Massachusetts New Hampshire Maine Fishing Forecast 8-11-2011

Just when we’re ready to write off Boston Harbor as baked, Beantown has erupted again with blitzes. Apparently anglers on the south shore have found those “missing” 20-inch schoolie stripers so many have been concerned with as the swarms of sea herring have lured them into Scituate.  But if you really need a reminder of how special we have it in these parts, just ask one of the charter captains that specialize in chasing “Charlie.” Increasingly they are attracting an international clientele who will tell you that our inshore tuna fishing is unrivaled.

Unless you’ve been circling the globe in a space shuttle, you’ve doubtless heard of Greg Meyerson’s incredible feat of landing that monster 81.88-pound striper. And then of course there was Peter Vican’s 77.4-pound slab striper taken from Rhody a few weeks before. One of the things these anglers have in common is that they both fish at night with eels.

Just maybe that bit of news has you thinking of slithering a few serpents in search of your own moby striper. To provide us with a few tips, I’ve enlisted the services of our resident eel slinging charter captain, Jason Colby of Little Sister Charters, who, in addition to having logged untold hours fishing with eels for bass, knows a thing or two about big stripers, having logged 24 fish over 50 pounds through the years as well as a 64 ¼-pounder.

Jason feels that the most essential component to catching cows on eels is finding moving water with structure. We have no shortage of rivers, estuaries and bays from Scituate to Saco Bay. Find a nice rockpile, mussel bed or reef that stems the flow and makes for a perfect ambush point for a striper to lie in wait downtide from this structure. Lobster pots, while hazardous, often belie a likely looking linesider lair. In fact it wouldn’t hurt to politely ask an experienced lobster fisherman to point you in the right direction of some fishy looking structure.

The middle of the tide – meaning between peak and slack current – fishes best. When the tide is creeping along, bass will often move around and may not orient to structure. Conversely a screaming tide gives the bass too little time to react to drifting eel and it may pass on the assault. A good average depth for finding nighttime bass is between 25 and 35 feet of water. Three-waying eels is your best bet for keeping your eel in the strike zone, which is generally around 2 to 3 feet off the bottom. A 4 to 6-foot leader of 50-pound fluorocarbon leader topped off with a 7/0 Octopus hook is standard issue among eel enthusiasts. Keep your rod held high during the drift and focus in on what could range from a bone-jarring strike to the most subtle of taps, lower the rod tip, count to three and slam that hook home. You may end up accomplishing no more than rounding off your hook point on a boulder, but you’ll be setting the hook right. Either way, you should feel confident knowing you’re equipped with bait that the biggest of bass can’t resist!

South Shore

Bob Pronk of Green Harbor Bait and Tackle put things in perspective when we recently talked. He is getting an increasingly large number of foreign fishermen in the shop who are chartering top-flight captains in these parts that specialize in fishing for tuna with light tackle. In a very short period of time, Bob was host to anglers from Germany, Denmark and Spain. And the reason they make the trip is that they know that there are few places in the world where you have the chance to duel with a 250-pound tuna in relatively shallow water and with a spinning rod no less. In case you need a reminder, we have world class fishing just off our coast courtesy of the bluefin tuna!

Spin fishermen are tackling those tuna with live mackerel and soft-plastic stick baits, such as RonZs and Bill Hurleys, and the bite is a steady if not spectacular one from the Southwest Corner of Stellwagen to the backside of the Cape by Peaked Hill Bar. Time is on our side since the tuna feed with greater intensity as summer wanes.

For striper sleuths, it is mostly a nighttime affair in Green Harbor as barren beaches by day are livened up by bait and linesiders come dark. Berks Beach out to toward the jetty at the entrance of Green Harbor is producing nice nocturnal action for eel casters and for those fishing chunk bait. While blues have been scarce this season, there have been reports of blitzes of them just outside of the Pilgrim Power Plant. Requests for seaworms are still being filled for the flounder faithful as these fish remain in the Green Harbor location.

According to Pete from Belsan’s, the all too tranquil waters of the Scituate area have livened up with a slug of schoolie stripers that have just arrived. Look for these 20” on average fish to be chasing small sea herring by the inlet between Third and Fourth and at the mouth of Scituate Harbor. Small soft-plastic stickbaits seem to be the bait of choice for these small stripers.

