Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Report 5-3-2012

Check the Rivers for Spring Stripers

April showers may ultimately bring May flowers, but to those fishing our river systems they have brought on the bass. The irony of the about-face weather pattern is that water temperatures have changed little in the three weeks (Boston Harbor has had a +1 change) so in some cases even though fish are here uncharacteristically early, they are feeding only in spurts. All indicators point to bust out fishing once we get a little sun shining on our shoulders.

On Sunday, April 29, my eyes seemed to be playing tricks on me. I was aboard the Little Sister with my friend Captain Jason Colby and we were beginning to bail a few blackbacks when I caught sight of a maelstrom of bird and busting fish activity. There in a long band stretching from Long Island out to Wollaston Beach were the unmistakable signs of feeding striped bass. But that couldn’t be – because it was still April! Vastly more experienced salts than I am will tell you that it NEVER happens until May, but there it was in plain view – an all-out bass blitz! We were focused on flounder so we did not give chase, and at the time no one was onto the craze. Later I found out that the bass were 28- to 30-inch fish and they were feeding on mackerel – in April, no less. While the flounder are feeding, they are hardly ferocious. In fact many of them are being unintentionally snagged. We desperately need water temperatures to finally push through the 50-degree ceiling and then the game will be on.

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

While I haven’t heard first hand, I’d be very surprised if rolling schools of bass were not busting brit herring in the Plymouth Bay/Kingston/Duxbury Bay area. You’ll get them on bucktail jigs, swim shads and sub-surface swimmers. A better bet for a bigger bass would be to jig up a harbor pollock or mackerel just off The Gurnet and drift through Saquish Rip or live-line them among inshore ledge as an advancing tide breaches the structure. Dave from TFO in Plymouth told me that the rains have been a catalyst to increased activity at the Town River for both river herring and stripers. Offshore cod fishing east of Stellwagen is the best it’s been since the Gulf of Maine opened April 16th as a slug of better fish have taken position in about 240 feet of water.

Bob from Green Harbor B&T told me that the new 19” minimum cod size has spurred small boaters into searching and succeeding to find a fairly decent inshore cod bite just outside of Green Harbor in depths of 30-50 feet of water. Bob has heard rumors of pogies flipping about! Don’t be shocked, I have personally already seen them north of Boston for over a week!

Pete from Belsan told me that increased flow has resulted in an improvement in the striper activity in the North River. There’s also been a beach bass bite off Peggotty Beach and Egypt Beach. They are also getting a few harbor pollock off Egypt Beach. Flounder fans are finding a few more fish from both Green Harbor and Scituate Harbor, but it will take a couple of sunny days to make this really improve. Shad remain strong in the North River up through the Indian Head River.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

Rick from Fore River B&T in Quincy played a little hooky with Captain Lou Abate of Good Times Charters on Wednesday and they tallied 20 flatties among three anglers off Deer Island Flats. Captain Jason Colby is finding flounder closer to Quincy for charters but the bite is not heated up yet; of course, we can’t forget that it is still only early May.

Robust outflow in rivers with herring runs has resulted in improved herring numbers and bass. You’ll find both in the Neponset, Weymouth Back, Charles, and Mystic and there’s even a vestige herring run in the Saugus that just might be rebounding. This is the A-game if you want to catch the biggest bass in Boston at the moment. Target locks, dams, islands, bridge abutments anything that will restrict the upstream movement of river herring and odds are there will be bass on the herring. Nighttime is the best time for the biggest fish since the largest fish are the stealthiest and they often have to circumvent shallow water. Here’s a tail of two fishermen to prove the point. Tuesday night as the rain was relenting, Rick Holebrook focused in on just such an upstream barrier. He tossed blueback 8-inch soft Magic Swimmers up against the structure and allowed them to splash down into a depression at the edge of the rip-rap, the water was very skinny but it didn’t matter, the bass were waiting. He tallied three, fat stripers all over 34 inches. The next morning, even though it was still gloomy, another friend of mine stormed the same area with the same lures all jacked due to Rick’s success, but there were nothing but cormorants working the area.  Danny-style plugs, oversized soft-plastic stickbaits and big swim baits should all do the trick as well.

There have been bass blitzes also observed by Nixes Mate. And for over a week there have been small pockets of pogies around. Yes our beloved bunker was in Greater Boston in April; definitely a first as far as I know!

And there’s even been a slight flurry of inshore cod at President Roads and the North and South Channels. The difference being that now those cod between 19” and 24” that had to be released prior to May 1st can now be kept!

North Shore Fishing Report

I’ve been missing a source of fishy news for the Salem/Beverly area for far too long, but thankfully I have one now – Noel from Darts Bridge Street B&T in Salem. He updated me on a wealth of subjects from flounder to smelt and I intend on including it in the forecast. Flounder are being taken right from the Lynn Pier, Beverly Pier and Salem Willows Pier. There’s a shore keeper striper bite that seems to be slanted to seaworms from Red Rock in Lynn out along the beach toward Swampscott. Some are jigging mackerel up in Salem Sound by Cat Island, Children Island and Halfway Rock and they are finding striped bass right with the bait.

Nat Moody from First Light Anglers in Rowley told me that the rivers have been hot the last few days. Herring and bass are on the move in the Parker, Merrimack, Ipswich and especially the Essex and Annisquam Rivers. The theme continues: rain moves the water as well as the herring and the bass. FLA patrons are whacking them with herring-patterned streamers as well as Magic Swimmers, Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows and Shimano Waxwings. Blue-backed lures are working best. The shad fishing is pretty good in the Merrimack.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine Fishing Report

While last week it was rumored, this week the stripers in Great Bay are confirmed. Bass up to 30 inches are pushing river herring in some of the tributaries of the Great Bay such as the Exeter, Oyster and Lamprey Rivers. While it’s been a few years, I used to head up there in mid-May with Kyle Walsh who used to work in Suds ‘N Soda in Greenland N.H. and we would time the trip to coincide with a night time rising tide on the Lamprey River, just as the water washed over the rip-rap below the old bridge in Newmarket. I don’t know what was more surprising, catching 36-inch stripers that early in New Hampshire or catching them with the backdrop consisting of conifers. Bronze Yo-Zuri Mag Poppers were the killer lure here!

Peter from Saco Bay Tackle Company hadn’t heard any striper scuttlebutt that he could bank on – yet! But shad are in the Saco River and the Scarborough River. Some are finding an inshore cod bite near West Cod Ledge, which is just outside of Portland. There’s some sizzling smallmouth bass action in the Belgrade Lakes area. I saw a photo of a monster bronzeback that was caught by John Blais on a jerkbait; the fish looked to be all of 6 pounds!

Fishing Forecast

The rivers remain your best chance for a really nice spring striper. Daytime may be good but your odds go up as the sun goes down (provided that we actually see the sun again). The bass are in the rivers for river herring so tempt them with a big offering such as a Danny, 10-inch Fin-S Fish, 9-inch swim shad, 8-inch soft Magic Swimmer or 9-inch hard plastic Magic Swimmer. Check out the Town River in Plymouth, the Weymouth Back River, the Charles River Locks, the Mystic River, Saugus River, Essex, Annisquam, Parker and Merrimack River. Boaters should be weary for blitzes, they are already occurring. When we get a spate of sunny days, expect the flounder to go on a tear with the bite occurring in equal parts Scituate, Quincy, Boston, Salem and Beverly. Great Bay has become good for stripers, but in Southern Maine they’re still keeping watch. But what they can keep is cod, which they’re finding just off Portland at West Cod Ledge.