Cape Cod Fishing Report
It’s been a big week for striped bass around Cape Cod ahead of the new moon. But it’s not all about bass heading into the weekend. With the flip of a switch, all of our spring fisheries are beginning to shape up nicely.
There are a whole lot of fish around. At the time of this writing, many striped bass are honed in on smaller bait like silversides and juvenile sand eels in middle and upper Buzzards Bay. Based on accounts from several charter captains, the bass seem to be chasing spearing in open water, which has led to some fast up-and-down feeds and slightly picky fish. There are more bass around the river mouths too, where herring, juvenile sand eels, and bunker pods are fueling the action.
The Cape Cod Canal was lights out earlier this week. Bass exceeding 40 inches were caught on swimming plugs and topwaters in mid Canal, and since Tuesday, the action has spread out from end to end. There’s no word of big bluefish in the Canal yet, but they are filling in in Buzzards Bay. The blues seem to be concentrated to the upper bay harbors and river mouths on both the South Coast and Cape sides of the bay, and while the bass may be less aggressive toward surface plugs at times, gator blues seem happy to intercept them.
Over the past few days, some of those over-slot bass that were feeding in the Canal have hit Cape Cod Bay. The backwaters and select beaches near tidal outflows are good places to put in some time and effort. Minnow plugs, metal lips, Red Fins, needlefish, darters, and large weightless soft plastics like Super Snax and Slug-gos are picking up fish at night while pencil poppers and spooks have been the ticket during the morning and evening hours.
On the south side, in Nantucket Sound, stripers are still pushing into the bays and salt ponds while groups of what appear to be fresh fish continue to migrate. A few accounts from our contributing charter captains placed schools of bass from the mid-20 to mid-30-inch range along mid Cape flats and bay systems, but they have been tough to pin down. It comes as no surprise that transient schools of fish are simply ignoring the artificial offerings of many striper fishermen as they migrate east toward the outer Cape before the new moon. However, with bunker sticking around, there have been bright spots. Shore and wading fishermen, at times, have enjoyed good action on glidebaits, metal lips, and topwater, while kayak and boat fishermen are picking up bass on surface plugs, glides, and live bunker when they can get them.
There’s no word of squid in the rips just yet, but with signs of the bite off Hyannis slowing down throughout the week, it shouldn’t be long before bass start pushing them onto the shoals of Nantucket Sound. There are still good numbers of everyone’s favorite mollusk out there, but wind and weather has hampered the bite and caused some of the squid to disperse.
In addition to stripers and an early wave of bluefish—the latter of which were also spotted by Capt. Ben Sussman on the south side flats—sea bass season opens this Saturday. Buzzards Bay will attract the masses, but with squid out in the Sound, select pieces of bottom should yield a few opening day knotheads for anglers who have their sea biscuit haunts dialed in. They shouldn’t be very picky, but keep a mix of artificial and natural baits on hand just in case. Squid and clams are the fan favorites, but lightweight bucktail jigs and teasers tipped with Gulp, Fishbites, or Z-Man plastics are also top performers. Even small slow-pitch jigs and epoxies are good lures to keep on hand. In the Sound especially, you can bet there will some hubcap-sized scup in the mix. They’re a ton of fun on single jigs, but they’ll ravage your Gulp and squid strips. Stick to light slow-pitch and epoxy jigs for the porgies and when sea bassing, boost the size of your Gulp presentations to avoid interference from scup. Sea worms are also great natural baits for scup. Thread them onto baitholder hooks on a high-low rig for some fast-paced action. Expect the sea bass to be in slightly deeper water than the scup, but don’t count out shallow lumps and rock piles in 20 to 30 feet of water.
