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

Hot Weather, Hot Striper Fishing!

Unlike its namesake, the dog days of summer are hardly man’s best friend, and that goes double for the angler. But all is not lost as long as you are willing to adjust your location and maybe your schedule from what worked well a few weeks ago. It looks as if that mass of mackerel that livened up the Canal may have infiltrated the South Shore. But, the most unusual news of all may be the slug of squid which when not tearing mackerel from Sabiki rigs are resulting in 47-inch stripers!

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

If it’s all about the bait, then the South Shore is where it’s at! Dropping a Sabiki rig within minutes of clearing the coast usually results in mackerel. Plymouth has macks, as does Green Harbor and Scituate. And there have been 30-pound plus stripers that have been caught thanks to those mackerel. Bob Pronk of Green Harbor told me that some of the hotter locations remain The Gurnet, High Pine Ledge, and the smattering of rocks and ledge just outside of Green Harbor, but mackerel are magic and one never knows where or how they will reward. Some of the better bass within the last week have been taken on chunk and live mackerel right off Burke’s Beach in Marshfield by both boaters and surf casters. Artificial alternatives are Daiwa’s SP Minnow, Yo-Zuri’s Crystal Minnow Magnum and Sebile’s Koolie Minnow and Magic Swimmer. Boaters should try jigging or “squidding” with Crippled Herring and Butterfly Jigs; worked below schools of mackerel, these bottom bouncers will often extract the biggest fish from the school.

Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate is seeing an increase in demand for eels now that sweltering heat is part of the schedule and is leading to more interest in night fishing. Toss an eel on an outgoing tide from the North and South rivers or maybe off the jetties of Green Harbor, Bryant Rock or Cedar Point and see what size striper you can stir up. Somehow, someway, the flounder are not earning their technical name of winter flounder and are sticking around Green Harbor and Scituate Harbor despite mid-60 degree water temperatures. The allstar groundfish – cod – while in short supply at Stellwagen this year, are around inshore for the few that are targeting them in about 100 feet of water in such places as Stone Ledge. And it looks as if it’s going to be a bonanza year for black sea bass. If you can finagle a drift amidst lobster pots (which point to rocky, live bottom) and drop a Shimano Lucanus, Butterfly Jig or Crippled Herring and “squid” about five fast cranks after hitting the bottom, I bet you’ll catch black sea bass.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

With water temperatures well past 60 and the calendar nearing July, flounder are on the move. Look for them in deeper water by Green Island, Calf, Little Calf, Boston Light and Point Allerton. You can also expect to catch some super-sized sea perch out there, although the rest of the world calls them cunner. Macks are getting tougher to find and you may have to make the haul out toward the B Buoy to find a few. Should you decide to live-line one, be cautious for two reasons: there are bluefish around and someone recently was spooled by a tuna! For kicks, try snapping a bucktail jig with curly-tail grub or pork rind and see if you can’t catch a few of those choppers that are running over 30 inches long. While the bucktail always works well, the parachute version is especially effective when squid are plentiful, as they currently are. Boaters and shore guys are all scoring squid from Nut Island, Castle Island and Deer Island. I bet that most anywhere you can access the expansive wharf area in Boston’s inner harbor, you’ll likely find squid – they are that numerous.

It might be time to start slinging serpents on a nighttime outgoing tide at the mouths of the many rivers we have in the Boston area and for that matter the beaches. Boaters should three-way eels mid-tide over rockpiles or cast them into the wash among the islands that define the harbor. As always, a good nighttime option is to troll a deep-diving plug over those same rockpiles, reefs and shoals. Experiment with various deep-diving plugs over sandy bottom to determine the depth range before you put that pricey plug in harm’s way in the snaggy harbor. A daytime option if you cannot find mackerel is to jig up harbor pollock, which should be in good supply in the Graves Light area. The nearby islands should hold stripers that will have a hard time passing up those pollock.

Fresh from an outing with Shimano aboard the Helen H out of Hyannis, Russ Eastman of Monahan Marine came back crowing about the Lucanus Jig and the short work it makes out of black sea bass. With the burgeoning black sea bass population in the Boston area, this should become one of the standbys.

