We’re staring down the barrel at a week’s worth of northeast winds. These winds can be a blessing and a curse at this time of year. While they often make the seas too rough for boat fishing, they can fire up the surf fishing.
Cape Cod Canal and Cape Cod Bay
Most of the bass action in the Canal continues to take place in the dark. Jigs and eels are working best, reported AJ at Red Top Sporting Goods. Bluefish have been mixed in with the bass. The blues have been striking jigs more than topwaters.
Albies have been appearing in the Canal fairly regularly reported AJ. On Thursday, albies were spotted blitzing in the mid-Canal, with some schools even popping up in the East End
Most of the recent reports from Cape Cod Bay involved big surf and weedy water. Prolonged onshore winds will dirty up the surf, blowing thick mats of weeds into the surf zone. Before the storm, Jeff at Forestdale said fishermen were catching good numbers of schoolie stripers on light tackle. He’d also hear a report of a fishermen happening upon a school of big bluefish in three feet of water off Town Neck Beach.
Barnstable Harbor is also reportedly holding schoolie bass right now.
South Side and Buzzards Bay
The South Side striper bite is going strong. Jeff at Forestdale reported good action on fish to 34 inches in Popponesset and Cotuit. Dowses Beach gave up bass to 34 inches this week according to Bill at Sports Port. Schools of adult menhaden have been holding the bass, and some big bluefish in the area. The big blues have been 10 pounds and up, reported Jeff, but he also said there have been good numbers of smaller 1- to 2-pound bluefish feeding at the outlets and inside the bays.
Among the productive tactics for South Side stripers, Jeff said kayak fishermen have been doing well trolling swimming plugs. Live eels and soft-plastic swim shads are also working.
Boats have begun targeting blackfish in Buzzards Bay. The current weather is not conducive to anchoring over structure, but when the seas calm, the blackfish action should be on fire. Some of the largest tog will be caught early in the season before the popular spots get picked over.
Albies continue to pop up around the South Side. The Monomoy Rips were still full of them as of last weekend, and early this week, the waters around Falmouth had excellent albie action.
On the Vineyard, the albie action was red hot on Monday, but it’s slowed down since reported Peter of Larry’s Bait and Tackle. Some are still popping up Edgartown Harbor and Cape Poge Gut.
Bass fishing has been good up-island, Peter said, and bluefish action has been steady at Chappy. There are tons of big bunker in Edgartown Harbor, but not large predators have found them yet.
Middle and Lower Cape
The tuna bite was hot off Provincetown, but the high seas will be keeping boats at the dock this weekend. Live mackerel were close to automatic, but run-and-gun boats were having success with RonZ jigs and stickbaits.
The outer beaches may be too munged up to fish for a few days, but when they calm down, the bite could be on with stripers in the surf.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
It’s going to be a shore-fishing kind of weekend. Fishermen will be able to hide from the winds in the Canal or on the South Side, both places that have been holding some good striper fishing lately. Freshwater is another option. Largemouth and smallmouth are both biting well, and more trout will be getting stocked soon.