Cape Cod Fishing Report- May 2, 2024 - On The Water (2024)

Cape Cod Fishing Report

What a difference one week can make during the spring migration of striped bass. Since April 17th there have been schoolies trickling into the area, and last week left much to be desired in the way of seven stripers. But now, after some more mild weather and the arrival of some larger schools of bunker, bigger bass, some in the upper 30-inch class, are pouring into Buzzards Bay by the day.

I have this unnecessary anxiety that sets in toward the end of April each year if I haven’t landed my first striper of the season. Coming from Long Island a few years ago, we were able to get on stripers in the back bays during the final week of March or first week of April, so my goal since then is always to find my first bass before May 1. It’s an internalized competition between Matt of today, and Matt of seasons past. Thankfully, after a slow start in April, I dialed in a backwater bite on April 29 that has yielded me plenty of fish in the 22- to 29-inch range. However, it took noticing a negative pattern for my luck to turn.

Based on my logs from the past 2 seasons, almost all of my early season striper trips in 2022 and 2023 found better fishing for stripers on the incoming tides in the estuaries. This year has been a colder spring in general, and after consecutive skunkings on the incoming tide in several spots, my luck turned when I began timing my outings toward the end of the ebb tide. Warmer water flowing out of the bays and salt ponds is what ignited activity from bass that were likely right there in front of me, but unwilling to feed during certain stages of the tide when cold water was coming in rather than warmer water moving out. The warm outgoing water brings silversides, grass shrimp, herring, crabs, and more recently, bunker, right through choke points and channels where bass are lying in wait for their food to pass overhead. The point in sharing this struggle is to demonstrate the value of keeping a fishing log and and how breaking our own patterns, even if they proved successful in years past, can lead to developing new ones.

On the same subject, the fish that I thought would normally be taking soft plastic paddletails on a jig during the incoming tide, are instead taking minnow plugs on the outgoing. They’ve been busting all over the surface at night, feeding on small grass shrimp, and even though the minnow plugs don’t mimic their minuscule forage, creeping a swimming plug just barely subsurface as it swings down-current has been the ticket to producing bites.

While backwaters on the south side of Cape Cod continue to heat up with bass in the 20-inch class, other areas like Buzzards Bay are lighting up with larger, over-slot fish in search of bunker schools. Last week, bunker had piled into areas around Wareham and northern Buzzards Bay. Now, it seems like wherever you go out there, you’re likely to find birds working, or fish in transit on the surface. Tautog fishermen around Cleveland Light have been seeing waves of stripers pushing north in the bay all week, which means the Canal could pop off any day now—especially with the May new moon on it’s way (May 7).

And tautog fishing has been great in the Bay recently, at least much better than the same time last season. Keepers are coming over the gunwale with regularity and there is plenty of short life out there to keep things interesting. Tog fishing around the Elizabeth Islands, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired for those anglers hitting the craggy shorelines south of Woods Hole.

Thankfully, we’ve got some better reports in the way of squid. Evan Eastman from Eastman’s Sport & Tackle in Falmouth launched his boat earlier this week and found stacks of bait in the rips in Vineyard Sound, with either scup or sea bass lingering beneath the clouds of squid he marked. Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters said he was filling buckets with squid on one of his most recent trips, which is great news since last week there were hardly any signs of them off the south side of Cape Cod. As stripers continue to file into the Sounds, those rips are really going to heat up.

While stripers will key in on squid in the rips of Vineyard and Nantucket Sounds, Buzzards Bay bass will be looking for herring and bunker, likely following the pogy schools into the Canal as the new moon approaches and more extreme tides help them continue their northward journey.

From the Cape Cod Canal, East End Eddie Doherty reports:

“Baitfish were jumping in the Canal this weekend so they must have been escaping some predators. The Herring Run continues to produce and some small bass have been caught in Buzzards Bay outside of the Ditch. Famed Canal Rat “Bull” MacKinnon did well in April, landing 4 stripers last week including a 30-inch keeper on his white pencil. My cousin John Cornish, owner of Atlantic Boats & Stonebridge Marina in Wareham, close to the Canal, will be hosting his annual Open House on Saturday, May 4 from 9-3 with a large inventory of nice boats and useful accessories.”

