Sometime over the winter, fishermen throughout the Northeast circled this week on their calendars. They used vacation days, some booked rooms nearby, in order to be free to fish the Cape Cod Canal during the June New Moon. And, during the first half of this week, with license plates from New Jersey to Maine occupying every parking lot from Bell Road to Scusset, it looked the stripers missed their invitations to the breaking tides party.
But then on Wednesday, reported Jeff at Canal Bait and Tackle, the fish showed. They came in the middle of the day, while the local anglers were at their day jobs. They showed again on Thursday morning, with a few 40-pounders in the mix for a few lucky anglers. Jeff recommended the floating Sebile Stick Shadd, but AJ at Red Top Sporting Goods said not to be without pencil poppers as well. At first light, the stripers, some of which are in the 20- to 30-pound class, are looking up for their meals, but after the surface action dies, AJ said fishermen scratching the bottom with jigs are continuing to catch. Tinker macks are the bait du jour reported the crew at Maco’s Bait and Tackle, so mackerel-pattern plugs are a good bet.
But the Canal doesn’t have the only good fishing from shore right now. Martha’s Vineyard is seeing steady action with bluefish at East Beach and Wasque, reported Peter at Larry’s Tackle, and stripers to 40-plus-pounds in the surf up-island.
Boat fishermen are getting in on the fun as well, slamming stripers on fly and light tackle at Vineyard Sound shoals like Middle Ground, Peter said.
Don’t forget Halfway and Hedge Fence, advised John at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle. John said the fishing tapered off a bit on larger bass off the Cape South Side, but that schoolies are all over. The larger stripers seem to be on the move, John said, citing reports from Cape Cod Bay, where stripers played hide and seek with fishermen this week, and apparently doing a good job of hiding most of the time.
In Buzzards Bay, Captain Matt from Fishy Business Sportfishing has been catching stripers to 38 inches on live mackerel, but said catching bait (outside the East End of the Canal) has been a challenge.
Captain Mel of FishNet Charters has been live-lining mackerel as well, and also lamented the difficulty of filling the livewell. The fishing, Mel said, was fair to middling in Cape Cod Bay, where although he was catching a dozen fish a trip, large bass were difficult to come by.
Around the horn at Monomoy, Captain John of Fish Chatham Charters said the rips are fishing well. Keeper-sized bass are around in big numbers, taking topwaters, and some larger fish are mixed in. While the fishing is good, John said finding the fish, and fish that are feeding, has taken some work at times.
Race Point has been producing good bass for Captain Bobby of Reel Deal Fishing Charters who put his clients on multiple fish over 30 pounds this week. The fish are hit jigs and topwaters, but live mackerel have been especially productive.
Bottom fishermen are still catching limits of black sea bass, but doing so takes a bit more time and effort than it did two weeks ago. And there are still some big sea bass around. A 4.85-pounder took top honors in the Bad Daddy Tournament last weekend, along with an 8-pound tog.
Bluefish have been popping up at South Cape Beach, Popponesset, and Cotuit. Fluke fishing is slow. Haddock are being taken around the CC Buoy, said Jeff from Canal Bait and Tackle, and there was even a bonus halibut caught there this week.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
The vacationing anglers will be joined by the local weekend warriors on the Big Ditch this weekend, so casting space will be at a premium. Get there early or hang late. Many fishermen leave before the fish do, so if crowds are cramping your style, a good strategy can be to go get breakfast and come back after.
And there are plenty of empty miles of sand beaches on the Outer Cape that are just begging for surfcasters to try their luck. With back and legs aching at my desk on Thursday, I felt like I walked most of them on Wednesday night. While I was hoping to encounter some of the large bass I’d seen boat fishermen catching out there, I settled for big numbers of little stripers feeding in the first wave. The spunky little bass were a good match for a light, 8-foot surf rod and a small swimming plug. They key was not giving up on your retrieve. Some of the fish were so close to shore, I could have poked them with the end of my rod.
Limits of sea bass will be getting more difficult each week, so it’d be wise to get out there another time or two to fill the cooler.
For boaters, sounds like the best bet is to raid the rips from Vineyard Sound to Monomoy. Squid imitating lures—poppers, swimmers, and soft-plastics in pink or white—will be the best bet for stripers that have as large as 40 inches.
Reports like these are why the canal has become so over crowded over the years. You’re literally ruining the sport that we all love with these reports. Most of all, you’re breaking every single rule of being a fishermen by posting with this much detail and enthusiasm. Thank you
Noted: Will only report bad fishing with as little enthusiasm as possible going forward.
Please make reports as gloomy and depressing as possible
Alex, I hear what you’re saying. However these guys (tackle shops) need to promote and get excited about the fishing. It’s a long hard winter out here for them. This is how they stay in business. I agree, it would be better, in general, for most people to do their own due diligence and find fish for themselves. Just try to see both sides. This may force us, you and me, to find other spots we wouldn’t have tried just to get away from the crowds.
Hang tough!
I googled “fisherman rules” … couldn’t find anything related to the detail and enthusiasm thing you are talking about.
One of the rules my dad taught me was to share the sport, which includes helping those you share it with catch some fish, which actually I do with detail and enthusiasm. No secrets on my part about where I fish or how I catch them.
Tight lines.
reports mean nothing …its yesterday news !
Very true
sharing is caring, I would do the same. Plenty of fish to go around
Where is the CC buoy?
Cape Cod bay
Keep up the great work.
Keep up the great work.
Every week, I look forward to your reports.
I love your fishing reports
Fished Race Point, the jetty, Hatches and Herring Cove from the beach all week…
one schoolie.
Of course my last day there was a blitz at the other end of the beach.
Guys got some nice fish…many by dropping
Surfcasting (on the beaches) has really died, with few exceptions on a few days.
Consider this…
Boston Globe reported there are approximately 50,000 harbor & gray seals on the Cape. Each seal needs 35 – 50 pounds of fish per day.
Thats about 3 keepers a day.
Do the math…150,000 keepers a day. That’s 1 million keepers every 7 days.
OK,,,let’s substitute some Blues, Mackerel, Crabs, Lobsters and a few 40 pounders, and lower the number to 600,000 keepers every 7 days…
someone enlighten me…
Even if seals were the problem (they aren’t) there is nothing you could do about it. Your energy us much better spent focusing on other conservation aspects like catch limits, preservation of forage species like bunker and herring which are grossly overfished, and cleaning up our coastal waters…
I don’t buy your thinking Steve. Fisherman can practice all the consevation we can but the 50,000 seals will only throw back a rack of bones.
Read this weeks report. “Best striper fishing in years both sides of the Cape!” This despite 50 thousand seals….
I don’t buy your thinking Steve. Fisherman can practice all the conservation we can but the 50,000 seals will only throw back a rack of bones.
Steve is right. Read “The Most Important Fish in the Sea” to better understand the bunker problem. One of Menhaden’s many benefits is they eat massive amounts of algae. Instead entire schools are corralled and turned into cheap pig food. They are what the seals should be eating.
Think about it this way for As long as seals have existed they have eaten fish. humans have only had the technology to catch striped bass for a few hundered years or less.
I would rather show them where than get it for them. Teach someone to fish, they can eat for a lifetime.