Symptoms include: inability to distinguish waves from breaking fish, ignoring weekend chores, launching a questionable watercraft, fudging a fever for a sick day, as well as overall delirium and insanity. The disease? Albie Fever, it manifests itself in many ways and for a lot anglers, myself included, Albie Fever has been left to fester for weeks.
With Dr Matt Haeffner out on his honeymoon, (Congrats to the Haeffners!). I’ll be filling in with my best attempt at prescribing Scombridae Sickness cures and remedies in this weeks report. A task easier said than done, as the cure is what drives the diseases itself.
Fat Albert has yet to show up in full force on the South Side beaches of the Cape. The hot spot now seems to be Rhode Island, so Cape- bound anglers are left hoping those fish push up the coast by the weekend. There are still Albies to be had in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard sound, the fish just seem to be spotted throughout, rather than ravaging bait schools like we are used to by this time of year. Hopefully the incoming north wind will blow some of those tuna-oids north to the buffet of bait that is here waiting to be eaten.
A few anglers have found good schools of Spanish mackerel. Most coming on epoxy jigs and small minnow plugs, Spanish Macks are usually mixed in with other species, and fall somewhere between Bonito and Albies in terms of drag-singing abilities. Very cool looking, and quite delicious, these exotics are always welcomed visitors in the Northeast. (Great, another tropical, pelagic visitor to contribute to the various forms of hardtail hysteria) .
Coming up for a breath of hardtail-less fresh air, school is back in session, and the schoolies have taken notice. The dropping water temperatures seem to have, dare I say it, kicked off earliest signs of the fall run? My go-to-bayside schoolie holes have woken up after being on the quiet side for the past few weeks. With lots of bait around I’ve found bass up to slot size willing to eat small surface plugs in the morning, and paddle tails in the evenings. I was able to notice bass eating crabs and very small bait, but contrary to the albies, matching the hatch is less important than just making a solid presentation with whatever you have tied on. Sandy beaches and outflows have been productive, but don’t hesitate to beat feet in search of feeding groups of fish. May not be drag screaming hardtails or massive fall cows, but aggressive stripers charged up by cooler water temps will certainly tide me over until I can hook another False Albacore.
Let’s check in with the local tackle shops and charter captains:
AJ at Red Top Sporting Goods was excited to get my call this morning, as the canal seems to have popped off. Earlier this week, a big school of bonito and large gator blues rolled through the ditch. The usual suspects, epoxys, metals, and small plugs have been the ticket in that department. The canal is full of peanuts, silversides, mackerel even some squid, and it seems the large bass finally took notice. Linesiders up to 40 inches have been pulled out of the water at a fairly consistent rate. AJ theorizes that the cooler nights and later sunrises have kicked of some fall feeding behavior for those big bass. Just because you snoozed that alarm for the sunrise striper bite, doesn’t mean you should call off the whole mission. The bones, blues, and sporadic Albies have kept the bite going into the early afternoon on some days. Head down with a few different presentations, and be ready to make a quick change, could run into just about anything down there this time of year.
The crew at Eastman’s had a nice report for the typist this morning as well. Stripers have been more active recently. Guys are working hard for their fish, especially ones of quality size, but they are there to be caught. If it was easy, everyone would do it. Grab some eels and head for rocky areas like woods hole and the Elizabeths. The striper actions been getting better almost every day so don’t delay, in a few months’ time, they will be gone until next spring.
The Eastman’s men echoed the tune of tough albie fishing in the Falmouth area. Kayakers and surfcasters be wary, lots of shark activity in the area, and I can’t imagine how delicious a big oily, bloody Albie or bonito looks to a hungry brown shark. I had a large brown shark fining about 35 yards in front of my boulder, close enough for me. Pay attention and always wear a knife somewhere that is accessible by either hand in case you need to cut a line, or defend yourself (I wear a blade mounted on my center chest for ambidextrous access). Down the coast, anglers in Craigsville nailed Albies from shore, and seen some better feeds just out of casting range. On the backside of the vineyard, tuna fishermen are having trouble weeding through albies to catch their target species. Complaining about too many albies is a tune that will fall on deaf ears to most Cape anglers, but hey at least they are somewhere! The vineyard has also produced lots of bones, and good-sized ones. Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven seem to be the bonito epicenter in that neck of the woods.
Captain Cam of Cambo Charters has been focusing primarily on the giant Bluefin Tuna bite, which has been great all over the cape. Dependent on weather windows, Cam has been in the bay, outer cape, and anywhere else BFT can be found. Work to find some fish, use the right bait and you should find some fish. In the bay it’s been balls of bunker keeping these behemoths fed, elsewhere it’s been mostly mackerel. Captain Cam has also been doing some fluking between Tuna trips, which have proven to be fruitful expeditions.
Captain Ray Jarvis of Salt Of The Earth Sportfishing reported that pre-fall run fishing has kicked off. Out of Westport, Captain Ray fishes from the Cape to RI. Bones have been decent throughout the region and bass fishing is on and off with some larger bass in deeper water on eels and artificials. Captain has seen early morning surface feeds around the islands with a mix of smaller bass, bluefish and Bonita.
