Cape Cod Fishing Reports

As Capt. Mike announced on May 10, I will once again be providing reports for Salty Cape, but with a new twist this year. As opposed to the weekly reports/columns I have been writing for 30 years, after plenty of conversations with Mike, we have opted for a daily report format. I will be reporting on different sections of the Cape and Islands each day, sometimes focusing on one area and on others two or more, combining information from my personal and guided trips, talks I’ve had with local tackle shops, and even local charter captains and recreational anglers – including members of the Hogy family – who get to enjoy fishing just for fun.

There will be no set schedule of when I will cover an area during that week, but you can check back regularly to see what news, suggestions, and tips I will have to offer as I cover a different regions.

One of the exclusive features that these reports will offer are direct references to tackle, techniques, and wide array of other valuable information contained in Capt. Mike’s Inshore Playbook and Capt. Mike’s Tuna Playbook. Both of these full color playbooks are geared to light tackle anglers, whether they cast, jig, or troll and are great resources for beginning anglers as well as those who have earned their seven league boots.

How To: Target Bigger Stripers Under The Smaller Ones

Filmed: May 16,2024

In this video, Capt. Mike and crew join Capt. Diogo Godoi of Gorilla Tactics Sportfishing, for a day of targeting early season striped bass in upper Buzzards Bay. The name of the game on this trip was locating piles of birds by using a combination of our eyes and radar, and fishing under those bird piles with a moderately heavy swimbait to get down deeper. With an abundance of bait and smaller sized fish, the crew opted to fish their swimbaits deeper under the life to try and entice a larger size class fish! Tight lines everyone!

Cape Cod Fishing Report: 5/15/2024

I finally managed to find the motivation to get the boat in the water for the first time this season and enjoyed what can best be described as an interesting day of fishing in Woods Hole and Naushon, along with a couple of brief detours to the rip off Nobska and over Middle Ground way.

Phil Stanton was good enough to send me some photos of quality bass taken from what I can presume were the waters of the Hole and perhaps down the Elizabeths since he and his guests spend a lot of time fishing these waters. Although snapping wire is a common early season technique used around these parts, Phil mentioned that they were casting; along with bucktails and topwater plugs, one of Phil’s favorite lures is a large plastic Finnish style swimmer in what some folks call clown and others label Wonderbread, but basically it is pearl with splotches of red, blue, and yellow. This color pattern is used both by smaller custom wood plug makers and the large manufacturers of plastic lures and it should be noted that the level of brightness of the three colors mentioned above can vary widely from one builder to another, with the one Phil uses tends towards more a faded look on a white pearl background.

I had no illusions that I would have the same success that Phil and company enjoyed, mainly because we are in the midst of the migration and a school of fish can move in on one tide and be gone the other, especially in the Hole.