RED TOP SPORTING GOODS - Fishing Reports

Fishing is picking up!

5/8/2019

This is the time of year to get out of the house, rain or shine and catch some fish! There are tons of schoolie stripers to be had in any number of back bays, inlets, and estuaries right now. Keeper sized fish are now mixed into the schoolies as well. A few very exciting reports we received over the past couple days has been of those same fish in the canal, and it should now only be a week or two before we start seeing 20+ lb fish showing up in the canal. The full moon tides surrounding the 18th should bring some of those fish into the canal.

On another note, the Tautog bite has been very good from both boat and shore. We have weighed in a few fish around the 5lb mark since late April and we have seen many pictures of much bigger fish. It is very typical to see a ten plus pound Tautog at least once per season! Most of these fish are caught on the jig or a Hi-Lo rig using green crabs.

The squid are also in very heavy right now although this bite does not tend to last very long. Get them while you can!

The freshwater fishing has been very good as well, although now that the stripers are in most people will change from fresh to saltwater fishing. We weighed in a nice Brown Trout last Saturday which weighed 4.5 lbs.

New moon in June.......HERE WE GO!!!

6/10/2018

The long awaited new moon in June is right around the corner. Its what we've all been dreaming about all winter long. As of right now everything looks good on paper. Whats that mean? Well, we have double star tides starting up on Wednesday the 13th and the scuttlebutt around the shop is that there are some nice fish out in Buzzards Bay at the moment. There have been some squid showing up intermittently as well as some small sea herring and those river herring are all done spawning and should be dropping back out of the run. Will those big tides pull in those migrating stripers into the canal? We shall see!! One thing I do know is you can't catch them from the couch, so if you don't want to be the "you should have been here yesterday person" get out there and get on that grind. Eventually you'll run into something that make it worth losing all that sleep, and having that sore back.

Seabass is still on fire. We weighed fish up to 4lbs this past weekend. The first fluke of the season was also brought into shop. The nice looking fish weighed over 8lbs.

Memorial Day Weekend Fishing Report

5/24/2018

Well the season is finally upon us, and even though mother nature has been a little moody this year the fishing has really picked up. We have seen plenty of bait in the canal and all the surrounding bodies of water. Squid, mackerel and juvenile sea herring have been quite abundant in these waters. The canal fishing has been productive for the people actually fishing. We have seen fish up to 51" caught in the past week although the average sized fish was closer to 25-35". With the abundance of smaller bait around fish can be finicky. The best way to catch fish is to "match the hatch" and use smaller profile baits that they are feeding on. When they were not finicky, quite a few fish were taken on the jig. Most people fishing the canal will be tossing a Savage Sand Eel or an Al Gags Whip It Fish.

The Buzzards Bay boat bite has been really heating up. There is a bunch of big Black Sea Bass being caught. There has been a lot of topwater action on keeper sized striped bass as well as decent size bluefish. The tog bite is slowing down as the Sea Bass are moving into shallower water, although keepers are still being caught.

As the new moon approaches, we can expect some good tides and can also expect some good fishing!

Get to Canal NOW!!!!

7/13/2017

The Canal and Cape Cod Bay were insane this morning and still going on! This is the biggest push of monster, trophy sized stripers we have seen in years! Fishing is as good as it gets through the entire Canal. Both the East and West end were on fire. We have been experiencing good fishing all morning and afternoon especially after the current changes. The canal is still loaded with big schools of Mackerel and Pogies. We weighed in a crazy amount of fish today in the high #30's- high #40's. We received confirmed reports of a #54 from the Canal as well! There wasn't much a top-water bite with most fish being caught subsurface. Jigs such as Savage Sandeel and Al Gag's Whip It Fish were the top producers. Sebile Stick Shads and Magic Swimmers were also very productive. White and Mack were the top colors. We weighed two fish from Cape Cod Bay for a commercial fisherman that each weighed over #50 and the two fish on maxed out our scale!

Two fish over #50 each

Fishing is Great!

7/11/2017

Canal fishing has been excellent the past few days. Now is the time to get here and target the trophy bass in the Canal. We weighed two fish over #40 this morning and many more mid 20's to mid 30's. We have been weighing big fish over #35 each day for the past 4 or 5 days! There are large schools of bunker and mackerel throughout the Canal. Fishing has been very productive on both ends of the Canal. After the current changes direction in both the morning and afternoon fishing has been red hot! Jigs such as the Al Gag's Whip It Fish and Savage Sandeel have been top producers. White and Mackerel have been the hot colors. Pencil poppers have worked well during the morning hours and during the blitzes in the afternoon. Boat fishing for Stripers has continued to produce in Buzzards Bay.

Bottom fishing in Buzzards Bay is still going strong with the bigger Black Sea Bass moving south but with plenty still around. Very big fishing are being caught all over Nantucket Sound. Monster Fluke are being caught on Nantucket Shoal.

Offshore fishing has really picked up this past week. There are a ton of Yellowfin at East Atlantis and Veatch Canyons. The Northeast corner of the Dump has had a good small/medium- medium Bluefin bite. Shark fishing has been productive North of the Dump.

