Cape Cod Fishing Report
Striper activity is slowing down, but it’s not over yet. There are still quite a few decent fish kicking around in the backwaters, the outer beaches are fishing well, and there have been schools of small stripers along the beaches of Cape Cod Bay. With the November new moon tomorrow, marking the end of a stretch of mild weather this week, we can expect some good striper fishing over the next week. There’s certainly plenty of bait around to keep things interesting.
Juvenile river herring are still stacked in many of the ponds, but I’m seeing more and more in the rivers with each passing day. My friend and I witnessed some massive schools of 1- to 4-inch herring spanning entire kettle pond shorelines over the weekend, and smaller schools would occasionally break away and drop into the river.
The photo above is just a sample of how many herring there are dropping into the rivers. That’s only about 2 to 3 feet of shoreline, and the entire beach looked like this. As those young-of-year herring reach saltwater, they’ll fuel some of the last good striper bites of the year. It’s already happening around Falmouth. With mostly small stripers remaining to feed on these oily little baitfish, it’s a great opportunity for fly fishermen. Timing your outings on an ebb tide near outflows during periods of low light will present the best chance to capitalize on striper activity.
With plenty of herring in the ponds, the freshwater fishing has been excellent, too. Stocked trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, and chain pickerel have been taking full advantage of clustering herring. Over the weekend, my friend Matt—who is from out of town and loves freshwater fishing as much as he loves striper fishing—joined me for a little sweetwater action. We caught everything from trout and pickerel to smallmouth and largemouth bass.
Even though small herring are abundant right now, adult herring are leaving the ponds too, just not in the same numbers as their offspring. The on and off mild conditions have been perfect for throwing large lures for bass at night, too—especially now that all the trout ponds are fully stocked. Before things start to get really cold, it’s worth casting around some big wakebaits and swimbaits.
I haven’t done any tautog fishing locally this week, but I did get to catch a few good ones in the blackfish Mecca, Rhode Island, with Captain Rob Taylor of Newport Sportfishing Charters. The tog fishing is just ridiculous over there. However, it’s almost just as good in Buzzards Bay and along the Elizabeth Islands. My friend Harvey Russell of My Brother Fishing Charters out of Falmouth said the tog bite has been great in Buzzards Bay in terms of quality and quantity.
Tautog are still readily available in shallow water around the Cape, and with scattered schools of albies blitzing from Cotuit to the Elizabeth Islands, there’s plenty of good fishing to be had as we head into November.
Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said there are a lot of peanut bunker in Buzzards Bay right now. He went out this morning and poked around but found no bass or bonito feeding on the peanuts. Later on, he pushed through the Canal to the East End, where bonito have been feeding steadily alongside some big hickory shad. In the west end of the Canal, he said, there were a ton of birds working this morning but no fish visibly working beneath them. It’s been quieter on the striper front as of late, but the Canal is still seeing some good tautog fishing—mainly toward the west end. Connor added that the boat guys in Buzzards Bay are doing well with tautog, but some of the early season spots have been picked over, so it’s getting a little tricky—however, there are some big tog to be caught on the smaller pieces of structure. The only other thing going right now in Buzzards Bay is a decent topwater bite from small bass in the mid 20-inch range that have been feeding in and around the harbors. Further east, the outer beaches are still fishing well, and just a couple days ago in Cape Cod Bay, there was a massive school of fish about a mile from shore working their way towards the Canal. With the November new moon tomorrow, strong tides could bring a wave of bass through the Ditch, while the fish on the outer Cape will likely round Monomoy, which could bring some decent fishing to the Sound side beaches over the next week. Now is a great time of year to keep smaller soft plastics, metals, and mid-size topwaters in your plug bag. There’s still plenty of bait around, and as I told Connor, I’m seeing more and more herring from 2- to 4-inch in the rivers with each passing day. The season isn’t over yet.
From the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports: “Some striped bass may still be north of the east end preparing for the migration or we may have seen the last of the movement, leaving us with stragglers and holdovers. Rob “Fishsticks” Pesa had a good day with 36- & 38-inch bass falling for his green Striper Gear Shaddy Daddy at the beginning of last week on the incoming east tide. Dana “Hard Hat” Hanna watched a huge 20- to 30-foot-wide school of bunker travel along the surface the next day, assisted by the west tide toward Buzzards Bay, starting before sundown and continuing for over 2 hours. The week ended with the skipper of a commercial Pilot boat out of Boston having a bad day when the vessel ran aground onto the Cape side rip rap stone bank just west of the Bourne Bridge. The following was reported to me just before the action came to a halt. “Jiggin’ Jimmy” Rakowski from Falmouth fooled a slot on a fast-moving east tide with a soft plastic paddle tail jig. Glenn “Lucky Cigar” Lindsey jigged up a half dozen fish with a soft plastic lead head including a slot for the table, then a 35 inch with a powerful tug on a tan Left Hook pencil during the last hour of the west flow. “Mashpee Mike” LaRaia picked off some slots with a 5-ounce soft plastic 7-inch eel.”
Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters said togging has been lights out yet again this week. He’s sailing out of Westport and still finding fish in shallower water than expected. To give you an idea of how shallow they’re finding keepers, Cam said they started fishing some slightly deeper water (around 20 to 25 feet) this week, and they even found some cod. Those cod were mixed in with the tog in around 25 feet of water. They’re fishing hi-lo rigs with a long dropper loop to keep those baits close to the bottom, and it has been working very well. He’s hoping the fishing will remain this good through Thanksgiving since the fish have yet to move into deeper water. Give him a shout to inquire about availability.
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Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said he hasn’t been out this week but his customers have been catching some albies on the south side from Cotuit down to the Elizabeths, though they’ve been thinning out even more since last week. Bonito are still kicking around on the south side too, but one of his customers caught 4 from a blitz in the Canal yesterday morning, so there are still some hardtail opportunities. Evan said another customer got into some blitzing bass in the local salt ponds with schoolies up to 26 inches and a few small bluefish, while another regular has been fly fishing in a separate salt pond and catching schoolies routinely each morning. There’s also a crowd of guys fishing eels along the Elizabeths lately, and they’ve been catching some slot-size fish as well as a few overs. Regarding tog, the fishing has been very good from the boat and from shore. One customer came in and bought some crabs and caught his limit from shore on a south-facing jetty, while another customer was tog fishing off Nobska and ended up finding birds and fish working the surface, but he didn’t have the gear to investigate what was driving the blitz. The stripers are getting smaller, and hardtails are really thinning out, but with this warmer weather and plenty of bait to go around, the bass should stick around and tog should remain shallow for a bit.
Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said that the outer Cape has been hot this week for surfcasters, and fish should be rounding the tip of Monomoy in the coming days with the new moon ahead. He said the tog fishing has been great locally with some easy limits in the Sound, and they’ve still got plenty of customers coming in for striper gear too. Christian said he saw some fish breaking the other day right around dusk, and he added that the salt ponds and south side bays are fishing well at night as a result of all the herring dropping out of the rivers lately. The freshwater fishing has slowed down a bit, which might have something to do with the baitfish flushing out of the ponds, but they’re still selling shiners and nightcrawlers and he anticipates the fishing will pick up again as temperatures drop, which the bass and trout receive as their cue to feed before winter sets in.
From Martha’s Vineyard, Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters reports: “The weather hasn’t been great this week, but I was able to take advantage of what I think was the nicest day of the week to go tog fishing on Tuesday with my friend Scott Maccaferri. It was a beautiful, calm morning and fishing was excellent. The current wasn’t nearly as strong as it had been last week, on the full moon, when we needed 16 ounces to hold bottom in less than 30 feet. On this trip, 8 ounces was enough, even at peak current. We had nearly constant action with tog in a range of sizes from sublegal to 20”, a bunch of sea bass, including many that would have been keepers, if they were in season, and even the odd scup. We managed to ice a limit of tog in a few hours and continued to catch and release for another hour before calling it a day. I’ll be available for tog charters for at least another couple of weeks.”
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
Tautog fishing from shore or boat is a good bet this weekend. If you can make it out in Buzzards Bay, you’re likely to find some good fish. Start shallow, in 20 feet or less, and move deeper if necessary. Try to fish smaller pieces of untapped structure too—there’s a lot of pressure on these fish right now, and sometimes you just need to find one piece of bottom that hasn’t been picked over in order to reach a limit. Anglers in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds are experiencing good tog fishing as well, and with the fish still shallow enough to catch from shore, all you need is some crabs, lightweight jigs or rigs, and access to a jetty with about 10 feet of water.
Stripers can still be found along the outer beaches, as well as along the shores of Cape Cod Bay and Vineyard and Nantucket sounds. On the south side, consider fishing near the mouths of rivers or inlets where the bays and salt ponds empty into the sound. There are peanut bunker, silversides, bay anchovies and river herring moving out with each falling tide, and stripers have taken up temporary residence in some of the salt ponds and bays as a result. The water is still plenty warm out front, too, so don’t hesitate to walk the beaches if the backwaters don’t produce. The same can be said for Cape Cod Bay and Buzzards Bay. If the harbors and creeks don’t produce, fish the beaches. The new moon can bring some early November magic to a dwindling fall run. Keep small minnow plugs, 3- to 5-inch topwaters, 4-inch paddletails, and lures like Krocodile spoons, diamond jigs, and epoxy jigs at the ready.
There’s plenty of time to enjoy freshwater fishing, and unlike striped bass and tautog, those fish aren’t going anywhere. They’ll get tougher to catch as it gets colder, but tautog will eventually move deeper, out of range for shore fishermen, and stripers will be migrating out sooner than later. I enjoyed the change of pace on the ponds with my friend in town last weekend, but the fact of the matter is there are too many good saltwater opportunities remaining at the moment.
Have a safe and happy Halloween, and thanks for reading. Get out there while the fishing is still good!