Cape Cod Fishing Report
The calendar shows mid-October, but the weather has felt more like mid-September. It’s been refreshing to have daytime temperatures still hovering in the high 60s before Halloween. However, there’s a cold front headed our way and this weekend and overnight air temps will drop as low as the upper 30s on some parts of the Cape. Brrrrring it on, Mother Nature. The striper season ain’t over yet.
This week—yesterday, in particular—marks a shift in our fall fishing opportunities. As of Wednesday the 14th, the daily limit for tautog has risen from 3 to 5 fish, and black sea bass season is officially closed. The extended sea bass season provided a nice secondary option for recreational anglers and charters/guides when hardtails and stripers were MIA or the tog weren’t chewing. That said, the tog bite is good right now and getting better. A few guys from the OTW office, including Jonathan Rust, Adam Eldridge, and Matt Ryan, are on the board for tog from shore after a tough local spring season. Charter captains and party boats are finding fish in shallow on jigs, and those early fall tog spots should continue to produce for another couple of weeks before they’re picked over and/or the fish slide deeper. For now, shore, boat, and kayak anglers can reasonably find fish as shallow as 5 to 10 feet. Jetties, piers, and the Cape Cod Canal are good places to try for tog from shore this week. Bring a tape measure if you plan to keep fish for the table, and remember, only 1 of 5 keepers may exceed 21 inches long.
While the tog season is heating up, the hardtail season is beginning to cool off. Albie feeds remain sporadic, with pods of fish popping up unpredictably along the south-facing upper Cape beaches at times. Bonito are available in better numbers, with fish being caught from Sandy Neck to the Cape Cod Canal, and a few good pods still racing around the south side of Cape, the Vineyard, the Elizabeths, and Buzzards Bay.
Striper fishing is holding up nicely north of Cape Cod, so there’s still some good fishing ahead of us. The bass bite has been pretty reliable around these parts, with schools of fish making pit stops in the rips to feed while others position themselves outside of bays and salt ponds to pick off baitfish. I’ve seen a good deal of silversides and some small finger mullet in the backwaters, while friends and report contributors have noted peanut bunker and juvenile herring dropping out into Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds, and Buzzards Bay. Be on the lookout for stripers moving down the backside beaches too. If some of those fish north of us take the long way home instead of running through the Canal, sand eels could keep them in the surf into early or mid November. Wouldn’t that be a treat?
We can hope for a late-season outer Cape surf bite, but for now, upper and mid Cape anglers should focus on local backwaters, beaches, and the Cape Cod Canal. The ditch has been fishing well intermittently, with reliable jig action in the east end and, at times, some spotty surface action mid Canal and west.
In other news, the trout stocking trucks made their first rounds on Cape Cod roughly two weeks ago. Per usual for the fall, the ponds on Cape were stocked with only rainbow trout, which have had plenty of time to acclimate to their new, albeit temporary homes.
Even with all the freshly-stocked trout in our ponds right now, largemouth bass fishing should not be overlooked. The bass should be closely relating to schools of bait like juvenile river herring, killies, and yellow perch, and the cooler it gets, the better they’ll chew. Swimbaits, chatterbaits, and jerkbaits in the 3- to 4-inch range are great choices this time of year, but it’s always worth keeping a jig tied on, too. Where the bass aren’t chasing bait, they’ll likely be grubbing on crawfish.
It’s true that largemouth and smallmouth bass tend to key in on smaller, schooling baitfish this time of year. But with temperatures dropping fast as we head into the second half of October, don’t hesitate to mess around with bigger swimbaits and wakebaits from time to time. Largemouth, moreso than smallies, have a hard time passing up a hefty meal when they’re trying to fatten up before winter.
Here’s this week’s rundown from a few of our local shops and charters:
Howie at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay said bonito, bluefish, stripers, and tautog are all in play right now. The tog fishing, in his experience, has been a bit weird. He and a friend, while fishing from their kayaks between 18 and 35 feet of water, found finicky fish on relatively shallow rock piles in Buzzards Bay; the bites were scratchy, he said, and they missed a lot of fish. After 2 hours though, they had a flurry of action that yielded tog, sea bass, and even some lizardfish. Howie also mentioned the upper bay is coming to life with short-lived blitzes of cocktail bluefish around sunset lately. There are some bonito out there too, but they are very spread out and the schools consist of fewer fish. There were bonito in the west end of the Canal a week or so ago, but those fish have since moved out and now the east end and Cape Cod Bay seem to be the more reliable options for bones. The east end has also been hosting a steady jig bite for stripers this week, although as of this morning the action came to a screeching halt. That doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time, though—the next wave of fish has to pass through the east end at some point. Heavy bucktails and paddletails, especially white and mackerel patterns, were getting the job done.
Captain Ray Jarvis of Salt of the Earth Sportfishing out of Westport said he’s been focusing on fishing for backwater bass lately. He’s found good fishing in the rivers throughout Buzzards Bay where there’s a ton of small bait, which bodes well for his light tackle and fly approach. The Hogy Micro Chug, he said, has been a killer this fall for finicky bass in shallow water—especially since they’re keyed in on smaller bait. On the hardtail front, he said, there have been minimal albies and some bonito kicking around here and there. Some days have been really good for the bones, and other days not so much. Ray expects the striper bite to hang in for another month or so before temperatures get cold and things really slow down.
Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth reported that there is still good fishing happening locally for bonito and bass. Earlier this week, his friend caught 6 bonito off the south side near Woods Hole, and customers are catching some decent stripers from shore in town while the boat guys continue to pick up fish on live eels along the Elizabeths. The tautog bite, he added, is red hot right now in Buzzards Bay and Vineyard and Nantucket sounds, and it should remain good through the end of the season.
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Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis told me it’s been rather quiet since the sea bass season closed because the bluefish seem to have moved out, and local striper fishing has been in a lull since just before the new moon. However, he’s hopeful that this weekend’s cold front and the full moon later this month will bring at least one more solid push of migratory bass across the south side, or to the beaches of Cape Cod Bay. Tog season is just beginning to catch some attention, he noted; the shop is selling a lot of green crabs lately and one customer caught and released an impressive 24-inch female tautog in the Canal earlier this week. Freshwater fishing, he added, has been pretty good for largemouth bass, pickerel, and stocked trout since the ponds all received their first round of rainbows.
Riverview Bait and Tackle in South Yarmouth reported: “Fall weather and winds are winding the season down, but that hasn’t stopped Riverview’s crew and customers from catching fish this past week! On the bass front, slot-sized fish and smaller abound from Cape Cod Bay, to Monomoy, to Buzzards Bay. Surf and boat anglers have needed to resort to smaller presentations to fool these smaller fish, most often feeding on silversides. The Fish Snax Albie Snax rigged weightless has been a top producer. On the bottom fishing front, tog remain strong in the Sound. We are well stocked with a variety of tautog jigs, rigs, and an abundance of green crabs.
As the weather cools, more and more customers have been pivoting towards freshwater fishing. By now all local ponds that receive trout have been stocked at least once. Even the largemouth are prone to feeding frenzies this time of year, as experienced by shop staff Noah this past weekend. Our selection of chatterbaits from Z-Man and SV-3 spinnerbaits from Megabass have been getting the job done when the bass are keyed in on juvenile herring. Get out there this weekend in the fresh or salt, and enjoy what warm weather we have left!”
Captain Matt Dempsey of Salt Reaper Charters out of Dennis said that as of last Sunday, his charter season has come to an end. It’s not due to a lack of action, though—just other responsibilities. The skipper left them biting, noting that the bass had moved back into the rips in numbers and during his last trip of the season, his charter had mostly slot and over-slot bass crushing topwater plugs like Docs, as well as SP Minnows. Capt. Matt also mentioned that bonito had shown back up in Cape Cod Bay, with pods of fish popping up from Sandy Neck to the east end of the Cape Cod Canal. If you’re interested in booking a striped bass fishing trip with Salt Reaper Charters in 2027, visit the website or give Matt a call.
Captain Drew Downing of Down East Charters out of Chatham reported: “Waves of activity and fall run stuff happening along the outer beach on any given day. Shallow and in and out of the surf line makes for fun fishing when the swells allow. Mid-50s water to near 60°F on warm tides. We did catch a few bonito in the mix, which was a fun way to wrap the long weekend. Jig and rubber, hard baits, and castable jigs all produced. In stained water, we noticed a more methodical presentation got bass to bite when holding on the bottom. We are wrapped as of Monday on our scheduled trips for the season. Thanks to everyone for fishing with us again this year—it’s been a blast having you on the boats. For those going to the bitter end, plenty of signs of life currently so make the most of nice days down the stretch.”
Captain Elena Rice of Reel Deal Fishing Charters out of Truro reported: “Our last few fishing trips of the season enjoyed some tight lines while vertically jigging striped bass, as well as the maddening (yet fun) battles with toothy, green-crab-snatching tautog. While there was a decent amount of stripped baits, tautog fishing still produced good activity including many shorts along with some nice keepers closing in on the 20-inch mark. With heavy winds dominating the forecast, we have wrapped up our fishing charter season for 2026. A heartfelt thank you to all our customers, family, friends and members of the fishing community who supported us throughout this season—you all rock! Wishing you a wonderful off-season, and yes, we are already getting ready and taking bookings for 2027. Be sure to contact us to reserve prime dates for next year.”
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
Just a reminder for anyone planning to fish for tautog this weekend: our extended black sea bass season came to a close yesterday, so any sea bass bycatch needs to be released.
Saturday’s forecast doesn’t look very tog-fishing-friendly. It’d be a much better idea to pack up a plug bag and hit the surf in Cape Cod Bay. A stiff northwest blow gusting to 30 mph could dirty up the water a bit—but this time of year, any wind from the north is promising. You’ll want to pack baits that are heavy enough to punch through the wind and still present effectively—heavy needlefish, bucktails, and soft plastic paddletails paired with 1.5- to 2-ounce jigheads will be the mainstays in my bag.
When conditions are settled, this is a good time of year to fish eels. The lack of competition from brown sharks means that stripers are the only contenders for your bait. Drifting live or dead eels outside inlets/breachways and flumes in Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound is often effective, as is casting live eels along an open sand beach with good structure, or into boulder fields and nearshore rips.
Sunday looks like it’s going to be a beautiful weather day, and a great opportunity to do some tautog fishing, pond hopping for bass or trout, or searching for a few more bonito before they vacate Cape waters. Although at this point, I’m hopeful that a few bones will stick around into November. An “11th hour” bonito has been on my bucket list for a few years now.
Enjoy our remaining fall fishing opportunities over the next week, and stay warm this weekend!