Big Bluefish Filling In

Who let the blues out? Like a jagged-jawed juggernaut, yellow-eyed soft-plastic shredders have laid claim to our coast from Scituate to Saco Bay. For all their ferocity, bluefish make a mighty fine meal for predators a peg or two up the food chain, and not surprisingly finally there is some tuna to talk about – even heart-fluttering encounters from shore! Chartplotters in Boston Harbor are screaming, “look at these huge slash marks” as bigger bass have invaded local environs. Black sea bass make a unique, tasty alternative if you can “squid” past those pesky stripers.

South Shore Massachusetts Fishing Report

Of all the colors of our spectrum, this forecast has been most devoid of blue, but no more! On Wednesday a mob of 10-pound bluefish invaded the Scituate area slicing and dicing nearly everything in their path. Look to tempt a toothy from 3/4 mile out to 4 miles. Scan for surface activity and hopefully you’re packing lures with a single hook aft of the plug that can launch like a missile. Good examples are Robert’s Little Peppy, Ocean Lures Swimmers, Tsunami Timber Series Striper Poppers and Surface Tension lures. Now is probably not the best time to shoot that thrice-trebled swimmer into the fray! Hot spots for blues have been out by the “21 Can” off Minots Ledge, and there has been striped bass activity off Peggotty Beach, Fourth Cliff and by Cedar Point. Often the presence of blues is just the catalyst to get the cows feeding, so if you let your 3-ounce blue/chrome Kastmaster or similar-sized chartreuse Centervortex Butterfly Jig slip below the blues, you may be rewarded with your best bass of the year.

Captain Rob Green of Shankas stickbait fame and skipper of Elizabeth Marie Charters lit into two medium-sized tuna the other day on his oversized soft-plastic creation by Peaked Hill Bar. Other anglers lately have had similar luck throughout Stellwagen Bank into Cape Cod Bay, and there have even been sightings within view of Minots Light. The tuna tallies are including fish from 42” to 68” and just maybe the appearance of bluefish is causing the tuna to go on a tear.

This season is a great one for black sea bass on the South Shore as they are being encountered while drifting bait and jigs most anywhere you can find a nice drift between 20 and 35 feet of water over varied bottom. And they are still picking away at fluke by Clark’s Island and at the narrows of Green Harbor.

Greater Boston Massachusetts Fishing Report

The target was black sea bass, and we caught them when we could squid the Crippled Herring past the “pesky” stripers. Captain Jason Colby and I along with buddy “Doc” Feldman found plenty of bass action while drifting and ripping Crippled Herring jigs off the bottom throughout the Quincy/Hull area, but the while the stripers were fun. we really wanted to catch their smaller cousins – black sea bass. Still, it’s hard to complain when you’re hooking doubles of linesiders up to 15 pounds! It was not until I switched off from a fish-imitator to a Shimano Lucanus, which probably appears more crustacean-like to predators, that I registered my first keeper black sea bass. I sweeten the Lucanus with a couple drops of BioEdge Crab potion and this thing is a black sea bass killing machine. The following day the skipper and crew found the fishing infinitely better, especially the black sea bass bite.

What was most remarkable was the size of the slashes that we were seeing on the chart plotter. These looked to indicated very large striped bass and while they were in a neutral mode at that moment, we couldn’t help but wonder how we would fare covering the same drift lines at dark with eels!

When you venture out, you should be preparing for bluefish; they have just showed up in force and while I’m not hearing of ‘gator-sized blues such as what they’re getting north and south of the Hub, they are voracious and numerous. Toothy encounters are running the gamut from the B-Buoy to Hull to the mouth of the Weymouth Back River to the Amelia Earhart Dam. Trolling a deep-diving plug anywhere from the outer islands to the B-Buoy might result in a jumbo or two. Mackerel are still hanging in there by Boston Light with an occasional striper flare-up on the schools. A better bet may be by Graves Light where the commercial crew has been aggregating and live-lining pogies. Pogies are plentiful from the mouth of the Weymouth River to Wollaston Beach through Winthrop Harbor out to Deer Island, the North Channel and as far out as Green Island. There’s even been a pogy appearance between the Alford Street Bridge and the Amelia Earhart Dam.

North Shore Massachusetts Fishing Report

Steve Pappows and pals expected to encounter a few blues from the shore of Andrews Point in Rockport the other day but they weren’t prepared for bluefin! You can imagine the anticipation these guys felt with every turn of the handle as tuna up to an estimated 90 pounds took flight inside of their outstretched lines! They did catch some blues and bass, and thankfully no one made a pelagic donation of 300 yards of line attached to their highly-valued Micah Dean sand eel plugs!

