Cape Cod Fishing Report
In a little more than a week’s time, the Cape has been enveloped by bonito.
Compared to 2024 and 2025, we had to wait a bit longer for a steady bite this year. But the bones have arrived in force to the delight of light-tackle spin and fly anglers from the South Coast and Buzzards Bay to the outer Cape.
It started with a few fish showing up off Monomoy Island almost two weeks ago. Shortly after they appeared, there were sightings and catches down along the Elizabeths and off the south side of the upper Cape. Now it feels like anywhere you go, there are bonito nearby.
I hit the south side one morning earlier this week to scope out the scene with a pair of binoculars and a Yeti Tumbler full of caffeine, just to get the juices flowing. A small fleet of boats darted around between Falmouth and Martha’s Vineyard, chasing frothy, white eruptions on the surface. That’s all I needed to see—it was time to splash the kayak. After work, I raced home and rigged up three 7-foot inshore spinning rods paired with 3000-size reels, each with a different presentation. One got a Fat Cow epoxy jig, the other had a 5-inch Albie Snax, and the third received a casting egg and fly—also known as a “splash-and-feather” rig. Fly fishing purists may frown upon me for this fly-presentation cheat code, but until I can fly cast more than 25 feet from the seat of a kayak without snagging my holstered rods on the backcast, I’m sticking with the egg.
After receiving some juicy intel from Evan Eastman at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle, I launched just before sunrise in Buzzards Bay on Wednesday morning and was immediately greeted by a few diving terns and surface feeds. There was no mistaking these blitzes for the cocktail bluefish that have been aimlessly ripping around the Cape and islands since the spring—they were bonito alright, and big ones at that.
OTW’s Kevin Blinkoff splashed his kayak right after me, and in short order, he stuck a solid bone on the fly. A few minutes later, after casting into several decent blitzes and coming up empty, I swapped out the 3/4-ounce Fat Cow jig for a 3/4-ounce Hogy Heavy Minnow jig. It wasn’t because the Fat Cow jig lacked casting distance or accuracy—it was just barely too large a profile. The bonito were doing their best albie impressions, crashing through big schools of rain bait at Mach speeds, and I needed a smaller, more subtle presentation without sacrificing distance. The splashing of my casting egg seemed to almost spook the fish, so it wasn’t getting looks. But after two casts of the Hogy Heavy Minnow into a sustained feed, it sealed the deal on a chunky bone.
Kevin and I each managed only one fish that morning and released them both. As the sun rose higher, the bones seemed to disperse and come up intermittently at shorter intervals. It wasn’t a good enough bite that I could justify showing up late to work, so we headed in. But it was a productive start to what is shaping up to be another solid inshore hardtail season. There certainly was no lack of fish to start the morning. Boats came and went throughout our outing, and we later learned the reason why we had those fish almost entirely to ourselves. Anglers were running into bonito up and down the Cape side of Buzzards Bay as far south as the Elizabeths. Kevin estimated that bonito will probably be in the west end of the Cape Cod Canal by the weekend, and he was right. AJ Coots from Red Top Sporting Goods said bonito were in the west end this morning. However, anglers in Cape Cod Bay won’t have to wait for the bones to push through the big ditch to get shots at them.
Last weekend, my friend and coworker Nate Rouette, along with his brother Nelson Rouette, ran into blitzing bonito further east off the outer Cape. Nate said they were better equipped to catch stripers, the target species of the day, but they managed two bonito on epoxy jigs before focusing on bass for the remainder of their outing.
Between Cape Cod Bay, Buzzards Bay, Vineyard Sound, and Nantucket Sound, there are more than enough bonito to play with this weekend and plenty of space to do it. If you run into crowds, do yourself a favor, move on and keep searching. The south side beaches adjacent to harbor mouths and inlets are holding plenty of bait including juvenile herring, silversides, sand eels, anchovies, and even some small pods of peanut bunker. I can’t speak on the bait down by the Vineyard and the Elizabeths—a little beyond my kayak’s range—but I’d imagine it’s a similar mix with maybe a few extra sand eels.
