Cape Cod Fishing Report- October 20, 2022

(Above) Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters found quality bluefish around Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard this week.

It started very subtle. The faint and scattered popping noises sounded like car tires rolling slowly over a pebbly dirt road. My tired brain—which was yet to receive its daily dose of caffeine—didn’t immediately realize what was happening. The popping grew louder, and as I turned to investigate, explosions of white water drifted down the canal right in front of where I had entered. The sun wouldn’t rise for the next 10- to 15-minutes, and the tide was about to switch. Time was running out. Cold and tired after two hours of fishless jigging, I quickly switched to a Super Strike little neck popper. I cast into the wind, and before I could reel in the slack from the bow in my line, I was tight to a decent striped bass.

It was almost as if the plug landed in the mouth of this fish. The bass cartwheeled out of the water the instant my lure splashed down, and I quickly brought in the 28-inch striper. It shimmered in the morning light, reflecting the distinct blue/purple hue that migrating striped bass seem to take on each autumn.

I revived the fish, and watched it kick off into the dark water of the ditch. Next cast, fish again. And again. I stumbled along the rip rap, chasing the fast-moving surface feed and casting as I went. Schoolie and low-slot bass came on every cast for about 15 minutes, then, just as suspected, the tide slacked, the sun rose from behind the trees, and the bite ceased. By this time, I was shoulder to shoulder with other anglers, and I took one final cast to a patch of nervous water while others cast right over it. A small but rambunctious schoolie blew the plug out of the water, then came back for it with a vengeance. After a quick release, I headed back to the car to get ready for work.

That type of topwater fishing is fast-paced and exciting, but I must say, the handling of these schoolie bass that I’ve recently witnessed is despicable. Grown men de-hooking fish and tossing them head-first into shallow puddles along the rocks was far too common. I saw it to my left and to my right from anglers dressed in waders… Are the waders for show? If we can’t get into the water to land and release these fish, move elsewhere, or don’t fish the canal. It’s ironic to see anglers who clearly enjoy these fish so blatantly disrespect younger bass. Sure, they’re a resilient species; but it’s the same anglers who toss them back headfirst from the dry rocks that mutter, “Well I haven’t seen a blitz like that in a while”. It’s no surprise. The coastal stock numbers will continue to dwindle if this is how we release fish. As the Fall Run winds down, please take time to let them swim off when they’re ready.

None of us are saints. For example, I probably should have left the belly treble hook at home. But treating each fish with a bit more respect and care upon landing them is not much to ask.

Sunday afternoon of this weekend was spent a bit differently. I hadn’t fished in a couple days, so I picked up my freshwater rod, some spoons and micro-poppers, and did a bit of local pond hopping. The shorelines of the larger ponds were dotted with bass boats. From what I could tell, it was a slow day. The sun was out and the water was crystal clear. I tend to struggle to catch when water clarity and visibility are high, and based on the amount of cruising around that I saw from the bass boats, they were experiencing a similar struggle. I tried flies, kastmasters, paddletails, jerkbaits and ned rigs to no avail. But when I tied on the micro-popper, it awoke the smallies that had kept a low profile until the surface splashing began. A couple decent bronzebacks later, the bite stopped, so I moved ponds.

The second smaller, swampier pond was quiet. I was the only angler there, and I enjoyed a solid hour or two of topwater pickerel action. Throwing the same popper into shallow and sunny windblown corners of the pond revealed seemingly endless numbers of 10- to 18-inch pickerel. When the popper hit the water, the pickerel would immediately give chase and I could see the V-shaped wake approach my popper. They’re such aggressive and exciting fish when they grow bigger than 20-inches, however, no giants came out to play.

For now, sunrise and sunset seem to be the most productive times of day to fish for striped bass. If you’re fishing mid-day, tautog are biting well and there may be some albies still lingering; so keep a rod or two rigged with albie lures while dropping jigs for crab-crushers.

Like many of us, I’m hoping for another solid wave of striped bass to push through our area. The fish are scattered, and my night surfcasting endeavors have grown significantly slower and less productive, which is what’s driving me to the Canal in the early hours.

