Fishing Report Monday June 24, 2024

Boat fishing on the south side of Falmouth remains good with striped bass and bluefish feeding on squid in the rips like Middle Ground, Hedge Fence and le' homedu shoal. Amber colored surface plugs like the Hogy charter grade popper and dog walker have been out fishing other lures and if squid remain in the rips that will continue. There have been a fair number of guys trolling wire line and jigging parachute jigs in the shoals as well. As the calendar turns to July that tactic will become even more effective as the bass will be deeper and deeper as the water continues to warm. I have also started to sell significantly more eels over the past week as guys are having great success catching big bass on eels. Fishing along the Elizabeth Islands has historically been a great place to cast eels into the rocks for stripers but don’t be discouraged to drop eels down in deep holes around the rips or in places like Woods Hole. Other places that have been holding decent fish have been Devil’s Bridge, Wasque, Squibnocket, upper Buzzards Bay and east to the Monomoy rips. A trend that I have noticed over the past week is that there have been more and more bluefish showing up around Cape Cod. They are caught in similar ways as Striped Bass, but they have sharp teeth that destroy most lures. At this point of the season, I typically stay away from soft plastics and focus on hard baits like the Hogy surface plugs I previously mentioned, and the Hogy Epoxy jig with an inline single hook. Over the next week or so the water temperature on the south side is going to creep up close to 70 degrees and at that point most of the bass will either move east to the Monomoy Rips or north up to the Plymouth/Boston area. When that occurs, it will be mostly be bluefish around the Falmouth area. I would highly encourage you to get out this week and fish the rips because the bass may not hang around for that much longer. Bottom fishing for black sea bass, fluke and scup remains very good. For black sea bass, you want to focus on fishing in very deep water, somewhere in the 80’-100’ range. That may seem awful deep to some people but this year most of the keepers have been caught at these depths. HI-LO rigs, teaser rigs, bucktails and diamond jigs have all been working for the black sea bass. For the sea bass rigs, I encourage people to tip them with squid or gulp and if you’re using a metal jig to spray it down with gulp squid scent. Fluke fishing has been fantastic this year and better than I can remember the past few seasons. I like to fish with fluke rigs that have a wide-gap hook opposed to something with a “J” hook because they stay hooked in their mouths better. One thing that is necessary for fluke fishing is a net because they shake the hook at the surface a lot of the time. Trying to net them a few feet below the surface will prevent them from shaking the hook at the last minute. Fluke are mostly found in the sandy shoals but will occasionally be caught around structure. All of the shoals on the south side of Falmouth that are holding striped bass are also currently holding Fluke. Other places besides the three shoals mentioned earlier are Lucas Shoal, Quicks and Robinsons. Mashnee Flats in Upper BB is also a great place to find fluke and other fish residing on the sandy bottom. Bluefin Tuna fishing remains red hot east of Chatham from the Regal Sword all the way up to Nauset. A few weeks ago, it was primarily a troll bite at Crab Ledge. However, over the past week more guys have caught fish casting and jigging with spinning gear, despite the persistent strong winds. We should continue to see a surface bite on recreational size tunas east of Chatham as we get into July. With all that has been going on east, I haven’t heard as much about what is taking place south of Martha’s Vineyard. A week ago, a customer reported jigging up three rec size bluefin at the dump but outside of that I haven’t heard much. I have a tuna trip planned for Monday, July 1st so stayed tuned for a firsthand, updated tuna report. Tight Lines! Evan Eastman