If you’re a sea bass lover, don’t forget Fishing For The Mission 22’s 4th Annual Black Sea Bass Tournament runs from May 29-31. The tournament benefits veterans in crisis and the entry fee for each adult angler is just $100. Junior anglers are $20 each. The Captain’s Check-In and Kickoff Party will take place on Thursday, May 28, from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Rod & Rail in Buzzards Bay, the Parrot Bar & Grill in Cataumet, and at Dick’s Bait & Tackle on Martha’s Vineyard. Following the tourney, the Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday, May 31, from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Stone Path Malt in Wareham. There will be live music, raffles, food from Minkle Boys Catering, and a beer garden sponsored by Stone Path Malt, along with a variety of family-friendly activities. Register online today so you don’t miss out!
Finally, up in Cape Cod Bay, the winter flounder bite is picking up steam. A few charter boats are getting out to drift during short weather windows and the results have been solid on keepers so far.
Here’s this week’s rundown from our local tackle shops and charters:
AJ Coots at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay told me the Cape Cod Canal continues to fish really well, which it has for the better part of 3 weeks now. What started as an early morning bite has transitioned to late morning and even early afternoon, with the action widespread from end to end. Bass are available throughout the ditch from West End to mid Canal to East End—it just depends on what the tide is doing and where the bait is concentrated. Buzzards Bay, he added, is loaded with stripers and now there are blues showing up since the squid are in. He went out last weekend and had bass ranging from 12- to 22-pounds hitting anything bone-colored that they could fit their mouths around, including Docs, SP and Hydro Minnows, and Magic Swimmers, to name a few. With the new moon tomorrow, there should be a good push of fish into the upper Bay and the canal sometime over the next few days. The shop is busy busy, but they’re loaded up with the plugs you need to get in on the bass and bluefish action from the big ditch to the harbors.
Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sport Fishing in Buzzards Bay said he had good fishing in upper Buzzards Bay this past week. The bass were a little on the picky side, but there are plenty of fish around—it just takes locating them and showing them something they can’t resist to get them chewing. His charter was hitting them on Docs and, for the first time on his boat, big glide baits, both of which yielded stripers from the upper 30 to low 40-inch class. The skipper said they were not on any visible bait; he just looked around areas that he knows to hold fish, started marking them, and showed them big profiles to trigger bites. Give Capt. Brian a call to inquire about his upcoming availability.
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Captain Ray Jarvis of Salt of the Earth Sportfishing out of Westport said the striper fishing in Buzzards Bay is hot and cold this week, but in Narragansett Bay and Mount Hope Bay, the bite has been consistently good. The fish are on bigger bait over there so boat traffic has been rather heavy, while the bass seem to be on smaller bait like silversides and/or juvenile sand eels in Buzzards Bay, which is making the bite a little tougher. Look for bass on silversides in more open water settings and fish grubbing on small sand eels around the rivers. One thing he noted is that there are definitely a lot more bluefish around lately, and they’re good size, so bump up those leaders to keep from being bitten off. Ray thinks the blues should stick around for a bit, but be ready to go looking for them; they tend to stack up on the windward mud flats, so let the wind direction guide you if it’s bluefish you’re after.
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Captain Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing out of Osterville said the striper action has been very hit or miss for him and his charters on the south side this week. Water temps are still chilly, and getting the bass to commit to topwater has been a challenge at times. That said, he’s seeing a ton of fish out along the beaches of Nantucket Sound—they’re just picky and there is a lot of pressure on them. Most of his outings are still focused on the upper Cape bay systems and harbors until water temps climb a little higher out front and the bass begin to slide into the rips, which has not happened yet. The fish Ben is finding in the bays are all good size, typically over slot, with a few in the upper 20-inch class as well. He’s going to check out some of the rips on Friday morning and plans to do some sea bass fishing this weekend in between searching for stripers. Give him a call to inquire about his availability in the upcoming weeks.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said it’s been very windy all week so reports have been slower from the boat crowd since last weekend, when there was a really good bite in upper Buzzards Bay. He’s expecting the action to pick up again this weekend with the new moon and more boats on the water targeting a mix of stripers and sea bass, which opens on Saturday. On the south side, he said, there’s not much life in the rips just yet, but the squid bite has slowed a bit and that’s usually a sign that the bass will be chasing them into the rips soon. The tog bite has slowed down a bit this week, which is also probably due to lower participation because of the wind. Evan said he’s hoping to get more green crabs in for the weekend, and he has sea worms, clams, and 30 pounds of local squid—which seems to work better than the packaged short fin squid—for the sea bass fanatics.
