Cape Cod Fishing Reports

Join us each week as Capt. Dave Peros combines his own experience on the water with that of his network of Cape Cod & Islands charter captains, recreational fishermen and tackle shops to create the region’s most comprehensive weekly fishing report.

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Latest Reports

Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/29/2024

May 29, 2024
By saltycape

Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/29/2024

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I guess if you do the same thing for a number of days in the same locations and the fish continue to cooperate, then that’s the way it goes.

This morning was the third and final day of my trips with Tom Bishop and Irwin Chu, who shared the boat on our last two days with their great nephew, Thomas Sheehan, and the bass action just might have been the most consistent we have experienced during these annual gatherings that start just before Memorial Day and conclude the week after.

Each day we fished some combination of Nobska, Woods Hole, and the Vineyard side of Vineyard Sound – as opposed to the waters more towards the Elizabeths – and we never switched over from the Hogy Charter Grade Popper (CGP) as the fish just couldn’t leave them alone. The one change we made today was using the Albie Crack color (basically a white plug) as well as the amber and the fish gave us their opinion: they like them both equally. Whether that was a result of today featuring sunny, brighter, and warmer conditions while our first two days were cool, cloudy, and sometimes downright foggy, I couldn’t say. Today we were fishing from the middle of the dropping tide/west current at Nobska and it was kind of “silly” fishing since there seemed to be an unlimited number of bass that I guessed were just a bit shy of or in the slot limit (28 to less than 31-inches), with the occasional over slot fish.

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Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/27/2024

May 27, 2024
By saltycape

Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/27/2024

Sometimes it’s possible to overthink things when it comes to fishing, so I avoided succumbing to my tendency to try a new place even if I have been doing well in another location for a number of days.

So in this case, I started my trip with Tom Bishop and Irwin Chu, along with their nephew Thomas, in Woods Hole. Once again, we were welcomed by foggy, cool conditions and the fish were not quite as active as yesterday. That said, Irwin and Thomas landed two of the largest bass caught on the Katie G this season and all of the fish we caught in the Hole came on the amber Charter Grade Popper.

There were a couple of other boats milling around in the soup and overall I wouldn’t describe the action as gangbusters, but I would suggest keeping your eyes peeled on flat or calmer water well in front of the different rip lines, which in this case are formed by boulder fields or a rocky reef constricting the water flow and producing the all-important turbulence that fish can hang behind and thereby save their energy for chasing squid or other baitfish or use as an ambush spot where they can lie in wait and simply pick off their meals.

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Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/25/2024

May 25, 2024
By saltycape

Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/25/2024

You couldn’t have asked for a better day on the water today, but the fish weren’t as cooperative as I would have liked. I had the chance to fish with Jon Kolb who has been flyrodding Woods Hole and the Elizabeths with me for a good long while. Simply put, we covered a lot of water from the Hole down to Quick’s and saw no signs of life -birds or fish, although we did see a coyote lumbering along the Pasque shoreline – and got no response to the flies we blindcast into the rocks.

We did see a trio of boats plugging inside Robinson’s on our way through to Buzzards Bay and there was still a gathering of four or so boats in the same area as we made our way back up the sound from Quick’s. I have no idea if anything was happening and unlike a couple of other boats that elected to move in to what was clearly a congested area– you know, if you see boats in an area, they must be catching fish – I had no interest in joining the crowd.

My choice was to head across Vineyard Sound to check a series of rips between West Chop and Menemsha in hopes that there wouldn’t be as many boats as Middle Ground would be harboring on Memorial Day weekend. It was a good move as we did find some bass, especially as the tide began to slow around midmorning and they were active both back a ways into the rough water as well as in the flat water out front. In fact, I caught sight of a great visual, with five stripers in a line pursuing a squid from the rip line into the smooth water; they weren’t swimming in a straight line, but sort of in a conga line, almost as if each one was trying to anticipate which direction the squid would go. Overall, it was a good reminder that it’s a tough life being a member of the Loligo Pealeii family, especially right now.

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