In other news, stripers are still enjoying a mix of squid and bunker—or pogies, as you native New Englanders call them—in Cape Cod Bay. As a result, the South Shore has been fishing well. After dark, surfcasters have enjoyed solid action from a good class of fish, most of which are over slot. Boats in the bay continue to find success on topwater in the early morning before the bite shifts toward trolling as the sun gets higher and boat traffic increases. Large spooks, pencil poppers, weightless soft plastics and glidebaits should produce results, depending on whether the bass are pushing squid or bunker up top. Once the surface action ceases, trolling Hoochies or the ol’ reliable tube-and-worm rig is getting the job done.
Bottom fishing is a great option right now, too. Scup are everywhere. Drop your epoxy jig to the bottom between bonito blitzes and chances of picking up a keeper are rather high. I even managed a couple just-barely-keeper sea bass while jigging epoxies in Buzzards Bay on Wednesday, which was a nice surprise considering how shallow I was and how tough the sea bass bite has been this season.
Bottom line: there’s plenty of good fishing right now. With bonito in our backyard, stripers running around the bay, and more rec bluefin moving in to the south, it’s a good weekend to do a little run-and-gun inshore fishing, bottom fishing, or midshore tuna fishing. Just keep an eye on the forecast, as we may be in for some rough seas due to sustained SW winds and thunderstorms moving through the area.
Here’s this week’s rundown from a few of our local shops and charters:
AJ Coots at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay told me that Howie from the shop found piles of picky bonito throughout Buzzards Bay this week. Howie said last week he was down by the Elizabeths and there was loads of bait with birds diving and seemingly no fish beneath them, but the scene has done a complete 180 since. This week, Howie located bones in the upper bay that were a little finicky, so he headed further south and landed two big bonito that, once hooked, acted more like albies. He was weeding through bluefish to catch the bonito, which were spitting up bay anchovies and silversides, he added. The blues were in the 5- to 6-pound range and seemed more concentrated in the lower bay. AJ mentioned that there are bonito in the Canal as of this morning, along with some slot and over-slot fish that were feeding on top mid-Canal. He also said there was a minke whale spotted in the ditch today, which is surprising but not unheard of. If you’re boating outside the east end, be on the lookout for whales and even bluefin tuna. A buddy of mine sent me a video of giant bluefin ripping through schools of bunker yesterday.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said one of his customers caught 11 bonito down by the islands yesterday, and folks have been crushing them along the Cape side of Buzzards Bay all week—himself included. Those bones are eating a mix of silversides and bay anchovies. Evan hooked five, lost one, and landed the other four within 20 minutes while fishing in the lower bay earlier this week, but he said Vineyard Sound is producing good numbers too, with the fish feeding under dense flocks of birds. There is so much bait around and plenty of bonito that you almost can’t miss right now. As far as bottom fishing, Evan noted that there’s a good fluke bite for anglers drifting steep ledges along shoals like Hedge Fence and L’Hommedieu, as well as some parts of Woods Hole. It’s been good enough action that one of his customers caught a quick limit on Tuesday. Striped bass fishing, he added, is decent for fishermen slinging eels locally, including one of his shop regulars who landed a 40-inch-plus bass from shore this week.
Captain Ben Sussman of In The Net Sportfishing out of Osterville told me that he had a bunch of bonito pop up in the middle of Nantucket Sound during one of his charters last Friday. The following morning, they had pushed in much closer, as he ran into “acres of bonito” very close to home and his charter did a number on them.
From Martha’s Vineyard, Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters out of Vineyard Haven reported: “It has been a busy week, despite the wind and rain on Monday. We continue to spend a large portion of our time fishing for fluke and sea bass, but this week, we have started to catch some bluefish, which is encouraging. Last Thursday, Joe Hurwitz and sons, Logan and Troy, fished through the rain and were rewarded with some good fluke fishing. We tried a new spot that a friend tipped me off to (but swore me to secrecy) and it paid off, with Troy landing two fluke over 23”. I fished with Steven Prokash and his sons, Max and Myer, on Saturday and again found some nice fluke mixed in with lots of small sea bass and a few keeper sea bass. The weather on Monday prompted me to postpone my trip with brothers Frank and Chris Kotsen to Tuesday and what a difference that one day made! The weather was gorgeous and we ran up-island to Menemsha and then on to Noman’s. We caught a variety of species, including mackerel, scup, bluefish, fluke and sea bass. Wednesday’s trip with the Saggese family was a birthday celebration for Meghan, who helped provide dinner in the form of a nice fluke. Again, beautiful weather and a mixed bag of bluefish, fluke and sea bass, along with a big dogfish for Meghan’s dad, Mike.”