And The Beat Goes On!

7/7/2017

Canal fishing has been good yet another week. Plenty of small fish around with bigger fish mixed in. This morning we weighed a nice 40 pound fish from the Canal. This fish was taken early morning on a Strike Pro Needle Fish. Canal fishing has had a consistent bite, with early morning and late night jigging being productive as well as a later morning top water bite. We expect to see the same going into the weekend. We also weighed in a large fluke caught of the Canal from shore as well! This is not usual but is great to see!

Buzzards Bay ground fishing can still produce some large Seabass and Scup. Typically, people will drop down a metal jig or a rig tipped with squid. Using a jig off the bottom will produce larger fish with smaller quantities. Rigs with bait will produce more fish but they tend to be smaller than jigging with a metal.

There are still reports of Striped Bass hanging in Buzzards Bay especially around the Elizabethian Islands. There has been a good school of fish that have been active around sunset. If you can find the birds you can find the fish!

Offshore fishing at the dump was slow, with the most action at the Northeast Corner. Plenty of whales and bait, but the fish seemed to be skittish and moving quick. The few fish we saw on top were spooked the moment we got close. The Canyons have seemed to pick up with reports of quite a few Yellowfin Tuna around. I would recommend trolling small canyon style bars with either squids or hard heads. Also, Green Machine Daisy Chains behind a bird should work quite well.

The Good Fishing Continues For The Holiday Weekend

6/30/2017

The Canal bite was as good as you can imagine earlier this week. Big fish were taken on jigs early morning and throughout the day after the top water bite in the morning. The bite has continued throughout the week with fish up to 38 pounds being caught. Cape Cod Bay boat fishing has been good. First light is your best bet and the earlier the better with the busy holiday weekend.

Bottom fishing has been very productive in Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound this past week. Scup and Black Sea Bass have continued to be excellent. Limits are typically filled with big good eating fish. Big Fluke are starting to be caught as well.

The Bite Continues!

6/22/2017

This week provided yet another great week of fishing in our area! Buzzards Bay still has the school of large fish hitting on live bait. This week we weighed in a nice 35lb fish from Buzzards Bay. We also saw quite a few nice fish from the canal as well, with the biggest fish weighing in at just over 38lbs! With the breaking tides coming up this weekend we expect it to be as good if not better! Canal fishing has had an excellent early morning jig bite with a great late morning top water bite. This has been consistent all week long!

Buzzards Bay ground fishing is still red hot with plenty of big Sea Bass and Scup around. Hot spots like Cleveland Ledge are still producing well. We also have reports that Sea Bass and Fluke are in Nantucket Sound.

Buzzards Bay Continues To Produce Big Fish!

6/15/2017

If you haven't heard by now, then here it is... Buzzards Bay is typically a go to spot for excellent ground fishing, consistently producing excellent early season Tautog, Sea Bass and Scup. This year has been an exceptional year for Striper fishing out there too. In the past 30 days alone there have been at least three 50+ pound fish weighed in all caught out in Buzzards Bay. The most recent fish we have seen was weighed in Monday by Wyatt Major of "Maj-Ya-Day Sport Fishing". Most of these large fish have fallen prey to the ever so delightful live mackerel, as well as paddle tail soft plastic lures rigged with a jig head.

The canal bite was just O.K. last weekend but has gotten increasingly better as the week progressed. As of today, there was a good top water bite EARLY in the morning that lasted a solid 30 minutes or so. Fish ranged from schoolie sized all the way up to about 20 lbs ( From what I saw and caught ) Before and after the top water bite people were continuously jigging up fish on jigs such as Savages and Al Gags. If the fishing continues to progress then the weekend is looking good! Also looking forward to next weekend we will have breaking Tides so be prepared for a big push of big fish midweek into the weekend.

Striper Fishing Is Good And Bottom Fishing Is Excellent

6/1/2017

Striper fishing has been good in the Canal this week. Monday we weighed in a 42 pound fish from the Canal followed by a 32 pound Canal fish the next day! We have weighed in numerous mid to high 20 pound fish as well. Yesterday there was a 50 pound Striper caught. Today we heard of a good amount of nice fish with the biggest being 35 pounds and plenty of mid to high 20 pounders. It seems that the bite has been spread throughout the length of the Canal. We are hearing that there is a good amount of tinker Mackerel in the East End. Mackerel pattern SP Minnows have been working very well. Pencils poppers have been producing at first light with the occasional mid morning blitz on overcast days. Jigging the bottom has been very productive. Boat fishermen have been doing well in both Buzzards and Cape Cod Bay especially live lining Mackerel in Cape Cod Bay. There are still a huge number of schoolies around for light tackle enthusiasts.

Today there were also some big Bluefish in the Canal so don't forget your wire leaders.

Bottom fishing in Buzzards Bay was been excellent! We have weighed in some nice big knothead Black Sea Bass. Big Scup and Sea Bass have been fairly common with anglers filling there limit in under an hour.