Over the past several days I've run a total of 8 charters, mostly for striped bass. I have a couple more striper trips coming up this week before sea bass starts on May 23rd.
My most recent trips have been similar to our MFCC group trip from a couple weeks back.​ It's been mostly plugging with some live mackerel, and finally some tautog mixed in.
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Bigger Stripers Are Moving In
Plugging has been working well for us when targeting stripers the past several days.
My trips from earlier this week and last weekend produced mostly sub-legal fish.
Casting topwater plugs and swimmers has been a lot of fun.
However, live-lining mackerel can help weed through schoolie stripers and catch the attention of any bigger bass in the area.
I've been finding mackerel this week inside Cape Cod Bay. The Bay seems to be holding a good amount of bait right now which is promising.
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I'm also hearing news about guys catching greater numbers of keeper size stripers, so it looks like the larger 40+ inch fish are definitely trickling into the Cape Cod area.
For the small boat guys reading this, I am starting to hear some reports of fish on the flats in Cape Cod Bay. Plymouth Bay and Duxbury Bay are also good areas to check out right now via kayak or small boat if you have one at your disposal.
Tautog Finally Show Up
Last weekend I fished with several My Fishing Cape Codders and I'm happy to report that we finally found some tautog.
We got a couple keeper tog in one spot and a few more in another, which is about as good as its been so far this season.
The problem is that we had to weed through lots of small fish and scup. In total we landed 7 or 8 keepers which is a big improvement from the past couple weeks.
Even the commercial tog guys had only been catching 3 or 4 keeper tog per trip, so I feel pretty happy about how we did.
Sea Bass Starts Soon
Starting on May 23 I will shift gears and focus more on sea bass. I feel that 2015 is going to be a really good year for sea bass, based on what I'm currently seeing.
Last year my crews and I experienced some tremendous sea bass bites.​
The good news is there seems to already be a lot of sea bass in the usual spots throughout Buzzard's Bay which bodes well for next week.
This is a great opportunity for fishing with the kids. Bring the clams and squid and it's not unusual to find steady action all day.
Sea bass fishing is a good way of keeping the rods bent for folks with short attention spans. Additionally they taste great and make for an awesome dinner.
For more on what's happening right now in the Cape Cod fishing world, MFCC members can click below to download an 8+ minute podcast report with Cullen and Ryan.
In this podcast report, Cullen and Ryan discuss what they've been seeing this week while fishing the waters off Cape Cod.​
Member Downloads
8+ minute podcast report with Cullen and Ryan about what they’ve been seeing this week while fishing the waters off Cape Cod.
What do you think? Let me know by commenting below.
Thanks for the report Cullen! I was wondering if u had any idea if scup or sea bass would be in shallow enough to catch near shore? I’m in upper buzzards, marks cove across from swifts beach. There is a nice drop off there where I catch scup and also drift in the kayak and jig for sea bass. This is usually later in the season though so I have no idea if they are in that close yet. I’ve got a new girl friend who wants to hook into some fish and I figure scup would be a good fish to start on. We fished the spot last week and hook some big sea robins, any idea if that could be a sign for other bottom fish? Thanks for any help!!