The fishing in the Cape Cod Bay slowed down this week reported Captain John at Cape Cod Bay Charters. After the early-week storms, the bass and bait scattered, but John said he was still able to scrape up some keepers in the channel. The sluggish tides following the first quarter moon also likely contributed to the slowdown in fishing. With the full moon on Friday, things are bound to pick back up.
Captain Dan at Salt Shaker Charters reported a few big bass being taken on Billingsgate Shoal, but most fish have been shorts and small keepers. The bulk of the big fish have moved off, Dan said, but fishermen willing to hunt them down are finding the occasional large bass in deeper water. The good news is that there are tons of sand eels around, so when the next wave of bass moves in, there is plenty of bait to keep them around.
Hayden at Red Top said the action was beginning to pick up in the Canal after slow fishing early in the week. He was out on Thursday morning, and saw some 30- to 32-inch fish taken along with one 24-pounder. There has also been an influx of bluefish in the Canal over the past few days. Red Top weighed in a 51-pound striper on Thursday morning, the fish taken by boat in Buzzards Bay. Hayden wasn’t sure what the fish was caught on, but suspected live bait. Also in Buzzards Bay, fluke fishing is improving with keepers being taken by fishermen targeting sea bass and by fishermen looking for fluke.
Captain Mort at Fishtale Sportfishing said the striper fishing off Hyannis is running hot and cold. Still on most days, he’s finding keeper-sized fish with some up to 38 inches. In the ponds and harbors, Mort said there are tons of 12-inch stripers, so many that he has been seeing ospreys picking them off. The water off Monomoy is still cold, so the stripers haven’t moved into the rips just yet. The scup fishing off Hyannis is phenomenal, Mort reported.
The South Side is fishing well reported John at Eastman’s, with plenty of stripers to go around. John says to hit the rips by boat for keepers and the salt ponds by foot for plenty of schoolies. Bluefish appear to be moving back in, with this wave of choppers weighing between 3 and 5 pounds. John also reported that big black sea bass are still around, with some to 4.5 pounds taken this week.
The sea bass and scup fishing is still great, reported Jim of Patriot Party Boats, but the fish are moving to deeper water. Customers of the Patriot Boats caught sea bass to 5 pounds this week.
Steve from Chaser Offshore Fishing had the first positive big game reports we’ve heard this season. Steve’s son, Tyler, caught some small bluefin in some warmer water in Atlantis Canyon, and saw many more. The fish were holding in 64-degree water surrounded by 57-degree water.
Fishing on Martha’s Vineyard is excellent right now with bass and blues moving into the island in good numbers. Bass and blues were all over Wasque after this week’s weather reported Peter at Larry’s Tackle. Peter had also heard of some 15- to 25-pound stripers being caught “Up Island,” as well as some bass being caught in the Gut on the incoming tide. Boat fishermen have been having luck at Middle Ground, but the best bite is a small window about two hours before high tide. Peter also reported scup being caught in Edgartown Harbor, but said the squid fishing isn’t nearly as good as last year.
Captain Kurt of Fishsticks Charters reported that there are still bass on Middle Ground, and that he’s also finding them at Succonessett. They are mixed with bluefish, some very big, including a 10-pounder taken on a recent trip. Kurt continues to catch big sea bass, with a banner day on Sunday with several beautiful, blue-headed 4- to 5-pounders. a
Coop of Coop’s Bait and Tackle reported huge numbers of stripers around Martha’s Vineyard. The one-night, catch-and-release striper fly-fishing tournament tallied more than 600 fish among the participants. Most, Coop said, were small, but fish to 38 inches were taken. Bluefish are also arriving in numbers Coop said, and some have been big, with fish to 15 pounds reported. Black sea bass and scup are keeping bottom fishermen busy, but fluke fishing is still slow.
Captain Ron of Bucktail Charters was still catching keepers in Cape Cod Bay on live mackerel last weekend. More recently, he was catching big sea bass in Nantucket Sound, with fish to 4.5 pounds, and 10 more over 4 pounds, caught on Thursday morning. Mixed in with the big sea bass were some monster scup in the 2- to 3-pound range.
Captain John of Fish Chatham Charters has been catching a mix of bass and bluefish around Nantucket. The bluefish are thick, and fishermen are catching about five blues to every bass. John did say that fishermen who work to fish deep, can get below the blues to catch more bass. The bass around Nantucket have been mostly 30- to 32-inchers, and both the bass and blues have been feasting on squid. John reported that the rips of Monomoy aren’t holding much life yet, but the shallower waters inside Monomoy and Stage Harbor are loaded with stripers to 32 inches, and that fly- and light-tackle fishermen are having a field day.
Captain Drew of Downeast Charters has fished the last several fishable days in Chatham. Sea bass fishing continues to be solid, albeit a little slower at Harwich Reef and Sam’s. Drew reports decent numbers of keeper bass and blues along Harding’s and Ridgevale with fish taking topwaters and SP Minnows in sand eel colors. On the tuna grounds east of Chatham, Drew reported tons of bait, whales, and porpoise from BC to the Sword, but he hasn’t seen a feed yet – but he expects to soon.
