Massachusetts New Hampshire Maine Fishing Forecast 8-4-2011

Whether you view bluefish as a pariah or a super-sized saltwater piranha, those yellow-eyed slashers have been eerily absent until now! From Stellwagen to Saco Bay bluefish are crashing the party, putting pricey soft-plastic collections in peril. The bass blitzes of Boston are just a specter of what they were last week, which just means you have to earn your stripers.  However, groundfishing is great and they run the gamut from mixed bag of gadoids to flounder in both toothy and not-so-toothy versions.

While we hoped the harbor hoopla of busting bass would go on forever, it has at least taken a break. This past week has been very quiet with much less bait and game fish than we’ve been used to, but there’s still the chance of quality fish if you work at it. Along with my friend Nicky Frasso the other day we found shoals of sea herring by the Long Island Bridge, but they appeared to have amorous intentions and showed little interest in our Sabiki rigs. I did manage to catch one lonely mackerel. We sped out to some humps and bumps by Bob’s Bass Triangle and within 30 seconds of drifting on an incoming tide over a 14-foot high-spot I caught a 25-pounder in mid-morning. I couldn’t help but feel that there were more fish, but our attempts to catch more mackerel or even sea herring were futile. A better bet for the sea herring would be a cast net, if you have one and are reasonably adept with it, tote it along on the next outing, if you’re stealthy it shouldn’t be hard to creep within a few feet of the herring since they are so preoccupied in each other at the moment.

South Shore

As befitting August, early risers are doing most of the catching in Plymouth, according to Dave from The Fisherman’s Outfitter. The magic happens at false dawn off Long Beach for both the shore bound caster and the boater. There are more pogies in Duxbury Bay than in most years now and this is partly because there is less interest in netting them by tuna chasers. For some the bluefin bite has been disappointing and even when the bite is on it has been on squid bars. Few are focusing on fluke in Duxbury, but the ones who are, are finding a good mixture of keeper fish in the mix. Bluefish make occasional raids on the local bait population and in a flash they are gone. A better bet for blue fans might be to troll a deep diver swimming plug from outside of the power plant to The Gurnet.

Pete Belsan told me that there’s no shortage of bait, but few gamesters appear to be interested in them. Mackerel are there for the jigging off Minot’s Light, the “21 Can” and sometimes right outside of Scituate Harbor. Those trolling the tube and worm are scratching up a few keeper stripers by Smith Rocks and just about any exposed ledge that has white water. A better bet might be to haul a few of those mackerel out to Hull, where a young angler recently caught a 37-pound cow off the ledges there. A solid south shore option might be to try for tautog. Two 6-pounders were taken by happenstance from Third Cliff by a chunker hoping for stripers. I can’t help but wonder how you’d fare targeting rockpiles in the Scituate/Cohasett area with crabs. Should you try this, bring enough green, Asian or even spider crabs to chum. When there may be only a fish or two on a rockpile chumming makes all the difference in the world when trying to lure them out of their lairs.

In Green Harbor, the surprising news is that winter flounder are still hanging in there, with those drifting seaworms having the most luck. The keeper/throwback ratio (12-inch minimum) has been about 50-50. Bass busters are chunking up the occasional cow from Rexhame Beach, with mackerel and clams both accounting for fish.

Boston Harbor

Rather than something you can set your watch by, the blitzes of Boston are now occasional. That could change on the next tide, but it’s hard to gripe about the superb striper fishing we’ve experienced that is so contrary to what is most angler’s reality in the heat of the summer. Although, Rick from Fore River told me that there was a roving mass of birds, bass and even bluefish Wednesday in the Hull/Quincy area between 8:00 a.m and 10:30 a.m. Pinch points for the activity were Quarantine Rocks, the coves of Peddocks Island and Hull Gut. If you’re not packing some metal than you’re short changing yourself; and you don’t have to be fancy. Diamond jigs, Butterfly Jigs, Krocodiles, and Crippled Herrings will all work when you need distance to reach feeding fish and the fish are below the schools of bait, hunkering in cooler water and looking for pick-offs. My latest “heavy” metal has been the 1 ½-ounce bunker-colored Acme Trophy Spoon. I originally snapped it on as simply a Sabiki counter weight, until I kept hooking bass, the whole while sweating it out whether I’d be able to boat the bass on the thin Sabiki leader line.

