Cape Cod Fishing Report - November 7, 2019

For the first time in several months, striped bass were hardly mentioned during my calls around the shops this week.

Red Top Sporting Goods reported of schoolies in the Canal, and other reports of schoolies mentioned Buzzards Bay, the South Side, and Martha’s Vineyard.

Tog fishing is still great, but its past the peak said Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle. The snags in Buzzards Bay and around the Vineyard are producing keepers for boat fishermen, while shore casters have been scratching up the occasional keeper in the Canal, according to the report from Sports Port.

I did some tog fishing out of Newport with Captain Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters on Monday. Down there, tog fishing is fired up. We filled a boat limit in short order and spent the rest of the day catching releasing tog as large as 11 pounds.

Fishermen on the Cape may be able to find similar action around Noman’s Island, which is beyond the range of most tog fishermen not departing from the Vineyard. Tog are homebodies, not straying far from their structures throughout the season, so the spots that see fewer fishermen have greater odds of growing big tog.

While the water temperatures are still on the warm side, there’s cold-weather coming, and that’s likely to start cooling the ocean down. In response to the colder water, tog will begin moving deeper. While 15 to 25 feet were the prime depths for late October, by next week, you may need to be anchoring over structures in 50 to 60 feet to find your keepers.

Trout fishing is on fire. All the shops agreed. The hot baits, according to Sports Port have been spinners, metals, worms, and garlic-scented PowerBait. Rainbows are biting well by day, and the big browns are feeding after dark.

I’ve also been fishing for largemouths this week, using large live shiners under a float. The fishing has been good, with most shiners swimming for only a few minutes before being eaten. My biggest bass this week was in the 4-pound range, with a few small fish robbing me of my painstakingly procured baits.

Smallmouth will be moving deeper in response to the cooling pond temperatures, but they are still shallow enough to target with jerkbaits and swimbaits. In a few weeks, they’ll set up shop on deepwater structure where blade baits and drop shot rigs will be the key to catching.

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod

Unless you’re targeting tog, it’s about that time of year to switch back to freshwater. Trout fishing is on fire right now, and there have even been hatches happening with good numbers of trout feeding on the surface. You can catch the trout day or night. Largemouth fishing is best during the day, though I haven’t spent much time targeting them in the dark this time of year.

But, if you haven’t had your fill of striper fishing yet, there are definitely some schoolies still around. Scale down your tackle and cover ground in the evenings, early mornings, and at night.