Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Report 1-5-2012

On New Year’s Day, many were number-watching and hoping they were holding the ticket to the Mass Lottery’s 10 Million Dollar Raffle. I didn’t play, so I didn’t look at the winning numbers, but I know for sure the following five are losers – 42, 48, 39, 39 and 44. Those are the predicted high temperatures for the next 6 days just north of Boston, which means we can forget about ice fishing for the foreseeable future!

There were a few diehards creeping on thin “shelf ice,” especially in New Hampshire and Maine, but with melting temperatures predicted even north of the border, no one with a conscious can recommend those water bodies. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at where you can wet a line and the mixed bag you’ll find.

On Christmas Eve we slammed the smelt from a dock in Winthrop Harbor. It was an interesting bite because we began at daylight when we got a slow but steady pick. Strangely the seaworms far out-fished the grass shrimp; usually it’s the reverse! Once the sun began to dip, the smelt became ravenous and the occasional became the steady with two-fish at a time double-headers becoming the norm between me and my buddy Rick Paone. Then on New Year’s Day, those buggers were completely gone. That night my friend Russ Burgess spotted a crowd huddled over the Belle Isle Creek culvert by the VFW Post in Beachmont, and they were slaying “our smelt.” Not surprisingly, the mass of fish has moved upstream; after all it is January and they are moving upstream to spawn. If your smelt honey holes have dried up, find an upstream bridge or culvert where you can suspend a lantern and see if you can’t discover where those smelt have gone.

While most were reveling in New Year’s Eve festivities, a couple of hard core kayak fishermen were determined to ring in the new year with that first striper of the year, and minutes into 2012 they both accomplished their goal! It’s not for everyone, but with smelt numbers up it seems as if more holdover stripers have been staying put. Dave Panarello and good buddy Karl at the tail end of last week were trolling a tube-and-worm around the freshwater side of the Mystic River, having a reasonably good outing with a 5 striper count when they encountered a blitz. An honest-to-goodness striped bass blitz in late December in the Boston area – woah! A quick cast from Karl resulted in a healthy, colorful 31-inch linesider that inhaled his Zoom Fluke. What was more promising was the 5 similar-sized fish that were following the bass. Unfortunately Dave had line issues that precluded him from taking part in the fun. In a flash the bedlam was over! Further upstream a few anglers were bouncing Silver Buddy blade baits onto marked fish and they tallied 5 largemouth bass and 5 stripers up to 32 inches for their efforts. Now that’s a mixed bag if I ever heard of one.

Multi-species savant and Monahan Marine tackle manager Russ Eastman invited me last Friday to his favorite brown trout water body, and we did tally a lunker of nearly 6-pounds – but it was the wrong species! The ride out was bit unnerving since pond after pond had big expanses covered with skim ice. But the deep, spring-fed South Pond is one of the last to lock-up and it was ice free. Before we even launched at the brand new boat ramp on South Pond in East Brookfield, an eagle flew overhead. Seeing America’s symbol in the flesh always brings me good luck.

Even though the air temperature was below freezing, trout dimpled the surface, probably from pushing the ubiquitous alewives to the top. While we caught some nice brown trout, the bigger fish were showing us no love. Glass-still conditions may be fishermen-friendly, but they are often poor in the catch category and this was no exception. Literally yards away from the end of the last troll, Russ stuck a good fish that had him sweating even in the chill. Minutes into the tryst, a big fish surfaced but Russ was doubtful it was “his brown,” since big browns tend to wage their war with their bellies pretty close to the bottom. Shortly the head of a big old hawg largemouth came partly out of the water and the trophy brown morphed in front of our eyes to a big bass. I’d be lying if I didn’t say we were disappointed, but once Russ lipped this perfectly proportioned largemouth bass cloaked in dark, vibrant winter colors, there was no denying that this was a beautiful fish and it wound up being a great day!

Best Bets

While we wait for winter to finally make an appearance, there are still options at our disposal. If your smelt success has gone cold, move upstream of where you encountered them a few weeks ago. Now’s the time to find them off bridges and over culverts some of which are in the midst of urban madness. Dust off your inner-Magellan and explore! Begin the New Year in fine fashion with a holdover striper from the Charles, Mystic or Saugus rivers. If you have electronics and mark fish, drop a blade-type bait in front of their noses, you might encounter that rarest of fish bowls – black bass and stripers. Deep water, spring-fed ponds such as South Pond are another alternative where eagles soar, brown trout bust shiners and occasional hawg largemouth bass crash the party.