From Martha’s Vineyard, Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters out of Vineyard Haven told me that the boat is in the water just across the pond in Falmouth, so he’ll begin running charters next weekend. With the squid bite winding down a bit, stripers will be hitting the rips in the near future. Give him a call to get a date on the books this spring!
Tony at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis told me there are a lot of stripers kicking around on the south side right now, from the backwaters to the beaches. The water is getting warmer and with that, the striper and tog bites have improved—especially as more bass seem to be arriving ahead of the new moon. He added that there’s a solid winter flounder bite building up on the bay side, and tog fishing has been best in Buzzards Bay. Locally, a lot of folks are starting to catch some nice-sized scup. The shop has green crabs in stock for tog fishermen, squid and clams for the sea bass crowd, and they’re getting a shipment of eels and sea worms on Friday. Swing by this weekend for your bait and tackle needs whether you’re going out for stripers, sea bass, tog, scup, or flounder.
Captain Matthew Dempsey of Salt Reaper Fishing Charters out of Dennis reported that the flounder fishing is pretty consistent in Cape Cod Bay with sea worms responsible for most of the catching, but small weather windows and the constantly changing wind direction is keeping them on their toes. They’ll continue sailing for flounder whenever conditions allow until the end of the month when they shift gears to stripers, so give Capt. Matt a call for open dates!
Captain Drew Downing of Down East Charters out of Chatham reported: “Slow developing over this way in Chatham thus far. Water temps are 48 to 52 degrees in the Sound and around the oceanside inlets. Macks and herring are surely around as gannets are still in the area. We’ve had a decent tog bite on structure to our west and did see some early sea bass in there this week as well. Big wind has limited our scouting. Hoping for some schoolie reports in the harbor but haven’t seen a ton yet.”
Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters out of Truro reported: “The striped bass have arrived to the outer Cape! Captain Bobby Rice picked up his first keeper from shore while our youngest son Beckett Rice hooked his first keeper on topwater aboard a family outing on the Done Deal. The striped bass activity will only improve from here and we are also enjoying some decent winter flounder fishing the past few days; highly recommend fresh bait for this if you can find some. With black sea bass season opening on Saturday, the options just keep growing! We have charter availability this weekend and beyond, so be sure to get your date booked now.”
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
As one of the major moons of the spring migration approaches, stripers have nearly enveloped the Cape. Timing wise, it’s a good weekend for striped bass anglers with the Cheeky Schoolie Tournament on Saturday, just a day after the new moon. But, if you’re not a fly guy, expect to find a lot of your shore and wading spots full of fluff-chucking fishermen. Saturday is also opening day of the black sea bass season, which will likely bring an increase in boat traffic barring any small craft advisories. Buzzards Bay and central Nantucket Sound are the places to be for anglers seeking a limit of sea biscuits. Scup are almost bound to be in the mix.
Looking for bluefish? Scope out the harbors and river mouths in upper Buzzards Bay or the beaches of Nantucket Sound. On the south side, southwest winds have been pushing squid around and there’s a good chance you’ll find some rogue blues and/or bass chasing them in shallow. A mix of different sized pencils and Super Strike poppers, along with some shallow-diving minnow plugs, will put you in a good position to catch big blues if they’re around.
Bottom fishing for scup is a good way to keep the kids happy and put some fresh fish on the table if sea bassin’ doesn’t pan out. Add tog to the mix and you should have no problem securing dinner for a night or two.
We’ve finally got some slightly warmer weather ahead, so enjoy the plentiful fishing opportunities and reap the benefits of the new moon.