The striper fishing continues to be very steady with good catches of fish up to 36" on most days in the rips around Monomoy. There are acres of bluefish at times as well which can be fun on lightweight spinning rods. No Bonito or Albies yet, but they should be making their appearance any day now. Offshore, the tuna fishing has been hot and cold, with great fishing on one day, followed by not so great action the next. So far, 2008 has been a pretty good season all-in-all.

Inshore around the Bishop and west towards Hyannis there is still some great bottom fishing for the kids with plenty of scup and seabass being taken on strips of squid or seaworms. The Sound is now loaded with plenty of bluefish and it will remain so until late in the fall. Stripers are becoming harder to find off Hyannis, but they are not completely gone yet, a few still linger. The better bet is the cooler waters around Monomoy where the bass fishing has really turned on.

Offshore the tuna action is very good now. Bluefin tuna to 65" and up are being taken consistently on top water squidrigs and there has even been a number of very large bass in the mix offshore. Since these stripers are more than three miles off the coast, they are in federal waters and they must be released.

Water temps are now about 60 degrees in the Sound. Bluefishing continues to be great and the striper fishing has picked up considerably. Stripers are most easily caught using jigs and wire, but tube & worm worked pretty well this week too. There are some really nice fish out there now too, up to 46". If you are looking to get into some great bottom fishing now is the time. A local Scup Tournament produced some very big scup and a lot of laughs despite high winds. The rips west of Hyannis still produce, but there has been little need to travel past the Bishop to get into fish.

Bob Dyrcon of Chicago, Illinois fished four days this week hoping to repeat a blockbuster trip he had in 2007. Weather, however, turned out to be a factor as the week leading up to Memorial Day weekend brought high winds, cold temperatures and at times heavy rains. Striper fishing was off as a result, but the area around Bishop and Clerks held plenty of bluefish in the six to seven pound range. To change things up we fished the rips west of Hyannis, Succonnesset and the Wreck Shoal, which held plenty of fish as well and were great fun on surface plugs. A trip to Cape Poge Light on Martha's Vineyard on May 22 provided a lee from high winds and was loaded with fish which were taken on topwater plugs.

The bottom fishing has been very good this year. Limits of Scup and Black Sea Bass are obtained in short order. Tautog has been a little slow, but we did find a few this week. Water temps this week ranged from 51 to 53 degrees.

East of Chatham the school bluefin tuna will be arriving at Crab Ledge if they are not there already.