Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Report 6-15-2012

Mid-June Stripers and Flounder are Fantastic

You don’t have to be a mathematician to appreciate that equal parts mid-June, 60-degree water temperatures and nearly boundless bait add up to bigger fish. How big? How about 40-pound stripers along with winter flounder big enough to make fluke fans envious! Tuna fever is not quite yet a full-blown contagion but with a sweet weather forecast predicted coupled with numerous sightings and all that bait, if you’ve “got gear” then get out there.

The flounder fishing has been fantastic but now they’re getting bigger! On three subsequent trips last weekend, Captain Jason Colby of Little Sister Charters treated patrons to 4-pounders, topped with a 4-14 taken by Al Sharaf from Brookline. And on some trips the cut-off size has been 16 inches! While it’s easy to become jaded by what you have, I believe a recent trip I took to Buzzards Bay for fluke put things in perspective. Despite a friend burning up the salt from Woods Hole to Vineyard Sound and dusting off all the tricks, the most we could scratch together was a bunch of fish that would not have even gotten a rise in today’s Quincy Bay/Boston Harbor. As I released one 14-inch pale, thin fluke after another among the fleet of other anglers producing similarly, I longed for redemption, which came in short order, with the “phonebook” flatties in our home harbor. The fish are still inshore off Hospital Shoals, Rainsford Island, George’s Island, Sculpin Ledge, Deer Island Flats and Lynn Harbor. I even have word that some are taking them among the crystal clear waters off Nahant by Bass Point and Saunders Ledge. While the bag limit is 8 fish, cherish the stock by fishing conservatively – for most, half that amount is enough. This is one fishery that must be preserved.

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

The volume of mackerel and sea herring on the South Shore is incredible according to Pete from Belsan’s. This place is like a tinder box ready to combust. Look for large linesiders off Davis Ledge, Flat Ledge, Minots Light and off the rocky bottom of Egypt Beach. Trolling deep-diving swimming plugs is a good bait alternative, and I bet if you anchored at night wherever a nice rip line forms and free-spooled a deep-diving wooden plug such as a BigWater Lures troller, Gibbs Deep Diving Danny or the new Tsunami Timber Series deep divers, you’d cull out the largest cows that swim in the area. The rivers are running hot and cold: hot after a rainstorm when increased water encourages river herring to fall back toward the sea, but otherwise cold when water levels plateau. Surf fishermen that are fond of the rivers should reacquaint themselves with eels and the graveyard shift.  Resident bass will be making nightly runs into estuaries, marshes and rivers and they will not pass on a serpent. Some suspect the 40- to 50-inch school tuna that have been sighted on Stellwagen and CCB may move closer inshore, lured in by all that bait.

Bob Pronk of Green Harbor Bait and Tackle echoed the sentiments of his counterpart in Scituate – there’s an awful lot of bait around! Bob suggests that you jig up some mackerel and toss them into the wash of Farnham Rock, Beetle Rock, High Pine Ledge and The Gurnet. I feel certain that there are 40s and just maybe a nifty-fifty or two out there, and this could be the weekend when you catch one! And flounder fishing is just fine in Green Harbor and Scituate Harbor.

Greater Boston Harbor Fishing Report

If I could predict these things more often, then I’d play the lottery – but I can’t and I don’t. In an upcoming issue of OTW, I have a story based on the unexpected “exotics” that we have in the Greater Boston area, those unsung heroes that few fish for in these parts but I for one fawn over. The feature is based on tautog, black sea bass and fluke, and while I can’t weigh in yet on the latter, I’m feel confident in predicting a banner year for the first two. While fishing for flounder, we have been catching an exceptional amount of blackfish and black sea bass. And many of the tautog – including a 10 ½-pounder that was released – are gravid females! All obviously egg-laden females have been released and only a handful of small males have been kept. Find a rockpile off Point Allerton, Rainsford Island, Quincy Bay or check out Faun Bar and try chumming up some tautog with green crabs or black sea bass with squid – there are more out there then you realize. I expect to be targeting those fish over the next few weeks and I’ll report back on my findings. Another harbinger of “southern guests” to come was the catch of a good-sized sea robin next to Pemberton Pier. While we regularly see sculpin, sea robins are extraordinarily rare this far north – get ready for a weird year.

If you’re looking for something to do, enjoy a little competition and maybe learn a thing or two plus help a worthy cause, consider Boston’s longest running one day fishing tournament – the 14th Annual Boston Harbor Striper Shootout on Saturday, June 16th. Not only will the top three finishers share $5000.00 in prizes, but proceeds support the Soldiers Home in Chelsea. Last year I attended it and it is a hoot. The suspense last season was palpable because some opted for live pogies, others live mackerel, but the top two placers – Matt O’Connor and Captain Russ Burgess – elected the big wooden plug under a blackened sky maneuver. With big fish around, I expect some nice bass to be caught this year as well

Russ Eastman of Monahan Marine told me that he had no problem recently jigging up mackerel by Ultonia Ledge and then catching stripers up to 25 pounds at Boston Light, the Brewsters and among almost wherever he found white water around the outer islands. Two good artificial alternatives are the Rapala X-Rap and Sebile Stick Shad. Captain Mike Bousaleh of Ave Maria Charters reportedly took an upper 40-pound striper on live mackerel off the ledges just outside of Hull. Mike will often take a light spinning rod and swim shads for the occasional surface blitzes as bass beat up on mackerel. Sometimes the ersatz mackerel will outfish the real deal. As long as there are bluebacks in the rivers, they will remain hot. A buddy of mine, Rick Holebrook, has been pounding herring runs and targeting nighttime assaults as bass bust up fallback herring. Some of the stripers he has been catching have insane proportions as these gluttons become eating machines at dark. Expect fallbacks to downstream migrate in starts and stops well into July!