Russ from Monahan Marine would like to give a shout out to our groundfishing game. Aboard the Elizabeth Marie in Scituate Russ and buddies bested a mixed bag of pollock, 25-pound cod, cusk and even a few wolfish that they promptly released back to the deep. The hot bite was 5 miles east of the middle of Stellwagen in 250-feet of water; for haddock you had better seek depths 100 feet deeper still. Inshore there are still flounder foraging not far from all the usual blackback spots, just look for channels that border the places you took flatties a month ago such as Hospital Shoals. And don’t be surprised if you don’t bag a few black sea bass as well. On a somber not, Russ’ has a very ill sister-in-law and Monahan Marine is sponsoring a raffle benefit to help pay for her mounting medical bills. The prizes are some sharp-looking, highly sought after fishing combos, but the ultimate prize is the satisfaction of helping out for a worthy cause.

And, we definitely saw peanut bunker scattering on the surface of Winthrop Harbor the other day; keep your fingers crossed!

North Shore

According to Patrick from First Light Anglers, herring, mackerel, sand eels and pollock are keeping stripers close by on the North Shore. Your best bet for those 5- to 9-pound toothy marauders is the mouth of the Merrimack River. Occasions with those blues have been reported at the mouth of most North Shore rivers as well. Salem and Beverly harbors are also featuring feeds with blues and bass busting up mackerel. Patrick and fellow FLA mate Captain Peter Yukins have been experimenting with Shimano Lucanus jigs among various rockpiles throughout Manchester By-the-Sea, Magnolia and Gloucester and have been picking up some colossal and very colorful cunner as well as tautog. Being in the same wrasse family, these fish are both superb tasting and while emaciated 9” cunner are a scourge, 15” specimens are a delight come dinner time.

Martha from Surfland told me about eleven-year-old Hunter Currier who caught a 30-pound striper while out with his Grandpa, Russ Currier. It must be something in the Currier DNA because if you peruse the Surfland “wall of fame” you’ll see photos of a 50 and a 61-pound striped bass bested over the years by Russ. The family formula is to work eels at night from Joppa Flats to Plum Island Beach. While Joppa can be drifted with a boat, you’ll fare best from the beach if you have a whisper quiet trolling motor. When it comes to big bass, stealth really matters. Surf fishermen are picking up a mixed bag of bass and blues by wading the ocean side of Plum Island and running-and-gunning the shoreline. A few tight-lipped old salts are still picking away at winter flounder in very specific spots outside of the Merrimack. And for some real big news, as in sturgeon big, there’s been a spate of these prehistoric fish caught from the river this season, more so than in years, and considering that they can weigh over a hundred pounds it is unmistakable when one is hooked. Should you hook one of these rare and protected fish, be sure to immediately release it.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine

Jamie from Dover Marine told me that tube-and-worm anglers are trolling up stripers in Great Bay and observing pogy schools as well. A better bass bite might to drift eels or mackerel in the Piscataqua River, especially by the General Sullivan Bridge. Some blues, mostly under 10 pounds, have been occasionally raiding the river as well as smashing bait by the Isle of Shoals. Groundfishing has been a gamble, on some days you can hardly drop a jig or bait onto The Cove or The Curl and not be immediately tight to a fish and on other days it’s a boat ride. It all comes down to the movements of the herring; should you mark bait but there appears to be no fish, work that area anyway for awhile, the predators are seldom far away.

Peter from Saco said that the shark fishing has definitely improved. Numerous blue dogs and some threshers have been taken on whiting and mackerel off the deep side of Tantas and Trinidad Ledge. Makos have been seen but are skittish. Groundfishing on Jeffrey’s 170-foot high point has been good for cod for those baiting hooks with shrimp, clams and squid. Fly fisherman are finding good bass action at Goose Fare and Hills Beach, the shop’s Bunny Flies and Silver Side flies are working well. Pine Point and Old Orchard beach are giving up stripers with the hot offerings being bait, especially mackerel. Black bombers are besting bass at Biddeford Pool with eels and mackerel also catching fish. With mackerel such a prevalent baitfish, it only stands to reason that these make the best chunk bait. Some anglers have expressed frustration that they have seen stripers in the clear Maine water, cruise on up to their cut bait only to slink away. Odds are that if that same scenario took place under cover of darkness, those teasers would be pleasers.

Best Bets

If you are just aching for a toothy, troll a deep-diver plug outside of Plymouth Bay or maybe Stone Ledge. While the legendary linesider bite of a week ago in Boston Harbor has shifted to a more leisurely pace, you can still catch the occasional cow with a live mackerel off Hull or the outer portion of Boston Harbor.  Up north, the Merrimack is hot for blues by day and big bass with eels come dark. And farther north still, chunk up mackerel off the sands of Old Orchard or Pine Point for some of the best bass fishing in Maine. And for something with a far bigger bite, there are blue sharks, threshers and makos off Tantas and Trinidad ledges.