Cape Cod Fishing Report – May 30, 2019

Pictured Above: A beautiful sea bass from FishStick Charters.

The blues are in—sort of. Many of us are still waiting for the 2018 spring bluefish run to begin, and it seems like there are finally enough bluefish around to target them with a reasonable chance of success.
 
Larry’s Tackle on the Vineyard reported their first bluefish on Monday, and that coincided with an increase in the number of blues on the Cape’s South Side. David from Red Top said he’s been hitting the South Side from shore whenever the south winds ramp up, and he’s been rewarded with bluefish in the 8- to 9-pound range.

Captain Brian of Get Tight Sportfishing had a couple good days targeting bluefish by boat off the South Side. The bite, in the Cotuit area, has been best around high tide, Brian said. The fish, which he was catching on topwater, were also around 8 pounds. Middle Ground and South Cape Beach have had bluefish too, reported Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle.

Buzzards Bay has had some blues as well. The waters off Chapaquoit Beach and West Falmouth Harbor had schools of surface-feeding blues this week said Evan. Those blues were mixed in with schoolie and small keeper bass.

Schoolies still dominate the catches, and most of the shops and captains agreed that Cape Cod is still waiting for big numbers of larger bass. Right now, the big fish have been scattered, and seem to be moving quickly. Captain Brian of Get Tight said there were a couple days of good action in Cape Cod Bay over the past week, though it seems to have fizzled out. David at Red Top had heard of a 30-pound bass, along with many smaller fish, in the mid-Canal on Thursday morning. Fishermen using live bunker in Buzzards Bay have also caught fish into the 30-pound range according to the report from Macos.

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Despite the lack of large fish, there are plenty of fun-size stripers to enjoy.

The salt ponds are loaded with stripers reported Evan at Eastmans. Most are small, but fishermen lingering past sunset have had a better shot at keepers. He’s also been seeing big numbers of very big needlefish swimming around. Saavy surfcasters may want to pack a needlefish plug on their nighttime trips, in case bigger bass are keying in on these long, slender fish.

Captain Mort of Fish Tales Charters echoed the big numbers of schoolies in the bays, but expects more larger fish to be showing up at Shoals.

Captain Taylor of Cape Cod Bay Outfitters is continuing to catch schoolie bass in Cape Cod Bay. Barnstable Harbor also has good numbers of fish, reported Amy at Sports Port.

The shoals of Vineyard Sound are stacking up with stripers said Captain Brian of Get Tight. Captain Kurt of FishSticks Charters said more and larger fish are hitting the rips. Squid patterns have been working best for Captain Brian, and Captain Kurt has been having luck with pink and olive soft plastics, to imitate squid and sand eels, respectively.

The Vineyard Sound shoals have also been holding big numbers of big black sea bass. Captain Kurt notched a 6-pounder this week. Captain Brian reported catching fast, full-boat limits, without keeping any sea bass under 20 inches. Brian successfully targets larger sea bass by dropping 9-inch soft plastics. While smaller sea bass still strike the big bait, they aren’t likely to get the hook.

In Buzzards Bay, where the sea bass fishing last week was “as good as it gets,” according to many fishermen, the fishing has seemed to improve even further, as more large sea bass have moved in reported Captain Matt from Fishy Business Sportfishing.

Fluke season started slow, and besides a 9-pounder caught by Jacob at Red Top while targeting sea bass at Cleveland Ledge, keepers seem tough to come by.

Big sea bass are the most reliable target in Nantucket Sound as well. Captain John of Fish Chatham Charters has been limiting out on sea bass, and then topping off the fish box with large scup. Jigs with Gulp have been working well on the Nantucket Sound sea bass according to Amy at Sports Port.

Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for Cape Cod. 

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod

Enjoy the school-sized and small keepers that we have, but have your big gear ready in case you run into one of the fast-moving small schools of large stripers.

Check the South Side for bluefish, and if you can get on a boat or kayak, hit some structure anywhere from Nantucket Sound to Buzzards Bay for an easy limit of sea bass.