Late September Canal Stripers and Blues

Artificial Lure here with your Cape Cod Canal fishing report for Saturday, September 20, 2025. It’s just past sunrise and anglers are already lining the riprap, coffee in hand, hoping for one last September push. Sunrise cracked the horizon at 6:29 AM, with sunset coming up at 6:33 PM—prime daylight hours are slipping fast, so timing your efforts around low light can pay off. Let’s talk tides. According to tides4fishing.com, today’s tidal coefficient for the Canal is 81 at dawn, climbing to 85 by noon and closing at 88 by night. Those are big numbers, meaning *strong tidal swings and fast-moving water*—ideal for predatory fish hunting bait being flushed through the ditch. Over at US Harbors’ Cape Cod Canal chart, today’s high tide hit late morning and the next low tide's coming up in the early afternoon. Your hottest bite windows are shaping up right around the turn of the tides, with water moving heavy through midday. The weather for Bourne/Sagamore is classic end-of-season Canal: a cool start, mid 60s, and warming a bit with light onshore breeze. Expect patchy clouds, but low rain chance—perfect for a comfort cast along the service road. With stable pressure and minimal surf, everything points to solid angling conditions. Now for what matters: What’s biting and on what? Canal regulars and shop talk from Red Top Sporting Goods say the striper run has picked back up this week. *Big schools of juvenile bunker (peanut bunker) are hugging the banks, and chasing them are healthy stretches of slot and over-slot striped bass up to 35 pounds*. Mornings have been best, with a bonus push during the outgoing tide late afternoon. A few hefty bluefish made it to the green bridge zone as well—mostly 5-8 pounds, slashing at the bait near the surface. As for lures, it’s a Canal plugger’s dream week. The ticket has been *paddle tail soft plastics* (6-9 inches), especially on 2-4 ounce jigheads to cut through the current. White and bunker colors are getting slammed. *Topwater plugs*—like spooks and pencil poppers—are turning fish at first light near the west end by Bell Road and the jetty east of the Railroad Bridge. Metal lures and bucktail jigs have also scored when the sun is out and bait is deeper. For those fishing bait, fresh chunk mackerel and squid strips are picking up both bass and the occasional big sea robin. Hot spots today? Two perennial favorites lighting up this week: - **Herring Run**: Fat bass staging at the current break, especially as the tide drops and bait floods toward Buzzards Bay. - **Scusset Beach entrance**: Early risers are connecting on topwater to the left of the bulkhead, then switching to soft plastics for the deeper part of the tide. A sleeper spot in the mix: *Mid-canal at the pumping station*. Flipping plugs tight to the rocks is moving fish bigger than most realize. Other action: A handful of black sea bass are coming from boats just outside the east end mouth, but the main show is all about stripers and bluefish right n This content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI.