Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Report 10-25-2012

Late Inning Linesider Action

As you dutifully prepare for Sandy’s impact along our coast, you are probably keeping a little secret from most others. Along with such necessities as flashlights, spare batteries and bottled water, you may be doing your best to mask your concern for one of your greatest fears – what will this thing do to what’s left of the striper season? While it’s difficult at best to predict what next week will bring, we still do have striped bass in our midst so put aside a little time for that late inning linesider.

Freshwater Fishing Report

Just as unseasonably warm water temperatures in the salt have led to better-than-usual late striper fishing, so has the smallie bite fared in Wachusett Reservoir. Eddie of B&A in West Boylston told me that a few anglers are bait fishing with shiners and throwing out hardware and still getting sizeable smallmouth bass up to 4½ pounds. This is no easy feat in late October from the shore. I would stick to yellow perch patterns for spoons and swimmers since it is now that the young-of-the-year perch fry begin to swarm among the shallows. Lakers are a favorite in the fall and if you put in the time bouncing Trophy Spoons and Kastmasters along the bottom, you’ll pick up fish that will average far bigger than any stocked trout. Bull Rock, the Cellar Holes, Sawyer Bluffs and the shoreline by Masswildlife Headquarters should all be good now. The Quinapoxet has been a veritable fish bowl with lakers, rainbows, brown trout and landlocked salmon all accounted for.

Rod from Arlington B&T said that the stocked rainbows have both size and color this year and they have been hitting Power Bait by the beach at White Pond. The action in Walden hasn’t been quite as steady but more holdovers are being caught for those trolling a spinner/worm combination.

There is no substitute for time spent on site when it comes to fishing the West Branch of the Swift River according to Rodney of Flagg’s in Orange, one of his patrons has recorded 63 salmon this season that he has taken on Mickey Finns in the catch and release section. Shiner soakers are doing well for largemouth bass in Lake Rohunta and there’s a group of retired gents who kick back and wet some Power Bait at Lake Mattawa most mornings and save from steady trout company, they have the place all to themselves.

South Shore Massachusetts Fishing Report

Bob from Green Harbor B&T told me that on most recent mornings there are blitzes in Duxbury Bay. At nighttime and within a couple of hours either way of slack tide, drift eels to the side of Powder Point Bridge. This may also be your ticket on an outgoing tide where the Eel River meanders along the inside of Long Beach in Plymouth.

Pete from Belsan in Scituate said that the cod bite is still strong among the “ledges” just off the South Shore coast such as Stone Ledge, Flat Ledge and Scarlett Ledge. Early morning striped bass flare-ups often occur along Cedar Point, Peggotty Beach and the mouth of the North River. Most stripers are small but bigger bass figure into the mix more toward the river; the forage is peanut bunker and mackerel. Some are being fooled by surface activity and then disillusioned when a hook-up results in a 15-inch mackerel as opposed to a 15-pound striper! A quarry worth considering is hickory shad, which frequent floats and docks by marinas, are good-sized, will hit artificials with gusto and fight quite well. On the heels of an encouraging blog last week about blackfish, I asked Pete Belsan for more information and he said that he has a few folks that trap green crabs and successfully target tautog among the numerous rockpiles of the South Shore such as Minot’s Ledge.

Greater Boston Harbor Fishing Report

Rick from Fore River B&T in Quincy said a patron recently weighed in a 38-pound striper that took an eel at night from the Weymouth Back River. No matter where you fish right now, the eel/night/estuarial combo is the winning one for a big bass! The other solid choice is to target rivers that support healthy populations of river herring. Fry from now through November will be tumbling into the hungry sea and stripers, some migrants and some holdovers, will be waiting but the bite is often a short one right around day break. Those same river mouths will hold some real surprises as well. Just this week Carl Vinning told me that he took bluefish up to 15 pounds among just such a local river mouth! And he told me that there are still pockets of pogies for those who take the time to look.

