Cape Cod Fishing Report- May 16, 2024

Cape Cod Fishing Report

Well, despite some heavy wind and rain, there’s a lot of good fishing happening all around the Cape this week. And there’s much more to look forward to in the days and weeks to come. Scup fishing is really taking off in Buzzards Bay and in some areas of Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds. And we can’t make mention of Buzzards Bay without talking about black sea bass. The sea bass season officially opens this Saturday, May 18; unfortunately though, the conditions don’t look great, with gusty winds blowing a steady 12 to 15 mph out of the northeast all day. And Sunday doesn’t look much better.

There is a silver lining to the heavy northeast winds, though. Shore and kayak anglers can duck out of the wind on the south side of Cape Cod, where schoolie stripers are being caught on poppers, swim shads and natural baits in the surf. The salt ponds and rivers are still pretty loaded with fish too, and those areas have seen an influx of spearing this week, along with more scattered schools of bunker. Just about every night I fished, there were schools of bunker flipping around on the surface. Part of me thought about bringing a snag hook and keeping some bait for chunking in the surf; that’s not really my thing, but if there were ever a time to sit on some bunker chunks on the south side, it’s now. Our waters are yet to be plagued with dogfish, skates, and other pesky bait stealers, so your odds of hooking a quality bass or bluefish on a mid-size bunker chunk are rather high.

Bluefish are here, but they’re not here in numbers. I’ve been putting in a lot of hours in search of bluefish on the south side, and I keep coming up empty. Granted, it’s still a tad bit early for blues. We know there are some smaller cocktail bluefish that were mixed in with schoolie bass in the surf out near Hyannis, but their larger brethren are yet to show in force. They tend to fill in on the south side of Cape by the last week of May. However, on the western shores of Buzzards Bay and portions of the Cape side closer to the Canal, bluefish are being caught with some regularity now. Striped bass fishermen throwing topwaters and minnow plugs are unexpectedly tying into racer and gator-size bluefish near the river mouths and harbors, where a lot of those scattered bunker schools are moving in and out with the tide. Give it another week and we should be seeing blues in numbers in the surf.

Surprisingly enough, the maddening worm hatches continued this week! After watching bass slurp down worms for the past 10 days, it seemed like they had finally turned on to other food sources. But on Monday, I returned to an area where I’ve been on a pretty reliable bass bite only to find they were back on worms, and this time, the worms were even smaller. It made for some challenging fishing. I threw the bag at them with no results. One angler I spoke to in passing had been throwing a casting bubble and cinder worm fly to no avail. But a surfcasting friend of mine, Nate—who I’ve bumped into at several spots over the course of the years on Cape Cod—was there too, and he began whacking fish as the sun went down. Interestingly enough, he was getting fish to hit a 7-ounce, 9-inch jointed glidebait that he hand-poured and built on his free time. After watching me fail to connect with everything I had, he generously offered me a smaller 3-ounce, 7-inch glidebait. Soon enough, one of us was bringing in a fish every few casts. The bass weren’t big, but it was interesting to see them taking XL lures after sipping on worms all evening. I can only imagine it had something to do with the numbers of bunker in the area, and the fact that it’s just something the fish haven’t seen as much as an SP minnow, a paddletail, a bucktail, a twitch bait or even a cinder worm fly. Plus, the long, slow, S-pattern swimming action is super natural looking, and the big bait presents an easy meal with a high return for minimal energy exertion. Sometimes, rather than matching the hatch, throwing something totally outlandish at the bass will produce.

The good news is, cinder worm hatches don’t last forever; but they’ve certainly lasted longer than last year. As those worm spawns fizzle out, stripers will begin to shift their focus toward other forage, like the growing masses of silversides in the backwaters, and eventually, squid in the rips. The bite could turn on any day now as more squid are being caught in Nantucket and Vineyard Sounds, and that’s when many of the bass we’re currently seeing in the backwaters will drop out of the salt ponds, rivers and bays to hit the rips in pursuit of some galamad— that’s calamari in New York Italian lingo.

Feeding on the juvenile squid along with stripers, will be scup, sea bass, and bluefish. Scup and sea bass will pick off the tiny ones down low, stripers will surf the waves to scoop up any easy grabs, and bluefish will tear through tightly-packed squid schools, leaving easy scraps for stripers, sea bass and scup that are lingering strategically below.

And there are still some squid in the Canal, although they seem to have thinned out this week, which is a promising sign that they’ll be filling in on the south side in the coming days.

From the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports:

“Victor Villar reeled in a 28 inch striper and one a little smaller 2 days after the new moon. The Marlboro resident was bouncing a green mack Savage off the bottom of an incoming breaking tide. Jack Gagnon landed his first fish ever in the Canal and it was a slot! The UMass Dartmouth freshman was casting a bone-colored swimmer. Bass are moving in and out of the east end to feed on a good size school of mackerel. Lots of slots were caught in the west end as well as some stripers up to 20 pounds, mostly on jigs. Centerville’s Jimmy Kelly and Steve Colleran of Buzzards Bay did well on the west ebb tide. Steve was jigging his Al Gags pink paddletail, which works for him frequently, even without squid in the water!”

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said he was catching slots locally this week. He bumped into a worm hatch near the shop yesterday evening and said that the amber Albie Snax on a wide gap hook had the bass fired up and feeding rather recklessly. Connor added that they’re seeing much more big fish in the 40-inch-plus class in Buzzards Bay and the west end of the Canal. On the tautog fishing front, he said the bite is pretty lights out; George from the shop went out this morning and had his limit of keepers within an hour after sunrise. And while togging is still great in Buzzards Bay, many people are turning their interest toward sea bass and scup. Scup fishing has really picked up over the past week, and the shop is stocked with plenty of sea bass tackle from diamond jigs and bucktails to Gulp and natural bait. Swing by to pick up some gear on your way out there this weekend.

Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth reported that the worm hatches continued in the salt ponds on the south side of Cape this week to the surprise of many anglers. The cinder worms spawns began as early as 2 weeks ago in Falmouth and the bass have been stacked in the ponds getting their fill. There are quite a few stripers in the south side surf too, with a few 36- to 38-inch fish that were caught down near Woods Hole and more smaller fish feeding along the stretch of beaches from Falmouth all the way out past Cotuit. It should be any day now that we start to see squid an abundance of squid in the rips, and when they do show, those bass in the salt ponds will quickly lose interest in worms.

When I called Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis, Christian was talking over a line of customers in the shop. They are busy busy! He said there are still a fair amount of small bluefish out their way, but they haven’t seen any of the larger chopper and gator blues that typically come in this time of year, however, he thinks it should be any day now that the big blues show themselves on the south side. They generally will come in shallow to chase sand eels, scup and squid, but squidding remains slower than usual from shore in and around Hyannis. He said that the water temperatures out front are still a little cold, so the salt ponds and rivers are still fishing the best for bass, but they are being caught during sunrise and sunset off the beaches on poppers and paddletails. The crowd in the shop was mostly due to a lot of people gearing up for scup; Christian said they sold out of seaworms already but should have more coming in. He also mentioned that lot of their die-hard tog customers are getting a bycatch of quality sea bass in Buzzards Bay which, come this Saturday the 18th, will be fair game if they measure over the 16.5-inch minimum size limit.

Captain Ross of Cape Cod Charter Guys in Bourne reported he’s finding finicky fish to 40 inches out front but they would often spook when larger offerings were cast in their direction. On most days they’ve had great action, but the storms recently have changed the water temps and put some fish on the move. Finding cooler water and fish that are not feeding on worms has been a challenge, but by covering lots of ground, they found them, although they had to work the bass to chew in some instances because they’ve been on sand eels and silversides. At times, the skipper said, the stripers they’ve found have been willing to take small 1/2-ounce jigs, while other times, they’ve been willing to hit a Doc even though they’re feeding on smaller baitfish. He said they’re anticipating getting into stripers on squid out in the rips by this time next week, so give them a call to book a trip!

Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters said striper fishing has been very good this week with most fish falling into the 30-inch class, but he did have one 25 pounder in the mix, which is hopefully a sign of good things to come. Cam said they’ve been catching them on the Joe Baggs Skipper, and when aren’t showing on top, they casting Rapala X-Raps and doing well. He’ll likely be out targeting sea bass this weekend if conditions allow, and he plans to go back north for haddock on Monday. The week ahead looks mostly flat calm so it should be a great time to get out on the water. Give Cam a call if you’re interested in a charter, or if you want some fresh fish from his commercial trips without the middle man, text FISH to 833-207-9578 and you’ll be added to a contact list that notifies you of when and where you can purchase some fresh fish from Cam and Michael.

Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported:

“Captain Chris and Captain Ian are back from Florida joining Captain Bobby Rice for another excellent fishing charter season with Reel Deal! By beach, and now by boat, keeper striped bass have reached outer Cape Cod waters. Light-colored topwater plugs are drawing fantastic strikes. If you can find an RD Bomb – buy it! This lure did extremely well on Wednesday’s fishing trips. And so another saltwater center console fishing season begins, and we could not be happier.”

Captain Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing reported that he’s finding some quality stripers in Vineyard Sound up to the low 20-pound range, with the best action reserved to the early morning, dusk, and after dark. He said there are some areas where the bass are still feeding on worms, and there are a fair amount of bunker in the bays and rivers as well, which is keeping stripers active. He begins his charter season on Memorial Day weekend and plans to spend his time fishing for stripers in the rips and jigging for sea bass. Give him a call to book a trip!

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

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

Tautog fishing is still great in Buzzards Bay, and black sea bass have worked their way into the bycatch. Things are looking up for the opening week of sea bass season, and there are scup to be caught with them. Pick up your Gulp grubs, sea worms and clams and get out there if conditions are safe enough to do so this weekend. Northeast winds create some dangerous seas in places like Buzzards Bay (and Cape Cod Bay), and no fresh fish dinner is worth putting your safety, or the safety of other boaters in jeopardy.

Stripers can be found just about anywhere you look this week. They continue to file into Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, and Nantucket Sound, and there are plenty of fish to be caught on the Outer Cape, too, it’s just a matter of catching the right tide and finding some bait. The outgoing tides seem to be producing the best action in the salt ponds and rivers due to slightly more mild water temperatures driving fish to feed more actively. On Tuesday night, I hit one spot at the mouth of a river where the incoming water was pretty frigid, but further upstream, the temperatures were noticeably warmer due to shallower water and a muddier bottom, and the fish were more active.

Bluefish are here, but they’re still very scattered. You may run into them here and there while fishing in Buzzards Bay or certain areas on the south side, where small cocktail blues have mixed in with schoolie striper for about a week. But we’re still waiting on a good wave of larger blues to reach our area. By the time the squid hit the rips, which should happen within the next week, it’s safe to assume more bluefish will have made their way into the waters around Cape Cod and the Islands. The only way to find out is to get out there, cover water, and get to casting.

Best of luck out there, be safe, and tight lines.