Nantucket National Wildlife Refuge

A black sea bass fishing charter on Cape Cod is second to none. The black sea bass is what we, who fish Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod in the spring, consider a game fish with excellent table fair. Not really a bass at all, but part of the grouper family, they are truly a beautiful fish with a black background and speckles. The males get a hump on their back and light up with a turquoise and bluish purple spectrum on the top of their heads. When hooked up on light tackle they are a lot of fun to catch.×

10 Hours×

The mighty Bluefin tuna or as referred to in Days of Old, the horse mackerel, spends its summer and fall off the coast of Cape Cod. Tuna show up here every season to gorge themselves on the smorgasbord of bait off our coast. The crew of the Magellan has over 25 years experience catching these magnificent fish. In 2009 Captain Jason caught our biggest fish to date weighing in at 1,039 pounds. Our charter boat the Magellan fishes out of Saquatucket Harbor which is in Harwich Port on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. Harwich Port has been a tuna fisherman's Mecca for over two decades and is where your deep sea tuna fishing adventure begins.×

Have you ever really gotten the blues? If not you are in luck because a Bluefish charter on the Magellan out of Harwich Port, MA on Cape Cod can't be beat. Bluefish are by far the most aggressive, pound for pound, hardest fighting fish in the ocean. They are loaded with omega 3 fatty acid which is good for your heart, but the fight they put up can be a strain on your back. They even fight you once on board and if you are not careful will try to bite you when taking the hook out. The waters off Cape Cod, especially on Nantucket shoals, are teeming with Bluefish. We like to target them on surface baits in the tide rips. It is not uncommon when fishing off Nantucket be able to catch a thousand pounds of Bluefish on a full day trip. We have had countless days when we were averaging a fish a minute in the box. Tail-walking, hard-hitting, train wreck-like crashing the surface baits until your arms feel like they will fall off. The average size we see run from about 8 to 15 pounds. The largest we have ever put on a scale weighed 22 pounds. The I.G.F.A. world record for Bluefish was caught off Hatteras N.C. in 1972. It weighed in at 32 pounds. Wow what a beast! Bluefish are found world wide even in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. They are one of only 3 fish in the Pomatomidea family. Gorillas, Chompers, Yellow eyed devils, Blue Berries, Slammers and Alligators are some names you will hear fishermen use when referring to Bluefish.×

Nantucket shoals basically start at Monomoy Island and run 65 miles to the south and east. The shoals are the reason why fishing is so good here. Thanks to the glacier deposits which made Cape Cod, Nantucket and Nantucket shoals there is constant mixing of hot and nutrient-filled cold water. This cold water holds the feed for plankton which in turn feed the bait and where there is bait there are fish. Squid, mackerel, butter fish, menhaden, herring and, most of all, sand eels fill the waters around Cape Cod and Nantucket Shoals. Fluke can be found in abundance on and around the shoals because of this bait starting in late spring through late fall.×

A porgy (scup) fishing charter on Cape Cod is second to none. Scup, commonly referred to as the Porgy, is what kicks off our spring recreational fishery season in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Cape Cod. Like the black sea bass it is a fish with excellent table fair. In the month of May enormous schools of Scup storm Nantucket Sound. Basically a thin, flat fish, bluish and silver in color, they look like a pompano with a sharp forked tail. Porgies hit your bait like an electrical shock and when hooked on light tackle they are a lot of fun to catch.×