Waterlands

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HaddockPeak season

Bay · Massachusetts

The Cove

41.72°N · 70.29°W · Bay · Cape Cod Bay

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Best score today · 12 AM · Haddock

82/100Great
Now
584 PM EDT
Best window
5-8 PMFlood tide
Tide now
Flooding3.6 ft ▲

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

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24-hour conditions

Thursday, Sep 24 · 7 AM

Time7A
Score53Good
Tide3.8 ft ▲Flooding
CurrentFlood0.7 kn · toward SSW
Wind15 kn ENEgusts 31 · steady
Sea stateRough4.4 ft · 6 s
Air temp59°Mild
WeatherMostly cloudy69% cloud
Water65°FBias corrected

Current regulations

What you can keep here today

IN EFFECT NOW

No rule for Haddock 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 Haddock is best here

Peak season for Haddock · 1 more week at peak

Haddock season by week of the year. Peak season for Haddock · 1 more week at peak.
  • Peak
  • Shoulder
  • Off
  • This week

Haddock in Massachusetts

Spot profile

The Cove

Depth
2-15 ftSlope
Structure
Bay · Inner · ProtectedBay · slope
Season
Peak seasonHaddock

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 The Cove

The Cove is a bay in Cape Cod Bay, Massachusetts. Depth is 2-15 ft, with a slope. Its profile reads bay, inner water and protected.

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

Haddock
Haddock feed on gravel, sand and clay bottom along the edges of banks and ledges, mostly in 120 to 400 feet. They have small, soft mouths, so fish clam or squid on small hooks on a high-low rig, or a light jig with teasers, right on the bottom. Set the hook gently and keep steady pressure on the way up.
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

  • Mussel Point

    Cape · 0.3 mi

    67
    Top: Striped bassPeak season
    • Striped bass 67
    • Little tunny 66
    • Bluefish 63

    10 kt NNEH 8:19 PM · 9.1 ftL 3:04 AM · 1.6 ft

  • Green Point

    Cape · 0.9 mi

    67
    Top: Striped bassPeak season
    • Striped bass 67
    • Little tunny 66
    • Bluefish 63

    10 kt NNEH 8:19 PM · 9.1 ftL 3:04 AM · 1.6 ft

  • Horseshoe Shoal

    Bar · 0.4 mi

    65
    Top: BluefishPeak season
    • Bluefish 65
    • Atlantic cod 63
    • Little tunny 63

    10 kt NNEH 8:19 PM · 9.1 ftL 3:04 AM · 1.6 ft

  • Moon Shoal

    Bar · 1.1 mi

    65
    Top: BluefishPeak season
    • Bluefish 65
    • Little tunny 63
    • Atlantic cod 62

    10 kt NNEH 8:19 PM · 9.1 ftL 3:04 AM · 1.6 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.