Nauset Beach runs south from Orleans along the outer forearm of Cape Cod, a long, dynamic barrier beach fronting deep Atlantic water. Its ever-shifting bars, sloughs and the Nauset Inlet make it a quintessential Cape surf fishery for stripers and bluefish.
The spots
Read the beach for bars, cuts and deeper sloughs where bait funnels and fish cruise. The Nauset Inlet area moves bait on the tide and is a natural ambush point. Structure changes storm to storm, so scouting matters.
How to fish it
Fish low light and moving water with plugs, soft plastics and metals when sand eels are thick. In the fall, when peanut bunker and mullet run the beach, surface plugs shine. A 4WD over-sand permit opens up the miles beyond the walk-on crowds.
Tip Fish the dropping tide around the sloughs and the inlet. As water pulls off the bars, bait gets funneled into the deeper cuts and stripers set up to feed, put a plug or soft plastic through those seams.