No “Best bet for the weekend”?
Read the report…you should be able to make your best bet just from reading it. OTW can’t do all the work for you
Get out there and fish fellas! Tight Lines
The report is getting less informative, it is better to make a call by yourself before you are going there.
Here’s a best bet for you: stay home.
Some of us don’t have the luxury of being a local and rely on the reports to help us decide if the ride will be worth it or not.
Great, no best bets for the weekend
Now what? I just bought myself a sick new set up too. Just picked up a zebco quantum push button with tenlb mono and six foot light pistol grip fishing pole. I got a bunch of nightcrawlers in my yard and I was really hoping to catch a 64.4 pounder on sat morning or as early as possible. I sell womens shoes by day and stock them at nightt. I’ve been known to where them around as well so….neways ill be down their saturday morning i have a tattoo on my face like mike tyson. Ill be wearing bright orange streamer pants and football cleats. Peace
LMAO
Sounds like the best bet should be, “Just Go Fishing”
Dan…Preach it!! Exactly what I’m saying…Tight Lines
no reports like in the past on how race point would be awesome by now , dont hear much about fishing in falmouth either as well as the bait shops look empty with customers, its just not the same and they think they fixed the problem but i still think over 65 percent of the fish migration is no more today, please catch and release for a few years and they should bump up to 36 inches for the next 7 years because the last year that the regulation was at 36 inches i witnessed more stripers and had the best fishing season ever and since they kept dropping and dropping the inches and then following up with hey keep 2 per day and its been getting worse and worse everyday and to you poachers you suck ….god bless your fishing trips and may this great species make a big comeback.
just wondering if the better season was before they opened commercial fishing?
There are lots of contributing factors to the fluctuating levels of bass caught, and exact numbers can never be known (all anglers don’t report what they catch and keep) commercial striped bass amount to less, probably a lot less, than 1/3 of the total bass harvested. Imagine 6-pack charters running twice a day keeping the boats limits April through November… lots of dead bass.
Ha one the water. How come there are no reports for south of cape beaches and inlets?
For all those who are not satisfied with the reports, I can tell you there are fish everywhere…I also fish from the shore 99.9% of the time…Its a big ocean too fellas, If I knew where the stripers would be 24/7 then I’d be a legend….Thats the name of the game, get out there a make your own reports! I promise you theyre out there!
P.S…. It would be really naive to think that just because theres no report on a certain location, there must not be any bass…You Definitely wont catch one if youre line isnt wet…
Everybody here does realize that last weeks’ fishing reports are just a
marketing mechanism for the advertisers right ? And that’s perfectly ok.
We all like to read them.
The fish will show in the same areas every year. Sure, their numbers and sizes may fluctuate, weather and seals may disrupt them, lack of bait will cause them to move away but the more you go the more you catch. Pick a spot and work it over all year.
Your grandfathers’ Penn squider with braid and Atom plug will catch as much as todays
$30 lure on $100 hi-tech line with a $400 reel if you use it enough.
It needs to repeated again that fishing reports are only good for reporting on what happened in the past, and though the bite may be heavily on still, you can’t always base a fishing trip on such things and always look for a “best bet”. Winds, tides, moon phase, forage fish, etc. all play more important roles to me, and fishing reports usually come after. The best fishermen I know have a network and reports for finding the hot bite, but more importantly, also have their own methodology for finding it if what was hot yesterday turns cold today.
And getting skunked comes with the territory sometimes. I can’t tell you about the times where all of the variables (wind, water temps, tides, etc.) lined up for what I thought was a sure bet fishing wise, only for me and anyone else fishing with me not to even get a bite. And there were days when I thought the odds were against us that the fishing turned epic. Only happens when you put the time in.
Also with age I’ve learned to play my cards better; if the bass fishing is slow and the tides seems off, I may switch to porgy fishing (which is always good), or try for flounder, or head off for some sea bass (which are choking the humps right now with their numbers).
Fish. Adjust. Try something different. Learn.
I’ve never regretted a trip taken even when the bite was far less than optimal. If I put my time in it was a great time on the water.
BTW: Speaking of black sea bass, I have to admit that the situation out there is turning more ridiculous by the year…I’ve never seen so many BIG fish feeding out there, so many that they are schooling on the surface and eating everything in sight. Fishing hump outside of Hyannis a couple of weeks ago, I would hook a fish and five or more humpbacks are actually chasing it to the surface and trying to knock the bait out of it’s mouth, it’s almost unbelievable.
I don’t know how accurate the report I read earlier this week is that their population is so large that there is a growing fear that they are devastating the local crab and juvenile lobster fishery, but based on what I’ve seen I’m inclined to believe. And the set bag limit by the fisheries council is still only five fish per person??