Cape Cod Fishing Report - August 26, 2021

Above: A Cape Cod albie caught on August 24. 

False albacore have entered the chat.

There were some albie reports from Nantucket and the Vineyard just before Henri moved through, but on the first fishable day afterward, I heard from my friend, and avid albie fisherman, Jonah Olsen that the albies had arrived on this side of the Cape. Though I had to pry it out of him, Jonah was kind enough to point me in the right direction on Tuesday, when I was able to catch my first of the season. I owe him a gift basket.

After making the report calls on Thursday, sounds like the albies are pretty well widespread, are running large, and have been maddeningly picky at times.

I saw some very picky albies on Wednesday, while fishing with OTW Publisher Chris Megan.  We put some perfect casts into raging feeds, and only managed to stick one. I credit that with the calm conditions. In choppier water, albies don’t get as good a look at the lures and are more likely to make a mistake. Boat traffic can be another factor in albies being picky or skittish. The good news is, there seem to be a lot of options for fishermen willing to leave the fleets at the more popular locations to hunt down some less pressured schools.

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle caught albies in a couple locations along the Cape Cod South Side on Wednesday and Thursday, and said the best fishing seemed to be a moving target. The schools of albies he found around Falmouth on Wednesday seemed to shift east by Thursday. By Friday, it’s a fair bet they’ll move again.

Chris at Red Top heard reports of good albie action along the Elizabeth Islands as well. Peter at Larry’s Tackle said Vineyard Haven to Edgartown has albies (but that he hadn’t seen any off Chappy yet), and reports suggest that Nantucket is well stocked for anglers willing to make a longer run.

According to Evan, the fish seem to be biting better later in the morning than they are right at first light.

Small peanut bunker, a little bigger than thumbnail-sized, seem to be the bait du juor for the albies. Albies on these peanuts can be picky, but not nearly as picky as they can be when feeding on what I’ve heard called “snot bait,” the nearly microscopic baby bay anchovies that albies practically filter feed upon.

The water around the Cape is extremely warm right now. In Vineyard Sound, it seemed to be approaching bathwater levels. Even off the Outer Cape, fishermen were seeing temperatures in the low 70s. This translates into slower striper fishing for the most part. The Canal was slower this week, said Chris from Red Top. He suspects the stripers retreated to cooler deeper waters, and thinks the good fishing will come raging back when water temperatures begin to drop. He had heard of some decent action with schoolies and slot size bass in Buzzards Bay.

Jeff at Canal Bait and Tackle said there’s blues and some decent bass still in the Canal, with jigs and bait working best.

Evan at Eastman’s said the Elizabeths continue to produce stripers on eels, and he’d heard of a 32-incher taken there this week. He even heard of a full-on bass and bluefish blitz around Quicks Hole. A fishermen looking for albies saw the surface commotion, and motored in, only to discover it was schoolie stripers and bluefish.

All the small peanut bunker around are promising for the fun light tackle striper fishing, especially from shore along the South Side and the Cape Cod Bay beaches. Though the peanuts are small now, by October, some will be approaching 5 inches, and by then some larger stripers will begin to take notice.

For now, though, the bigger bass are focused on mackerel and sand eels primarily, and those baits can be found in Cape Cod Bay and off the Outer Cape. Captain Bobby Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters has been posting some fun fishing for slot-size (and larger) stripers off the Outer Cape, including some on topwater.

Bluefish are being caught in good numbers in Nantucket Sound, reported Morgan from Sports Port Bait and Tackle. She also said the rocky areas of the sound are holding sea bass, and that there are plenty of porgies around.

Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters continues to find good bluefish action with light tackle around Martha’s Vineyard and Noman’s Island. He also boated the first albie of the season. In fact, Kurt said it was a week of firsts for his charters, with Josephine Gilmartin catching her first bluefish and Mark McDougall landing his first albie and first bluefish.

Tuna fishing is going strong. There seem to be plenty of giant-size fish east of the Cape, with improving reports of recreational-size fish. The fishing for the 40- to 60-inch tuna around the Cape should improve as we move into September.

Fishing Forecast for Cape Cod

It’s bound to be crowded on the albie grounds this weekend. There have already been a few flareups on social media about the crowds. As I mentioned in the report, the albies are pretty spread out, so don’t feel like you need to stay in the fleet to get shots. And, use common sense when approaching a school of albies – be aware of the boats around you. When a fleet of boats works together and everybody gets casts into the fish, it’s a beautiful thing.

The bonito are still kicking around the Hooter, and odds are, with the albies in, you won’t have as much competition for them. Scaling down your tackle and looking for some schoolies blitzing on peanut bunker around the outflows is a good bet for some late-summer fun as well.