Another, more frequent visitor of the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports:

“Fall fishing continues to be fantastic in the Canal. Josh Douglas of Woonsocket, RI caught a half dozen high end slots on a white FishLab during an early morning east tide at Pip’s Rip. Kenny Nevins from Sagamore Beach had a nice 2 day run bringing 26 fish to the rocks at pole 80 and Pip’s Rip. Legendary surfcaster Charlie Murphy of Mass Bass fame watched a guy with a fish on at Pip’s Rip that was fighting so hard it was pulling the angler forward so the Houghs Neck resident immediately thought that the fisherman should loosen his drag. The fish was foul hooked, but it would have been a terrific battle anyway as Charlie saw the fish on the Boga and heard somebody yell “43”! Tim “Hollywood” Petracca of Bourne, Paul “The Painter” Gravina of Sandwich,  “Mashpee Mike” LaRaia and Pocasset’s Bill “On the Grill” Prodouz all registered double digit catches on an early east tide. The fish were all different sizes with “Mashpee Mike” taking top honors with a 40 inch linesider. White was the magic color with the Guppy 3 ounce Jobo, Jr. performing well during the 2 hour topwater bite. A few days later “Hollywood” had his green mack Northbar working on a half dozen fish including 2 slots on the west rising tide.”

Devin Acton’s The Weekly Salvage provided some insight into the happenings offshore as bluefin tuna season steadily slows:

“Stop me if you’ve heard this gem before…”that’s why they call it fishing, not catching!” It’s a mean-reversion long overdue, but sadly yes, tuna fishing is tuna fishing again off Cape Cod. Gone are the mornings of steaming out to Regal without any apprehension (or any bait) knowing you’re gonna get 3-4 ‘at-bats’ before the 11am Coors Light / Snickers picnic. Also gone are the slicked-out sunrises, bow pointed at a horizon with more humpback smokestacks than Juul puffs at a Travis Scott concert. But alas, what are we going to do? Take up golf?! There’s still more than a few giants kicking around the backside (though the wagon has seemed more productive), and pockets of rec fish continue to pop up every few days from the ‘comber to crab. The timeless choices present themselves a) rot away with the fleet of autumn pirates munching Stop & Shop’s finest pre-mades or b) burn hella gas and hope to be the report. Either way, we’re heading towards the post-season of the BFT season, so any bite from here out might just be your last…make it count.”

• Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Cape Cod and the Islands!

A.J. at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay reports:

“We’re having a hell of a Fall Run in the Canal after a really slow summer, so it’s great to see so much life down there. Silversides are in close to the rocks along with the schools of peanut bunker, and the bass haven’t been shy about coming shallow to get them. At the East End you’re more likely to find fish busting on mackerel in the middle of the Canal, so heavier, long-casting topwaters go a long way up there. Not many blues remain in the Canal, but the ones that are sticking around are usually in the double digit weight class, including a 37-incher that was caught this week. Tog are around but wind has been limiting fishing this week. Just-barely keepers are coming up from shallow areas of 30 feet or so with some limits here and there, but if you’re looking for larger fish, target big rocks in 50- to 60-foot depths. We’re selling plenty of crabs, so that means that there’s good fishing to be had.”

Macos Bait and Tackle in Buzzards Bay reports:

“Stripers and tautog are keeping guys entertained this week. There are three schools of bass coming and going from the Canal: schoolies, keepers and giants. The morning bite will find schoolies at the West End, while slots and bigger bass are coming further up toward the bridges for anglers throwing jigs. Be sure to keep some topwaters if you’re fishing the West End. We haven’t had any reports of bluefish out there as of late. The same goes for albies; they seem to have moved out. Tautog are biting well in Buzzards Bay though, so a lot of anglers are shifting focus as that bite picks up. ”

Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis reports:

“There are still stripers on the south side of Cape and in Cape Cod Bay, but they seem concentrated to backwaters, mostly. There’s a good mix of slot fish and schoolies out there. One of our summer staff won 1st place in the Derby this weekend, so there is also some quality fishing out in Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds on account of the loads of peanut bunker; there are even some schools of adult bunker around. We’ve also received reports of hickory shad out in the Sound, with one customer saying he caught a handful using resin jigs. Albies may be kicking around out near the Islands, but out this way it has been quiet as they’ve likely moved o for the year. Tautog fishing has been decent with a balance of shorts and keepers out in the Sound, but it sounds like there is also some good tog fishing up in Buzzards Bay in deeper water.”