Greater Boston

Just when we were worried that the almost-daily blitzes were over, the game was on again on Wednesday between Quincy and Thompson Island as 30” on average fish provided fine sport for the run and gun crowd. The Ave Maria crew of Captain Mike Bousaleh and Mike Mantia has been culling bigger bass up to 40” with Sea Strike Metal Jigs and Bass Assassin Opening Night soft plastics, the key being to let the lure sink beyond the surface mayhem. However, immune to the surface mayhem and the fleet, Nicky Frasso of Shake ‘N Bait and first mate, Mike Westcott have been quietly jigging up mackerel in the “middle harbor” and then casting them up against the eel grass and boulder fields of inner islands and hanging fish up to 35 inches. The best bite usually happens on an outgoing tide. Beyond the inner harbor you’ll find bigger on average bass and the occasional bluefish while trolling 9er rigs and deep-diving plugs.

With the mackerel still present, I would not be surprised if you could jig up a few off Castle Island or perhaps Piers Park in East Boston or Deer Island. While you are waiting for a slug of livies, cast out another rod with a mackerel chunk and see if you can’t enjoy a little of the action that the boat guys are enjoying. There are also more black sea bass than in most years. Target those same locations where you caught flounder a month ago and chum with clams and you may catch a few.

North Shore

Mid-August generally ushers in the beginning of a foam-filled surf for the rocky shoreline of many parts of the North Shore, and the bass instinctively seize the opportunity and will be found there, especially from dusk to dawn and during bouts of inclement weather. Dave Flaherty of Nahant has been slamming stripers up to 32 pounds off some of his favorite rocky promontories on the North Shore. When the surf is up, the bite is usually on here. This is not finesse fishing; you need a stout rod, heavy leader, good balance and an intrepid disposition, but the rewards of landing a nice linesider in between rollers is incomparable. Dave has been packing his surf bag with 9-inch Sebile Magic Swimmers and Daiwa SP Minnows, and he along with a few others has been keeping the folks at Surfland busy re-ordering stock.

Look for some surf action from Red Rock off King’s Beach and Chandler Hovey Park in Marblehead. In fact Marblehead Harbor has been one of the more consistent bluefish locations around. In Cape Ann there’s Dogbar Breakwater and the East Point Lighthouse as well as that whole shoreline off Atlantic Ave. Patrick from First Light Anglers has been seeing steady surface feeds among the Salem and Beverly Harbors as bass chase mackerel and sea herring. He’s been hearing from divers of numerous tautog sightings in these parts, so he has been dragging Shimano Lucanus jigs along numerous rockpiles here but so far there has been nothing but outsized cunner to show for it. Plum Island is slow for the surf guys who pick up a straggler bass or two on most tides, but the boat brigade is doing better with live eels and mackerel on the flats and at the mouth of the Merrimack.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine

According to Jamie from Dover Marine, look for the terns in Hampton and Rye Harbors and they will usually point to feeding stripers. Bass are driving sand eels, herring and mackerel toward the surface of the water and are easy to spot. Bill Hurley Mouse Tails and the new 6 ½-inch Shankas stickbait should enable you to pick off a few of these fish. Great Bay is quiet but the Piscataqua River is still fishing well, with good baits being mackerel, eels and bucktail jigs with sea rind.

Football tuna have been ripping through schools of baitfish in close proximity to the shoreline from Boone Island to Halibut Point. Groundfishing is a real gamble, check inshore humps and bumps within 15 miles of the shoreline before you make the jump to Jeffrey’s Ledge, you may get you cod and even haddock fix in close. Lately clams have been out-fishing jigs.

Peter from Saco Bay Tackle said that he hauled onto his boat a 77-inch bluefin on Tuesday, which took a live mackerel just south of Tantas Ledge. Drop some clams toward the bottom here and you’re likely to hook a haddock. There should be no problem luring in a blue shark to your chum slick on Jeffreys Ledge. A young woman from the University of New England who had limited fishing experience strolled into the shop the other day and Peter and the gang outfitter her and pointed her toward Biddeford Pool. A short while later she beached a 43-inch striper on a clam! Clams at dark are the key from Goose Fare Brook as well. Whether you are fishing the inlets or the beaches Peter recommends the middle of the tide as your best bet.

Best Bets

If you want to tug in a toothy, troll a swimming plug just outside of the power plant in Plymouth. For a shot at a schoolie or two, toss a small stickbait toward surface action in Scituate Harbor, or for a chance at a cow, three-way an eel at the inlet of the North River at false dawn. Boston Harbor still occasionally sizzles with blitzes but a more steady suggestion may be to jig up mackerel and troll or drift them on the outskirts of the harbor islands. On the North Shore, the roiled surf means that bass will be ambushing bait among the crags of Cape Ann. And for a north of the border bonanza, diving terns belie blitzing bass at Hampton Harbor and there are 200-pound tuna at Tantas Ledge.