Cape Cod Fishing Report- July 24, 2025

Cape Cod Fishing Report

Bonito are playing hard to get. After showing up unseasonably early from Buzzards Bay to Nantucket Sound, the striped speedsters have been almost completely MIA. They carried us through the late summer “doldrums” last year, and with August on the way, inshore anglers are crossing their fingers that the bones will arrive in force any day. Until then, bottom fishing for fluke, scup, and the somehow elusive keeper sea bass is keeping everyone busy.

I took a trip to Horseshoe Shoal with Patriot Party Boat out of Falmouth Harbor over the weekend, with 14 of my closest friends in tow to celebrate my bachelor party. We trolled for bluefish to start and when that didn’t work out, we shifted gears to bottom fishing and caught plenty of keeper-size scup and a handful of sea bass to 19 inches. Keepers were few and far between, but the few we did keep for the table took slow-pitch, epoxy, and bucktail jigs in 70 to 80 feet of water. That’s been the story since the early spring bite died; if you’re looking for sea bass for the table, head straight for deep structure and jig them up.

Fluke continues to be one of the better bites going on the south side of Cape. The shoals in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds are giving up keepers, some of which are pushing doormat status. From shore, there are keepers available but it seems like we are in a transition period as short fluke have been rampant and difficult to pick through in salt ponds and bays. However, the beachfronts and jetties are seeing better fluke action as the fish that moved in during the late spring and early summer slide out of the inlets into more comfortable water temperatures. Casting bucktails, jerk shads, or your favorite Gulp trailer on a jighead is still plenty productive, but it’s time to start poking around out front, so consider slightly heavier jigs than you’d use in the backwaters.

Striped bass have been tough to come by unless you’re heading east to Monomoy, up into Cape Cod Bay from Wood End to Billingsgate, or down to the Elizabeths. Along the islands, your best bet for action is drifting live eels or running into an early-morning/late-evening surface feed. Schools of sand eels are keeping those boulder-hugging bass satiated further south toward Robinsons Hole and Cuttyhunk. In Cape Cod Bay, the bait bite has taken a dive after a sharp drop in water temperature last week and the fish are now hugging bottom and hitting diamond jigs or being caught on topwater plugs and plastics when they run into schools of mackerel in open water. The bay is holding mostly slot fish with some overs and unders. Out east by Monomoy, not much has changed except for the average size of fish dropping a bit. There are a lot of low to mid 20-inch-class stripers out there, but they’re being caught on all the staple offerings that have worked so far this season. Head out there with a mix of poppers, spooks, a couple minnow plugs, and soft plastics that mimic squid and sand eels and you’ll be in good shape.

For shore anglers seeking striper action, the Canal has been giving up plenty of schoolies and decent numbers of slot-size fish this week.

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

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said in Vineyard Sound the fluke crowd has been doing well around Lucas Shoal and Middle Ground. The fishing has slowed down in Buzzards Bay with lots of smaller fluke in the low teens, but there are still a few keepers around to make it worth picking through shorts. The Canal has been decent in terms of action, but not great in the size department; there are plenty of schoolie stripers around 20 inches, and some in the slot. Bull from the shop caught 9 slots this morning on small white paddletails. Smaller offerings like Storm Shads and 2-ounce pencils are working well, as the bass are mostly on thick schools of silversides, along with some squid and mackerel. As far as bluefish, he added, there are snappers in the harbors of upper Buzzards Bay but no gators as of late. 

From the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reported: “If you like catching schoolies, the Canal is the place for you. Bob “Bull” MacKinnon brought so many to the rocks during a marathon session over several hours mid-week with his small Tsunami shad, that he lost track. Rain bait including silversides are dominant now. Success hinges on matching the hatch with small swimmers like the Daiwa SP Minnow. The slot bite has diminished after the positive effects of the full moon, probably taking up temporary residence in Cape Cod Bay. Last week started with John “Seadog” Schmidt reeling in a black sea bass from the floor of the Canal that was an inch short of a keeper and Bill “Slots” Walsh worked an early east tide with his 7-inch white Cotton Cordell Red Fin, landing a striped bass that will soon grow into slot size. The east end is still chock full of mackerel; Carlos Reis snagged his limit of 20 macks throwing a sabiki rig.” 

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said a lot of customers that are fishing around town are getting keeper scup from shore. Aside from scup, the south side in Falmouth is relatively quiet with the exception of brown sharks on the beaches at night. Further south, there are some stripers being caught on live eels along the Elizabeths, and a few customers recently ran into schools of sand eels down by Robinsons with bass up to 28 inches on them. The southwest side of the Vineyard he added, is holding a few stripers as well, but Monomoy is still the place to go for consistent action. Allegedly, there were some hardtails blitzing on rain bait just east of Mashpee earlier this week; Evan said they are most likely bonito, but the guy in the shop seemed convinced they were albies, which would be a very early arrival for them. On the bottom fishing front, the best sea bass fishing right now is in deep water off Nomans. It’s a long way to run for sea bass, but there are only small ones locally. Tuna fishing, he added, is back on the upswing after a lull in the bite south of the islands earlier this week—although it seems bluefin of the XL variety have moved in. A handful of his customers this week have seen or hooked big tuna south of the Vineyard, and while they may not be giants, they are much bigger than the class of 40- to 55-inch fish that have been there lately. Evan had one customer whose spreader bar got mangled and two others who were spooled in the past few days. The smaller tunas, he said, seem to have pushed back west, where the jig bite appears to be turning on due to abundant sand eels.

