June 2,2011

Flipping the page from May into June is often transparent but this year it has brought with it big bass! But limited “me” time can create quite the conundrum because the flounder fishing remains strong enough to make elders who boast about the “good old days” jealous and is still hard to discuss deeper water groundfishing without using superlatives. And not too make your head spin any further but the first tuna of the year have been caught!

May was not a big-fish yielding ally for those that dream in seven stripes, but June appears decidedly friendlier so far. With Captain Russ Burgess and first mate Chris Scottsteen and his buddy Matt, we set sail for the landmine that is Boston Harbor come dark. This fishing isn’t for everyone, but then again not everyone lands linesiders as large as the one Chris deftly caught that night. There are 30-pound-plus stripers prowling the eerily quiet harbor come dark, and it takes moving water, rip-forming structure and a big profile offering to tempt a strike. What worked for us were Big Water Lures mackerel-colored pikes and blue Gibbs Deep Diving Danny plugs. If you get a hit that it appears you missed, just remain poised and don’t alter the track of that lure: often it’s a cow tail slapping that plug and the fish will often come back for the kill.

News of a blitz doesn’t come much fresher than this: While downing a banana split at Kelly’s Kreme on Revere Beach, Captain Burgess spotted a maelstrom of activity as big bass were blitzing bait just outside of casting range. That Revere Beach has been hot as the boulevard macadam on a sunny day; chunkers have been hauling bass as big as 45 inches onto the sand in front of the State Police Station and the circle at Point of Pines.

Live macks remain the ticket to big bass according to Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate. Those cruising upstream as far into the North River as they can go are taking stripers up to 25 pounds, but you’ll find fish over the 30-pound mark if you slowly troll or liveline those mackerel by the craggy coast of The Glades. Flounder continue to be a common catch off Peggotty Beach and in Scituate Harbor. Harbor pollock are starting to filter in and make prime live bait, especially off Cedar Point and Egypt Beach.

And don’t forget tautog! This is the time folks as they congregate in estuaries to spawn. In fact Pete Belsan had a patron come into the shop looking for a crab pot and he certainly had no intentions of eating those green crabs! While the tog taker was taciturn about where the fish were, I’d check out Maryann Rocks, High Pine Ledge, the jetty at Cedar Point, the Glades and Minot Light. I bet you’d also find some blackfish at Blackman’s Point. The Nut Island Pier in Quincy perennially gives up a few big tautog and it’s usually by accident. If you went there and actually targeted those tautog with crabs, you’d fare far better than the casual angler who tugs one in while soaking clams for stripers. Don’t visit Nut Island without a squid jig; this is shaping up to be a phenomenal year for these cephalopods.  Some guys are even hanging lanterns over the side of the pier to attract squid. Among squid sleuths there is a lot of love for the Yo-Zuri squid jig.

Crabs will catch you a lot more than just an occasional tautog. Thursday morning my buddy Nick Frasso and I shipped off with Captain Rob Sevino aboard his C.J. Victoria on an ill-fated tautog trip in the Saugus River. We had the right tide, the right bait and gleaned from past success the right spot, the “problem” was that someone invited striped bass.  Quite possibly we couldn’t catch tautog because stripers up to 36 inches wouldn’t leave those crabs alone. Tautog fans notwithstanding, crabs in these parts are under appreciated. But stripers love crabs! Accomplished Cape Ann caster Steve Pappows focuses on stripers that he sees nosing around bubbleweed and kelp looking for crabs. He sight casts, toward feeding fish, orange-bellied plugs that he slowly twitches and pauses along the surface. This might explain why I so often have bass blast orange Styrofoam floats that suspend chunk bait in the wash; maybe the bass mistake the float for post-spawn spent crabs. Crabs may be good, but for big bass, mackerel are better. Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics texted me a photo of a huge-bellied bass that was estimated to be over 40 pounds; the fish walloped a mackerel over at Rams Head.

