Cape Cod Fishing Report June 7, 2024
Nantucket
Capt. Corey Gammill sent me his report via a voice recorded email; I have to say I am not a big fan of technology, but in this case, it worked great. Corey noted that over the last week, the bass have moved west of Muskeget Channel in great numbers and they are feeding heavily on squid and sand eels. Most of the rips around Tuckernuck have fish.
Not only are they in the rips, but they are also very active in the flat water. There are plenty of birds working around the schools and providing a clear sign of where to look; there are both gull and terns. You can definitely find them under the birds with subsurface presentations, Corey noted; at times the bait has been on the small side and he has been doing well with the smaller Hogy Pro Tail Paddle.
The harbors are a little slower, but he believes this is a function of fishing during bright sun periods. If you fish early or again at dusk, your chances of hooking up increase significantly. Soft plastics and small Finnish style swimming plugs continue to produce fish, with a slowly walked spook is a great way to get a wary fish to eat; if you are only getting follows but no commits, consider upping your retrieve speed or even giving the plug a pop as if it trying to escape.
Corey also emphasized that he and others on the island are working to promote spending fishing time with their families, including children of all ages. He took his wife and seven-year-old son out for an evening trip the other day and last week he got out with his son for some on the water time before school. As Corey said, if we can’t prioritize spending time with our families, then what are we doing? His suggestion is certainly worth some serious thought.
Over at Nantucket Tackle Center, manager Tim Coggins said they are getting geared up for another great season. He said the Point-of-Breakers area along the south shore has been a good spot for beach anglers to catch bass using plugs, plastics, and bucktails.
Up inside Polpis Harbor, which is well up inside Nantucket Harbor, small blurple swimmers are producing good numbers of fish in the darker hours. Tim favors the west jetty itself on an outgoing tide as well as the adjacent shoreline since it produces some big stripers at this time of year for shorebound folks who don’t get as many shots at them as boat anglers do. Tim really likes a tandem rigged larger black soft plastic – which is how Hogy got started with 10-inch Original and Hogy Quick Rig – as opposed to eels, but the latter definitely work as he already sold out his first delivery.
This weekend, Tim is planning on heading to the rips around Tuckernuck and Muskeget in search of topwater action for larger fish; that said, the surface bite has produced smaller – if you can call mid to high 20 inch bass small. Meanwhile Finnish style, narrow body lipped swimmers in pink have actually accounted for a larger number of bass in and above the slot. Like many people, Tim got his season started not with a schoolie but a 34 inch bass.
The first island bluefish was caught on June 1 in the harbor, but since then the beaches around Smith’s Point and the south shore – think west – have been seeing more bluefish than I have heard from pretty much anywhere else on the Cape and islands.
