The Fishing News

These days of blustery north winds are tough on Cape Cod anglers. But we've got tips for not letting the weather get you down, as you're thinking about those albies and stripers you know are out there.

Fall means the fishing for snapper bluefish takes off. They're often easy to find around docks and harbors, they’re tasty, and they’re great fish for younger anglers to catch.

A white marlin off Provincetown, a sailfish in the Cape Cod Canal. A red drum in Buzzards Bay, tarpon off Nantucket. If it seems like reports of exotic catches are on the rise, it may be because they are.

We're not talking about jogging. We're talking about some of the best fishing of the year.

The albies are here. That's enough information, for a certain breed of angler, to get the blood hot.

Terns, gulls, osprey... to find fish in the water, plenty of fishermen pay keen attention to the activity of birds in the air.

King mackerel have been showing up in Cape Cod waters in numbers for the past four years, joining Spanish mackerel as a seasonal visitor that anglers target. Atlantic mackerel are a perennial local favorite of striped bass. And this year, reports of chub mackerel are coming from just a little south of us.

It can be intimidating to walk into a tackle shop and see all the bait offerings. Eels, menhaden, squid, meal worms, night crawlers... Here's what you need to know to get out fishing around Cape Cod and the Islands.

You can get out on the water fishing even without a traditional boat. Fishing from a kayak brings you closer to the action and offers lots of other upsides, too. 

Great whites get a lot of attention around Cape Cod. But local anglers know that a number of other sharks found in our waters may deliver a surprise at the end of a fishing line.

Pencil poppers, chuggers, torpedoes... topwater lures can bring some of the most exciting inshore fishing. There's no greater thrill than when a striper or bluefish smashes one of these on the surface.

Traditional hooks are called "J hooks," because they look like the letter. Circle hooks have points that curve back toward the shank. These can help prevent gut-hooking striped bass, which means a lower mortality rate when fish are released.

Black sea bass season is going strong, which is good news for anglers and anyone who knows one with an extra fish to spare. They're one of the tastiest fish to come out of our waters.

Bluefish may not get the respect from fishermen that striped bass do, but the fish are getting similar attention from regulators concerned about the health of the stock.

Going forward, only recreational fishing will be allowed. The change aims to reduce public nuisance problems along the canal and simplify enforcement of fishing limits. But some fishermen worry about the precedent it sets. 

You don’t have to tell fishermen to social distance – most of the time they’re already angling that way.

It's the last Fishing News of 2019 (sigh). We look back at some of the highlights of the season past (great fishing for albies and Spanish mackerel), and lowlights (striped bass do seem to be, as scientists tell us, not as abundant). And we look forward to some great autumn fishing (the Fall Run, tautog, trout in freshwater). 

This time of year is a great moment for snapper blues, and we’re having a good season for them. Snapper blues are just young bluefish, and they are feisty. They're also delicious to eat.

New regulations are being proposed for the striped bass fishery. For fishermen— and for the fish—they’re a big deal.

September brings a special excitement to local anglers. As warm inshore waters start to cool, bigger striped bass show up. And they're hungry, looking to feed before they migrate south.

Bonito, albies, Spanish mackeral, king mackeral... late August has brought an abundance of fast-swimming fish to our local waters.  Many fisherman say it's the best season for funny fish they've seen. 

Fishery managers are meeting to discuss potential changes to striped bass limits, to protect the species as it has been declared overfished.

You're not likely to run into a tile fish unless you spend some time and effort to target them. But they may be one of the best tasting fish around.

Striped bass are semi-nocturnal and feed with particular enthusiasm at night – especially the big ones.  So when daytime beaches are crowded and boats are busy in the inshore waters, it's a perfect moment to focus on fishing at night. 

When a fish ranges from 30lbs to 1000lbs, there's got to be more than one way to fish for it.