Cape Cod Fishing Report- June 6, 2024

Cape Cod Fishing Report

It may not feel like summer is in the air just yet, but early summer fishing patterns are certainly beginning to fall into place. This week, striped bass fishing from shore has been challenging to say the least. Many of the larger fish that have been stacked up in Buzzards Bay have moved on, or have grown very picky with an influx of smaller baitfish like small sea herring and silversides. The same can be said for much of the south side, and even portions of Cape Cod Bay, where there are also some large schools of spearing. I’ve been surfcasting all over the Cape almost every night in search of some larger, or at least, more cooperative fish, and only scratched 2 small bass for my efforts. When these smaller baitfish show up, I know it’s usually time to shift gears, so I even brought out the fly rod to some skinny water for a few south side night outings and just could not get bit.

My buddy Ryan and I missed a few solid bites on Cape Cod Bay while throwing needlefish during a slow night this week. We couldn’t figure out why the bass were missing our hooks. Their behavior was strange too. I crept a slow-sinking needle over the sand bottom while Ryan cranked in his floating needle at a rapid pace, and we could hear fish lunging for it, breaking the silence of the calm, nearly pitch-black night. The new moon is here, so it’s possible that those bass were just not feeding as heavily during these extra strong tides, but who knows? All you can do is take notes and make entries in the log book for future reference.

Going back to the mention of early summer fishing patterns, there certainly seem to be fewer fish in the salt ponds as those water temps approach the mid to upper 60s in some places. The estuaries and rivers are still pretty loaded with fish depending on the tide. I came across a blitz around 2 a.m. the other night with bass feeding on spearing and grass shrimp on the ebb tide; loud pops echoed throughout the entire river system, and after throwing the bag at them, and even returning to my car to swap some smaller lures, the only thing that produced short strikes was a bunker-patterned Scabelly floating glider. I took note of the amount of spearing and thought, “I wonder if there are any fluke in shallow yet?”

Generally, once those shallow, sand-bottom salt ponds and bays approach the mid-60 to 70-degree mark, and more silversides begin to show, I’ll start poking around with small jigs and teasers tipped with Gulp. Sure enough, I found a couple fluke on the outgoing tide. I missed several short strikes—which, honestly, may have been hickory shad—but managed to land one fluke, and lost another to a classic fluke head shake as it hit reverse on the surface.

It’s surprising to land a fluke before my first bluefish of the season. I truly hope we start to see more blues arrive over the next week or so once the new moon passes. My buddy Andrew Burke caught a 14-pound bluefish in Buzzards Bay this week, so they’re filtering in, but still very spotty on the south side. Still, I was all smiles after landing this short fluke. It means summer fishing and wet wading in the bays and ponds is right around the corner.

I’m hoping that these strong new moon tides will push some more bluefish into Vineyard and Nantucket Sound, and that we’ll see some bigger bass pile into the rips as well.

But since the blues are in Buzzards, hide ya soft plastics (or head to Red Top and re-up on tails). They’ll likely begin to stack up in the Big Ditch, and last year, they seemed to especially enjoy the sweet taste of soft-plastic paddletails.

From the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports: “The Canal has slowed down, but just before the lull Mike Goodwin had a phenomenal day catching 7 fish that were all at least 40 inches with the biggest measuring out to 49! The experienced Wareham resident had his green mack Savage bouncing off the bottom at the end of the west tide through slack and into the turn at mid-Canal. It was worth the drive from New Hampshire for Eldar Durakovic as he caught a slot with his white Magic Swimmer on a breaking tide. Scott Ewell got off his bike at the right spot, catching several fish with a green mack Savage including a 40-inch striper, then days later muscled a 45-inch bass to the rocks on a white Magic Swimmer! Experienced Canal Rat Jack Barton worked a west tide with a colorless FishLab, landing some slots and bigger including heavy 42- & 48-inch stripers. The Canal Sportsman’s Club is sponsoring a Flea Market on Saturday, June 8 from 9am – 2pm at Bourne Scenic Park right on the Canal. There will be vendor’s tables full of fishing gear and admission is free.”