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

The rocky world of the big rollers that define the North Shore are not for everyone, but they are always big fish magnets during a June nor’easter and the recent blow has been no exception. Dave Flaherty of Nahant donated a Sebile Magic Swimmer to Neptune as he was tied to a huge fish when a huge roller relieved him of most everything except his nerve. There have been 40-pound fish taken with mackerel from Bailey’s Hill out to the East Point and on to Egg Rock. A hardcore kayaker has parlayed any plans to play with stripers because he is finding the flounder fishing off the Kerry Club so stimulating. You may have to work a little harder for pollock now, which is actually a good thing; when the hordes of pollock become sparse they become much more desirable bait for bass.

While the rocks are the focus of many, don’t discount the rivers according to Derek Springer of First Light Anglers in Rowley. Herring and sand eels are making for a superb first light bite at the mouths of the Essex and Ipswich rivers. RonZs, Slug-Gos and Bill Hurleys are all doing plenty of catching. While the bluefin bite has not been blistering yet, the ribbon of bait that extends from Thacher’s Island seaward has been attracting some tuna attention. Within view of Thacher’s, pelagics have been seen taking flight. It’s this area’s proximity to the 180-foot contour line which makes it one of the nearest-to-shore locations to catch tuna north of the Cape.

Mike from Surfland said that seaworms are the best for bait soakers from the mouth of the Merrimack out to the Parker River Wildlife Reservation. During the storm and shortly thereafter, clams were the obvious choice. There have been some 30-pounders taken with bait. While there’s still catching at the mouth of the Merrimack, especially during the last two hours of the ebbing tide, the better bass fishing is taking place on the beachfront on an incoming tide. Some are targeting fish successfully with slim-profiled stick baits to match the popular sand eels and others are getting them on Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows and Daiwa SP Minnows. Joppa Flats still rewards the faithful, especially the nighttime kayak crew who troll Slug-Gos and drift and cast eels. You may be startled come dark here as sturgeon occasionally breach the surface, causing quite the stir. Finally there’s a bit of a blackback bite off the Parker River Wildlife Reservation by parking lot 1.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine

Jamie from Dover Marine told me that some of the bigger cod of the year so far are being intercepted on the inshore edge of Jeffrey’s as spent breeders depart the prohibited Whaleback Humps. Haddock are pretty hot in 180 feet of water. The rain flushed out mackerel from the Piscataqua River but with the predicted dry spell they should reassemble and with them will be stripers. You have to work at access but shore slingers are doing nearly as well as the boat brigade. Jamie recommends that you swing into the shop for some hints. Rye and Hampton Beaches are beginning to get hot; check out the jetties at the mouths of the harbors. Also peruse the beaches at low tide, looking for rockpiles and sandbars and then chunk up a cow with mackerel once the surf is up. A mackerel colored pencil popper is a nice option. While the tributaries of Great Bay have been quiet, if there’s fallback herring/striper action in the Bay State there must still be a bite here.

Ken from Saco Bay Tackle in Maine told me that the stripers are slipping away from the rivers and gathering by jetties and the beaches. The beaches such as York, Old Orchard, Higgins and Biddeford Pool were productive for those surf fishing with clams during the rough stuff of a few days ago. Macks can often be jigged up on site off the jetties and usually there are stripers with the baitfish. A boating option is to troll a deep diving mackerel-patterned plug by Richmond and Monument Islands. The first tuna of the season have been taken and most fish are caught of Jeffrey’s Ledge on mackerel.

Best Bets For The Weekend

The cauldron of bait on the South Shore is like a ticking bass bomb ready to go off; perhaps the next tide or tomorrow! In the meanwhile troll or liveline a mackerel or swimming plug by the Gurnet, Glades or Minot Ledge and see if there’s a 30, 40 or larger linesider with your name on it. A more sedentary but every bit as enjoyable pace can be had by soaking seaworms or clams in Green Harbor or Scituate Harbor. Closer to the hub, there’s the highly anticipated Boston Harbor Striper Shootout on June 16th, the timing of which should be perfect for big fish. Even if you don’t participate, find a rip line at night off Long Island or Nixes Mate or Bob’s Bass Triangle and anchor up and let a deep diver wooden plug do the work for you. On the North Shore, the rocks have heated up as stripers hunt down harbor pollock and soft-shelled lobsters. Slim-profiled soft plastics are just the thing for stripers pursuing sand eels from the Essex, Ipswich and Merrimack rivers. In New Hampshire, try a live mackerel or chunk along the banks of the Piscataqua River or the jetties of Hampton Harbor and in Maine it remains mackerel off the beaches for moby bass!