The amount of the bait around is epic, and everything is set up to be an awesome fall run. Offshore, there are still recreational bluefin to be had, but the bite has been sporadic after Erin. Some giants close to home and larger rec fish randomly popping up nearshore. This is a great time of year to find bluefin a few miles out on balls of bunker or mackerel. Captain Ray tells me that from now until November, has produced some of his most memorable Bluefin Catches, just off Westport in years past.
Captain Elena from Reel Deal Sportfishing tells us September striped bass fishing on outer Cape Cod so far remains hot as anglers are enjoying early morning topwater bites as well as a strong live bait bite throughout the morning hours into early afternoon. Some days requiring a bit more travel than others, but our boats have been keeping our clients on terrific activity landing and releasing many over slot fish on the feed. There is some offshore excitement to report too! Captain Bobby and Captain Ian both brought in giant bluefin tuna during their recent charters on an open commercial day. This multiple boat group charter reveled in the adrenalin surge while battling these beasts! A large porbeagle shark was also caught. Cape Cod fishing still has plenty to offer as we appreciate these final weeks of summer, so do not hesitate any longer and book your trip today with openings available into early October.
Captain Kurt of Fishticks Charters reports “It seems like every year, as soon as the Derby starts, the weather turns nasty. I’m sure I’m exaggerating, but it feels that way. And this year, it feels like the bad weather has gotten a head start. This week, I managed to get six trips in, but only by shifting the schedule around to avoid the worst weather. One of the weeks highlights was a shark sighting. A large shark followed my lure to within a couple rod-lengths from the boat. The head was broad and rounded, not pointy, so it could have been a dusky shark. It’s hard to judge the size of a shark when he’s swimming straight at you. Honestly, it’s hard not to freak out when a large shark is swimming straight at you, even if you’re standing on the deck of a boat! Monday’s weather was much nicer, and Lee Fritchman and family had what turned out to be my most productive bonito outing of the year, so far. Typical of this whole bonito season, we spent hours searching unproductively, seeing the occasional pod of breaking fish, but mostly just lots of bait either peacefully living their happy baitfish lives or harassed by cormorants and terns, but no fish, until finally coming upon a big feed that lasted long enough to give up 5 nice bonito. Those are the moments we hope for, and the ones that keep us out there trying. On Tuesday, I was back at the scene of the shark sighting with Jeff and Andrew Dallenbach, and we saw what might have been that same shark attack a bonito hooked by someone on another boat. We hooked and lost one bonito, but managed to land a small bluefish, of which there have been a few, mixed in with the bonito. We’ve been catching on a variety of lures, including epoxy jigs, metals (my favorite is the Swedish Pimple) and small swimming plugs, like the X-Rap. I’m getting ready to set my green crab traps out to catch bait for what I hope will be a great tautog season. On a couple of recent trips, we spent some time jigging sea bass (all released because the season is closed now and yeah, they’re mostly small anyway) and scup while waiting for breaking fish to pop up. As a bonus, we caught and released a few small tog, which is a good sign of things to come. While I normally think of tog as strict shellfish eaters, they clearly will eat a minnow that strays too close, based on their willingness to strike a diamond jig. I’ll be fishing for the Derby species for the next several weeks, of course, but I’ll be more than happy to start fishing for tog even before the end of the Derby, so anyone who’s interested in this great fall fishery should give me a call”
Captain Rick Ramos from Nantucket reports, “Albies are still on the east end and around great point. There are plenty of bones around and snapper blues have swarmed the island with a few gators mixed in. Larger bass are starting activate. Surfcaster Bobby King landed a 39-inch bass to put him in a commanding lead of the Nantucket Inshore Classic beach division. Pat McEvoy leads the boat division while Russel Carson leads the fly division. Juniors anglers Eli Slosek and Ray Harrison lead the boat and beach divisions.”
The Nantucket Inshore Classic has kicked off and so have the fall patterns on the little boomerang shaped Island. I had a taste of the Nantucket Albies a few weeks ago, and it’s the only thing keeping me from falling off the edge. They make you work, but the Albie fishing down there can be top notch.
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
Despite a slow start, I’m confident the albies will soon arrive here in full force. Theres more bait here than you can shake a stick at, and Fat Albert seems to be tearing through Rhode Island. With some north wind on the horizon, we could see a biomass of albies show up to the party any day now. Gentle reminder that despite the painful pangs of Albie fever, remain respectful and work together on the water. A few friendly shouts or radio chatter with surrounding boats can go a long way when the next school of Albies pops up. No one wants to miss a feed, but no one wants to run over fish either, so find the balance. Working together or just simply communicating with other boats can pay off tenfold when the fish are quick up and down.
Alternatively, you could abandon the fever laden albie fleet and find some recently activated bass. Not a half bad idea to give the sickly Scombridae chasers the slip and get some stripers to yourself. Anyone with an outboard or an epoxy jig has pretty much abandoned the stripers, but bowing out of the albie chase is easier said than done. I personally haven’t glanced at my freshwater gear since April, but as Great Lakes smallmouth enthusiast, I’m excited to apply some of those tactics to the kettle ponds soon and will soon turn my attention towards some bronze backs. The striper fishing should only get better, there is bonito out there for the taking, albies are moving in, and the giant tuna bite is on. I’d say we are only a few brown and orange leaves away from fall here on Cape Cod.