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said the Canal has been pretty good this week. Bull has been getting into fish that are smashing on tinker macks in the east end every morning since Monday, but he said this morning had the least amount of fish of any day this week. Still, there are plenty of fish being caught down there. They haven’t seen any come up yet, but they’ve heard of some bluefish hitting jigs; guys are getting tails bitten off just behind the hook bend. Connor also said there was an 83-inch bluefin caught recently off Stellwagen, but more bluefin are showing up to the south where the water is warmer.

Captain Mike Rathgeber of CeeJay Party Fishing  reports that the Outer Cape  is getting into high gear as stripers have arrived in big numbers. CeeJay Party Fishing started its 56th consecutive season in  Provincetown with a bang as bass to 40 inches were caught drifting mackerel chunks on Billingsgate Shoals. Later in the week fish to 45 inches were slammed five minutes from the dock right behind the harbor breakwater. Pogies and mackerel are literally everywhere and the bass are feeding heavily on both. June is the best month for striper fishing and the fish are definitely here so come on out and catch a few!

Morgan at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said the south side in Nantucket Sound has seen a slight drop in action for stripers in the rips. She said they’re a more slot and over-slot bass near closer to the Vineyard where they’re gorging on big squid. They had a couple customers who ran into some unbelievable surface feeds on their way back east after bottom fishing in Vineyard Sound, and they cashed in on some keeper-size bass and over with Hogy lures. On the bottom fishing front, bigger sea bass can be found from 40 to 60 feet in Nantucket Sound, and dinner-plate-sized scup are still providing fillets when sea bass fishing is slow. Back in the freshwater ponds, bass and trout fishing has been very good, especially in the early morning for the trout, when water temperatures are at their coolest.

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth told me fishing has been good in the rips of Vineyard Sound this week. It’s loaded with squid and they’re flying out of the rips and shooting ink all over the place trying to escape the bass, based on what he described. Evan said the fish got a bit smaller as the week progressed, but they caught a solid 37 incher around Middle Ground a few days back. They found fish busting all over the surface when they returned to their first spot. He also heard Hedge Fence has been just as good as Middle Ground for the past 5 days or so, and he’s hoping that the squid bite will last another week or so. On the bottom fishing front, sea bass fishing has been reserved to deep water for keepers, in both Vineyard Sound and in Buzzards Bay. Start looking in 70 feet of water or more, and use jigs instead of bait to try and cull out some keepers. Fluke fishing has started to pick up too. Evan’s friend was on a charter last week and got a few shorts over some of the shoals in Vineyard Sound. And most surprisingly, Evan’s former co-worker trolled up an 8-pound bonito on a pink deep diver on Sunday, which is the 3rd bonito caught that I have seen pics of this week. One was caught on Nantucket, one in Buzzards Bay, and now this one in Vineyard Sound. I’m sure there are others that have gone unreported. Pretty wild stuff for the spring!

Captain Drew Downing of Downeast Charters in Chatham reported that they’re starting to see pulses of fish around Chatham. The rips are finally opening up on both tides despite cold water persisting., with bass surfing the waves in pursuit of squid. To the west, they’re finding bass on schools of adult pogies, with wolf packs of fish chewing close to shore around sunrise and sunset in Nantucket Sound. Give them a call to get in on the action out east!

• 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 said he and his charters crushed stripers on flutter spoons with a side dish of topwater action in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound this week. He hasn’t done much bottom fishing this week, but anticipates bass hanging in the rips for a bit longer due to the sheer amount of squid out there. Give him a call to check his availability and book a trip while the action is good!

Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters on Martha’s Vineyard reported: “I got out to fish from Memorial Wharf a couple of times this week and caught some mackerel and squid. My friend Rick Marotta came with me Sunday evening and caught his first-ever squid. Tuesday’s trip, with Fred Schreiber and Eric Warren, was fantastic. We lost count of the number of striped bass, but it had to be over 20. We didn’t catch a fish on every lure we tried, but for a while, it felt like that. We caught them on Hogy Slow Tails, SP Minnows, X-Raps, Rapala Twitchin’ Minnows, YoZuri Pencils, Albie Snax, and even got a few on fly. They didn’t like the two squid flies that I tied, but they loved the big Deceiver. I’m trying not to take it personally. Surprisingly, no bluefish, but I can’t complain. I love bluefish, but I’m enjoying this outstanding striper fishing right now.”

Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported: “Speed has been our friend this week (thank you Mercury Marine outboard engines!) as the Reel Deal boats have been zipping around outer Cape Cod keeping our clients on the best striped bass fishing available and to their preference. While some charter groups want to go for those trophy-sized well over-slot stripers that we have been catching on live bait and topwater plugs, there are other groups looking for those slot-class fish, which sends us in a different direction for the schools of smaller bass. Happy to be able to keep hunting down fish to our customer’s expectations as we love fishing and a challenge, keeps the day interesting!”

From Nantucket, Rick Ramos reported: “From the surf: Marking the end of May, where we’ve seen a consistent run of solid slot fish and even up to 40 inches here on Nantucket’s South Shore, it appears that many of those fish may have passed through Nantucket and moved on. We are now experiencing the run of smaller fish in the low to high 20-inch class. This is great news, as we just weren’t seeing them early on and many were beginning to worry a bit about the fishery’s future. I was out last weekend to kick-off the Nantucket Angler’s Club Schoolie Tournament and connected with some mid-slot fish in the Harbor on pink slug-gos. I moved to outer Coatue to catch a fun daybreak topwater bite that was nonstop. My tourney partner, Bill Tornovish, has been getting into decent fish at Point of Breakers on the early morning tide in the presence of large schools of shad.

I also checked in with local angler, Timmy Sullivan, who created quite the buzz on the island this week by landing an Atlantic bonito in the Harbor.    There’s a ton of bait around, so anything is possible when there’s a large variety of forage in our waters. Timmy also landed Nantucket’s first bluefish of 2024 last Wednesday.

Tammy King also reported a slow start on the south shore earlier this week, but as the tide turned the bite turned on nicely with a ton of fun, under-slot fish caught.  These areas fish well with SP Minnows and Mag Darters. Tammy also recently hosted a fishing clinic where she had 15 women anglers participate who all fished Cisco Beach. There were two nice bass landed on topwater poppers.

From the boat: Captain Corey Gammil of Bill Fisher Outfitters reported fantastic fishing on the west side of the island, with bass blitzing on sand eels and squid beneath large flocks of diving birds around slack tide. The rips are loaded with fish too. Great Point has some bluefish, but reports of bass have been quiet recently. In the harbors, the bite has been slow during the day, with the best action reserved to early morning and evening hours. There’s a lot of variety in size with a few fish around 20 inches, a lot of 25 to 28 inchers, and a bunch of bass as large as 37 inches.”

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

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

Fishing is about as good as it gets right now, despite a slightly slower surf bite on the south side of Cape in particular this week. That was to be expected. As water temps warm in the shallows, small bait like spearing become the main forage until larger fish like scup, juvie sea bass, small fluke and sea robins bring the bigger bass back in. Right now, there are just so many squid in the rips, it’s hard to imagine the bass straying far from there even under the cover of night. Grab some natural-colored topwater plugs or soft plastics and get to the rips if you’ve got the means to do so. Otherwise, if you’re a surfcaster or kayak angler, time your outings in the ponds, bays, and harbors, around sunrise and sunset. The June new moon is a big “travel” moon, and it should bring some quality bass (and hopefully more bluefish) into Buzzards Bay this weekend into next week.

The backwaters are warming, which means you can now reliably find a greater mix of species close to home. If you have kids, take them down to the local harbor and toss around small soft plastics, tins, and bucktails, or drop down a baited high/low rig with some squid or clam on the hook. You never know what you might catch; scup, sea robins, fluke, stripers, bluefish, and more are working their way into shallow water. And you may even get really lucky, like the Buzzards Bay surfcaster who hooked into a bonito on a Deadly Dick this week.

Summer fishing options are going to continue to grow by the day. June is arguably the best month of the year to be on the water if you’re a “multi-species” angler in both fresh and salt water, although September is a close contender. So, whether you fish from shore, from a boat deck, or from the seat of a kayak, get out there, bring a variety of lures/flies (or bait, if that’s your preference), and see what’s chewin’. Catch ’em up and be safe. Thanks for reading!