Joey from The Fisherman’s Outfitter in Gloucester told me that squid hysteria continues in the harbor off almost any pier or dock that is lit at night. Sometimes a live-lined or fresh squid will result in nice striper. They’re catching bass with chunks off the Dogbar Breakwater and even a few errant black sea bass and tautog as well. The tuna bite is improving at the NW Corner of Stellwagen, Ipswich Bay and Tillies Basin. Along with giants, there are 50” to 60” fish in the mix and it is primarily a live mackerel/whiting game. You can load up on macks by the “Spindle” over by Thatcher’s Island.

The Yankee Fleet reported a good mix this week of market-sized cod and haddock, despite the persistently pesky dogfish. There were also a few cusk and pollock, including a 25-pounder, mixed in to top off the coolers. Weather is looking good Sunday for an offshore run.

Martha from Surfland said that the most consistent bass bite is taking place off the oceanfront of Plum Island; the drill is eels and nighttime and some of the bass are over 30 pounds. As typical of late July, the bass are extremely fussy and very selective as to what they will hit, and daytime anglers are seeing fish that are not cooperating. In fact one kayaker recalled fish slapping against his hull yet he could not get a bite. There are no magic bullets during this time of the year, but sooner or later the fish must feed and your odds are better come dark.

New Hampshire Fishing Report

Bob from Suds ‘N Soda was struggling to order more squid jigs when we talked. Squid fever shows no signs of lapsing in the Granite State as they continue to crush the cephalopods from Pepperell Cove, the New Castle Bridge and the Route 103 Bridge. Bluefish up to 28” have joined the stripers in pursuing mackerel from the mouth of the Piscataqua River out to the Isle of Shoals. Dusk to dawn trolling with mackerel or chunking from shore is working well from Hampton Harbor to Rye Harbor and along the beaches. Great Bay has gone cold as the mud flats have heated the bay up past the comfort zone of most bait and stripers.

Chad from Dover Marine has heard of bruiser blues up to 15 pounds that have been among pogies at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. Snag a few of those pogies and once they are “chunked” by a blue, let the morsel settle and just see if you can’t cull out a cow from the choppers. Chad has been finding the freshwater bass ponds close to the shop such as Willham, Swains and Meadow hot for hawgs up to 5 ½ pounds. The best bet for bass has been to slow-roll a white spinnerbait just above structure or slink a frog lure through surface slop. Chad is stoked and greatly anticipating the arrival of the new Kopper’s Live Target frog popper, which won the best hard bait category at the 2012 ICAST show; he’s expecting this lure to be a big bass slayer.

Ben from Saco Bay said that an invasion of bluefish in the bay and off Pine Point has really livened things up. Striper sleuths are getting them up into the mid-30” range and the fish are gorging on small herring and sand eels. The go-to baits are swim shads as well as Slug-Gos, RonZs and Bill Hurleys. Surf fishermen should frequent the jetties by Camp Ellis, Hills Beach and Biddeford Pool. Nighttime is the right time for the surf crowd and they are taking them on live eels, chunk bait as well as the previously mentioned artificials. Mackerel, while around, are spotty; many attribute this to the appearance of bluefish.

Best Bets For the Weekend

If you’re after something you really shouldn’t be lip-gripping, set your sights on Scituate as 10-pound toothies are tearing through mackerel and sea herring from the shoreline to as far as 4 miles out. Bigger bass have moved into Boston Harbor but they are not feeding indiscriminately; your odds improve if you live-line or chunk pogies in the Graves Light area or troll big wood plugs at night. Another option is drifting eels by West Gut, Quarantine Rocks or Black Rock Channel. And don’t forget those black sea bass! Squid a jig such as a Lucanus through West Gut or Hull Gut; there are 17-inch-plus fish lurking there! On the North Shore it has become a game of frustration for the daytime guys and 30-pound cows for the nighttime, eel-casting cadre in the Plum Island area. Just watch where you’re casting those pricey plugs, there are tuna close enough to relieve you of much of your gear and your nerve. Big blues are terrorizing baitfish at the mouth of the Piscatagua River and if you find the pogies, odds are there will be bass with them. If Maine is in your forecast, jump onto a jetty in the Camp Ellis area and reach for something that looks like a sand eel, mid-30” stripers have the same thing in mind.