October is the best month for small tuna fishing in New England, bar none. Currently, there are good groups of fish from Maine to south of Chatham. If you were coming to Massachusetts for the tuna, I would reccomend fishing the Cape. It is very pretty water, has concentrated, highly active schools of fish, and is much easier to dial in than the Gloucester fishery. The Gloucester fish are nearly impossible to dial in unless it is either a wide open bite or you have intimate knowledge of the fishery and years of experience. They feed highly selectively, they eat very specific foods that are highly tide dependent, and they will frustrate the hell out of anyone who hasn't had hundreds of days of Bluefin experience. When I say hundreds, I truly mean hundreds of days fishing the Gloucester fish. They are that hard. Sure, there are dilletants who have caught a handful during epic bites in our water, but day in and day out, Gloucester is the hardest fishery to get patterned. You will hear about 2-4 days off of Gloucester from the new guys, but those are the most epic bite days where the highliners are going double digits on fish to the boat and in the 20's on fish hooked. Yes, I am speaking about 65" class fish, and speaking from experience. Gloucester is a fishery that revolves around experience, and if you have less than four full seasons worth, it is not worth your time.
Gloucester is hard as hell to dial in, but once you have it dialed, it is up there with The Cape. There's a lot of fish off of Gloucester, but they are exceptionally more difficult than Cape Cod fish, and they change their location daily. After learning how to tuna fish northeast of Gloucester and fishing the backside quite frequently with both my rig and in others, I can say without question that from a getting tight standpoint the Cape is better. Compared to the Gloucester fish, the Cape fish are...well...retarded. Speaking from a guy who runs 54 miles to fish the backside quite frequently, The Cape is where you want to be for happy fish.