Cape Cod Fishing Report- October 27, 2022

The wind is picking up, the water is getting cold, and schools of bait are becoming harder to locate. It’s been a slower week for striped bass fishing overall, although this morning saw some spectacular fall run feeds. OTW’s Tommy Reilly and I got out on the kayaks this morning and enjoyed some seriously fun topwater action. The fish were small for the most part, though there were a few fish in the mid- to high-twenty inch ranges. Birds were everywhere and the primary bait were dense schools of silversides that packed the water column from top to bottom.

It’s hard not to smile when your topwater plug is launched from the surface by an overzealous bass, but it was a bittersweet outing. Save the fact that I dropped a favorite rod of mine into the water, which promptly sank, the stripers have been getting noticeably smaller. Although it’s expected, I always feel this sense of emptiness begin to creep in when it becomes clear that stripers are on their way out. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of good fall run fishing left, but feeds like the ones Tommy and I witnessed this morning will quickly disappear over the coming weeks.

The night bite, on the other hand, has been difficult to say the least. Up until last night I struggled to find much more than a schoolie each night, if I was lucky. I’m also stubborn, so as much as I’d like to throw eels and potentially find some larger fish, I am pretty adamant about using artificial lures. I guess I’m my own worst enemy. Maybe that will change over the course of this week.

That being said, I did catch a decent 28-inch striper last night while throwing plugs around the south side of Cape. Jim Fee, who fished next to me, was throwing eels and although he hooked up a few more times than I did, the fish were small. That’s the trend this time of year. Even small schoolies will take a larger eel or plug sometimes. The fish I landed clobbered a green mackerel 17F Daiwa SP Minnow. I have caught some 15- to 20-pounders on that plug in that color, specifically, so I always make sure to dress it with single inline hooks. The last thing anyone wants is to fight a fish from the rocks, and have it thrashing around on trebles as you try to land it. Protect the fish and protect yourself by switching to single hooks when it makes sense to do so. At the very least, crush the barbs on the treble hooks.

I haven’t been down to the Canal in 5 days or so, but it sounds like things are just as I left them. Fish are on top in the morning, and even the larger over-slot class of fish are coming up to play recently. To give you a better idea of what the ditch looked like this week, here is East End Eddie Doherty’s report:

“Peanut bunker continue to provide forage for hungry striped bass and bluefish from one end of the Canal to the other. Bourne resident John Doble was in the east end crowd reeling in quite a few fish with his white FishLab, some slots but mostly shorts and Bill Jenkinson from Taunton had a 32 inch to his credit with a bone colored Rocket. Mike Allaire from Norfolk and Wareham’s Vinny Rosata got into some subsurface action on the State Fish Pier with about a dozen stripers including a slot on the west tide. Scott Ewell from Montague didn’t connect notwithstanding large surface breaks until he switched over to a single hook silver Kastmaster that was eaten by 4 fish including a heavy 37 inch linesider toward mid Canal. Tim “Hollywood” Petracca of Bourne landed a 36 inch on a 3 ounce white Guppy Jobo, Jr. by riding his lure over the crest of the boat waves near the Bourne Bridge.

Roslindale’s Bill Walsh and his friend Joe “The Reel” McCoy from North Providence were successful on some topwater action with white Cotton Cordells. Bill landed 11 slots and “The Reel” McCoy caught 4 fish on his first 4 casts as well as a 40 inch the week before on the same day that he had an even bigger fish stolen by a seal! Eddie Lill from Framingham and I both landed 30 inch stripers, mine on a 3 ounce green mack Guppy Jobo, Jr. and his with a white Super Strike. Eddie was with his fishing companion, a beautiful 52 pound rescue dog named Kira, who is so strong that she runs on her leash ahead of Eddie’s bike and actually pulls him along the service road to his spot! Then Eddie secures the powerful pointer’s leash to a stake next to the road so she can watch him casting at the water below. As soon as Eddie caught that fish Kira excitedly jumped up down while barking to announce that her master had landed a linesider!”