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Riverview Bait and Tackle in South Yarmouth reported: “Riverview’s crew is currently hard at work ordering and stocking all the albie and bonito tackle you’ll need to chase the funny fish in Nantucket Sound. On calmer days, customers have been finding spotty bonito feeds between the Nantucket Sound shoreline and Monomoy. Customer Jim Richardson found the first photographed bonito of the season in the sound late last week.
Bass fishing has picked up to near fall-run-level proportions in Cape Cod Bay. Billingsgate has had a very hot tube & worm bite. Last week’s pogie bite has largely subsided, but nighttime surfcasters are still picking up the occasional very large fish on live eels, big soft plastics, and Super Strike needlefish. Shop staff Noah and friends Ryan, Tony, and Anthony landed multiple big fish on the flats this past weekend.
Captain Matthew Dempsey of Salt Reaper Charters out of Dennis said Cape Cod Bay is still fishing very well for stripers on top first thing in the morning, while his afternoon charters have been more of a trolling game. It’s all about Docs and amber spooks before business hours, depending on whether the bait is bunker or squid, while Hoochies and Rapala X-Raps are pulling in most of the fish later in the day. The tube-and-worm, he added, has been productive too. Captain Matt continues to see a great mix of fish, ranging from 20 to 45 inches, but he did mention that white sharks have been a problem recently. Give him a call to inquire about upcoming availability if you want to get a date on the books.
Captain Drew Downing of Down East Charters out of Chatham reported: “Interesting week in Chatham as some summer doldrums seemed to creep in for the striper fishing, but new doors open as we’ve seen some bluefish on the west side and some bones as well. Our guys are bringing a full compliment of rods and gear this week as the bite seems to ebb and flow day to day. Stripers are around and it has had its moments, but we are also dropping for sea bass and fluke and throwing surface lures for blues and bonito in the Sound and along the beaches. Water temps have also been wild with these wind pulses—51°F in Pollock Rip and 75°F off the Common Flat the other day on the same trip. We also had a hammerhead chase a mackerel at the rips and great whites up and down the beach. No shortage of things to do or see.”
Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters out of Truro reported: “As expected rolling into August, the bluefin tuna bite offers increased action! Our team is seeing mostly large bluefin in the mid-70-inch to mid-80-inch range, and we look forward to the increased frequency of the recreational category fish over the coming weeks. If you’re not offshore, the inshore bite for striped bass still provides plenty of activity. We are noticing a shift in size class more towards the keeper, slot-size fish as opposed to the primarily jumbos we were getting last week. The squid are still around for live bait and the jig bite is also producing consistent results. With a beautiful forecast, be sure to grab one of our weekend openings while they last! Check out our calendar and book here.”
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
As a reminder, regulations imposed in 2025 set a 5-fish per angler bag limit for bonito (and false albacore combined) at a minimum of 16 inches. Considering the size of some of the bones from Buzzards Bay to the south side, finding fish in excess of 16 inches should be no problem. And it should go without saying that if you don’t need five bonito, don’t feel obligated to keep a limit. Yes, there are plenty of fish out there, but the more we release, the more likely we are to see strong bonito runs in the years to come. That said, they are very tasty, and there’s nothing wrong with keeping a few to steak up for the grill or enjoy some fresh sashimi if you have mouths to feed at home.
On top of bonito, bottom fishing is a bit more attractive this week following good reports of keeper fluke from eastern Nantucket Sound to Vineyard Sound, with scup and sea bass to round out the catch. Focus on making controlled drifts over deep holes, along drop-offs and ledges adjacent to shoals, and on the edges of wrecks on the south side.
The best bet for striped bass is to hit the Canal or Cape Cod Bay for the first light topwater bite. Once the sun is up and boat traffic has increased, switch to vertical jigging, fishing live bait (like squid or bunker), or trolling Hoochies, X-Raps, or the tube-and-worm. Pitching eels along the Elizabeths is also worth some effort, especially as dusk approaches. Just be prepared for the potential run-off or shredded eel, courtesy of our summer resident sandbar sharks.
The weather doesn’t look great this weekend with stiff southwest winds in the forecast, but it looks doable for boats sticking to inshore run-and-gun bonito fishing. Besides, bonito tend to bring down their guard and feed a bit more aggressively in sloppy conditions, so it could be a weekend for the books.