Cape Cod Fishing Report- May 9, 2024

Cape Cod Fishing Report

As expected with the first week of May, striper fishing around Cape Cod and the Islands has really taken off. Tuesday’s new moon saw the start of some widespread worm hatches on the Upper Cape, which will probably fizzle out by the weekend. However, points east and north on the Lower and Outer Cape may still have that to look forward to. If you can afford to spend 30 minutes by the water’s edge at sunset, don’t hesitate to do so. The backwaters are teeming with life. Buzzards Bay is still ablaze with hungry stripers feeding on top in the mornings and evenings, and soon enough, the beaches of Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds will be seeing bigger bass moving in and out of the estuaries as squid set up in the rips.

Right now, there are tons of slot and just-under-slot size fish in the rivers, marshes and salt ponds. In those same areas this week, I’ve seen schools of adult bunker, juvenile sand eels, spearing, and thousands upon thousands of cinder worms spawning as far as the eye could see. To my surprise, there were bass feeding on them for the entire length of the salt pond I was wading in on Tuesday. I mean it was alarming how many fresh, liced-up bass were in there. The feed must have been a mile long. It is a shallow, muddy, and warm pocket of water with some slow-moving current, and the beginning of the new moon flood tide brought in everything from silversides to full-size pogies. Stripers took no interest in the bunker due to the amount of worms in the area, and they were really fired up– moreso than I have ever experienced during a worm hatch. I managed to land a dozen on Rebel Jumpin’ Minnows, and missed/lost the same number of fish. They were chasing my plug to the edges of the mussel beds I stood atop until well after sunset. Wading even a few steps forward would have spooked a large group of fish. The bite eventually shut off around 8:30 p.m.

When I tried to repeat the bite on Wednesday, I found the same amount of worms with the same amount of bass feeding on them during the same tide, but they were super picky. I managed one swipe from a fish I’m pretty sure was just annoyed with my lure after it landed on its head in a foot of water. They wouldn’t touch plugs, soft plastics, or cinder worm flies that I casted delicately with my 9-weight from the grass. Eventually, I just stopped and enjoyed the sight of bass finning and swirling over the mud flats, doing their best impressions of puppy red drum. It was quite a spectacle.

And speaking of picky bass, the striper bite is great in Buzzards Bay, depending on who you talk to. Early in the morning on Saturday, my friend from out of town and I joined Jack Renfrew and Cam Whitney on his 21-foot Release to chase down some topwater action. The fishing started off good. We followed flocks of terns, which brought in a few bass on top and gave us an early double-up, but as the fleet grew and the sun rose, the fish went down and would only feed subsurface on what looked to be schools of silversides. That’s when we switched to 1-ounce white and olive Hogy Pro Tails, which the bass had no problem eating as we jigged them beneath the birds.

Finding birds was helpful, but not always the answer. Finding space was the real key. Eventually, the terns disappeared and the fleet dispersed, so we headed out to a different corner of the Bay, where larger gulls keyed us in to some wolf packs of 30-inch-plus stripers that were in pursuit of herring. We got a few follows on top, with one large bluefish lunging for the plug and missing the hooks never to return. So, back to jigging we went, picking up right where we left off with a few more slot-class fish on 1-ounce olive Pro Tails.

When I returned home, I got a call from Connor Swartz, who was out there chasing down a bite with us. He said that the west end of the Cape Cod Canal had blitzing bass on the turn of the tide that afternoon, so I visited the Ditch on Sunday to scout the scene around the same time. I saw one schoolie landed in a little more than 2 hours. But a couple days later, it happened again. OTW’s Robbie Tartaglia mentioned that he had bass blitzing on mackerel out there on Wednesday morning before work, and he had to leave them biting. There are some larger fish in the 40-inch class kicking around in Buzzards Bay, so fishing in the Canal could very well pop off this weekend as those fish that have been in the bay for a week or so will continue to progress north, feeding on the loads of bait that are showing up in the Canal by the day.

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

“It is sometimes difficult to remember changes in sizes, bag limits and other species regulations including modifications taking effect as the season progresses, like for tautog and scup. Experienced Canal Rat Tim “Hollywood” Petracca spoke at the Falmouth Fishermen’s Association and recommended downloading the Fish Rules app for your phone from the App Store, which has been very useful to me for years. There has been some action in the west end with some 30-inch stripers caught on both sides. Mark “Preacher” MacNeill and two other surfcasters landed about 50 striped bass as the new moon set. The Preacher reeled in 15 including 6 keepers, with the biggest measuring about 31 inches. Thirty-pound bass are stacked up just barely south, hopefully contemplating an entrance into the Canal. The new moon on Tuesday ushered in breaking tides all week, so if the water warms up a little it could be epic!”

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay reinforced East End Eddie’s report that there are fish in the Canal up to slot size. They’ve been pretty scattered due to the smorgasbord of bait. In the east end, there are mackerel and squid and most guys are catching on jigs, and topwater when the conditions are right. In the west end, he said, there are mackerel and pogies, and the action has been almost entirely on topwater and minnow plugs., pogies and mackerel. Connor added that tog fishing in Buzzards Bay is very good with quick limits of keeper-size fish, and for those who are shore bound, the Canal is giving up keeper tog as well. Over the weekend, Connor had fish on topwater chasing around herring, and those same fish are now entering the Canal to feast on bunker and macks, so keep your eyes on the Ditch as you pass over it heading to or from Cape this weekend.

