Cape Cod Fishing Report- May 8, 2025

Cape Cod Fishing Report

The excellent squid run continues this week from Hyannis to Buzzards Bay. Boat and dock/pier fishermen are getting in on the action, but results have been mixed. The shore-based squid bite seems very tide dependent, according to OTW’s Adam Eldridge who managed to bucket only a couple of squid last night in Buzzards Bay. Hyannis, on the other hand is fishing very well. My friend Ryan Henry said the squid boats have been within a mile of the local beaches.

Stripers are filling in nicely; up until this week, we’ve seen small, sporadic pods of fish moving along the south side near Vineyard Sound and in the northern reaches of Buzzards Bay. That changed early in the week when schools of bass were caught marching north through Buzzards Bay. If they weren’t smashing herring, they were sipping on what appeared to be silversides beneath flocks of terns and gulls.

The upper Cape estuaries have fish from schoolie size to the low 30-inch class, but they aren’t exactly stacked up in the back. However, in addition to the stripers, weakfish and bluefish have wasted no time making their presence known. Strong numbers of grass shrimp in the backwaters have those early-arriving weakfish well fed.

Stripers continue to key in on herring on the south side, but there have also been some adult bunker pods in the estuaries and marshes. Meanwhile, up in Buzzards Bay and in the Canal, silversides, river herring, squid and tinker mackerel are on the menu for migrating bass. And a few more bluefish are right there with them.

Blues are also beginning to show up on the beaches of Nantucket Sound. OTW’s Jimmy Fee had one swipe his soft plastic tight to shore while he was striper fishing over the weekend, but as bluefish tend to do, it chomped the plastic clean in half just below the hook. Judging by the strong run of bluefish down south and the abundant squid in our waters right now, we should be in for a solid run this spring. Expect skinny “racer” blues in the 6- to 8-pound range early on; the true gators will follow as the month progresses.

As mentioned, there are bunker on the south side. I witnessed a substantial blitz of what looked to be bass, with large birds overhead, assaulting schools of big baitfish in Vineyard Sound over the weekend—although they never came close enough to shore to get a cast into the melee. They could have been eating herring, but the next day, I found full-size bunker scattered in the marsh grasses on the south side.

Whether the bass are eating bunker or herring, they’re showing a preference for bigger baits in the backwaters. My buddy Andrew Burke caught a nice bass pushing 28 inches on a 7-inch Slug-go, crept slowly along the bottom, while we were fishing a narrow choke point during the start of the ebb tide last night. Smaller plastics and plugs were ignored.

Speaking of the marshes, cinder worm hatches are already underway in muddy, shallow corners of salt ponds and bay systems on the upper Cape. In my experience, there haven’t been any fish on them yet, which is surprising, but a few more days of temps in the high 60s should find bass taking small walk-the-dog topwaters, pink RonZs, Albie Snax, and cinder worm fly patterns in skinny water.

Tautog fishing from shore is still producing good action from keepers, but there are a whole lot of short fish in the mix now. Boat anglers from Vineyard Sound to Buzzards Bay should start poking around in slightly deeper water—20 to 40 feet—and use larger crab baits to keep the shorts off your hooks.

Here’s what our local tackle shops and charters had to report heading into the weekend:

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay told me that the Canal has good numbers of herring with slot and over-slot fish on them, however, they have ben pretty finicky. Redfin’s have been the ticket for the daily ditch casters. Our local rivers, he said, are loaded with schoolies too, but whether or not they’re chewing depends on what the tide is doing. Outgoing has been best in his experience. Connor also said that there are squid and herring in the north end of Buzzards Bay with some bigger fish on them. Tautog fishing, he added, remains very good; Ian fished in northern Buzzards on small rock piles and said they had good numbers throughout the tide. The shop will have a fresh load of green crabs and sea worms come Friday morning, and they have clams and mackerel in stock. 

