By Striper Mike, Sports Port Pro Staff

The Cape Cod fall migration of striped bass and bluefish is world renown and anglers from all over try their best to catch some of these beautiful species as they move south across and through Cape Cod’s many beaches and Canal.

Jim's 33 inch bass

It was my good fortune this past week to spend some time and fish with Cape Cod’s Jim Kelly. Jim has many friends within the Cape’s fishing community and was kind enough to introduce me to some of them during this past week. Jim is the quintessential Cape Cod Striped bass and Bluefish fisherman and for his talents and skills as a fisherman we are designating him “Angler of the week”.

Jim is an avid Cape Cod Canal angler but started this past week fishing the beaches of Cape Cod Bay and had a spectacular day catching an amazing 50 striped bass. Instead of hiding this incredible day, he invited me to join him the following morning to see if we could do it again. Sure enough we added 21 more striped bass to the total. We caught all these bass on top water plugs and this is a fun and enjoyable way to catch these beautiful fish. We caught bass up to 28 inches and was another tremendous and memorable morning of fishing.  These two days of fishing exemplify the Cape Cod fall run, when the bait and birds gather around the beaches the bass find them and feed in big numbers and you can catch huge quantities of bass in just one location. A real “hit of miss” adventure, there is plenty of “empty” water out there, but find the right spots and you can experience the best fishing of your life.

The author with a striped bass

As if this wasn’t good enough Jim invited me to fish with him and some of his “buddies” at the Cape Cod Canal. The morning started slowly with Jim catching a small striped bass but then the day exploded with an incredible number of very large gator bluefish definitely on the feed. With the average bluefish approaching 30 inches this was going to be a career, once in a lifetime day. Jim had just shown me his jigging technique and it was put to use immediately as 12 of us continued to hook into these truck pulling bluefish.

Jim’s 35 inch bluefish

Add a 4 knot current to this and we were in a tremendous fishing battle that would go on for the next 2 hours. With huge bluefish seemingly everywhere we experienced fishing “mayhem” but were enjoying every minute of it. Experiencing all this fishing action with so many accomplished and skilled anglers was a sight in itself. A well oiled machine of motion to catch and unhook these very toothy creatures. Finally, the bluefish blitz ended and once again the waters returned to peace and serenity.

Jim Kelly, Angler of the week, thank you!

The author with Jim and their gator blues!

By Striper Mike, Sports Port Pro Staff

The spring striped bass migration is well past completion and many of the striped bass visiting the Cape Cop beaches are settling into their summer mode. This now means the water temperature plays a very important role in locating these striped bass. Bass are most comfortable in 55 to 65 degree water temperature and in that range they can be anywhere and caught close to shore on any beach, however as we move into the warming temperatures of summer, the in shore waters quickly approach 70 degrees and warmer. Many of the striped bass retreat to the cooler and deeper water off shore and the charter boat Captains change their strategies to catch these off shore bass.

For our Surfcasting anglers, the early mornings and evenings are definitely the summer fishing times and the daytime hours are now reserved for golf and other activities but always are aware and looking for those cool, cloudy windy days when some stripers still venture in to our many beaches during the day time hours.

John enjoying an evening of surfcasting in Cape Cod Bay.

Enjoy your time on the water and if you don’t have the luxury of choosing specific fishing times, there is NEVER a bad time to be out fishing - get out there and enjoy the day and our beautiful Cape Cod environment.

Stop by the shop and check in with Amy and her staff at the Hyannis and Osterville stores and find out the latest fishing intel and remember “if they don’t have it, you don’t need it.”
- Striper Mike

Fishing Report 7/15/22

Fishing from shore is good….depending on what you want to catch. If you are happy with catching scup and northern kingfish then this is your time! smaller hooks, with some weight and bait and consider yourself ready for some tight lines. If you want striped bass well, that’s a different story. Shore anglers are getting them, but they are small.

Boater anglers are having a much better time catching good size fish. On the South side, Monomoy has been producing slot sized and bigger fish. We have heard of lots of different lures doing the trick: white and pink soft plastics, the yo-zuri hydro squirt (which is a great squid imitation) and squid teaser flies to name a few. We have heard fewer reports on the big bluefish at Monomoy.

Billingsgate has had lots of stripers, although reportedly lots of schoolies with some bigger fish mixed in. Resin and diamond jigs are working well out there.

Our first report of a bonito came in from Rick! Rick and his friend were jigging for mackerel on the Northside when they hooked up with their first funny fish of the season. They also managed to land some nice striped bass as well.

Sports Ports own, Ben, and customer Derek went out of Barnstable Harbor earlier this week and managed to hook up with some beautiful striped bass. They reported that white soft plastics were the secret sauce that morning.

Ben and Derek with their Northside Striped Bass

We hope everyone is getting out there and enjoying this beautiful sandbar that we call Cape Cod! If you have any fish pics we would love to see them and feature in our next fishing report. Send them to us here.

Tight lines everyone!

Amy and everyone at Sports Port