UPDATEDAUTO-REFRESH 5 MIN
TautogShoulder seasonSpecies here · tap to switch
Best score today · 5 AM · Tautog
- Now
- 458 PM EDT
- Best window
- 8 PM-12 AMEbb tide
- Tide now
- High8.9 ft
Data from: NOAA CO-OPS + NDBC + ECMWF + Open-Meteo Marine · Waterlands engine
Notify me when Herring Cove scores 75+
Checked every morning against the 14-day forecast. Free by push and email.
14-day forecast
Best days to fish
24-hour conditions
Thursday, Oct 1 · 5 PM
Tide & current
NOAA CO-OPS + Open-Meteo Marine
100Tide: EbbingWind & pressure
ECMWF
89Wind: 10 kt NPressure: RisingWater temp & sky
NDBC + Open-Meteo Marine
99Water temp: 60°F, primeLight: DuskSolunar: Major periodSeason & habitat · Tautog
Species seasonality
74Season: PeakHabitat: Structure unmappedDepth: In range
Current regulations
What you can keep here today
No rule for Tautog is on file here yet, so its status is unknown, not closed. Confirm limits with MassDMF before you keep a fish.
Source: MassDMF · synced today
Seasonality · 52-week view · this week ringed
When Tautog is best here
Shoulder season for Tautog · 1 more week at shoulder
- Peak
- Shoulder
- Off
- Not here
- This week
Spot profile
Herring Cove
- Depth
- 15-25 ftFlat bottom
- Structure
- Bay · Inner · Semi-exposedBay · flat bottom
- Season
- Shoulder seasonTautog
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 Herring Cove
Herring Cove is a bay in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. Depth is 15-25 ft, with a flat bottom. Its profile reads bay, inner water and semi-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 tautog and summer flounder. 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
- Tautog
- Tautog live in rocks, wrecks, bridge pilings and jetties and rarely stray from cover, usually in 10 to 60 feet inshore and deeper in late fall. Anchor so the bait sits in the structure, fish crab on a short rig or a tog jig, and set hard on the second tap before the fish pulls into the rocks. Clams and worms work better in cold spring water; hard crabs are the standard in fall.
- 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
- Shank Painter Bar68
Bar · 0.6 mi
Top: ScupPeak season- Scup 68
- Atlantic cod 57
- Black sea bass 57
13 kt NEL 2:41 AM · 1.4 ftH 8:54 AM · 8.1 ft
- Wood End Bar68
Bar · 1.9 mi
Top: ScupPeak season- Scup 68
- Atlantic cod 57
- Black sea bass 57
13 kt NEL 2:41 AM · 1.4 ftH 8:54 AM · 8.1 ft
- Provincetown Harbor67
Bay · 3.2 mi
Top: ScupPeak season- Scup 67
- Striped bass 57
- Black sea bass 56
13 kt NEL 2:41 AM · 1.4 ftH 8:54 AM · 8.1 ft
- Hatches Harbor66
Bay · 1.2 mi
Top: ScupPeak season- Scup 66
- Striped bass 57
- Black sea bass 54
13 kt NEL 2:41 AM · 1.4 ftH 8:54 AM · 8.1 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.