July Report with Bruno Demir & Eddy Kooyomjian
MFCC members Bruno Demir of Cape & Islands Mitsubishi and The Olde Cape Carwash alongside his cousin, Eddy Kooyomjian of Monomoy Tackle deliver a LIVE report from Nantucket Sound and the Monomoy Rips. The guys loaded up their children on a Saturday morning and took them fishing! The family fishing day ventured through Monomoy and out toward Nantucket.
Their reports cover fluke, striped bass, and bluefin tuna, plus a few pieces of big news for the MFCC community. Here's the full breakdown, organized by location and species, so you can point the bow in the right direction this weekend!
Nantucket Sound & the Shoals — Fluke
The bulk of today's action came fluke fishing south of Monomoy toward Nantucket, where Bruno, Eddy, and their kids strung together a full day of consistent action. The crew worked several well-known drifts — McBlair, Rose & Crown, and Orion shoals — before sliding north to a honey hole closer to Monomoy that Bruno and Eddy stumbled onto three years ago during the Fluke versus Cancer fundraising trip: a patch of clean sandy bottom in about 55 feet of water that fluke clearly love.
Tide stage dictated the whole game plan. Early in the drift, with the current still soft, the crew fished a high-low rig tipped with a three-inch spoon, worked with a gentle lift-and-drop — not quite slow-pitch jigging — that let the spoon flutter down on the dropper loop and drew strikes from bigger fish eyeing the teaser.
This was fast, easy action that kept the kids engaged. As the tide built toward the bottom stage and the drift picked up to nearly two knots, the team switched to a five-inch three-way rig with a heavier spoon — Monomoy Tackle spoons, specifically — to keep the presentation swimming properly in the harder-moving water. Heavier weights, sized up to match the faster drift, came into play at the same time.
Bait note: the crew tipped their spoons with local squid caught at a local dock by Eddy and his children a few nights prior to the trip, along with mackerel and spearing. Bait and forage were thick throughout the area, with mackerel especially abundant, which likely helped hold fish on these drifts all day.
Monomoy Rips — Striped Bass
The day started at Monomoy, where the rips were running hard and Bruno found birds working over blitzing fish near Rogers Shoal. Trolling through the commotion, the pair connected on a slot-sized striped bass right away before pulling off to continue searching for bluefish or bonito. That fish came on a trolled hot pink Monomoy Tackle Talon worked directly through the surface activity.
Success came working the edge of a bird pile at Monomoy, running the four-inch Talon lipped diving plug at roughly three miles per hour. Using this method, the crew hooked up immediately on a pink-and-electric color pattern. Bait in that stretch appeared to be smaller forage — likely sand eels or another small herring species, distinct from the squid and pogies showing up elsewhere — which helped explain the smaller profile lure choice.
Crab Ledge & Regal Sword — Bluefin Tuna
Offshore, east of Chatham, the recreational bluefin bite that's been relatively quiet in recent weeks appears to be waking back up. Bruno reported that fish showed up Friday on Crab Ledge and around Regal Sword, a notable shift after a couple of seasons in which recreational fish seemed to hold farther south off Rhode Island and Block Island rather than pushing up onto the traditional Chatham-area grounds.
A local tournament out of Bruno's home port, Saquatucket Marina, saw several giants landed over the same stretch, with recreational size fish mixed in among the giant class. Bait is the likely driver: herring has been thick east of Chatham. There's a good chance the tuna stick around and this shapes up into the kind of fishery Cape Cod anglers have been hoping to see return from years past.
2026 Fluke vs Cancer
Fluke vs Cancer 2026 is officially in the works. Bruno and Eddy's charity outing benefiting Boston Children's Hospital returns this year with a shorter, earlier donation window (roughly 7–10 days) so winners can be selected and fish before families head back to school in late August. A full announcement with rules and donation details is coming via a companion blog post authored by Ryan on My Fishing Cape Cod.
Weekend Fishing Opportunities
- Nantucket Sound / Monomoy Rips (fluke): McBlair, Rose and Crown, Orion shoals, and deeper 50-60 ft sand bottom around Monomoy — high-low rig with 3" spoon early tide, 5" spoon on a three-way rig as current builds toward 2-3 knots; tip with local squid, mackerel, or spearing.
- Monomoy Rips (striped bass): Trolled lures through bird-marked bait blitzes for slot fish; 4" Talon lipped diving plug in pink/electric, trolled around 3 mph along bird-pile edges.
- Crab Ledge / Regal Sword (bluefin tuna): Recreational bluefin tuna showing up after a slow start, with heavy herring bait concentrations east of Chatham keeping fish in the area. Giants also mixed in with these recreational fish.
Tight Lines & Take Care!🎣