Fall sea bass are some of the best eating on the Cape, and you can catch them anywhere in the world with ease and no bait. The lure matters, but the jig weight, the boat's track and the amount of line behind you decide whether a fish ever gets a good look at it.

Here's how I run the program.

Fall sea bass run on several regional calendars. As of October 5, 2026, the Massachusetts season runs through October 14 with a two-fish bag in the fall portion. Maine has an October closure gap, and Connecticut's private and charter closing dates differ.

Around here it gets gray fast. A lot of the best sea bass spots sit close to the line between Massachusetts and Rhode Island waters, and the two states don't always match on season, size or bag. My understanding is that the rules for where you fish and where you land both matter, and it gets murky when you put in from one state and fish the other's water.

I got checked once by an Environmental Police officer while I was out with a captain buddy near the line. The officer read the rules one way and we read them another. I'm still not sure who had it right, and that's the point. Know the regs for every state you might fish in or land in, keep them on your phone, and when it's gray, keep only fish that are legal under both. "Quick Reference: Northeast Groundfish Regs (Fall 2026)" has every state from Maine to New Jersey in one place.

One more thing: a hot spot in a summer video is a technique lesson. It doesn't mean the season is open there today.

I keep three rollup pouches in my mesh crate for all my groundfishing, from tog up to fluke. Two hold jigs and one holds teasers.

Groundfish Biki Jigs. My short game. Shallow water and slack tide, thumped on the bottom.

Squinnows. More current and deeper water, fished slow-pitch style.

Teasers. Biki teasers on a pre-rigged loop. No matter which jig I start with, the teaser rig rides above it. It makes a little cluster of bait on the bottom.

The 7' Medium (HLTI7M) handles the Biki Jigs and the light Squinnows inside 60 feet. The 7' Medium-Heavy (HLTI7MH) is my everyday sea bass rod, working Squinnows to 6.5 oz and to 130 feet depending on current. When the tide is honking, the 7' Heavy Hybrid (HCR7MHM) takes the 6.5 oz to 140 feet.

You should be able to lift the jig deliberately and feel it come back. If the rod is folded over by the jig alone, fix that before you add a fish.

Why moderate-fast, not fast. The 7' Medium and 7' Medium-Heavy are moderate-fast. The top 18 inches bend first, then the bend rolls into the midsection. A fast rod bends in that same top section and stops there. Below it, the blank is stiff. On sea bass, that difference shows up twice.

The hook set. Sea bass hit on the drop and spit the jig fast, so you set quick. Quick is fine. Hard is the problem. On a fast rod, the whole swing hits the hook at once, braid doesn't stretch to soften it, and a soft sea bass mouth tears. Or the jig snaps away before the point catches. A moderate-fast rod spreads the swing across the bend, so the pressure climbs and drives the hook in.

The fight. The fish comes straight up on a short line while the boat rises and falls on the swell. A stiff rod turns every swell into a jolt and then slack, and a sea bass bounces off the hook halfway up. The midsection bends deeper when the boat lifts and takes up the slack when it drops, so the hook stays put. Same story on a double on the teasers.

Make a test drop. Can you feel the bottom, lift the jig, and tell when it lands again? If not, reset, add weight, or pick a better drift. Wind, tide, line diameter and depth all play in.

A new color can't fix a jig that spends the best part of the drift outside the strike zone. Once contact is solid, then compare colors.

A boulder-field or wreck drift focuses on one piece of structure. Run up tide, cross the pile mid-drift, finish down tide, and reposition. Once you find the lane that's producing, shorten the drift to it.

A contour drift follows a longer edge or trough while you hunt for the good stretch. Control drift speed and look for the irregularities: hard spots, mussel beds and scattered rock. Both are drifts, and each starts with a different idea of where the boat needs to go.

A lot of sea bass ground is a whole field of piles, and that's the real decision: pound one pile, or drift and cover the area. There's no right or wrong answer. Pounding a pile works when the fish are stacked on it. Drifting and covering finds the fish nobody else is fishing, and a lot of my biggest sea bass have come from the stretches in between the hot spots.

The one hard rule is etiquette. If everyone around you is drifting, don't drop anchor in the middle of their lane. If the fleet is anchored up on a pile, don't drift through them.

The jig needs time to get down. Set up far enough up-drift that it reaches the zone before the boat passes the marks. Use the track the boat is actually making today, not the one you remember from last trip.

My routine is simple. Learn how the drift sets up, start on one side, drift across, and when the catching stops, pick up and make the drift again. If bites come after you've passed the waypoint, the jig is fishing behind the boat. Move the next start up-drift to match.

With a Squinnow and teasers, I rotate three retrieves and change one at a time so I know what earned the bite.

Sea bass holding up off a wreck or boulder field don't need the jig hitting rock on every stroke. Read the depth of the marks on the sounder, drop to the bottom, then crank up a few turns so the jig sits just under them. Work through that layer with your lift and fall.

When they're tight to the bottom, shorten the stroke and keep contact. Watch the depth as you drift onto a rise. The line that was right in the trough can drag the rig into the rocks a minute later.

Paying out a little line restores contact as the boat drifts. Past a point, more line just leaves the jig farther behind and harder to control.

Reel up and make a fresh drop when the angle gets steep or you lose the feel of the bottom. At about 30 degrees from vertical I start checking, and I reset before it reaches 45. If every fresh drop scopes out right away, change the weight, the drift or the window.

When the tide slacks off and the wind lays down, holding bottom gets easy. That's when I downshift from the Squinnow to the Groundfish Biki Jig, teaser rig still on top, and thump it on the bottom. A little more current, a little deeper: Squinnow with teasers. Shallow water, short game, slack tide: the Biki.

Check for tangles after a dead drop or a reset. Simplify when more hooks are making more problems than bites.

Salty Cape TV: no-bait sea bass at Eldridge Shoal. The three rollups, the three retrieves, and the downshift to the Biki at slack.