Cape Cod Fishing Report
The fall run may start in early September, but now it’s officially autumn, and it’s time to start putting in some serious work before colder weather sets in on Cape Cod.
The new moon, which fell on the first official day of fall, has passed, and it seems to have brought in more albies and signaled some stripers to the north of Cape to get a move on. Batches of fish on the south shore are sliding south with each passing tide cycle. Certain beaches in Cape Cod Bay have seen groups of fish in the mid-30 to 40-inch range slamming plugs one night and become ghost towns the next. It’s a similar story on the outer Cape beaches; bass are pushing south and surfcasters are running into pockets of action on sand eel imitations, namely Ava-style diamond jigs and white bucktails accompanied by long, slender jig strips, according to OTW’s Alex Blackwell. Bluefish have also been in the mix, and surf fishermen casting stout 2-ounce pencil poppers from the sand are pulling in some decent ones. They’re not gators, but they’re not the 3-pound blues that have called the Sound waters home since June. Speaking of the south side of Cape, it appears that big albies from out east—at least some of them—have pushed further west into western Nantucket Sound and Vineyard Sound. There’s no doubt about it—the new moon has really set the fall run in motion.
The one constant among this year’s albies, regardless of where they’re found, is their clear preference for bay anchovies over other available baitfish. Folks chasing Alberts off Nantucket are seeing them key in on half-inch rain bait instead of 5-inch sand eels, to the delight of many fly casters. It can be frustrating, especially because in years past we’ve seen them feed on peanuts, silversides, and even tiny bluefish. Back here on Cape, where anchovies, silversides, and peanut bunker make up the buffet, albies continue to seek the smallest, most vulnerable of the three. The silver lining has been this week’s heavy wind and chop which, according to some captains, seems to have lowered the guard of keen-sighted little tunnies. Those gusty onshore winds even pushed albies directly into Falmouth beaches for a short while, which led to a chaotic, wet, and unfortunately, bountyless lunch break for a few of us here at OTW on Tuesday. This time of year, wind direction plays almost as essential a role as tide when it comes to locating reliable action from the boat, kayak, or from shore. That goes for albies and bones, bluefish, and striped bass. As baitfish drop out of our bays, salt ponds, and harbors in greater numbers, they are at the mercy of the wind and tide.
While wind against tide can kill a summer fluke drift, a stiff onshore wind working against the current created by a dropping tide generates a washing machine effect at inlets and creek mouths. Those are exactly the conditions in which striped bass look to feed during the fall. Going forward, keep an eye on the wind direction as it relates to tide in the area you plan to fish. Doing so will help you piece together bites, even if they’re short-lived, creating bright spots in your fall run log book.
There is a lot of bait in the backwaters right now; rivers, marshes, salt ponds, harbors, and bays are packed with peanut bunker, anchovies, and some spearing. However, the latter are not as abundant as they have been in recent years. Bunker of mixed sizes are showing up out east off Monomoy Island and in select harbors and rivers along the south side and in Cape Cod Bay. Some of them are fully grown, and others range from the size of a quarter to 5 or 6 inches. Mullet are still MIA, although they made a brief appearance in the Cape Cod Canal last week, and there have been rumored sightings across the south-facing beaches. You can’t mistake them for any other forage fish in our waters, so keep your eyes peeled. As mentioned in previous reports, there’s a chance the mullet run skips us this year; it’s too early to tell. But if those 5- and 6-inch mullet do appear again, that’s when things get very interesting.
We can count on some slightly dirty water conditions after this week’s downpour, especially in backwater settings and near inlets and their adjacent beaches. Nearshore albie fishing could suffer as a result, but striped bass will still feed in muddied water. Scope out your local bay waters or salt ponds as the week comes to a close, and if the bait is there (especially peanut bunker), grab your Danny plugs, bucktail jigs, and smaller topwaters and spend some time working them around productive areas like shallow coves, channel edges, and funnels like marsh outflows.
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 the Canal is still experiencing bonito mayhem. Bones can be found feeding up top throughout the ditch, but he said lately they are showing preference for small white paddletails rather than Albie Snax and epoxy jigs. That could be due to those fish seeing epoxy jigs cast their way for the past several weeks, or perhaps it’s the influx of mullet that entered the Canal last week. However, they seem to have thinned out since the weekend. Connor also mentioned a good morning bite toward the east end on Wednesday, which yielded stripers to the middle and upper 30-inch range. According to Bull MacKinnon from the shop, the fish were mostly hugging bottom and hitting jigs, but there were a few fish taken on topwater. FishLab soft macks produced the best results. The shop, he added, has sold through green crabs but should have more by Friday. There are plenty of short tautog being caught throughout Buzzards Bay, but the best bet for a couple keepers is to head further south, from West Falmouth down to the Elizabeth Islands.