Amy at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said the tuna bite has slowed down quite a bit south of the islands. It was very good for a week or so there, but most of the folks she’s spoken to who have made the trip since have come up empty. That said, there’s still plenty of bait out there. More locally, there are schoolie stripers along some of the beaches, but they’re on small bait and the action is reserved to low light. Monomoy still has plenty of bass, although the average size seems to have dropped off a bit. The fluke bite in the Sound has been spotty, she said. The fish seem to be on the move and while there are quite a few shorts available off the beaches, keepers have been tougher to come by closer to home. Places like Succonnesset Shoal have been very quiet. Scup fishing, on the other hand, remains very good from the nearby beach jetties. Squid, sea worms, and Gulp will all do the trick. There are whispers, she added, of bonito and bluefish showing up on the south side again, but it was unclear where or how plentiful they were.

Tyler Huckemeyer of the Helen H in Hyannis reported from Nantucket Sound that the porgy and sea bass bite is currently very good and has remained consistent for most of the summer. Striper fishing, he said, has been red hot on the north side in Cape Cod Bay; this morning’s trip crushed slot-size fish and the biggest bass measured 36 inches. Back on the south side, fluke fishing at Nantucket Shoals is maintaining a moderate pace; the action is not exactly drop and reel, but there are some nice fish being taken with a fair amount of small keepers and throwbacks in the mix. It’s hit or miss; some days the boat is limiting out, others day there are more small fluke coming up. Most trips are seeing a steady pick from a wide range of sizes, which is keeping things interesting and is generally on par for this time of year. The biggest fluke to come up recently was an 11 pounder.

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Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters on Martha’s Vineyard reported: “We might be entering the ‘dog days’ part of the season. For the most part, this week was very similar to last week, just with fewer fish. I have spent part of every trip either searching for bluefish or at least looking for signs of feeding fish. We have seen some big flocks of terns, but they were over sea bass. Sure, sea bass are fun, but they’re not bluefish. Or bonito. The bluefish have been scarce and I haven’t seen any bonito. Most trips have been at least partly devoted to fluke and sea bass fishing. The numbers of fish seems to have declined, at least in the places that have been productive for us recently. However, and I may have buried the lead here, there have been a couple of outstanding catches this week. Cathy Carlson, who always seems to catch a big fluke, decked an impressive 8-pound rug. This was the biggest fluke on the boat so far this season. Just four days late for the Fluke for Luke tournament, though. Gotta work on my timing. And yesterday, the stars aligned and I had a day off, beautiful weather, and good intel all on the same day. So Bret Benway, John Potter and I headed south (and west) to search for tuna. I couldn’t have dreamed better weather. We left the dock at 3 so that we could be out there at first light. We had lines in by 5:15 or so. We had two fish on the deck by 6:15. Both about 44-inch bluefins. We had just gotten both of those fish on ice when we got a third bite on the troll. This time I was on the rod, which was a treat, as it’s usually my guests reeling in the fish. It was especially sweet because it was on a reel given to me my friend Craig Przysiecki and a rod built for me by my friend Bill Lellis. We released that third fish and watched him swim away. Soon after that, we marked some fish near the bottom and stopped to jig. We hooked up on the jig in short order and after a great fight, released one more fish. Four tuna hooked and landed before 8:30 am. We jigged a little longer, and then went back to trolling. I really wanted to catch a fish on a Madmacs or a DTX Minnow, so we loaded the spread with two of each and two side-tracker squid bars. But we had no more bites. Still, we went 4 for 4, it was a fantastic day of fishing with good friends, we saw dolphins and whales, and as I write this, the pressure cooker is hissing away, processing jars of canned bluefin tuna that we will enjoy for months.” 

Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Fishing Charters reported that his tuna charter on Saturday was sort of slow. Most boats that got into fish had only one or two, which was a significant drop in action since last week when boats were hooking anywhere from 7 to 9 fish per trip. The bite shut down when they started driving in those wind turbine pilings. Bass fishing, he said, continues to bring consistent action. Cam’s still running charters out to Monomoy and they’re catching on poppers, IslandX lures, SP Minnows and soft plastics. Cam also mentioned that when they’ve had a break in tuna and striper charters, he’s been finding consistent sea bass action when sailing out of Westport. Some bigger bluefish, he added, have settled in down by the Islands and off the Vineyard but they’re on the move daily, so they’ve been very difficult to pattern.”