Sailing in Buzzards Bay, Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sport Fishing said they’ve been doing very well this week up until this morning, which was met with slower action. According to the skipper, a lot of the fish in upper Buzzards that he was wailing on this week seem to have pushed through the Canal. There’s still plenty of bait and sporadic pockets of fish kicking around, but the bigger herd, which Brian said consisted of hundreds if not thousands of fish, seems to have moved on. Brian said they had fish to 38 inches feeding on herring yesterday near the Canal, but this morning they were nowhere to be found. That said, there are still fish to be caught, it’s just not every cast like they had earlier in the week. The next moon on May 12 is sure to bring another wave of fish into the bay.

Alex MacMillian of FishLinked Charters in Wareham reported: “Buzzards Bay lit up this week. It seems like you can’t go anywhere without seeing some birds vortexing and some boiling water pop up. Getting the bass to chew, on the other hand, might prove more difficult. We’ve had luck with smaller shads and some topwater plugs, watching size on lures to match the class of fish. While fishing topwater we were met with a welcome surprise—a gator bluefish joined the party. I’m unsure if they are here in numbers yet or if this guy teamed up with some stripers during the migration. A welcome sight nonetheless. Tautog fishing has remained consistent but the overarching feeling is that they will be moving out sooner than later. Looking forward to what next week brings.”

From the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports: “Long time Canal Rat “Bill on the Grill” Prodouz brought 5 fish to the shore last week, right around the corner from the west end of the Canal—3 slots, a short and a nice 34-inch striped bass that all fell for a blurple Swarter. Expert surfcaster “Bull” MacKinnon reported that a good size school of stripers, mostly schoolies & slots, were staging outside the west end earlier this week. He caught a baker’s dozen elsewhere on the Canal Tuesday morning with a Tsunami stick shad.

US Air Force veteran Harold Skelton is hosting another terrific fishing tournament to benefit veterans in crisis. The Fishing for the Mission 22 Annual Black Sea Bass Tournament is scheduled for May 30 thru June 1 with several incentives on the line including the Grand Prize of $3,000. The awards ceremony will be held in Buzzards Bay Park near the Railroad Bridge. Contact info@fishingforthemission22.org for more details.”

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

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said the crowds have picked up and a lot of his customers are catching schoolies on the south side. The action seems to be better out front on the beaches. However, one of Evan’s friends landed a handful of bass in the 30-inch range while bouncing around the salt ponds. Paddletails and bucktails are doing most of the catching. He’s also been hearing there are mackerel around on the south side, which is a somewhat rare occurrence in the spring. The tog fanatics, he said, are doing really well, from the plentiful pieces along Falmouth on down to the Elizabeth Islands and Vineyard Sound. Evan also mentioned that Capt. Ron Signs of Bucktail Charters said he was going for stripers in the rips this morning to scout it out, so we’ll have to wait to hear his results. With so much squid around, Evan thinks the rips in Vineyard Sound are bound to light up any day. It might be worth checking it out this weekend.

When I spoke to Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Fishing Charters, he said they were out near Hyannis crushing some daytime squid. The bite out there has been stellar, according to Cam, but he anticipates the action will fizzle out in the near future. There’s still time to get some squid while the getting is good, but he’s turning his attention to stripers and scup. Cam said the scup fishing in Buzzards Bay was lights out with some hubcap-size specimens coming over the rail on clam bellies this week. He’s got a striper charter scheduled for Saturday and plans to focus on mostly haddock and scup next week. Give him a call to inquire about availability.

Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said there is a whole a lot going on in Hyannis. The winter flounder bite is picking up on the north side in Cape Cod Bay; seaworms have been the preferred bait. Tautog fishing has been good close to home with some nice keepers up to 21 inches being caught from shore. Locally, squid fishing is fantastic—they’re in super thick. They daytime bite is good and night bite is even better. There are some stripers showing up, and some of them are decent size. Shore/surf fishermen are catching slots and overs on the north side, while schoolies and slots seem more abundant on the south side. Amy also heard more than one report of bluefish between 21 to 25 inches in Nantucket Sound. Up in Buzzards Bay, former shop employee Ben Sussman said they were catching jumbo scup while tog fishing. They even reeled in a few black sea bass that had to be thrown back (since the season is closed.) In fresh water, Amy said, her kids have been catching big yellow perch and largemouth on ribbon worms and curly-tail grubs.