Captain Ross of Cape Cod Charter Guys in Bourne reports:

“We got some stripers and albies, including some slot bass on our recent trips. We had to track albies further than usual to catch the action though. The recent wind and rain has changed their path and they’re only getting further now, so we may have seen the last of them. On the Canal, the East End had a big topwater feed today from some decent stripers, so there’s plenty of fish still around for us. We haven’t gotten out for tog recently because the weather hasn’t really cooperated, but we have some good weather windows this weekend. As we transition into the late fall, we’re hoping to get into some stripers up in Cape Cod Bay, but we’d also love to put people on some blackfish with these new Game On tog jigs and finish out the season strong!” Call Captain Ross to book (509)993-8981 or go to capecodcharterguys.com for more information.

Fishsticks Charters in Martha’s Vineyard reports:

“Having had an excellent trip out off Nantucket a few weeks ago, I decided to make the run again on Saturday, the last day of the Derby. The weather was fine, but the fishing was underwhelming. Hans and Jacob Riis and I each caught a big bluefish for the last weigh-in of the Derby, but that was it. We saw some albies breaking at one point, but could not get them to bite. Worst part was that when we got back to the dock, we heard about an epic bluefish blitz that had gone off much closer to home while we were way over off Nantucket. That’s fishing. Hoping for a replay of that blitz today, I returned to the scene with Nick and Melissa Biondi. It wasn’t a blitz, but we did hook a few fish and landed one very big bluefish. Now that the Derby is behind us, I’m going to be focused on tog fishing for the rest of the season.”

• Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Cape Cod and the Islands!

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

The forecast—at least on the weather front— is looking grim for the coming week. While that’s always subject to change, it looks like we are scheduled to receive some high winds and rainstorms for a majority of the week beginning this Sunday.

Fishing for striped bass in crummy weather is usually rather productive in my experience. Recently though, that has not been the case. Some nights it’s lightning that sends me running for cover in the rain. Fishing into the wind has caught me more clumps of seaweed and mung than I care to admit, and the one or two skunk-breaking schoolies are not enough to keep me out there all night. At this point in the season, we should all be chomping at the bit to get out there when conditions permit.

Tautog fishing has been great in Buzzards Bay around Cleveland Ledge and around the Elizabeth Islands. There’s plenty of short action, which is fun at first, but the keepers are there with them so it leads to lots of hopeful hook re-baiting. Start looking deeper for keeper tog as the air and water temperatures continue to drop.

Bluefish seem to be sticking around in Vineyard and Nantucket Sound’s, though there is no telling when these unpredictable choppers will decide it’s time to head south. There are a few still in the Canal. I lost an Al Gags green mack paddletail to one earlier this week, but never saw the fish. Best to try jigging around the East and West ends where they seem to concentrate.

Sunrise and sunset are the prime time for topwater bass at the Canal, but larger fish are being taken at all times of day during the right tides, as evidenced by East End Eddie and friends. All of my successful outings over the past week have been on a West tide.

The Outer Cape beaches have been quiet. I’d like to make one more trek out there to fish the surf, so maybe I’ll sneak out there one night this coming week. Otherwise, the backwaters and rivers will soon be the most reliable place to target any lingering stripers.

Use the brief windows of weather and calm seas to get offshore if you have the ability to do so. It sounds like the tuna season won’t last much longer; although after a stellar season of bluefin fishing, there’s no telling when that bite will come to a close.

Soon schoolie bass and tautog will be the only remaining targets. Make the most of your salty endeavors while you can.

Have fun, be safe, respect each other, respect your catch and fish hard.

Catch you next Thursday!