and radio in 1970, during the Nixon administration, for good reasons that I shouldn’t have to explain or defend here. I have chosen not to use tobacco or alcohol or sugar, but I wouldn’t presume to impose those choices on others. However, I believe that we, as a society, have an obligation to educate and protect our children, and I do not believe that can be characterized as “nanny-state over-reach.” So, the short answer is “Yes.” I would object to alcohol ads and sugar ads if they target children.
Maybe this was not your intent, but I don’t think you can defend tobacco by saying that alcohol is worse. Surely, you’re not saying that dying of lung cancer isn’t so bad, because dying of cirrhosis or in a fiery car crash would be worse. Because that doesn’t seem like a compelling argument.
Agreed Capt. Seems people these days have zero respect for anything or anybody. Can’t imagine at all why people get shot these days
Totally agree captain
Targeted ads Captain.
Google/website ads are based on your browser history. 🙂
I don’t usually write comments, in fact this is my first one on this site, but I felt compelled to say something. LIGHTEN UP, FRANCIS….
I could not have said it better Joe.
I didn’t think that pulling a fish out of the locker with fillet gloves on would create such a stir. Yes, we did eat it.
Nice fish btw
Where is the buzzards bay section!??
Out on Buzzards Bay everyday:
Scup-Everywhere target 12-20 feet of water with 2-3 0z. sinker
Fluke – Seem to be going for smaller bait, been getting them on a basic porgy hook on either side of the hog island channel in 19-30 feet of water. use a heavier sinker if the tide is ripping.
Sea Bass- still there in deeper water, all females though may want to let them go, your call, use a fluke rig green or white for them; 30-40 feet of water.
Blues-follow the birds sunrise or sunset, they have been in the channel a lot so be careful of the harbor master. They crush anything, I have been using my beat up SP minows and poppers, don’t be the bonehead who drives to within ten feet of them, get ahead or behind them and drift into them. Don’t hook a bird, you can cast on the edges.
Stripers- Schoolie action at mouth of onset, widows cover, maritime boat, railroad bridge, buttermilk bay, and the flats; stay away from the ones near the pilings, 1-4 feet of water and all eel grass, will be disaster for your boat. Freshwater pole with anything shiny makes for a ton of fun. Ben getting a decent fish here or there but been a little tough so keeping my go to spots hush, has been slow though 1/2 the time I come up empty.
Nice work John
Jay- next time you pose with a fish that someone else caught, at least hold it properly.