Cape Cod Fishing Report- November 9, 2023

Cape Cod Fishing Report

It’s getting quiet out there. Quiet and cold. The schools of bait that were piled into our harbors and rivers over the past several weeks have significantly thinned out, and most of the baitfish remaining—at least on the south side–are minuscule. For striped bass anglers, it’s most definitely teaser season.

While the south side has small bait, and plenty of schoolie bass to go around, Cape Cod Bay has seen an influx of southbound bunker since last week. With the help of some shifty northeast/northwest winds, scattered pods of pogies made their way deep into the bay. After I received word of pogies in a couple of the harbors on Cape Cod Bay, OTW’s Matt Foley and Andy Nabreski witnessed a large flock of gannets just off of Sandy Neck on Tuesday—a beacon of hope for late-season surfcasters, and for boat fishermen who have yet to pull their vessels for the winter. As we’ll hear from Sports Port in Hyannis, those gannets could have also been diving on blueback herring. The million-dollar question is: which way will those fish be heading? Will they make a break for the Canal, or head for the outer Cape beaches? The only way to find out is to get out and fish. The weekend forecast looks cold, but clear and cloudless with northwest winds—a blessing after the month of poor conditions we had throughout October.

Back on the south side, gulls and terns will guide you to the fish. The schoolies have been tight to shore for the most part. At times, they’re about as close as they can get without beaching themselves. In hindsight, I wish I had brought out my fly rod a couple of times. I chased small flocks of birds down an empty south side beach earlier this week and the bass were boiling on the shallow beach lip right beneath the wave break. Long casts weren’t needed, nor was my 10-foot surf rod. This time of year I keep a 7-foot rod in the car for these exact moments; a backhanded pitch of the Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow about 10 feet from land duped one 18-inch striper, then another, and another. Eventually, the bass caught wind of my presence and stopped taking the 5-inch topwater, so I tied a dropper loop and added a SPRO bucktail teaser from the pouch in my waders and proceeded to catch a few more before the action ceased. If I had a few small metals or epoxy jigs on me, the action may have continued.

It’s still worth fishing “out front” despite the diminishing presence of bait. You might intercept a group of migratory schoolies, or better yet, some big, late season migrators. OTW’s Robbie Tartaglia found bass blitzing beneath birds in Buzzards Bay (quite an alliteration) on a Wednesday morning tautog trip that turned into a striper outing. Robbie said the fish were piled up around rocky structure adjacent to an inlet, and the bass were willing to take topwater plugs in the choppy conditions as a result of a stiff west wind. The inlets to harbors and salt ponds remain the most likely locations to find activity, especially if you time your outings around first light and sunrise. Bass can also be found in the salt marshes and salt ponds, which is where I had some good first-light topwater action with my buddy Hunter Thayer on Saturday. Topwater brought us a handful of fish around sunrise in the marsh before the action died off the higher the sun rose. Those backwater bass are most likely hunkering down for the winter, and they were clearly feeding on mudminnows (killifish), which we could see tight to the marsh grasses and trapped in some of the tide pools. If they’re not taking topwater, slow rolling soft plastics like the 3-inch NLBN paddletails or a 4-inch Al Gags Whip-It Fish should do the trick. Further east, my buddy Ryan has been on a bunch of mid-20-inch fish in his backyard salt pond that were willing to take 3- to 4-inch paddletails.

With young-of-year herring still exiting our freshwater ponds, the river mouths and estuaries that empty into the back bays and harbors should continue to see some decent striper activity too. Those herring are still being chased down in some of the ponds though, where trout, perch, bass and pickerel are fattening up for winter. As a result, freshwater fishing has been great recently in those herring run ponds. Small metals continue to bring recently-stocked rainbow trout into shallow water on the ponds I’ve been fishing, and they too are most actively feeding in the morning around sunrise.

And while freshwater is a great fall-back plan for unproductive salt outings, there’s some stellar tautog fishing going on right now in our local waters. Buzzards Bay is certainly the hot spot, with Cleveland Ledge and the Elizabeths being two general areas worthy of focused effort. Due to dropping water temperature, the bite has definitely transitioned to deeper water of 60 feet or more, but if you find a shallow a rock pile that’s loaded with shorts and no other boats it’s worth picking away at them for a bit in search of a couple keepers. I spent this morning fishing for tautog in 60 feet of water with Captain Harvey Russell of My Brother Charters out of Falmouth. We anchored over a wreck and picked away at a mix of short fish and keepers on green-crab baited rigs until the tide slowed, which allowed us to switch to jigs. For the next hour we caught keepers to 7 or 8 pounds before reaching our boat limit. Jigs were responsible for most of the larger fish, although Joe, Harvey’s mate and captain, managed to pull in a few big ones using a snafu rig. We also caught and released some jumbo sea bass in between our keeper tog.

