Cape Cod Fishing Report
Is the hardtail season over? It depends on who you talk to. Incessant wind has kept a lot of boats off the water since the weekend, but a few kayak and boat anglers in eastern Nantucket Sound have encountered blitzing bonito and a few albies over the past few days. There are still bones in the Canal, too, but if you ask fishermen on the upper Cape how the bonito and albie fishing has been since the nor’easter, the consensus is: lackluster.
The saving grace of the constant wind has been a decent topwater striper bite from the south side beaches to the shores and harbors of Cape Cod Bay. In Nantucket Sound, baitfish are slowly but surely thinning out in the back, which has made inlets and nearby beaches prime target areas for shore and wading fishermen. There are peanut bunker and scant finger mullet lingering, with the former being far more abundant and slightly larger than the peanuts of late summer/early fall. The bulk of those bunker are 4 to 6 inches long, so mid-size spooks, pencils and poppers are getting the most looks from the slot-size bass that are feeding on them. From first light to an hour after sunrise is the magic window for surface action. After dark, glidebaits and swimming plugs like Bombers and Red Fins or junior Dannys, along with live eels, are picking up some over-slot fish on the south side as schools of bass push west and south on their migration.
Despite the constant wind, which has been gusting to nearly 30 knots some days, tautog fishing continues to be a bright spot. With the wind direction constantly shifting between northeast, northwest, southeast and southwest, there’s almost always a place for anglers to tuck into the lee and drop jigs or rigs. I was treated to some excellent togging in 70 feet of water on the south side last weekend with my friend Harvey Russell of My Brother Charters. We left out of Falmouth Harbor with a plan to fish jigs through slack tide, and when we stopped over structure in roughly 30 feet, we quickly realized there was quite a bit of pressure on those fish. Once we settled over some deeper structure, it was clear we made the right decision. We had steady action around slack tide with fish to 6 or 7 pounds on 2-ounce jigs tipped with whole, small green crabs. We’d chum with the discarded legs and by the time our jigs reached bottom, tog (and some XL throwback sea bass) were pouncing on them.
The next day, we were joined by our mutual friend, Chris LaFrange, and his wife and son, with a plan to fish the same window. The wind had shifted to southeast, so there were some pretty large swells and it made it tougher to maintain contact with our jigs. There was a lot of swinging and missing, and when we did connect, the bulk of the fish were just barely short of keeper status. Thankfully, Chris came with the hot hand and managed to land 3 keepers.
While we picked away at some quality fish in 70- to 80-foot depths, my friends and coworkers at OTW fished shallow rock piles in Buzzards Bay—as shallow as 8 to 15 feet. Jimmy Fee and Robbie Tartaglia both had good results, and a couple limits between their groups. Clearly, the tog are spread across a range of depths, so don’t be discouraged if your shallow spot goes quiet. A good strategy going forward is to start shallow and, depending on the results, slide into deeper water 10 to 20 feet at a time. This is why it’s helpful to have a healthy selection of tog spots in different depths that consist of different types of structure. You may find big keepers on deep wrecks, or they could all be hugging one massive boulder in 20 feet of water. Don’t hesitate to bounce around if you’re not met with decent results after the first few drops of the day.
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 this morning there were bonito caught along the Cape side beaches in Cape Cod Bay and more bones in the east end of the Cape Cod Canal later in the morning. There were slot-size stripers down there too, but the bite was slower in the morning than it was last night. Loads of fish moved into the ditch just before dusk yesterday, so there’s potential for a night bite to develop. Tautog fishing in Buzzards Bay, he added, has been consistent, although catching keepers requires weeding through a lot of shorts. The west end of the Canal and the east end, even, have been giving up some good tog in the low-20-inch range. Meanwhile, down on the south side in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds, the striper bite is showing signs of improvement with schoolie to just-over-slot fish blitzing tight to shore first thing in the morning. If you’re not hitting the Canal, grab your 2-ounce pencils and get down there for first light, or hit the harbor mouths on the Cape side of Buzzards Bay. This will be Connor’s last report for Red Top, but he’ll still be running social media and helping to maintain the shop’s digital presence. Thanks for all your input over the years, Connor! Swing by the shop this weekend to wish him well in his future endeavors.
Captain Ray Jarvis of Salt of the Earth Sportfishing out of Westport reported: “Bass wise, there’s still lots of good fishing to be had. Estuaries and bays are still loaded with bait and blitzing bass. Some really good feeds if you know where to look, and some XL bass in the mix. Think “big bait, big fish” for the larger bass. The big feeds are on small bait and peanut bunker, which are not so peanut-sized anymore. Albies are still lurking; there’s plenty of action if you have been able to tough out the wind. Covering ground and avoiding jet skis has been key though. Tog is getting better and better. Pick your favorite rocky ledge, or any hard structure for that matter, and if you don’t get bites quickly, move on. Find the pile and you will have steady action.”
