Cape Cod Fishing Report
It’s getting to be that time of year when fishing reports significantly thin out. In early November our marinas start to look like ghost towns, more fishermen head to the ponds than the beaches, and night falls before the OTW office closes each day. It’s a tough transition month before winter really shows its teeth in mid- to late December—although if this week’s weather is any indicator, it could be a mild one.
Yes, boats are being pulled and the only visible signs of life in the salt are schoolies in the backwaters and the occasional bird pile working over baitfish. But there’s still plenty of life beneath the surface.
Tautog are carrying us through the late fall. Everyone who’s still got a boat in the water is toggin’ these days, and for good reason. From the reefs and wrecks of Nantucket Sound to the Elizabeths and Buzzards Bay—and even some nearshore spots in Cape Cod Bay—the bite has been great when conditions are settled enough to sail.
Despite unseasonably warm weather this week, which made it feel more like September than November, tautog are slowly but surely heading off shallow structure into deeper water as water temperatures slowly drop. Bites are coming from a range of depths, and while it’s still feasible to find keeper-size fish in 20 to 30 feet of water, you’re better off dropping rigs and jigs around slightly deeper rock piles, reefs, and wrecks. Most pieces of shallow tog-attracting structure have been picked over by now, so you’re more likely to hook a lot of short fish or bergalls in those areas. Consider checking out spots in 45 to 60 feet, or head even deeper to 80 to 100 foot depths down in Vineyard Sound and Buzzards Bay along the Elizabeth Islands.
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If you’re headed down the islands, always keep a spare striper rod or two on the boat. Most migratory bass have passed the Cape by now, but there’s almost always a late-season push of respectable fish. You never know whether they’ll come down the backside beaches or run through the canal, but a few stragglers will usually stop off at the Elizabeths, where schools of small baitfish like anchovies and peanuts tend to stack up among the boulder fields and rocky coves.
A few pods of those late migratory bass pushed through the Cape Cod Canal earlier this week, according to AJ Coots at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay. However, as of this morning, the action has apparently slowed down. There weren’t many bass, AJ said, but it was nice to see some decent fish in the big ditch in November. Whether that’s the last wave of stripers to pass through the canal in 2026 remains to be seen. The most interesting thing happening right now, AJ noted, is the mixed bag bite for canal mackerel fishermen.
In addition to some big macks, there are a bunch of sea herring, harbor pollock, small cod, and short bonito being caught. “It’s a very old-school style fishery unfolding in the east end,” AJ said. “Cast a sabiki rig from the bulkhead, let it sink, and do a bit of jigging to see what you can bring in.” Just remember to adhere to the size and bag limits on all species. The largest bonito are falling short of the 16-inch minimum—they’re about the size of horse mackerel.
AJ also added that, with the mild weather lately, the tog bite in the canal is holding up when the weather is cooperative. It’s been a little windy though, so he hasn’t received much word on the tog bite in Buzzards Bay in a couple days, and it will probably take a few more for the water to clean up after this incoming storm. There’s a flood watch around Cape Cod this weekend, which doesn’t bode well for any of our fall fisheries—freshwater included.
That said, this is perhaps my favorite time of year for freshwater fishing. Largemouth bass are still willing to eat big baits (even in ponds that are loaded with juvenile herring), stocked trout are very active in the kettle ponds, white perch fishing is picking up in the brackish creeks, and chain pickerel are just about always willing to swipe at a jig, swimbait, spoon, or jerkbait. I spent half of my Sunday bass fishing last weekend and managed a 5:1 pickerel to largemouth ratio on swimbaits, jerkbaits and spoons—no surprise. My buddy Jack Renfrew has had much better luck. He stuck a fat 5- or 6-pound largemouth on a soft plastic swimbait in a herring run pond on the upper Cape within his first 5 casts. He’s also had decent action on wake baits after dark this week, which is most likely due to the warmer-than-usual weather keeping the bass shallow.
Christian at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannis also said the freshwater fishing has been a big draw this week, with outstanding trout fishing in the mid- and lower Cape kettle ponds and some good largemouth bass action in the smaller, shallower ponds. However, he mentioned a few potential saltwater fishing opportunities that are worth some attention this time of year. Their shop regulars are still doing well with schoolie stripers in the upper and mid-Cape salt ponds, and deep in the back bays. Small topwater plugs and soft plastics are working well in the evenings and early mornings when the bass are sipping on small baitfish—most of which are (presumably) silversides, killies, and juvenile river herring that are dropping out of the rivers.
Christian echoed the reports of good fishing for mackerel and harbor pollock in the canal, but he really caught my attention when he mentioned good flounder fishing in Cape Cod Bay. There are only a couple boats I can think of that would still be running flounder trips this time of year, one of them being Bad Dog Sportfishing out of Sesuit Harbor. Captain Mike runs a great operation and if they’re still sailing after this weekend’s wind and rain, it could be worth booking a late-season trip.
Cape Cod Fishing Forecast
It’s tough to forecast the best fishing opportunities with a weather forecast as grim as we have right now. If this weather had come a month or two ago, I would recommend finding a beach with the wind in your face to fish for stripers, but we’ve reached the very last leg of the fall run. If there are any more bass coming, they’ll be marching through the canal, down the backside of the outer Cape, or along the beaches of Nantucket Sound. Casting for resident stripers in the backwaters isn’t a bad idea this weekend, as long as you’re okay with getting drenched by the pouring rain.
Tog fishing will have to resume next week, because it certainly won’t be worth the effort in rough, dirty water and pelting rain. Give the seas a day or two to settle and good togging should resume early next week. And if a weekday tog trip is out of the question, consider booking a spot on the Capt. John & Son II with the Helen H. Weather permitting, the Helen H is running limited-availability weekend tautog trips through the rest of November. Check out their full schedule here.
The best bet this weekend is to focus on largemouth bass and pickerel. A falling barometer ahead of (or during) a storm will usually ignite good bass fishing. Expect dirty water to make things a bit challenging, though. Chartreuse jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, and chatterbaits are all wise choices, as are big, thumping paddletails swimbaits. Anything that creates a commotion will be your friend on the bass ponds through the weekend into next week.