North Shore Fishing Report

The Beverly/Salem area has succumbed to squid hysteria according to Noel from Darts Bridge Street Bait and Tackle in Salem. It seems every bridge or pier that is lit at night is giving up squid. One angler live-lined squid off the Beverly Pier and scored a number of stripers up to 47 inches! While mackerel are tougher to catch, the one’s jigging up a few and live-lining them are doing very nicely on stripers off Egg Rock in Nahant and Bakers and Misery islands. The flounder bite is just fine from the nearby harbors as well.

Nat Moody from First Light Anglers told me that squid are so numerous that they are attacking mackerel being jigged up on the Sabiki rigs. It may be a good time to switch offerings to soft-plastic stickbaits that imitate squid in pink or violet. Just be aware that there are toothy devils around now. We all love the blitz and there have been wild, roaming surface feeds throughout the Salem/Beverly areas at first light. The rivers are not quite as hot as they were thanks to Mother Nature’s furnace but the rocks from Manchester Harbor up to Rockport have made up for it.

Mike from Surfland told me that the early riser crew is taking keeper stripers on seaworms in clams from the Parker River Wildlife Reservation as well as the Plum Island beach front. Mums the word on Joppa Flats but they are selling eels and the kayakers and the rest of the flats faithful continue to set sail to catch nighttime tides. Boaters just off the beach are occasionally picking up the blues with swimming plugs.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine Fishing Report

Angling success from the rocks and suds has increased according to Tim from Suds ‘N Soda. Look for linesiders among rocky bottom from Rye, Hampton and Seabrook. Favored baits are mackerel and squid. Old reliable 2KR can is where you’ll find mackerel for fun or live lining.  The Granite State is not immune from squid insanity as they are turning up there in what some are calling unprecedented numbers. Chad from Dover Marine suspects that squid may be jigged up off most any bridge or pier in Portsmouth or Kittery area. The first forays of blues have shown up in the area so it might be time to revisit Great Bay and search for surface activity, especially if smaller, harbor blues are in the mix as they love to terrorize bait fish schools in the bay. From all accounts the ground fishing is good off Jeffrey’s for cod up to 25 pounds and the sweet spot is in about 220-250 feet of water.

Karissa from Saco Bay in Maine told me that shore fishermen are catching stripers into the upper-30 inch range off the beaches of Southern Maine. As for bait, it appears to be a “pick ‘em” as clams, mackerel and sandworms are all effective especially from Pine Point out to Camp Ellis. And naturally the other option is live mackerel, which some are catching from the jetties and nailing stripers on the spot but a more reliable means is to take it to the islands and jig some mackerel up by Monument and Richmond Islands. There are plenty of sea herring as well and it was only a matter of time before those yellow-eyed biting machines showed up and they are now catching choppers.  A mid-depth diving plug in red/white, orange/gold or blue mackerel trolled along Saco Bay and along the islands should account form some bluefish.

Best Bets For The Weekend

When the mercury is up you’re going to work up a sweat no matter what you do so you might as well get wet while wetting a line. The South Shore stands out thanks to all the mackerel, the key is to find the bait and then put a wake between you and the source and live line by Fourth Cliff, Minots Light, the Glades or Egypt Beach. If you hit the Hub, focus on flounder in the deeper water of the outer islands or Point Allerton. For consistency with the cows, check out nighttime pursuits with eels or swimming plugs wherever you find moving water such as river/bay mouths or rip lines. Shore guys should check out the Weymouth Back River, Nantasket Beach or Deer Island. On the North Shore squid or mackerel from the Beverly Pier, the Kernwood Bridge or Salem Willows should result in stripers, the bait will be all the better if it is live. Boaters who shove off at dawn should be on the lookout for blitzing action in the Beverly/Salem area. A daytime alternative is a tube-and-worm or casting soft plastics among the white water of Manchester by the Sea, Gloucester or Rockport. Beyond the border, the beaches of New Hampshire have come alive for anglers soaking bait among the rocks and in Southern Maine, it’s more of the same – find the mackerel find the stripers! You can find both in Saco Bay.