All indicators are pointing to this as being a bust-out weekend. The accounts I’ve received on the cod fishing on Stellwagen is that you can take it to the bank. Warmer water is beginning to awaken everything from holdover stripers to flounder; which begs the question: can the mackerel and the migrant stripers be far behind? Some however are perfectly content with the fine sweetwater fishing in blue ribbon New England water bodies such as Wachusett, Quabbin, Winnipesaukee and Sebago.
While the messengers are a mixed lot, the message is all the same: Stellwagen Bank is hot as a pistol right now. Russ from Monahan Marine, Pete and Patrick from First Light Anglers and Chad from Dover Marine all spent some time on the bank jigging and from all accounts the bite is on. In as little as 90 feet of water, cod are crushing sand eels and sea herring and are walloping jigs and teasers. Chad had particularly good luck with Shimano’s new 8- to 10-ounce Centrovortex and Slidend Butterfly jigs, the hot colors have been blue/pink and green/silver. While you’re not likely to find as many haddock in the shallow water, you’ll manage a few if you drag a Lucanus jig along the bottom where haddock primarily feed.
Our other favorite bottom fish, the winter flounder, should be about ready to invade the bays, harbors and estuaries of our region. Generally the first flounder of the season are caught slightly offshore, which in the Boston area means the outer harbor islands. In lockstep with that is the first report of a few blackbacks being taken from Little Calf Island. If the fish are there, they most likely can also be found by Green Island and off Hull, I would venture to guess Ultonia Ledge and Toddy Rocks as well.
One of the neatest aspects about angling as April transitions into May is the mixed bag you’ll encounter, even inshore. A flounder fisherman is as likely to encounter a 12-inch flattie as he will a 4-pounder or an ocean pout, cod, pollock, whiting or…you get the picture. You may even tug in an 8-pound tautog; last year we caught plenty. Break out those old spindly Chestertown flounder hooks of old at your own peril because they will not hold up to a big fish. A better bet is the red Mustad Croaker wide-gap size #2 hooks. This hook is fine for both seaworms and clams, in fact the wide-gap tends to “cradle” the clam, making it less likely to fall off. And you should be using clams as well as seaworms; you’ll catch more flounder with seaworms than clams, but the king-size specimes go for the quahogs. In anticipation of a flounder blitz many of the shops such as Fore River in Quincy are now stocking seaworms.
Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate told me that the first shad, most likely smaller males, have been coursing the North River and can now be found near the Indian Head River Dam in Pembroke. Not surprisingly, Pete’s getting a run on shad darts! This is a skinny-water river and the shad tend to be skittish by day. You will fare far better come nightfall; another tip is to occasionally tickle the bottom of the river bed with your shad dart. It might seem counter-productive because you may occasionally lose a dart, but the bite rate will rise sharply if you keep your wares close to the bottom. While you’re seeking shad in the North River, don’t be surprised if you don’t luck into a few small stripers. These 14- to 18-inch fish are most likely layovers that skulk out the winter almost dormant in the river channel, but they are a fun fix if you badly need one. According to Pete the hot lure for these stripers is the new 6½-inch Shankas hooked with a red Gamakatsu 5/0 wide-gap plastic worm hook. Slowly reel with a twitch-and-pause rhythm for best results.
For those pining for a little shad-love on the North Shore, Kay from Surfland offers hope! Just outside of the Merrimack River there has been an increase in bird activity; this surface display is often a harbinger of a shad surge upstream into the river. Check out Skip Montello’s Fishing Planner piece in the current issue of On The Water for a feel for what it takes to catch these hyper-herring here.
The winds have been busy keeping anglers at bay for days on end at Quabbin Reservoir, but with a predicted break in the blow there should be no shortage of salmonoids taken this weekend. Carl Hewitt of Sterling took a 6-pound, 2-ounce landlocked salmon with a trolled shiner on the Gate 8 section of the reservoir. There are swarms of lakers at the Gate 31 area according to Rod from Flagg’s in Orange, but no monsters taken yet. The bump in smelt numbers in Wachusett Reservoir has already resulted in some of the better landlocked salmon fishing on the reservoir than in years. On Wednesday, I took my saltwater-savant friend Captain Jason Colby out to do the ‘chu, where he looked like the proverbial fish out of water and for once I enjoyed an advantage. A combination of wind-free conditions and bug hatches soon turned the surface of the ‘chu into a scene out of a fly fisherman’s dream as fish upon fish rose for the insects. Doubtless some were salmon, so I handed my friend a proven salmon killer – a gold/orange “Kroc” – which he proceeded to cast toward the rising fish. Despite some slammer strikes, including one which briefly took drag, the notoriously soft-mouthed salmon pulled from the spoon each time. So touch up the hooks on those lures before you venture out, and I would even tote along some minnow plugs such as Rapalas, Yo-Zuri Pins Minnows or Sebile Koolie Minnows. Wachusett is salmon water once again!
The mighty-whitey perch bite has gone off on both sides of the Thomas Basin. And the smallies are beginning to congregate close to shore in pre-spawn mode. Not surprisingly, 5-pound bronzebacks are being taken on yellow perch fry. If you’ve longed for that smallie of your lifetime, spend some time over the next few weeks at Wachusett with live yellow perch; arguably, there will no better opportunity in the Bay State and just maybe all of New England. The state record smallmouth bass was caught here and if you talk to long-term smalljaws sleuths, they will swear to you they’ve had 7-pounders on the line!
When Chad from Dover Marine is not catching up a bunch of cod on Stellwagen, he’s keeping an ear peeled for the goings-on at Winnipesaukee. While there’s no shortage of them, the landlocked salmon are getting sophisticated and lure-shy along the docks of Wolfboro and Laconia, so it’s wise to give them a different look. Olive-colored crappie tubes, curly-tail grubs and marabou jigs were the rage but the fish have gotten wise. Tinkerers who are opting for different colors and combinations of those lures are catching more than those that keep pitching old faithful. Downsizing line to 4-pound fluorocarbon will improve your catch rate also.
Peter from Saco Bay told me that the smelt fishing is still hot. If it weren’t that he just returned from vacation I would have recommended that he take one, but he assured me his senses were intact and he was referring to dip-netting the tasty little buggers in the tributaries of those same watersheds that feature the smelt camps of winter. Streams and brooks off Merrymeeting Bay are productive smelt places and as long as you are licensed you can keep up to 2 quarts a day. They’re caching plenty of landlocked salmon in Lake Sebago and Lake Auburn while trolling Rapala F-11s at 3 to 4 mph.
Best Bets
If you have a seaworthy boat at your disposal or prefer to contact a charter captain, you owe it to yourself to check out the cod craze going on right now on Stellwagen Bank. With those first few flounder being taken, I’d check out Plymouth Bay, Green Harbor, Scituate Harbor, Hull, Quincy and the flats of Boston Harbor and see if you can’t scrounge up those first few flounder of the season. Last year Plum Island was very productive for winter flounder and there may be a few scouts outside of the Merrimack River already. For a big battle with a small fish, its shad time in the Indian Head River and we are probably days away from some being taken in the Merrimack. Out west the lakers and landlocked fishing can only be rivaled by the same at Winnipesaukee and Sebago.