Bluefish are finally showing up in a little better numbers around Cape Cod this week. School bluefin tuna are still scarce, however.
Stripers continue to bite well all around the Cape. The Canal has been good, often right in the middle of the day, reported Jeff at Canal Bait and Tackle. The fish have been all throughout the Canal, Jeff said. Alan at Red Top said that the stretch from the Herring Run to Scusset has been the most consistent. The bite on Thursday started out with schoolies, with bigger fish following later in the morning Alan said.
In Cape Cod Bay, the waters off Sandwich have been slow, but Billingsgate Shoal has been loaded with 30- to 32-inch stripers reported Captain Dan of Salt Shaker Charters.
The Monomoy Rips slowed down some, Captain John of Fish Chatham Charters reported. The water warmed up, the bluefish moved in, and the bass moved out.
Captain Mort of Fish Tale Charters said the bass are still around, but they aren’t feeding on the surface as much, and he’s had to break out the wire-line trolling outfits to stay on the bite.
Captain Matt of Fishy Business Sportfishing said he’s back on the hunt for the big schools of bass since they left Monomoy. Some reports placed the fish in the deeper waters off Nauset.
Boat fishermen are catching bluefish at Horseshoe Shoal reported Peter at Larry’s Tackle. More blues were reported in Buzzards Bay as well. Even Canal fishermen noticed an increase in the number of soft-plastic shortenings, suggesting that the blues have been moving into the Ditch.
Captain Kurt of FishSticks Charters has been finding bluefish in a range of sizes from 4-pounders up to bruisers pushing 14 pounds at Horseshoe Shoal – as well as lots of black sea bass. The bluefish have not always been where he expects to find them, so it has taken some searching, but they are there, Kurt assures. Trolling helps to find fish, but once they are located, they can be taken by casting swimming plugs and topwaters, he said.
There wasn’t much word on bonito this week. Kurt gave it a shot at the Hooter on Monday, and while he found bluefish, sea bass, and even a striper, there were no bonito that he saw.
Along with the blues in Buzzards Bay, king mackerel have once again been reported around Cape Cod. This is about the time they showed up last year, and they remained in numbers until mid-September. Kings like the same fast-moving lures as bonito and false albacore.
There are still big black sea bass hanging around Buzzards Bay said Captain Mel True of Fishnet Charters. Mel caught sea bass to 5 pounds this week while working 60- to 70-foot depths.
Mel also ran into some huge schools of small stripers along the Elizabeths. The small, surface-feeding bass made a fun light-tackle and fly target.
At the Dump, south of Martha’s Vineyard, there are mahi, but not much else reported Steve from Chaser Offshore Fishing. Steve is hopeful the warm water there will pull in some wahoo and white marlin.
In the canyons, the good water broke up a bit and scattered the fishing, Steve said.
East of Chatham, Captain John from Fish Chatham Charters said there have been some tuna from 65 inches to giant sized, but the action is spotty. That’s been the story on bluefin this year around the Cape. Giant fish have been around, but the school-size tuna have been hard to come by. Andy Nabreski reminded me today that the south of the Vineyard bluefin bite we’ve enjoyed was a relatively recent phenomenon, and that if there is one constant in tuna fishing, it is change. The bluefin will get here eventually—it’s just a matter of when. Judging by the great reports still coming from Long Island, I’m beginning to worry that it might not be all that soon.
Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod
Stripers are the hottest bite around the Cape, either in the Canal, along the Elizabeths (with light tackle), or on Billingsgate Shoal. Fishermen looking for a novel catch can try their luck at king mackerel by fast-trolling in the warmest water they can find. And, if you’ve been missing bluefish this season, you can find them at Horseshoe Shoal or at the rips of Monomoy.
Great article jimmy .
Your rite about the canal.
The fish have been going to about the herring run and going back towards the east end.
I agree with Kyle. Your article seemed much more informative than usual this week.
Thank you!
fished canal 10pm last night till 7am…one schoolie
hit both ends and scusset beach…last 2 nights not much going on …at one point i was the only one at the railroad bridge last night …lol…loved it
Oh do I miss though great Nantucket sleigh rides 14-20 # blues were my passion in Chatham August,September..Blues love the Pogies(menhaden)..just like the striped Bass..tight lines!
Wow!!!
That was awesome rain yesterday.
I wish you guys the best of luck up there that you do see some schools of blues but don’t be surprised if the numbers aren’t anything like the past.
It’s kind of a sad thing but our new politicians want to compete globally in export of fish. Last winter 100’s of tons of bluefish were taken over previously allowed quotas. Here in NJ fishing for blues is so bad we can’t buy a bluefish to save our life. After the dismal spring spawn of huge gator blues left the bay there hasn’t been a picture or report of a single bluefish from the bay. And blues here are as thick as the stripers are there. The bay is loaded with endless peanuts (pogeys), spearing, sand eels and killies since there’s no blues feeding on them. If any good could come from this is that fluke are thick throughout the bay and it’s not hard to catch a bag limit of fluke over 23-24 inches. Appearantly the blues must’ve been keeping them in the ocean and not coming in the bay to become bluefish good. I’ll put it this way. Every year they’ve wanted to reduce limits and increase the keepers size due to lack of fluke. If you fluke for 8 hours you’d wonder how they’ve even needed to raise the subject! Some many summer tourists are having field days fluking but the charter boats for bluefish are getting crushed to the point of having to regear their boats to compete against cheap $35.00 party boat trips. So I suspect that there has been some schools netted that spend the summer in your area as well. Now they are in talk right now involving stripers
Spent Sunday off Monomoy. 8 hours off Bearses, Pollock and all points north up to Naucet in deeper water. Not much going on, no bait fish,no birds, no fish.