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said there are a ton of fish in the bays and salt ponds right now, some of which are pushing keeper size. He’s going to scout some of the Falmouth coast and the nearby rips after work today in hopes of finding some better fish on topwater. Earlier this week, he sold a ton of shiners to the bass and trout fishing crowd. Bass are beginning to move onto beds, and in many places, they’re already there, so the fishing could be very hit or miss. Trout will be biting well as long as the weather remains in the 50s, which it looks like it will for most of the weekend.

Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said people have been getting some smaller bluefish in the 3- to 4-pound range on metals in the surf this week. She said there are lots of schoolies kicking around on the south side beaches chasing down small bait, and they’re eating cinder worms in the salt ponds and marshes too. On the Cape Cod Bay side, she said, the schoolies are nosing around for sand eels, so smaller soft plastics have been working well. There are bunker and squid out there on the south side, however, squid fishing is still slower than usual; the night bite has been better than the day bite. One customer said they were out there squid fishing and they were catching scup and black sea bass on squid jigs, while another customer was tog fishing closer to the Vineyard, and he said they got their limit but they had to work through a lot of shorts fishand a few sea bass as well. If the squidding improves and sea bass stick around, the spring sea bass season is setting up very nicely.

In Cape Cod Bay, Captain Jason Colby of Little Sister Charters reported:

“We got out for a couple of trips on Saturday and Sunday, a trip Monday and a trip Tuesday. All the trips had either ‘limits or near limits’ except the Tuesday morning trip where we only had half limits. The best weather of all the trips so far on The Cape, go figure!

The pic above is from Saturday afternoon with Chris and John with a couple of monstah’s that bit at the same moment.  The drifts have been a bit ‘quick’ (too fast) for the cold water temps, but that will change over the next couple of days. The anchor/chumming has been pretty good at times and seems more reliable when the wind is cranking.”

Captain Ross of Cape Cod Charter Guys in Bourne reported that the fishing this week has been epic in Buzzards Bay. Tog fishing has been a little slower than it was a couple weeks ago, but there are still plenty of keepers around, they’re just more finicky with the current amount of fishing pressure. He also said they caught some stripers up to 40 inches this week, with plenty of high 30-inch fish and slots in the past few days with a couple 20-inch class schoolies in the mix. Today and yesterday they had action from first cast to last cast; yesterday they crushed until dusk because the fish were feeding so hard before the crazy rain and hail storm moved in. On that trip, their charter’s son caught his personal best bass, and dad came within inches of beating his. There are some big fish out there, and there’e plenty of bait, which at times, has made figuring out the bite challenging to start. The skipper said that stripers have been spitting up silversides a lot of the time, and there are a ton of pogies, herring and sand eels out there, too. They saw some squid on the south side recently as well, they’re just waiting until the squid set up in the rips and the bass exit the salt ponds and rivers to chase those squid down. Give them a ring to book a trip!

Captain Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing reported that he’s been on a good striper bite while fishing the worm hatches from the kayak,  but he’ll begin running charters for the season come Memorial Day weekend. Give him a call to check on his availability and book a trip!

Captain Alexander MacMillian of FishLinked Charters in Wareham reported:

“The past week of fishing in Buzzards Bay has been spectacular. The striper bite has been relentless and the tautog in the bay are sizing up well. There’s not too many boats around yet, so it’s not uncommon to find yourself pushing around a school of stripers alone or with maybe one or two other boats. Our biggest issue right now is deciding whether to leave an explosive striper bite, after catching a bunch, to run down some jumbo tautog. The fish seem to be growing, as we are finding over-slot stripers and twenty-inch-plus tautog. If the past week is an indication of how this season is going to go, we are here for all of it.”

Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters said he and Mike Xu from Tackle 2 the People crushed haddock up by Jeffrey’s Ledge earlier this week with only a few other boats out there. He is going out for stripers in Buzzards Bay on Friday, and is hoping to get them on topwater, but he’ll be going back out for haddock on Sunday with an open boat out of Rockport or Newburyport, so if you want in and you’re willing to take a little drive to the north shore for haddock, give him a shout!

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

“The striped bass fishing is heating up off outer Cape Cod! Recently, light green or white topwater plugs are producing the most strikes, landing fish from mid 20-inch class to slot size. The water temperature is still on the cooler side, but it’s great to see these fish in the usual shallow spots. We look forward to the boat activity picking up this way soon!”

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

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

Upper Cape anglers should hit the beaches in Buzzards Bay or Vineyard Sound, or check out the east and west ends of the Canal when the tide flips. There’s so much bait, there’s bound to be blitzing fish at some point during the day, and if they don’t blitz during the tide switch, there should be some action around sunrise or sunset. The south facing beaches have schoolies cruising around the inlets, and apparently, some smaller 3- to 4-pound bluefish are in the mix too. Pack smaller metals in your surf bag and you could get into a few nice eater-size bluefish or school bass.

The Outer Cape bite is heating up. Bass are actively feeding in the salt ponds and rivers, and cinder worm spawns are underway, so it’s a great time to bring out the fly rod if you have one. On the Cape Cod Bay side, fishing in the harbors and shallow estuaries has been good as bass root around for small sand eels; think small soft plastics, sinking flies like Clouser minnows, or small minnow plugs in the 1-ounce range.

Scup season is open, and it sounds like if you’re squid fishing during the day, you may be walking away with a few fillets to round out the catch. There are squid in the Canal, but they haven’t quite set up in the south side rips for stripers to gorge on them yet. As the squidding improves, expect more bass to file in with the potential for some jumbo bluefish in tow.

Between scup, stripers, squid, tautog, winter flounder, and small bluefish, there’s bound to be some action out there for you. Get out there and make a few casts with your confidence lures, whatever they may be, and enjoy the start to the spring fishing season to the fullest. Stay safe out there, and thanks for reading!