From Nantucket, Rick Ramos shared the following report: “From the Beach: The dog days of summer have officially set in, making things tougher for island surfcasters. Action has slowed, with short windows of striped bass activity at daybreak and sunset, especially along the south shore. Nighttime has offered the best opportunities for anglers willing to cover ground. Angler Bobby King reported a brief but productive 20-minute stretch at first light at Nobadeer Beach, landing five bass on soft plastics. Angler Greg Chotkowski continues to find bass on the west end, and the arrival of snapper blues has added some fun light-tackle action for those fishing from shore. 

From the Boat: The offshore tuna bite continues to heat up. Captain Jay Starr of Starrfish Charters made headlines this week with a massive 113-inch bluefin tipping the scales at 857 pounds. 

Inshore fishing has cooled off slightly, but Captain Corey Gammill of Bill Fisher Outfitters reports that the best bass fishing remains to the east, where cooler water temperatures are holding both bass and a recent push of larger bluefish. The Monomoy Rips continue to produce, with thick schools of sand eels keeping fish actively feeding in the rips. While the West End hasn’t fired up yet this season, the Bonito Bar is shaping up nicely and loaded with sand eels and poised to become the main stage for the hardtail migration expected in August. 

The Nantucket Anglers’ Club is launching The Skillie Shootout, a new, all catch-and-release white marlin tournament running from July 26 through August 9.  White marlin have long held a special place in the hearts of Nantucket anglers. Tournament Director Chris Bell shared his connection to the fishery, saying: “I’ve watched the white marlin fishery come and go in my lifetime growing up and fishing on the island. Lately, it’s come flourishing back, and I think it’s time we take advantage of the incredible opportunity we have to catch these fish right in our own backyard. The Skillie Shootout is all about that — a fun, local tournament for both islanders and visitors who want to chase marlin and celebrate what makes Nantucket fishing so special.”  The tournament features two divisions—Open Boats and Tower Boats—as well as a Tagging Division sponsored by The Billfish Foundation’s Skillie Project, which supports the conservation and long-term sustainability of Nantucket’s white marlin fishery. 

Whether you’re a seasoned offshore angler or simply looking to be part of something meaningful and exciting, The Skillie Shootout promises great fishing, good fun, and a shared appreciation for one of Nantucket’s most iconic gamefish.” 

George Sylvestre of Sylvestre Outdoors in Brewster reported: “Fly anglers have had some highly productive days on the Monomoy rips recently, slinging calamari to hungry bass. Keep those squid flies handy, but keep an eye out for changes in the water as new bait often shifts the bite off of what’s been working. With all the action on the rips, its been crowded out there at times. If you are looking to get away from the crowds or simply looking for something new, head up towards either of the Chatham cuts and keep an eye out for schools of bass feeding on sand eels. This is a good opportunity to tune up your run-and-gun game before the albies show up.” 

Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported: “This week if any was a true testament to the rule that success comes to those who adapt to change…and adapt quickly. While the week started with “easy” fishing close to shore on live bait and vertical jigs, the steep drop in water temperature disrupted this pattern and sent the Reel Deal fleet on some long hauls to keep our clients on the fish. As Captain Bobby says, he “ran the gauntlet” to find the fish and kept our boats busy with tight lines! Still some topwater activity to be had at sunrise and we look forward to seeing what these stronger SW winds will bring us for the upcoming weekend. Check out our availability here to catch your bucket list striped bass!” 

Captain Matthew Dempsey of Salt Reaper Charters in Dennis reported: “Cape Cod Bay is still producing some great light-tackle action, casting Sebiles and XL Fish Snax. The afternoons have been fishing better than the mornings due to the tides. It’s a lot of slot-size fish, but there are some overs mixed in as well.” 

Captain Mike Rathgeber of CeeJay Fishing in Provincetown reported: “Striped bass fishing last weekend was lights out. Anytime you can limit out a boat of 30 people, you know it’s been a good day. Drifting mackerel chunks were the ticket and the fish being 15 minutes from the dock allowed everyone maximum fishing time. A strong northerly front came through to chill the water and scatter the fish, but the advanced weather looks good and the fish will regroup and settle back in again.”

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

Shore anglers on the south side of Cape can enjoy a mixed bag of scup and fluke by day, and play catch and release with brown sharks by night. Keep metals and epoxy jigs on hand in case bonito or bluefish pop up within casting range.

The shores of Cape Cod Bay have been mostly quiet for striped bass fishermen, but there are some resident schoolies to be caught after dark. Surface-swimming minnow plugs like Bombers and Red Fins should stay in the rotation this time of year, as should slow-sinking needlefish and soft plastics like XL Fish Snax or Super Snax, and Slug-gos or similar eel-like soft plastics. If catching stripers is your goal, and size is not of concern, a morning trip to the Canal is a safe bet. Bring a range of soft plastics and jighead weights, and some small pencil poppers and minnow plugs.

Nantucket Sound seems like the place to be for the most reliable scup and sea bass action, which is a great way to end the day after catching stripers at Monomoy in the morning.

Above all else, if you have the means, run south of the islands with trolling and jigging gear for bluefin. It sounds like the lull earlier this week is already ramping back up, and the bait (sand eels) never left.