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said there is still some decent topwater bass action in the Canal around first light, but the bite window is quick. His coworker, Bull, caught 7 fish between 7 and 8 a.m. yesterday with the biggest of the bunch at 22 pounds. Super Strike poppers and pencils have been getting the job done. Down in Buzzards Bay, Connor said the tog fishing has been very good. Another shop employee, George, was out earlier this week getting fish up to 24 inches on green-crab-baited jigs and rigs. And while the tautog fishing has been fantastic, the bass bite in Buzzards is quiet, but they’re around. Much like the Canal, that hour or two from first light to sunrise is the most productive window to find fish (unless you’re fishing at night), and diving birds are leading the way to spotty surface feeds.

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said that things are definitely slowing down, but there are still bass, and even bluefish to be caught. One of his customers caught around 6 or 7 blues and a bunch of schoolie stripers out near Mashpee, while another customer caught a 40-inch bass on a paddletail in Woods Hole. The tautog fishing has been good when the wind lays down enough to get out. On the freshwater side of things, Evan sold a dozen shiners this weekend but most people are either not willing to call it quits in the salt yet, or are taking a breather between fall run fishing and “trout season”.

Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis reported that one of their customers caught a couple albies over the weekend, but all of the south facing beaches around Hyannis have been very quiet recently with little to no bird activity. He did say that there are still a lot of schoolie bass around though, particularly in the salt ponds and in the rivers. Christian is not throwing in the towel on the striper season jut yet though; he is anticipating a push of blueback herring that could bring some big bass into the surf around Cape Cod over the next week or two. There are still over-slot stripers up near Boston, and with the rapidly dropping temperatures, he thinks those blueback herring could fuel that last leg of the fall run on Cape Cod with the chance for some big bass at the buzzer.

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

Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters hasn’t been out this week as he’s been focused on school and deer hunting, but he’s going tog fishing on Sunday off the south coast and aiming to fish deep. His reasoning is that the deeper water (around 60-80 feet) tends to hold the better fish this late in the season, and even though the water temperatures are still hovering in the high 40s, he expects to find more keepers and fewer shorts around deeper wrecks and rock piles. He’ll be tog fishing until December 1 rolls around, and then he’ll be going out for giant bluefin around Stellwagen once the commercial season reopens. Reach out to book a tog trip while the fishing is good!

Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro told me that they took advantage of a few more calm days on Cape Cod to hit the local kettle ponds to catch some big largemouth bass. Elena said the water was so clear you could see the bass follow and strike your lure. The Reel Deal crew had one more day on the striper grounds and found the fish were still hitting vertical jigs. They also found a few more keeper tautog on green crabs in shallow water. Captain Elena said: “Our fishing charter season has come to an end for 2023 and a huge thank you to all our customers and sponsors for an amazing season!” Check out their website and start mapping out your dates for 2024.

Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters on Martha’s Vineyard told me that his season is winding down, but he and Blue Cullen took advantage of the beautiful weather on Sunday to go tog fishing. They hit a few rockpiles along Naushon Island to start, but he thinks they started fishing too deep. The water temperatures are still fairly high by November standards, so they moved in shallow and started picking away at fish between 5 and 25 feet of water as opposed to 30 and 40 feet where they started off. They caught 4 keepers to 18 inches and a ton of shorts, as well as as handful of sea bass that were destined for release. Captain Kurt is hoping for a good weather window to end the week with his Friday charter, which may move to Saturday (depending on conditions). Call Kurt to get in on some tog fishing before he calls it quits for 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 weekend could bring some great fishing for stripers in the rivers and the ponds, and if those bunker (and possibly herring) make their way through the Canal or around Provincetown, expect big bass to be close behind. Worst case scenario, the surf remains quiet, but the bass in the marshes, rivers and ponds are still willing to play ball.

Even with the potential for some larger bass this late in the season, the best bet for anglers looking to bend a rod this weekend will be tautog fishing. There’s decent action just about anywhere between Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound, with the Elizabeth Islands being the hot spot in the middle. If you find yourself pulling up a ton of shorts, wait for the current to die down or try another spot. Tog are chewing good.

In the freshwater ponds, bass and trout are out and about, and a sunny weekend forecast should drive largemouth to feed along shallow flats and drop-offs. This is the time of year that chain pickerel become more active too, so boost your leader material if you plan to fish for bass in ponds that hold pickerel.

Best of luck this weekend. Stay warm out there, and thanks for reading.