Here’s the skinny on those fatty flatties! There are less of them on the South Shore, but they appear to be the biggest of the bunch, in fact Belsan’s has weighed in 4-pounders and a 23-inch, 5-pound, 4-ounce trophy. Also check out Plymouth and Green Harbor. Hull/Quincy/Boston has about the best mix of all as flounder fanatics such as Captain Jason Colby put charter after charter, day after day into fishing that few would have believe possible a few short years ago. The skipper is also finding an occasional 6-pound class tautog among rock piles where crustaceans scavenge. Jason so far is 4 ounces shy of cracking that 4-pound flounder mark but I suspect that’ll fall soon. From the Salem/Beverly area through Rye, New Hampshire the fish tend to be smaller with 12” keepers not a given as they are elsewhere.

Liz from Surfland told me that bigger bass, including 30-pounders, are spicing things up all along the Plum Island area. Stripers are falling for clams and seaworms from the mouth of the Merrimack to directly in front of the shop. Some are jigging up mackerel within a mile of the shoreline at the Speckled Apron and taking them upstream into the Merrimack River and catching plenty of fish. And there are some real heavyweight stripers stacking herring against structure by the Lawrence Dam.  Night time prowlers are drifting Slug-Gos and eels at Joppa Flats and doing well. Neal Allen, who used to help out at Surfland as a kid and is the artisan that turns out those sweet Striper Sniper pencil poppers that the shop carries, usually revisits his roots about now and in the past has knocked off 40-pound bass on his oversized poppers at first light at Joppa. Salisbury Beach tends to ride under the radar but is laced with striper-holding depressions. Find the holes, soak a glob of clam in them at night and see if you don’t catch a big bass.

Chad from Dover Marine told me that the Great Bay striper spotlight has shifted toward the Cocheco River, where live river herring and both soft and hard plastic swimmers are responsible for bass over 40 inches. Hampton and Rye Beaches have freshened up also and cut bait is doing the catching. The bite has also been good from Fort Foster and off the Spruce Creek Bridge. Jason from Suds ‘N Soda recommends the Lamprey River for a bass bite, this place is always worth a try when there are alewives around.

The Saco River and Mousam River have been giving up stripers up to 38 inches  according to Peter from Saco Bay as the fishing has been fantastic. The bass from schoolies to cows are hitting a bunch of wares such as Arkansas Shad colored 7-inch Fin-S-Fish and Striper Monster spooks. The latter lure is especially deadly come darkness in deep purple. Stripers are thick in the Saco River with many anglers catching legal fish from shore and boat. Peter recommends surgical tubes tipped with a sandworm and trolled slowly or even cast from shore with a slider rig and a 1 or 2-ounce sinker.  Yo-Zuri’s Crystal Minnow and Al Gag’s Mambo Minnow are also solid selections when casting close to shore or near rock piles. The sand has been sizzling the last few days with bass being beached on cut bait such as clams, herring, or mackerel fished on a bottom rig a couple hours on either side of high tide. There are still reports of bigger bass feeding below the dam near the Saco Yacht Club; these fish are taken on live herring fished just below the dam. You can catch the herring using a small Sabiki rig with a 2 or 3-ounce sinker attached to the bottom swivel on the rig. The mackerel are beginning to trickle in but you’ll need a boat to reach them by Wood Island or towards the mouth of the Scarborough River. Ground fishing is very good on Jeffrey’s and Tanta’s Ledge, angler’s are using the standard 16 to 20 ounce cod jigs rigged with either a tube or fly teaser and are having excellent luck. The haddock fishing has also been good on Jeffrey’s Ledge, just make sure to bring some bait (clams/squid/shrimp), haddock just love bait and are quick to jump on a hook or teaser that gives off a scent trail!

And for those that appreciate our world class bluefin tuna fishery, they are back! I’ve heard of a number of hook-ups and landings of fish up to 200 pounds from Stellwagen to the backside of The Cape. The game is officially on!

Best Bets For the Weekend

Check out the North River all the way up to Third Herring Brook for 40-inch plus stripers that are chasing river herring but will not pass up a mackerel. This blueprint should work no matter where you find a river and a source of mackerel, but for the biggest bass of all live line or drift those mackerel off Minot Ledge, the ledges off Hull or Rams Head in outer Boston Harbor. Mackerel are also pure magic in the Merrimack. For a tides worth of flounder you can’t beat Scituate, Quincy or Boston with the fishery just getting started in the North Shore and in New Hampshire. The Great Bay striper bite now includes the Cocheco River as well as nearly every tributary in the bay. North of the border try chunking up a cow from Rye Beach or Scarborough Marsh.