Captain Matthew Dempsey of Salt Reaper Charters in Dennis reported: “Winter flounder fishing in Cape Cod Bay is starting to pick up with water temperatures on the rise. Sea worms seem to be the trick-on double rigs using light weights in 50 feet of water seems to be where most fish are holding. Hyannis squid fishing is also off to a great start, with plenty around both day and night. The Yo-Zuri A1696 Mini Squid Jigs and Hogy’s new Micro Squid Jig seem to be working the best, with pink as the go-to color, along with blue and orange. Light line and fluorocarbon leads are also playing a factor in helping out the bite on a slower tide, and the squid seem to be anywhere from 10 to 20 feet of water.”

Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported: “It was great to be back out on the water this week! Winter flounder fishing has provided great light tackle activity with clam strips; best to get fresh clams if available. Reports of striped bass are increasing by the day and we look forward to targeting them when Pamet Harbor opens back up this weekend. Thank you to the elected officials and staff of the Town of Truro for getting emergency dredging underway yesterday due to a large sandbar which was filling in the navigation channel at the mouth of the Pamet Harbor.” 

Captain Drew Downing of Down East Charters in Chatham reported that he hasn’t gone out fishing yet since Chatham is still quiet on the striper front. Local water temps remain in the low 50s, so he’s planning to do some tautog fishing this weekend until the bass bite picks up out east. Give him a shout to inquire about upcoming availability.

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

It’s amazing what a week of warm, spring weather can do for our saltwater fisheries. Water temps in some parts of Buzzards Bay are as high as 60 degrees, and right on cue, bass are showing interest in topwater. There are so many options to wet a line this weekend, so let’s run through them.

The south side has stripers from the beaches to the backwaters, with bluefish in the mix out front. Topwaters are working well, as are swimming plugs, bucktails and soft plastics. In the back, you may find herring, bunker, spearing, grass shrimp, and/or cinder worms. Fly guys, now is the time to trade the trout box for the saltwater box if you haven’t already done so. Tautog fishing has also been great from Hyannis to the Elizabeth Islands with some quality keepers still coming from shallow water on green crabs. However, there are loads of fiddler crabs in the marshes; if you have a bucket and you want some sneaky, free tog bait, go get ’em. Squid fishing is also stellar right now, so if you can find the time and the means, get out there to load up on some “fresh galamad”.

Cape Cod Bay’s winter flounder bite is starting off strong. The fish are chewing anywhere from 25 to 50 feet of water, and if you’ve got sea worms and clam, you’ll likely be able to stack more than a few fillets. Remember, the minimum size for a keeper is 12 inches and the limit is 8 per angler. Striper fishing has dramatically improved on the bay side as well, with some larger bass in the slot and over pushing into the backwaters. Danny plugs and other surface-swimming metal lips have been catching, as well as minnow plugs and plastics.

Buzzards Bay is alive and fishing well with bass, blues, tautog, and more recently, large scup. With a few early spring sea bass already in the mix and, again, abundant squid in the area, it should be a solid start to sea bass season on the 17th. For stripers, keep a topwater tied on and consider switching to single hooks to not only protect the bass, but to make hook removals safer and easier on those marauding bluefish. Glidebaits, metal lips, minnow plugs, plastics, and bucktails will also get looks from bass, especially if they are on some different bait besides herring. There are squid, spearing and even some mackerel in play, so be ready to pivot by keeping an array of artificials at the ready.

It’s a great week to be a Cape Codder. Get out and enjoy it.