Smelt fishing has been hot off the Hull Public Pier, Hewitts Cove, Marina Bay, the Charlestown Marina and the Winthrop Public Pier. I also have a hunch some are catching smelt off the Lynn Heritage Park platform.

The most optimistic news is that of a nice cod catch taking place between Graves Light and the B-Buoy. Some are even recording limits of keepers! Strike soon on this brown bomber bite because for all practicality it ends at the end of October! Rick Paone’s attempts to catch smelt have been thwarted by hordes of hungry hickory shad that prowl Winthrop Harbor and hurl themselves at nearly everything that moves.  These fine fighting fish are even engulfing swim shads.

North Shore Massachusetts Fishing Report

Noel from Darts Bridge Street B&T felt that the most consistent North Shore striper bite was taking place in the Swampscott/Marblehead area. Drive-by casters are seeing periodic surface feeds off Preston Beach, in Marblehead Harbor and off Devereux Beach. The prevalent bait appears to be peanut bunker. Your most consistent action may be thanks to smelt. Noel’s nephew picked up 16 jacks the other night from the float next to the Mickey D’s in Beverly, other options are the nearby pier and floats off Pickering Wharf. Mackerel are around and one place you may intercept a few is off the Salem Willows Pier.

Joey from TFO in Gloucester said that squid are still numerous in Gloucester Harbor among most any pier or dock. You’ll also find mackerel there and smelt. A couple specific spots that may pay off are the State Pier, Crippled Cove and the Granite Pier. While few are fishing for them, stripers seem to be as interested in the squid and smelt as the anglers are as they prowl among the prey. There are still plenty of peanut bunker in the harbor. There’s a good cod bite with 20-pounders being taken in about 250 feet of water at the NW corner of Stellwagen.

“Quiet” is the way Kay from Surfland Bait and Tackle in Newburyport described the surf scene in the Plum Island area. However, the few that are fishing are picking “keepers” off the ocean front mostly on bait and mostly from the Parker River Wildlife Reservation. When asked if there was a well-concealed eel/river/night striper bite thing going on, she told me that two weeks ago the 1A Bridge over the Parker River was hot. Sandy just may shove a few more migratory fish up there again as she crashes our coast. And if nothing else, this news is something worth filing away for next year.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine Fishing Report

Chad from Dover Marine said that hawg largies were clobbering swimming jigs in Willand, Bellamy, Swains and Pawtuckaway. This is a from-shore fishery where the jig is worked just above the weedline in about 5 feet of water and it is deadly. Chad expects the smelt crowd soon to be congregating among the piers of Rye and Hampton Harbors. Meanwhile the cod and haddock are hitting well off Jeffrey’s Ledge. The shop’s hand-tied “cod flies” in blue, pink and purple are making a killing on codfish and their cousins in 200-feet of water. An occasional 3-pound brown trout is taken on a fly in the Lamprey River.

Ken from Saco Bay Tackle said that striped bass activity has definitely dropped off from the past few weeks but there are a few diehards that are still getting them. Clams are the offering of choice and casters lobbing them from the Camp Ellis Jetty are reveling in beaching bass as we are on the doorstep of November! Tuna are on a tear in the Tanta’s area. Most are being caught on live mackerel, which there is no shortage of. Usually about now smelt and mackerel begin appearing off Commerce Street in Portland.

Fishing Forecast

Our fish-catching fate for next week is in the hands of Sandy, but often some of the best fishing takes place in the proverbial calm before the storm. Duxbury Bay has been the scene of exciting surface feeds on many mornings and the same thing can be said for the shoreline of Scituate from the beaches to the North River. In the harbor, eels at night in estuaries remain your best bet for a big bass and if during weekend the rollers aren’t too rough you may cruise out for cod from Graves Light to the B-Buoy. On the North Shore, stripers are still putting on a surface display in Swampscott and Marblehead with Gloucester getting the green light for squid and smelt. Over the border the striper shindig is just about over but battling a big bluefin off Tanta’s Ledge is one heck of a consolation prize!