Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay
A complete fishing forecast for the Massachusetts South Coast, Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
June 23, 2011
As the neap tides pass and we get closer to the strong tides of the new moon, the last week of June should really give up some big fish. Reports improved dramatically over last week’s slim pickin’s and it seems like there is outstanding striped bass fishing everywhere except for the Cape Cod Canal. Read More
June 16, 2011
For a morning with “breaking tides” during the peak of the striped bass season in June, the Canal was uncharacteristically uncrowded this morning. This Philadelphia sports fan had no issues answering the bell bright and early, but I suspect some of the Bruins faithful – who considerably outnumber the Flyers Faithful on the rocks of the Big Ditch – had a bit more difficult time getting out of bed. They didn’t miss too much. Read More
June 09, 2011
This was definitely one of those weeks when the shore fishermen envied the boat crowd. With the Cape Cod Canal going quiet and many of the fish that had been holding tight to the beach in Vineyard Sound moving off, surfcasters were left scratching their heads this week. Boat fishermen, however, have found plenty of action along the Elizabeth Islands, in Cape Cod Bay and off Race Point. Read More
June 02, 2011
The “breaking tides” did not disappoint in the Canal this week, but that wasn’t the only place bass fishing was good. Cape Cod Bay, Vineyard Sound and Martha’s Vineyard all gave up plenty of stripers this week with fish well into the 30-pound-class being taken in these locations. Scup are everywhere, big black sea bass … Read More
May 26, 2011
Last Friday was the day to be at the Cape Cod Canal. The northeast wind finally let up and switched to southwest, and the stripers and baitfish made the move en mass. Anglers of all experience levels all along the entire length of the canal caught fish on topwaters. Unfortunately, after the bite was over Friday, the fish did not loop back into Buzzards Bay as they had been doing. Instead they pushed all the way through the Ditch and dispersed into Cape Cod Bay. Fortunately for anglers fishing Barnstable Habor and Cape Cod Bay, the striper fishing this week has been excellent. Unfortunately for anglers who hoped for a repeat of last week’s Canal blitzes, the Big Ditch has, for the time being, gone quiet. Read More
May 19, 2011
Anglers who last week bemoaned the constant, heavy northeast winds changed their tune rather abruptly sometime Wednesday morning when the word circulated through Facebook, cell phones and tackle shops that the Cape Cod Canal had caught on fire. The heavy winds pushed large schools of sea herring into the Big Ditch, which then put the hapless 4- to 6-inch silvery baitfish at the mercy of the current. “Mercy” may not be the proper word since said currents then flushed the baitfish into Buzzards Bay and put them on a collision course with a massive school of striped bass that had staged there on its migration north. Read More
May 12, 2011
Cape Cod anglers dealt with an awful lot of wind this week, and all from the north-northeast, making for difficult shore fishing and impossible boating conditions. A hardy few still got out and found fish. Bass catches have remained steady since last week, though I suspect more fish have shown up but the weather has made getting to them a challenge. Bluefish, big ones, moved into Vineyard and Nantucket sounds, nipping at the tentacles of the squid which have shown up in the past couple weeks. Read More
May 05, 2011
The very best part about May fishing is, without a doubt, the variety. I could hardly keep up with the list of species that Bob at Falmouth Bait and Tackle was rattling off – blackfish, squid, stripers, bluefish, trout, largemouths and smallmouths were on Bob’s list, but also available are cod, pollock, haddock, crappie and perch. Read More
April 28, 2011
The water temperatures around the Cape are just a hair on the cool side for the stripers to be here in numbers, but schoolies are starting to make a showing, and with a day of heavy southwest winds on Thursday, water temperatures are rising fast. Stellwagen Bank cod and pollock fishing has been fantastic, tautog are biting well and freshwater fishing is approaching its spring peak. Read More
April 21, 2011
There’s a classic OTW television commercial featuring our own “fishaholic” magazine designer Andy Nabreski, who admits that starting in the spring, he heads down to the beach every morning to make a few casts – because one day soon the stripers will return, and he doesn’t want to be a day late. Well, if you … Read More