New Moon, Minus Tides
AJ Coots of Red Top Sporting Goods in Buzzards Bay delivers a wide-ranging mid-July report. The new moon arrives today, on July 14th. A stretch of double minus tides at the Cape Cod Canal that AJ says anglers "plan vacations around", a steady scup and sea bass bite in Buzzards Bay, and the first real signs of a recreational tuna bite mixing in with giants have Red Top customers excited. Here's the full breakdown, organized by location, species, and the lures putting fish on the beach and in the boat.
Cape Cod Canal: Minus Tides Are the Story
The Canal is entering a new moon phase today and according to AJ, new moon tides at the Canal have consistently outperformed the full moon tides this season. The reason comes down to water movement. The most recent full moon produced no minus tides at all in Sandwich, but the current cycle is a different animal entirely: minus tides began a couple of days before the moon itself, and the Canal is set to see five sets of double minus tides. That means normal low tides run one to two feet lower than usual, a swing that dramatically reshapes a big body of water like the Canal and concentrates both bait and predators into tighter, more predictable lanes.
Darkness is working in anglers' favor too. With little to no moonlight overnight during the new moon, stripers have a harder time picking out lures, which plays right into a straightforward nighttime approach: jig it. AJ suggests leaning on darker colors or straight white after dark, though some anglers prefer a brighter offering for extra attraction, or a jig with glow-in-the-dark features to help it stand out in the black water.
Fishing over the weekend leading into this cycle was a mixed bag. Sunday morning produced a solid pod of fish up into the high 30-pound range, while Monday morning was quieter, with mostly schoolies showing. But conditions can flip fast in the Canal: a video from a customer at 9:30 AM Monday morning showed a major top-water blitz on stripers just west of the railroad bridge, well after the tide would have predicted peak activity. The takeaway, as AJ put it, is that being in the right spot at the right time in the Canal can be the difference-maker regardless of what the tide chart says.
Looking at the days ahead, Wednesday and Thursday bring tides strong enough that AJ says out-of-towners legitimately plan vacations around them. The low is shifting later by about 50 minutes a day, but the double minus tides hold through Thursday, meaning the strongest water movement lines up right around daybreak on the Sandwich, or east end of the Canal. AJ's advice for building a game plan: start on one end, work some jigs, expect top-water activity at first light, and if nothing materializes, move. Try the herring run if you started at the east end, or vice versa if you began at the west end. The Canal is a big body of water despite how easy it is to access, and staying mobile is key to finding fish.
Baitfish patterns haven't changed much recently. AJ still isn't certain whether the small, skinny, silver bait being ambushed is a juvenile sand eel, a silverside, or another type of rain bait, but whatever it is, mackerel are thick throughout the Canal right now, and squid show up after dark too. Mackerel have also pushed out from the east end into deeper water, 60 to 80 feet, with reports of anglers jigging them up inside Cape Cod Bay as well. With that much forage in the system, the stripers have every reason to stick around.
Cape Cod Canal Must Have Lures
For lures, AJ's must-have list for a Canal trip this week starts with a Magic Swimmer, either the 7.5-inch or 9-inch size in ghost white, calling it an essential in ghost white for anyone fishing the Canal. An SP Minnow or a Yo-Zuri Mag Darter-style Crystal Minnow works as a solid alternative swimming lure.
On top water, AJ recommends carrying a floating plug that can be worked slowly, like a 3-ounce Wally's Pencil or a Gibbs, for situations closer to slack water where presentation matters more than casting distance. Pair that with a sinking distance pencil, such as an Airstrike/Guppy-style Outkast, or one of the heavier Wally's Pencils, for scenarios that call for reach over finesse.
Rounding out the box, AJ recommends jigs like a Savage Sand Eel, a Fish Lab Soft Mac (or Mac Attack), or the tried-and-true bucktail with a pork rind trailer. A mix from the top, middle, and bottom of the water column covers the bases for a successful and well rounded Canal trip.
For those fishing traditional daytime hours rather than dawn or dusk, chunking mackerel remains a productive, if slightly mysterious, technique. AJ reports chunks of mackerel are still doing very well with no clear explanation for why it continues to produce, just that it does.
Buzzards Bay: Mackerel-Fueled Striper Trick
Buzzards Bay has plenty going on of its own. A small push of bonito showed up recently but appears to have dissipated, and smaller bluefish have been coming and going without settling into a consistent pattern. The more reliable action has been the scup and black sea bass bite, which AJ characterizes as respectable and consistently pretty good, if not lights-out.
One standout tactic AJ highlighted involves anglers running through the Canal specifically to jig up mackerel, given how abundant they currently are at the mouth of the east end, then bringing those live mackerel back through the Canal to live-line them out of the west end.
That approach has been producing solid striped bass for anglers willing to make the run, essentially using the Canal's mackerel surplus as a bait source for Buzzards Bay stripers. This is a smart way to take advantage of mackerel concentrated on the Canal's east end and put a lively, natural bait in front of bigger fish floating around the mouth of the west end.
Offshore: Early Signs of Rec Tuna Bite
Tuna talk is heating up as well. AJ has heard rumblings of recreational size bluefin tuna starting to mix in with giants, though most of what he's picking up from customers centers on canyon fishing and rumors of activity somewhere between Crab Ledge and the Sword, with a number of commercial-sized fish already showing in the bay.
This week, marks the first time this season we are hearing reports of recreational-sized bluefin mixing in with giants in that same area east of Chatham, between the Sword and Crab Ledge. It's an encouraging sign for folks who look to target these fish closer to shore and from smaller boats this season.
Tight Lines & Take Care! 🎣