Connor at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay reports:

“Fishing has been really good in the Canal. Jigging and topwater plugs are getting the job done. I was slow rolling little 3-ounce jigs this morning, and lost count of the amount of fish. Sunrise saw schoolies to 24-inches, slots came off the bottom to start feeding on top shortly after, and then 35- to 40-inch fish were feeding heavily around 8 a.m. The primary colors were yellow and white, but they were hitting basically anything that moved. Small butterfish and mackerel were the main dishes for breakfast this morning.”

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

Cape Cod Charter Guys in Bourne reports that they’ve seen some good albie fishing this season, but the fish have finally pushed West to the point of no return (until next year). They found a couple recently but it was hard work as the fish were on the move. This season saw some of the best fishing in the past ten years! We can’t thank everyone enough for joining us on all those adventures. This is the last week to book a charter this year; here’s to a strong finish on the season!

Maco’s Bait and Tackle in Buzzards Bay reports:

“The Canal is the place to be this week. Guys are killing tautog out there right now and there are slots coming from the East End in the morning. Topwater is the key at first light but as the fish go down, white and mackerel colored jigs are catching fish to 40-inches plus.”

Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis reports:

“Customers of ours have been fishing Cape Cod Bay and getting lots of schoolies recently. Most of the fish are in the 20- to 26-inch range. Togging is good out in Vineyard Sound and to the east around the Elizabeths, so we’re selling tons of green crabs still. Some customers have made the switch to freshwater already though; we got some decent reports of rainbow trout biting gold spoons and Rapalas in the local ponds, although there don’t seem to be any other species stocked just yet.”

Fishsticks Charters on Martha’s Vineyard reports:

“David Amaral and I took advantage of the beautiful weather on Saturday to get out tautog fishing. Action was steady all morning, and we culled a limit of 16″ to 18” keepers from a whole lot of smaller tog and black sea bass. I’ll be taking tog charters as long as the weather holds out.”

• 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 weather is changing, slowly but surely. The water felt borderline icy this morning when I was putting the kayak in, but there are still a lot of schoolie bass around the Cape keyed in on various types of bait depending on where you fish. On the south side, silversides and bay anchovies seem to be the main forage as of late. In the Canal, mackerel and butterfish are filling the stomachs of stripers as they gorge in preparation for a long journey south. During the day, matching the hatch will prove beneficial, but during low light hours around sunrise and sunset when the bass are most heavily feeding, they tend to be a little less picky.

I may be crazy, but I think I want to make an attempt at toggin’ in the Canal. They are such strong, tasty fish, and I seldom ever get the chance to target them from land. Not only that, but they’re remarkably strong fish, and fighting a keeper tog or larger from the current of the big ditch would make for an extra exciting battle.

Freshwater fishing is fantastic right now. Largemouth bass and pickerel are biting well during the day, and the big larrys come out to play at night. I’ll be giving my local ponds some attention over the next week or so for sure. Wake baits, poppers, small spooks, swimbaits and spoons are my lures of choice this time of year. But when it comes to trout, kastmasters are just about all I throw. Something about trying to catch trout with small jerkbaits and minnow lures seems like cheating; it’s probably the unnecessary dual treble hooks, but that’s easily fixed.

There is plenty of good fishing to be had by anglers willing to change up the usual game plan. Tog and stripers together in the Canal can make for a fun trip if you bring gear for both. The same can be said about freshwater lakes and ponds; bring a couple different setups with a variety of lures and enjoy the fruits of freshwater, whether they were stocked or not.

I can’t believe we’ve reached the end of October. August felt like yesterday. It will only be a few more weeks until the bass have moved out almost completely, so make the most of each day spent out there. Whatever you choose to fish for this week, stay safe, respect each other, respect the outdoors and fish hard.

Catch you next Thursday.