Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay
A complete fishing forecast for the Massachusetts South Coast, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
May 10, 2012
The big tides following the full moon certainly gave the saltwater fishing a shot in the arm this week. Stripers, and good sized ones, invaded Cape Cod waters, bluefish are ravenously feeding on the south side and the bottom fishing couldn't be better. Read More
May 03, 2012
With the full moon this weekend, there is some great fishing building up. Freshwater remains strong while saltwater continues to improve. There’s no better month to catch a variety of species than May, so if you’re looking for a mixed bag of species, carve out some time to fish this weekend. Read More
April 26, 2012
Anglers on Cape Cod have it pretty rough right now. With so many different options, choosing which fish to target has become a very difficult process. Read More
April 19, 2012
Keeper Stripers Show Early on Cape For a couple of weeks, reports of small stripers have been trickling in, but this week, that trickle turned into a flood. Stripers, some bigger than 30 inches, are being caught along the South Coast, in the Canal, and from Buzzards Bay to Chatham. Freshwater fishing is still excellent … Read More
April 12, 2012
By this week’s reports, it looks like the freshwater fishing is reaching its zenith, just in time to give anglers a shot at some trophy sweetwater species before the saltwater fishing becomes too good to ignore. Some anglers have jumped the gun and found good schoolie striped bass action this week, and there was even word of a keeper taken. Read More
April 05, 2012
I was fishing on the Salmon River in Upstate New York on Saturday when I got a text from my co-worker Anthony DeiCicchi saying he caught a 7-pound largemouth bass. “April fools,” I thought. Then on Sunday, Anthony sent another text, this one with a picture attached, saying that this second fish was even bigger. While judging a fish’s weight is an imperfect science, even in person, the fish looked every ounce of 8 pounds, but as the fish was released, we’ll never know the actual weight of that behemoth bucketmouth. The pattern Anthony stumbled upon to catch those two lunkers is the same one that’s been working for a number of Cape largemouth anglers over the past couple weeks – pitching (non-lead) skirted bass jigs with a trailer into submerged fallen trees and bushes. Largemouths have been clinging tight to these structures as they wait for water to warm enough for them to begin to make and move onto their spawning beds. Read More
March 29, 2012
The rumor mill was churning out reports of bluefish caught on the Falmouth beaches this week. While the end of March is awfully early for bluefish to be around Cape Cod, it’s right on time for April Fools. Freshwater fishing took a hit when the temperatures dropped from their record highs last week. Some very nice largemouth bass have been caught, along with trout, and the stocking trucks added more variety to the ponds when they made their rounds this week. Read More
March 22, 2012
Trout, trout and more trout was the word from Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay. That has been the theme for the past few weeks as the stocking trucks continue to hit Cape ponds on a weekly basis. Some anglers are finding good action with the trout while others have struggled, but overall, most people giving it a go are catching fish. Read More
March 15, 2012
Though the trout were stocked, reports were still a little sparse this week. Andy Nabreski, OTW Design manager, educated 20 newly stocked trout on Monday, but when Chris Megan and I returned the following Tuesday, it seemed the trout were either too “well taught” or simply weren’t eating. We picked a few, and that was a few more than we caught on Wednesday, when a whole crew from OTW hit an Upper Cape pond and completely struck out with the trout. Read More
March 08, 2012
A lot of fishermen are buzzing about the New England Saltwater Fishing Show taking this place in Providence, Rhode Island, and a number of the shops I hoped to glean some fishing information from had already packed up their wares and headed sound to display them in Rhode Island. Read More
March 01, 2012
I’m going to go ahead and get this out of the way right up front: There are striped bass being caught on the Cape. Right now. And while these are technically “holdover” fish – striped bass that didn’t migrate south for the winter, for some reason – they aren’t the winter holdovers that we’re used to reporting on this time of year. Read More
February 23, 2012
A couple warm days strung together has really given the freshwater fishing on the Cape a shot in the arm. Trout, bass and panfish are all biting very well, and some stirrings in saltwater have anglers excited about the prospects of an early spring season. Read More
February 16, 2012
With very little fresh information on the fishing front, I took a look at the reports from this week last year. In late Feb, 2011, ice fishing was just wrapping up on the Cape. The OTW crew finished their ice season with an unsuccessful nighttime crappie mission. Many lakes were in limbo with not enough ice to stand on but enough ice to hinder casting from shore. Read More
February 09, 2012
Anglers are still buzzing about the keeper bass caught out of Chatham a couple weeks ago, though I haven’t heard any fresh reports of holdover stripers. Freshwater fishing is trudging along with both bass and trout biting, and there was even a rumor of some flatfish taken in the canal. Read More
February 02, 2012
Writing these reports each week, I’m starting to feel like Bill Murray in the movie Groundhog Day, which, coincidentally, is today. If you haven't seen the movie, Bill Murray relives the same exact day over and over again, which is exactly what Cape Cod fishermen have been doing for the past few weeks. It's been too warm for ice, but too cold for most anglers to bother fishing. Not that the fishing is bad – in fact, it's pretty good, at least for largemouth bass. Read More