The Fishing News

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.  

Cape fishermen are getting a summer gift: bonito are showing up 2-to-3 weeks ahead of their typical arrival.

Fishermen have lots of peculiar nicknames for the fish they want to catch. If you hook a really big fluke – also known as summer flounder – you've caught a "doormat."

Striped bass get a lot of attention from Cape Cod fishermen, but there's another bass around that's great to catch and eat. We're talking about black sea bass—and if you ever saw them together, you'd never confuse the two.

As September wraps up, so too does another season of the Fishing News. But for many local anglers, this moment brings the hope of one more wave of great fishing: the Fall Run.

Last week the state Division of Marine Fisheries announced it would be expanding the commercial striped bass season for the remainder of the fishing year. It's a decision that's provoked a lot of conversation within the recreational and commercial fishing communities.

They're speedy fish with good eyesight, and they're terribly picky. False albacore are back, to the delight of many local anglers. With their blitz-and-disappear behavior, they have fishermen on edge, waiting for the next eruption.

An unusual catch sparked interest this week: juvenile bonito were being taken in numbers at a few spots on Cape Cod Bay east of the Canal. We talk about it in this week's Fishing News, and look at the seasonal change that means good opportunities for shore fishermen.  

Just one month ago, a lot of local fishermen were scratching their heads and wondering where the bluefish were. We had gone deep into the season without seeing these voracious fish in any numbers. Well, guess what. If you're heading out this weekend, you may be lucky if you don't run into bluefish. Now they seem to be everywhere. 

There are a few fish that appear in Cape Cod waters that will, by a mere mention, get fishermen jabbering with enthusiasm. Bonito certainly fall into that class. They're easy to talk about and hard to catch. And delicious to eat.