Waterlands

UPDATEDAUTO-REFRESH 5 MIN

Little tunnyPeak season

Bay · Massachusetts

Buzzards Bay

41.56°N · 70.75°W · Bay · Buzzards Bay

LOADING MAP

Best score today · 5 PM · Little tunny

82/100Great
Now
591 PM EDT
Best window
3-6 PMEbb tide
Tide now
High3.4 ft

Data from: NOAA CO-OPS + NDBC + ECMWF + Open-Meteo Marine · Waterlands engine

Notify me when Buzzards Bay scores 75+

Checked every morning against the 14-day forecast. Free by push and email.

Sign in to set an alert

24-hour conditions

Tuesday, Sep 29 · 8 AM

Time8A
Score77Great
Tide3.3 ft ▲Flooding
CurrentFlood0.6 kn · toward ENE
Wind4 kn WSWgusts 8 · steady
Air temp57°Mild
WeatherClear0% cloud
Water66°FPersisted

Current regulations

What you can keep here today

IN EFFECT NOW

No rule for Little tunny is on file here yet, so its status is unknown, not closed. Confirm limits with MassDMF before you keep a fish.

Seasonality · 52-week view · this week ringed

When Little tunny is best here

Peak season for Little tunny · 5 more weeks at peak

Little tunny season by week of the year. Peak season for Little tunny · 5 more weeks at peak.
  • Peak
  • Shoulder
  • Off
  • Not here
  • This week

Little tunny in Massachusetts

Spot profile

Buzzards Bay

Depth
45-50 ftFlat bottom
Structure
Bay · Outer · ExposedBay · flat bottom
Season
Peak seasonLittle tunny

NOAA NCEI DEM, sampled Sep 13 on a 3.4 m grid. Depths are feet below NAVD 88, not chart datum (MLLW), so they can differ from a chart by a few feet. Not for navigation.

About this spot

Fishing Buzzards Bay

Buzzards Bay is a bay in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Depth is 45-50 ft, with a flat bottom. Its profile reads bay, outer water and exposed.

Waterlands scores 10 species here; the best right now are scup, striped bass and bluefish. It is peak season now for scup, striped bass, bluefish and little tunny, and shoulder season for summer flounder and tautog. Scup peak from June through September. Striped bass peak from May through June and from September through October. Bluefish peak from June through July and in September.

Tackle & technique

Little tunny
Little tunny travel fast in schools that pin bait against inlets, points, jetties and tide rips, usually within a few miles of shore and often in less than 60 feet. Stay off the school's path, wait for it to surface within range, and cast small metal or epoxy jigs with a fast retrieve. When fish stay down, troll small feathers along bait edges and color changes to find them.
Scup
Scup school over hard and mixed bottom, rock piles, mussel beds, piers and jetties, usually in 10 to 60 feet of water. Fish a high-low rig with small hooks and squid or clam strips on the bottom, and chum with clam to hold a school under the boat. If nothing bites within 15 minutes, move to the next piece of structure.
Striped bass
Striped bass feed where moving tide pushes bait past structure: inlets, points, jetties, bridge pilings and rips in the surf, usually in 2 to 40 feet of water. Fish dawn, dusk and night hardest, casting plugs, bucktails and soft plastics or drifting live bunker and eels, and chunk bait on the bottom in current. In midsummer the larger fish drop deeper or feed mostly after dark.

Nearby spots

Other spots within an easy run

  • Northwest Gutter

    Gut · 3.9 mi

    76
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 76
    • Striped bass 68
    • Black sea bass 62

    7 kt SSWH 1:15 PM · 3.4 ftL 6:49 PM · 1.0 ft

  • Timmy Point Shoal

    Bar · 3.7 mi

    71
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 71
    • Little tunny 66
    • Bluefish 65

    7 kt SSWH 1:15 PM · 3.4 ftL 6:49 PM · 1.0 ft

  • Timmy Point

    Cape · 3.9 mi

    71
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 71
    • Little tunny 69
    • Striped bass 69

    7 kt SSWH 1:15 PM · 3.4 ftL 6:49 PM · 1.0 ft

  • Penzance

    Cape · 4.0 mi

    71
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 71
    • Striped bass 70
    • Little tunny 69

    7 kt SSWH 1:34 PM · 2.0 ftL 10:07 PM · 0.7 ft

Scores and forecasts are for planning only and can be wrong. Conditions on the water change fast; check the marine forecast before you go. Regulations change during the season, so confirm limits and closures with MassDMF before you keep a fish.