Often an early June nor’easter is the impetus for insane striped bass fishing. And with the volume of bait around, I’d say we are due. Being such visual hunters, flounder were totally off the feed this past week as the roiled seas handicapped them; but after days of abstaining, do you think they are hungry now? Not all was tough during the rough weather; Wachusett Reservoir was reloaded with energized salmon and a long-term North Shore tackle shop owner described the striper fishing as the best so far of the season.
South Shore Fishing Report
Pete of Belsan’s in Scituate said that the South Shore was a veritable swarm of tinker mackerel. Expect to top off your livewell within minutes should you drop a Sabiki most anywhere you try. In the past, some of the biggest bass of the year were taken in early June on a live mackerel in these parts. I would troll some of these macks near Minot’s Light or Sunken Ledge. Don’t be surprised if some moby-sized bass are lurking out there right now. Don’t give up on the rivers just yet; those recent rains recharged the North River with herring and bass. Try tossing a live mackerel up against the river bank or by an inlet as far upstream as you can go.
Expect flounder to be feeding ravenously in Scituate Harbor, Cohasset Harbor and Green Harbor. Shore-casters might be able to pick up a few flatties from the seawall of Peggotty Beach
Those tinkers just might be the ticket to nailing that first tuna of the year. Spotter planes have seen a number of school-sized tuna on the Southwest corner of Stellwagen. Bob Pronk of Green Harbor B&T recommends a squid bar as the best option for a bluefin. These high-profile attractants get noticed, especially during that pivotal hour of first light. Green Harbor is hardly immune to mackerel mania and Bob recommends live-lining them by Farnham Rock and by the jetties of Green Harbor and Bryant Rock.
Greater Boston Harbor Fishing Report
Captain Jason Colby had bigger things to worry about during the recent blow than merely where the flounder were biting. The “Little Sister” broke free from being doubly moored and wound up aground on Raccoon Island. Fortunately a sterling effort was put forth by a number of parties and his boat is back up and ready to terrorize the winter flounder population. The skipper has a hunch that the bite will be furious, since so little feeding was taking place during the storm.
Russ Eastman of Monahan Marine did manage to get out a bit past Point Allerton in Hull and found the bait gathering and bass catching very good. Macks have been no problem to obtain, and if you troll them around the Brewster Islands and Lovells Island, you should have no problem finding striped bass up to 25-pounds. And I would not be at all surprised if there wasn’t a slug of considerably larger linesiders lurking around town now. I’m sure it’s not too early to slip some eels in among rockpiles of Boston Harbor. Nighttime is the right time also for trolling a deep-diving plug throughout the numerous rips, reefs and boulder fields that define the harbor. Good bets are Roaring Bulls, Nixes Mate and Bob’s Bass Triangle
Don’t give up just yet on the river systems that have herring. Just last night, Rick Holebrook slammed an absolute pig of a striper on a holo greenie 9-inch Sebile soft Magic Swimmer. I saw the photo and have never seen such a heavily proportioned 34-inch fish – it stretched the Boga Grip scale past the 20-pound mark! He rigs the soft Sebile with 4 weights on the shank; the added weight acts like a keel and the lure will track true even in current. The song remains the same, find the herring – find the fish.
North Shore Fishing Report
Noel from Bridge Street Bait in Salem told me that there is an increase in both numbers and interest in two of the best tasting quarry around – flounder and squid. It seems as if a younger crowd that hadn’t grown up with blackbacks has discovered them, and they can’t get enough. Limits are being recorded throughout Salem and Beverly harbors. One particularly good spot has been by the Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly, where the fish are averaging 14 to 16 inches! While hard to keep squid jigs in stock, the shop is scheduled for a shipment Thursday night to meet the demand for the weekend. A few young fishers took a couple of 31-inch stripers on chunk mackerel off Bass River beach.
I’d be very surprised if those nor’easterly rollers have not brought with them some much bigger stripers, and odds are with the volume of soft-shelled lobsters and harbor pollock among the rocks those fish will not leave for awhile. This is probably also a good time to pick off a rock cod from the shore. All those crunched up quahogs and crustaceans are sure to attract a mixture of scavengers.
According to Kay from Surfland, the bite looks as if it’s already on. There has been explosive striper action right off the beachfront for boaters who are tossing albino shad Slug-Gos. The Merrimack River mouth still fishes well during the 4-hour window of dead low tide. Sand eels are preferred forage here, so stick to needlefish and soft-plastic stickbaits. They’re catching from the Parker River Wildlife Reservation at Parking Lot 1 on clams and seaworms.
New Hampshire and Southern Maine Fishing Report
The stellar squid season is extending to New Hampshire according to Tim from Suds ‘N Soda. Most any bridge or wharf in the Piscatagua/Portsmouth area is likely to yield some squid at night. There are plenty of tinker mackerel around among the same area and they re catching stripers with those macks throughout the Piscatagua River and even in the channels of Great Bay.
Echoing the results in Massachusetts, I would in not give up on the river herring runs in Great Bay or Southern Maine. Generally the runs come in starts and stops, especially as June stretches on, but fish do fallback well into July and the striped bass know it. Try an alewife Fin-S Fish or a brown Shankas’ and find a rip rap, reef, anything that will stem the incoming tide and make it easier for bass to bunch up herring. Night will be your best time.
Ken from Saco Bay Tackle told me that the shad fishing in the Saco River is super right now. With mackerel here as well, most are using this striper candy from the Saco Bay breakwaters, inside the Saco River or are using chunks from Ferry Beach, Pine Point and Old Orchard. A good alternative is clams, with all the smashed up quahogs that permeate the wash, bass are undoubtedly feeding on this bounty.
Best Bets
Your first big bass of the year could very likely be waiting for you and a live mackerel by Minot’s Light. Closer to shore locations for live-lining mackerel are the Glades, Egypt Beach and the North River. Flounder should be feeding heavily off Peddock’s Island, Rainsford Island and George’s Island now that the seas have subsided. If you have a taste for squid, drop a squid jig from Willows Pier or the Beverly Pier on the North Shore. Bass hounds should be live-lining pollock off the crags of Cape Ann or mimicking sand eels in the Plum Island area. North of the border, mackerel mania rages on as a tinker is the ticket to a striper from the Piscataqua River to Saco Bay.
Please do more to promote catch and release fishing, with artifical lures, less treble hooks. Live lining bait and then hooking a striper many times results in gut hooked fish that cannot survive. I cringe when I read all the references to live bait. The damage done is substantial. Any one who has ever fished this way knows that. There are plenty of fish to be caught and released, then you can catch them again a few years down the road when they are bigger. If you need fish to eat, go to the grocery store. We know stripers taste good, so do many other commercially fished varieties. Thanks for listening
Does anyone know how far up the Maine Coast the stripers will make it? I will be on Union River Bay the last week of June. Thanks in advance.
We got a limit of flounder on 6/10 , we were out for only 3 or 4 hours. All but two of our limit were over 15 inches the two small ones were 12 1/2. And 13 . Boston harbor bite is on!
Driving up from Pittsburgh, PA this weekend to vist some friends, I am going to take my first try at Stripers from the shore. My friend said that we will be fishing somewhere in Southern NH (friend lives in Lawrence, MA). Any reports on the current conditions would be appreciated !! Thanks !! Hope to hook on to a few !