Cape Cod Fishing Report
A pleasant week of weather around Cape Cod brought some of the best fishing of the summer season thus far. After being plagued by foul-weather weekends and seemingly-endless winds for a majority of the past month or so, fishing has improved on nearly all fronts, with inshore bottom fishing being the only exception.
The summer of 2024 will be remembered as the summer of bonito for years to come. Bonito have been the most reliable target in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds and Buzzards Bay for the better part of the summer, and although the run started off rather slow with fish showing up in anticipated areas (like the aptly-named Bonito Bar), they have filled in nicely and are sticking around off the beaches of the Cape and Islands. On Nantucket, bonito in the upper 20-inch range have been reported from the surf, while back in Buzzards Bay, the fish are smaller—maxing out around 20 inches and only 2 to 3 pounds on average. They’ve been a nice warmup exercise for the albie season, which is already well underway.
From Nantucket Sound to the Cape Cod Canal, albies are being taken on epoxy- and resin-style jigs, but they seem concentrated to specific areas at this time, which is typical this early in the run. They haven’t quite made their way into Cape Cod Bay (yet), but bonito are staging outside of some of the harbors toward the Outer Cape, and if this year is anything like last year, the albies will follow suit.
A recent push of bluefish has kept things interesting for anglers targeting striped bass or hardtails on the south side of Cape Cod, both via boat/kayak or from shore. Some of the blues are pushing 8- to 10-pounds. I saw them airing out on peanut bunker from my kayak the other day. Others, however, are just above snapper size and just below cocktail size. They’re the perfect “eater-size” bluefish, and they’ve been frustrating hopeful hardtail fishermen over the past week with their deceitful early-morning blitzes that resemble the way bonito feed. If you run into them, it’s worth keeping a few for the table; you’ll be doing your part to “thin out the herd” a bit.
Striped bass are still tough to come by in my neck of the woods near Falmouth, but there’s been some good action in the Cape Cod Canal, in Cape Cod Bay, and off of the outer beaches, where boaters and surfcasters have been enjoying schoolie to over-slot stripers feeding on top in the evenings, with the bite sometimes carrying on after dusk.
There are still some fluke to be caught outside of the inlets across the south side and in Buzzards Bay, but many of the larger fish that come in shallow earlier in the season have moved “offshore” a bit; not offshore as in Nantucket Shoals, but deeper water of 40 feet plus. That being said, there are still some shorts and the occasional keeper to be caught in the bays and salt ponds. With more than enough forage in the form of silversides, peanut bunker, bay anchovies, etc., those fish should stick around until water temperatures start to drop after some cool September nights.
Buzzards Bay, Cape Cod Bay & Outer Cape
Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said he managed to stick a 100-inch, 598-pound bluefin on a live mackerel in Cape Cod Bay this past weekend while he was fishing with Chris Anderson, a regular at the shop, who has been crushing big fish in the Bay all season. (Note: Connor and Chris both have their commercial license.) It took them about 2 hours and 30 minutes to land the fish after their baits were out for just 5 minutes. Connor also confirmed that albies have made their way into the west end of the Canal, and there have been a good amount of slot-size stripers and bluefish up to 15 pounds in the Ditch as well. The fish are feeding on an array of bait including peanut bunker, sand eels, mackerel and squid. Get down to the Ditch with some pencil poppers and jigs the next chance you get.
From the Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports: “The Canal was on fire! 6-year-old Sage Nicholson from Attleboro caught a healthy 33-inch striper with a green mack Savage on the bottom of a dropping west tide. Talented lure maker Joe “Green Gloves” Moneghan, got into a topwater bass bite with his biggest fish measuring 39 inches on one of his custom light-colored pencils. Jimmy “Kells” Kelly hooked several fish including two slots off the bottom with his Al Gags jig on an east rising tide. John “Captain” Morgan scored a 36-inch bass casting his old blue Atom Striper Swiper, then caught another 36 a few days later followed by a 45-inch, 28 pounder on an incoming east flow. “Paulie the Painter” Gravina got a workout bringing fish to the rocks, landing over-slot fish with his Cotton Cordell Red Fin on the incoming east current. “Mashpee Mike” LaRaia probably needed a nap after reeling in so many fish, including some over slot on his Joe Baggs chicken scratch Swarter. Bill “On the Grill” Prodouz caught several bass including a 38-inch, 22 pounder that bit down hard on his green mack Savage bouncing off the bottom. This typist landed a dozen stripers, half were slots and one over with a Gibbs yellow Little Neck Popper in a mini surface blitz on a west flood tide.”
Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported: “A week of beautiful weather has provided opportunity for longer travel and all sorts of excitement with team Reel Deal, including Captain Bobby Rice’s 80-inch bluefin tuna landed on 40-pound-test line! For those who enjoy the details: he used a Centaur Angler’s Choice Constellation 54SM (medium weight) rod, Shimano 14k Twin Power and 40-pound-test Cortland Line with a 50-pound-test leader. This setup is typically used for striped bass fishing. When dropping down the 3.5-ounce Daddy Mac jig, Bobby intended to potentially hook a smaller recreational size bluefin, and then a 4-hour, light-tackle battle ensued, which made a memorable day for all on board when the 265-pound bluefin came over the rail! Leading up to this day, we also picked up recreational size tuna jigging the RonZ, which is right on cue with what would have been the legendary Ron Poirier’s 70th birthday coming up tomorrow, August 16th. We love you Ron, and your baits are still catching tuna! On the striped bass scene, the sunrise topwater bite returned after the seas calmed down from last week’s blow. We recently enjoyed some light-tackle action with several younger anglers still delighting in a Cape Cod summer. Be sure to get your kids out for some tight lines before the school days start up again! Openings this weekend can be found here.”
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Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds/The Islands
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said he went out on Monday and caught around a dozen bonito after heading east out of Falmouth Harbor. The bonito were puking up small silversides and they got more picky as the morning went on, but he said there was no shortage of fish out there. A basic silver epoxy jig got the job done. They had bonito from Falmouth out to Cotuit. One of his customers said the bonito seemed a bit finicky the past couple days, which is likely due to an increase in fishing pressure now that albies are in and more boats are on hardtail patrol. He also said more people are running into small blues on the south side. As far as bottom fishing goes, Evan said the best action right now is in 100 feet of water in Vineyard Sound and just south of the Vineyard where anglers have been catching keeper fluke and sea bass.
Captain Drew Downing of Down East Charters in Chatham reported: “We’re seeing loads of bait out front now as sand eels have really filled in. Scattered bass and dogfish have been underneath them in piles out to the tuna grounds. The rips have some warmer water now and bluefish are mixing in with bonito at the point of Monomoy and to the west.”
Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters said sea bass fishing has been on fire recently; he was joined by Reed the Fish Monger earlier this week and they put a hurting on the sea biscuits. On most trips, Cam says they’ve been able to get their limits in no time. They’ve been using 4-ounce diamond jigs and squid skirt teasers in 80 to 100 feet of water and pulling up keepers with ease. Unfortunately, Cam just found a large crack in his boat which officially put the ’96 Angler out of commission, so he’s looking at a new one on Wednesday. He has a couple striper charters coming up early this week, so he’ll be running those from a family member’s boat for the time being until he’s back in a new-to-him vessel. Give him a call to inquire about availability.
Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters on Martha’s Vineyard reported: “This week started out with a canceled trip because of some very windy weather, including a gale warning, but ended with an opportunity to go offshore with good friends on a beautiful flat-calm day. On Sunday, I took my Fishsticks with Charter Sauce teammates, Hans and Jacob Riis, on an all-day adventure. Not wanting to contend with the State Beach crowd, we headed west instead. We found a huge school of breaking fish that turned out to be mackerel. They weren’t the bonito we were hoping for, but they were great fun on light tackle and they’ll be delicious smoked! After catching way too many mackerel, we continued the search and finally found some monster bluefish. We located them by trolling deep-divers, but after a few successful trolling passes, we stopped to cast and caught a few more bluefish on topwater plugs.
On Tuesday, Ben Paletsky and his boys joined me for a morning of bonito fishing. We caught the first one right in the harbor and another one not far from the OB ferry dock. We were casting a mix of metals, epoxies and small swimming plugs, but both fish were caught on the swimmers. These little plugs may not cast as far as jigs do, especially into the wind, but I have had a lot of success with them the past two seasons. Finally, the stars aligned and I had a day off, fair weather and a good tuna report, and John Crocker and David Amaral joined me to go offshore. I’m not too worried about burning a spot by divulging that we went to the Gully, because there were over a hundred other boats there with us. One humorous captain answered a request for a radio check with “Gully International Boat Show!” After trolling around the fringes for a couple hours, we joined the fleet of boats that were all jigging and we followed suit. David got his first-ever bluefin tuna on a jig. He said the pickup was so subtle he thought he had hooked a sea bass, but once the fish felt the sting of the hook, things got lively. After boating that fish, we continued to jig for a few more hours without another bite, and then decided to head to Tuna Ridge, where we caught another small bluefin on the troll.”