Alex MacMillian of FishLinked Charters out of Wareham reported that they wrapped up their charter season with a few tautog trips and found some good keeper-size fish in shallow on the mainland side of Buzzards Bay. Catch-and-release bluefin tuna fishing, he added, is still holding up nicely out east if you can find a weather window to get out there, but they’ll be pulling their boats from the water next week.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said there’s been some good striper fishing right off the south side beaches in the morning, with schoolies, slots and over-slots all in the mix. One of his customers was running a charter this morning and spotted some quick up-and-down albie feeds as well, which is the first sign of them locally since the nor’easter came through last week. On the bottom fishing front, everyone he’s spoken to has done well with tautog. From the Buzzards Bay side of the Elizabeths to Woods Hole to West Falmouth in Buzzards Bay, there are plenty of keepers being taken in 20 to 30 feet of water on jigs and rigs. He hasn’t heard much from the freshwater crowd recently, but the state has stocked the ponds with rainbows, so there’s bound to be some good trout fishing in the upper Cape kettle lakes.
-
Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Cape Cod and the Islands
Captain Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing out of Osterville said he went out on Saturday and ran into a nice raft of blitzing bass in Buzzards Bay. They had fish ranging from 16 to 32 inches, all of which came on white Albie Snax. There have been lots of peanut bunker and spearing around, so be ready to imitate either if you’re fishing in Buzzards.
Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis told me that the striper fishing in Cape Cod Bay has been great this week. Bass have been stacked on the beaches and into the east end of the canal, where there are also bonito keeping rods bent. There have been a lot of birds working off the south side beaches but the fish beneath them have been too far out to reach, he added. In the ponds, trout fishing is the best thing going and there’s been no shortage of action for both fly and spin anglers.
Tyler Huckemeyer from the Helen H out of Hyannis said they’ve been running tautog trips in Nantucket Sound lately since the tuna season has come to an end, and the bite has phenomenal. They’re fishing in roughly 30 feet of water and their customers have been pulling some nice fish to around 5 or 6 pounds on each trip. Plus, with only 20 or 25 anglers on board at a time, it’s been pretty laid back fishing with great results. They’re planning to run tautog trips until the end of December for now, so give them a shout to get in on the shallow action before the fish start to slide deeper.
View this post on Instagram
Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters out of Vineyard Haven reported: “It has been very windy for most of this week, but I did get out on Saturday to haul my green crab traps and fish a couple of hours for tog. Bites were steady and I caught three nice keeper tog and 20 or so smaller tog and sea bass. Although the commercial sea bass season was still open and I do have a commercial hook and line permit with a sea bass endorsement, I released all the sea bass. Trust me, I would have loved to keep those sea bass, but it would have been illegal to do so, because I do not have a tautog endorsement on my commercial permit. So, once I kept my first tog, that defined the trip as recreational. And a trip can not be both recreational and commercial. This is is one part of the fisheries regulations that I found confusing, so I did the research and asked the questions. Of course it is legal for a commercial fishing license holder to fish recreationally, but each trip is either commercial or recreational, not both. So, to give another example, if I were fishing for striped bass and caught and kept a commercial sized fish, it would then be illegal for me to keep a recreational sized striped bass on that trip. I hope that helps some people. I believe that most anglers want to follow the fisheries regulations, but sometimes they can be confusing, especially where commercial and recreational regulations intersect. Anyway, I have a keeper full of green crabs and I’m looking forward to getting back out once the weather calms down a bit (there’s a small craft advisory in effect as I write this) and I’m available for tautog charters for the next month.”
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
The weekend weather looks fantastic. It’ll be chilly, but sunny, and the wind is going to finally lay down a bit. The best bet for a bent rod is to hit your shallow-water tautog spots in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard and Nantucket sounds. As previously mentioned, should the bite prove slow in 20 to 30 feet or there are a lot of boats on the pieces you want to hit, check out some deeper spots. There are tog to be caught as deep as 80 feet already, and if you time it right, you can still drop your favorite jigs on the edges of deep rock and reef structure. Plenty of 6- and 7-pound fish have been landed lately, and there are bound to be a few double-digit fish down there somewhere.
Don’t go togging without your striper rods on board. Bass are still pushing through the canal and along the south side in good numbers, so if you find yourself fishing around the Elizabeths or lower Buzzards Bay, especially in the morning, be ready to cast topwaters and jigs to breaking fish. Peanut bunker are the baitfish du jour, but spearing (silversides) are abundant too, and there’s still a chance to encounter albies and bonito.
If you’re a freshwater fanatic or the kids want to wet a line with you, check out the MA Trout Stocking Report and plan to hit a kettle pond in your neighborhood. Spoons, inline spinners, hair jigs, tube jigs, and curly-tail grubs are all great options for fresh stockies. Largemouth and smallmouth bass, and chain pickerel and panfish (like white perch) are also in play, especially in lakes and ponds that receive a herring run. Those juvenile river herring will be dropping out into the rivers, bays and salt ponds in the weeks to come, so don’t even think about calling it quits on the striper season yet.