Connor Swartz at Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay told me that the fish he was catching last week, which were keyed in on bunker, have moved out of the rivers and into Buzzards Bay, following those schools of pogies. He said their customers are getting into some bigger fish on the south side of Cape Cod near the inlets too, but it’s unclear whether the fish are taking plastics, plugs, or bait. Connor added that tautog fishing remains great in Buzzards Bay, with most of the boats finding enough keepers to go around if they’re not getting limits. He said George from the shop just caught a 20 incher in the Canal moments before our call. Lastly, he mentioned that squidding has improved off of Hyannis and guys are getting some in the harbor, but not in enough numbers to fill buckets just yet.

Evan at Eastman’s Sport and Tackle in Falmouth said his customers are catching bass out near Mashpee on the boat, and that shore spots on the salt ponds are producing some pretty quality fish. One customer was fishing in the upper harbors of Buzzards Bay and caught a couple 36- and 38-inch bass earlier this week, which is great to see, but we both noted the lack of smaller stripers in the area this spring, which is something to be concerned about. On a separate note, Evan marked a ton of squid in the Sound this past week around slack tide, so he and his father didn’t get much action as they were waiting for the rip to form. He did note that they had some smaller marks beneath the squid piles, which were likely scup or sea bass.

Morgan at Sports Port Bait and Tackle in Hyannissaid there are schoolies out in the Sound but they’re not very close to shore yet. Commercial boats are loading up on squid, and they’re starting to come in to the docks but she said they need the water to warm up a bit more before the squidding really picks up. She also mentioned they’ve had a lot of people getting green crabs for tautog and catching keepers in the Canal. And surprisingly, they had reports of bluefish off of some of the local beaches, with customers hooking up on metals. Other than that, trout and bass fishing is good in the kettle ponds with the increased water temps.

Captain Ross of Cape Cod Charter Guys in Bourne reported that they were crushing 20- to 40-inch bass this morning, and the past two days their clients have limited out on keeper-size stripers, too. The skipper said there are lots of fish and tons of birds out there. They had fish on walk-the-dog style topwaters like the Game On X-Walk and even some paddletails, specifically the 5-inch plastics from No Live Bait Needed. They’re out there daily, so give them a ring if you want to get in on the action!

FishLinked Charters in Wareham reported:

“The striper bite in Buzzards Bay is on fire. It changed from a sneaky bite down low to firing up on topwater. Boiling water is popping up all over the place. Using chugging topwater plugs, we smacked our limit within 3 hours with a handful of throwbacks as well.”

Captain Kurt Freund of Fishsticks Charters on Martha’s Vineyard said that he splashed the boat this week and today, he is spending the day loading up gear to get it ready for his first charter of the season on Friday! With the amount of stripers that have piled into Buzzards Bay and Vineyard Sound over the past week, he is very excited to start the season. Reach out to book yourself a charter around the Vineyard!

Captain Cam Faria of Cambo Charters said they were getting about a half a bucket of squid a person. He said that some boats have been doing better further in towards shore, so he’s going back out this weekend to continue the hunt since he uses squid as sea bass bait during the spring once that season opens.

• Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain around Cape Cod and the Islands!

Cape Cod Fishing Forecast

The options are plentiful for fishing this weekend. Buzzards Bay is the spot to be whether you’re looking for keeper tog or stripers on top. Squid fishing in the Sound is picking up, and it sounds like there’s a possibility of running into bluefish to the east around Hyannis as well.

Grab a rod, jump on a boat or head down to the beach or local salt pond, and cast around soft plastics, flies, or small topwater plugs to catch some stripers. The weekend weather looks colder with winds out of the northeast, but the fish are here, and they’re chewing well. This is what we’ve been waiting for, so dress for the conditions and don’t waste any time. Have fun, be safe, respect each other on the water, and fish hard! Best of luck out there.