Captain Ray Jarvis of Salt of the Earth Sportfishing out of Westport reported: “Fall run is definitely in full swing at this point. We are seeing good numbers of bass returning to the area and feeding heavily on smaller bait. Estuaries and surrounding bays have been the area to find consistent action. Smaller presentations have been the key; Hogy epoxy’s, surface erasers and micro chug poppers have been my go-to choices for lures.
Albies have been getting consistently better around Buzzards Bay and the islands, with some days better than others. Plenty of bait around to keep them interested and seems as though the bite has turned on and off with prevailing wind direction and weather conditions. Looking for dense bait balls of bay anchovies has been the key, both species seem to be shadowing these schools and erupting at times in their more aggressive, visual feeding style. Don’t hesitate to blind cast around these bait balls even if the fish are not showing themselves.”
Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sport Fishing out of Falmouth reported good albie fishing on the south side this week. A new body of fish has definitely moved in and there are some true “buffaloes” in the mix, he said. The 7/8-ounce electric chicken Hogy epoxy was all he could get bit on during Wednesday’s trip, when his charter went 9 for 11; you just have to get casts right in their wheelhouse or they’re not eating, he noted. Striper fishing also picked up out east this week. The skipper said they had bass to 42 inches feeding on pogies up top out at Monomoy a few days back. The white Al Gags Whip-It Fish got the job done. The fishing has definitely picked up since earlier this month, but it’s still a little bit of a grind; you just have to be willing to put in the time to search for action and you’ll be rewarded.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said he went out on Monday and burned quite a bit of gas in search of albies. He ran to West Falmouth, down the Elizabeths past Cuttyhunk, and finally found some action on densely schooled peanut bunker while working his way back along the west side of the Vineyard. There were bay anchovies or silversides down there too, but big, aggressive bonito were dialed in on the peanuts. He caught 5 or 6 on FishLab Bio Shad Flutter Spoons, which he carries in the shop; they have a deep profile that is a close match to the body type of peanut bunker. The salt ponds, he added, are loaded with bait and they’ve been giving up plenty of schoolie stripers on small poppers and spooks. Most of the fish are in the low 20-inch range lately. Evan said he’s also been selling a lot of green crabs recently; the Vineyard Sound side of the Elizabeths tends to be a good area for tautog this time of year, as well as Woods Hole. His customers have caught some keeper tog in lower Buzzards Bay, too. One thing he recommended for novice tautog fishermen during the early fall is to get an extra quart of green crabs for chum, which should get them fired up and feeding. Often, there are fish present on pieces of shallow rock structure, but since water temperatures are still on the mild side, they’re not always willing to chew until you build the bite.
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Captain Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing out of Osterville reported that he and a group of buddies got into some stripers up to the mid 30-inch range inside the back bays on Yo Zuri Crystal Minnows. The backwaters are absolutely loaded with 4- to 6-inch peanut bunker, and Ben claims there are more of them than he’s ever seen. Acres and acres of mid-size peanuts are schooled up tight with cocktail bluefish hanging directly beneath them. He and his friends caught most of their bass by fishing about 100 yards away from the dense schools, which kept the bluefish off their hooks. There are some albies out there in the Sound, but they’re finicky and there are still a ton of small bluefish mixed in with them. A couple of his recent charters had a tough time duping albies, but they had no problem catching good eater-size blues on jigs and on the troll. Ben’s got some availability coming up, so give him a shout to inquire about trip info.
Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters out of Vineyard Haven reported: “This week, we’re still focused on bonito, as the albies have not shown up in numbers yet. The bonito are enjoying the abundance of baitfish and I think this is what has made them a bit fussy. We’re running into breaking pods and schools of bonito nearly everywhere, but they are not always easy to catch. For example, on Monday’s trip we tried every where between Tashmoo and East Beach but did not hook a bonito until the last half hour of the trip, when we found a school of fish feeding heavily between Oak Bluffs harbor and East Chop. The bite lasted long enough for us to land 3 nice bonito before things quieted down. Meanwhile, I set my green crab traps out this week, and have started to collect bait for upcoming tog trips. Tog reports have been good already and I am looking forward to what I hope will be a great tog season.”
Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis said the bite is still very good for albies, bluesfish, and bass locally. There’s plenty of bait to go around in the backwaters and between now and the first moon of October, he anticipates we’ll start to see a mass exodus that should bring great striper fishing to the inlets and their nearby beaches. The recent rain might silt things up a bit for a few days out front, but with the amount of bait in the harbors and bays, it wouldn’t hurt to focus on shallow-water stripers with topwater plugs and soft plastics until the water cleans up heading into the weekend. On the freshwater side, bass fishing is still great in the ponds and we have the annual fall trout stocking to look forward to; in fact, stocking is already underway in parts of western Massachusetts, so it won’t be long until it begins on Cape. He mentioned that the shop is selling plenty of eels lately and they’ve got locally-caught squid back in stock, so swing by for bait if you’re heading out this weekend.
Captain Drew Downing of Down East Charters in Chatham reported: “The bite has been inconsistent out toward us this week. Albies are doing albie-like things such as showing one day and not the next, despite us covering a whole lot of water. Thankfully, bones and blues are also around. Bass have been spotty as well, but should start to re-establish themselves along the beaches on the east side as they stage for fall and dropping temps.”
Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters in Truro reported: “We definitely have lucked out with some awesome September weather and great fishing this week! The light-tackle bonito action has immensely increased off outer Cape Cod with our early morning trips enjoying multiple nice-sized catches. Once that quiets down heading into the later morning hours, the striped bass and blues take over, keeping the action going with some big stripers in the mix, mostly on live bait. The tautog bite will be heating up soon, so we are in shape for some terrific fall fishing. With a nice forecast and openings this weekend, be sure to book your trip today through this link!”
Captain Mike Rathgeber of Cee Jay Fishing Charters out of Provincetown reports that the epic early fall run of striped bass off the outer Cape continued this week, and there’s no clear signs of the bass starting their migration south yet. The fishing has been interesting out east; they caught a huge thresher shark earlier this week, and along with the bass, there are some very large bonito in the mix. Check out their website for rates and info to join the fall run action.
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
After all that talk about wind in the beginning of this report, the forecast shows that it is going to lay down by Friday evening so calm seas should persist through the weekend around Cape Cod. Saturday morning is showing a gentle north breeze that shifts to east/southeast later in the day and continues through Sunday, so it’ll be a great weekend to search the south side for albies. Hopefully that southeast breeze brings in some cleaner, cooler ocean water to counter the muddy water that will likely be coming out of the bays and rivers for a day or two. In settled seas, it’ll be easier to search for and spot schools of bait on the surface. Expect the albies to be keyed in on anchovies and keep smaller, bright-colored (electric chicken) epoxy jigs handy, and don’t hesitate to throw something different like a casting egg and fly. If you’re like me, who is not the most adept fly caster, the egg-and-fly or bubble-and-fly rig is a great way to present albies with a smaller offering that casts long distance and creates a commotion on the surface.
For shore fishermen, Saturday morning would be a good time to hit the beaches in Cape Cod Bay as that low northerly wind may push some bait and bass tight to shore before it switches to southeast. And while personally, I don’t love a southeast breeze for striper fishing on the outer beaches, it’s a great place to intercept transient fish that are beginning or continuing their southward migration. Sand eel presentations like diamond jigs, bucktails, soft-plastics like JoeBaggs and Tsunami Sand Eels, and needlefish will be your best bet. Make sure to pack a few minnow plugs too.
With fish pressing down the south shore of Massachusetts, the Cape Cod Canal is another great weekend option. Plus, there are plenty of big bonito to go around. Pack some small paddletails with your epoxies, tins, and small minnow plugs, because it sounds like the bones have grown a little wary of standard hardtail jigs.
If you have an open schedule after fishing this Saturday morning, join us at On The Water’s StriperFest from 12 to 5 p.m. Here’s a coupon for $5 off entry into the event—just show it at the gate! There will be food from The Black Dog Cafe, demo rides with Yamaha Outboards on Vineyard Sound, raffles to benefit local charities, vendors, artists, live music, games, and more (including beer). Come celebrate another year of striped bass fishing with us and if you’re a Striper Cup member, be sure to bring your golden ticket! That’s your ticket to free entry AND your entry into the boat drawing lottery. Who knows? You just might walk away from the event the owner of a brand new Robalo R200.