From the isle of Nantucket, Rick Ramos shares a fishing report update:
“The excitement is buzzing on Nantucket for several reasons, as it always is this time of year. The first few albies have hit the deck of local angler’s boats with Timmy Sullivan connecting on the edges of Great Point. Nantucket’s August Blues summer fishing tournament is also generating a lot of excitement with junior angler Natalie O’Brien recording our contest’s first bonito in the Junior category. Junior angler Jade Russo also scored a major prize by recording the first official albie entered in our contest. The most electric contest has been the adult boat Triple Strike, where Heather Unruh and Susan O’Malley have exchanged first place positions a couple of times. I’m sure Susan has Captain Hal Herrick of Nantucket Fishing’s engine revved heading to the Bonito Bar as we speak.
I’m beginning to believe that this tournament is also just as competitive for the charter captains as it is their clients. Bill Fisher Outfitters, Captain Tom’s Charters and Captain Hal Herrick of Nantucket Fishing have all put their clients in a position to make the leader board. We appreciate their support!
If you are getting out this weekend, focus on Great Point whether from the boat or the beach. This has been the most productive spot for bonito and blues and we are confident the first beach albie will be reported soon. The Bonito Bar and the east end rips are also productive spots. We have had several reports of larger bonito, up to 29 inches, hitting Island X Hellfires, and this is becoming a real stalwart for targeting everything into late summer and fall.
If you are targeting bass, I have been continuing to put time into the west end of the island where I have found stripers in both day and midnight trips. For daytime action, my stalwart is always a bucktail as I tend to stay focused on moving water and the rips of the west and east end of the island. For the night bite, I’ve been throwing the smallest needle fish I have in my bag with a super slow retrieve. Good luck everyone, and please consider registering for August Blues Nantucket which is open until August 31st.”
Offshore
Out east has been quiet as of late, but giant tuna remain in Cape Cod Bay. Pogy schools have begun to disperse (or diminish), which has left anglers with mackerel and the occasional bluefish for bait. However, the best tuna fishing right now is south of Block Island, where pink and green streaker jigs have been outperforming other proven tuna killers like RonZs. In fact, OTW Contributing Writer, Jack Larizadeh, had the opportunity to target bluefin on the fly in that area when just a couple of days ago, bluefin in the 30- to 40-pound range came within 30 feet of the surface to feed. He was throwing a large yellow/white Deceiver on a 12-weight rod with full-sink line, and he and Captain Joe Diorio ended the day with 5 bluefin on the fly.
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
In the words of my guy L.D. (Larry David), the forecast for the next few days looks “prettaaayyy, prettayyyy, pretty gooood” for inshore and offshore anglers. Winds will be shifting from the blowing out of the northeast on Friday to the south/southeast on Saturday, and wind speeds should remain below 12 knots for a majority of the weekend. No foreseeable small craft warnings! How’s that for a change? The only thing to keep an eye on throughout the weekend will be the whereabouts and severity of Hurricane Ernesto, which is tracking to head up the coast toward the Gulf of Maine and Canada at some point next week. Storm swells will be the main thing to watch.
The best bet for action this weekend is to rig up your 7-foot inshore rods with an array of epxoy jigs, metals, and splasher rigs, and chase the schools of bonito that are seemingly everywhere. There are albies and bluefish of all sizes in the mix depending on where you go, so tighten down those drags a bit. The Canal will be another good bet if you’re looking for some topwater action; albies seem to enjoy the splashiness of pencil poppers as much as bluefish and striped bass. And with the smorgasbord of bait in the Ditch, it’s a good time to go see what’s happening during the low-light hours or around the tide switch. Otherwise, try your luck on the outer beaches around dusk and fish into dark in hopes of connecting with some stripers; there have been bass from school to slot-size and even some pushing 40 inches reported this week.
Thanks for reading. Be safe out there and have a fishy weekend.