Cape Cod Fishing Report - June 4, 2020

Above: Kevin Blinkoff with a 35-inch bluefish taken this week. Fishing for blues has been pretty good this season. 

The big bass are here, but not in tremendous numbers just yet. There were a few reports of large stripers hounding schools of bunker, but given the bumper crop of bunker in Buzzards Bay and off the South Side right now, fishermen need to work through several schools of baitfish to find the ones holding the bass.

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle reported fish as large as 40 pounds being caught around the schools of bunker, but his source didn’t divulge even a general area of the catch. Evan also reported that “slot-sized fish,” those that fall into the 28- to 35-inch keeper size, are around in good numbers off Falmouth, more so than in the past few seasons. Fishermen jigging wire line are catching these bass on the Vineyard Sound Rips. Also in the rips, are plenty of aggressive schoolies that are willing to take topwater and soft plastics.

Evan reported bluefish mixed in with the stripers, both off the South Side and throughout Buzzards Bay. Some have even been within casting range of shore at old favorite bluefish haunts like South Cape Beach.

While most of the blues are 3- to 6-pounders, there are some big ones around as well. OTW’s Kevin Blinkoff caught a 35-inch bluefish while kayak fishing in Buzzards Bay this week. That fish took a Z-Man soft-plastic paddle tail. Z-Man is one of a handful of companies making super-tough soft baits that can withstand a bluefish’s teeth. Another one is Hyperlastics from A Band of Anglers. While most of the time, blues respond just fine to topwater plugs or metals, sometimes, when over shallow, sandy bottoms, they can get pretty finicky, and will only respond to soft-plastics.

The blues I caught this week were all on poppers, and one evening, when the bite went cold on the topwaters, Kevin Blinkoff, who was fishing with me, clipped on a metal spoon. He proceeded to catch blues every cast, while my poppers were ignored. Unfortunately for me, Kevin only claimed to have only the one spoon. I’ll be resuming my hunt for blues with plenty of metals in my plug bag this evening.

Captain Mel True of Fishnet Charters reported that Buzzards Bay is laded with sea bass. The black sea bass fishing is excellent, and seems to be reaching its peak, and large numbers of the big, humphead sea bass are being caught in both Buzzards Bay and the structures off the South Side. The largest we heard of was a 5-pound sea bass weighed in at Red Top this week.

According to Matt at Maco’s Bait and Tackle, bucktail jigs are the lure of choice, though fishermen can’t go wrong with a squid-baited high-low rig either.

Striper fishing is picking up in Cape Cod Bay, as Captain Mel True reported fun topwater fishing with schoolies to 33-inch fish this week. The beaches of Cape Cod Bay are producing for fly and surf-fishermen. Topwaters and sand-eel imitations are catching.

According to the crew at Red Top, there have been more 30- to 34-inch stripers in the Canal, but as of Thursday afternoon, no big pushes of big fish have moved through. With Friday’s full moon, it’s just a matter of time, or rather, tide. It sounds like an early wake up is the ticket at the moment. Fishermen I talked to who arrived at the Canal just after sunrise this week were already too late. That should change, as the tide turn moves closer to dawn.

In addition to the black sea bass, a few keeper-sized fluke are being caught by fishermen bouncing jigs. My co-worker Anthony DeiCicchi added a bonus fluke to his sea bass limit while playing hooky on Thursday morning.

On Martha’s Vineyard, the fishing is still excellent, according to Peter at Larry’s Tackle, and while he’s heard of no very large stripers, he said there were more fish in the slot size this week. The bass, he said seem to be moving out of the ponds, and are feeding along the open beaches on the north and south sides of the island. Bluefish continue to mix in, but Peter was surprised to hear of many blues being caught inside the harbors and ponds. Some are also being caught out front at Middle Ground and Aquinnah. Squid fishing has held up, and the tides are getting even better for that, Peter said. Giant black sea bass continue to be caught, and there was a rumor that a bonito was caught on the Vineyard this week. Lats year, the first confirmed bonito came on June 10, so it wouldn’t surprise me to hear of one being taken. Last year, after the early arrival, ended up being a banner bonito run in August. Perhaps we’ll see a repeat, and with larger bonito in the mix.

The Outer Cape beaches are holding stripers, and fishing after dark is likely to produce larger fish. While the fishing may not be as reliable as the other parts of the Cape, the tradeoff is casting along a pristine beach, often with few other fishermen in sight.

Blackfish limits dropped to 1 this week, Matt at Maco’s reminded me, and he said with that, many fishermen have shifted their focus to other species.

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod

Cape Cod fishermen have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to fishing options this weekend. Stripers of all sizes have the Cape surrounded. The full moon tides should send a run of big bass through the Canal, which will no doubt lead to much improved fishing in Cape Cod Bay. The best topwater fishing of the season happens now, so be sure wherever you fish, boat, beach, or bay, you have a supply of pencils, poppers, and spooks.

The sea bass fishing won’t get much better than it is right now, so head out and enjoy some light-tackle jigging for these great-eating fish.