Snow in the air and slush in the ground add a whole new dimension to striper fishing, requiring equipment that is ordinarily more in line with ice fishing or stream-wading for steelhead. But the shock of a 15-pounder slamming a plug and the resultant tail-slapping response is sure to melt the chill away! However, if fall/winter to you is all about freshwater, you’ll be pleased to know that Masswildlife is preparing to stock in the near future about 1,000 broodstock salmon that will average 8 pounds!
Catching the teeny schoolies that are the season’s swan song stripers is not the idea of a good time for everyone. But when some of the fish are 15-pounders-plus and you still have the fire in your belly, it’s hard to switch over to the “Power Bait for stockies” mindset. I recall in the mid-80s when just such size fish took up winter residence in many north-of-Cape Cod abodes. For some odd reason, it is back to the future and friends of mine are creeping around in the cold in search of that frigid striper fix and are finding them in a number of different locations – with more hunches on the horizon. Most surprisingly is that skunkings are not part of the equation. The scene usually takes place in estuaries, rivers and marshes, and low tide is magic. As if these guys aren’t masochistic enough, they pant for impending rain/sleet/snow storms and the resultant barometric pressure drops which seem to always improve the bite of both bass, and for that matter, Jack Frost.
Decades ago, the go-to offering was always a lit float and seaworm, but these cold-water casters are duping the linesiders on more modern wares. Daiwa SP Minnows, Super Strike Needles, Yo-Zuri Mag Darters and Gulp Jerk Shads are all crushing them. Because these fish have a reduced metabolism, scent/taste attractants such as BioEdge potions have been found to turn the fish on. It gets complicated to add stocking caps, gloves and insulated undergarments to the usual requirements of leaders, lures and more seasonal accoutrements, but looking forward to landing linesiders into the 12th month changes one’s view of the off-season considerably.
There’s both good and bad news for those who long to battle a broodstock salmon. The good part is that over the course of the next few weeks and into January, Masswildlife has plans to stock approximately 1,000 broodstock salmon that will average 8 pounds. Rest assured there will be plenty of double-digit leapers in that mix and these fish will be distributed evenly throughout the districts. The down side to this is that the feds have largely gotten out of the Atlantic salmon restoration business, and with little federal support, Masswildlife will soon be dramatically curtailing this program. So if you yearn to hook one of these silvery acrobats, put aside as much time as you can over the foreseeable future because long-term does not look rosy.
I also spoke to a biologist regarding the state of landlocked salmon affairs in Wachusett Reservoir and samplings of the breeding run in the Stillwater this year showed that the spawn was a strong one. Building on recent successes, great days for lovers of silver leapers in the ‘Chu are ahead. The only caveat could be a non-winter again as smelt need high water in the spring to spawn successfully and we had near zero run-off last year. Two in a row could be problematic. Eddie of B&A in West Boylston told me that laker fishing in the reservoir has been good but hardly great—but the rainbow trout action has more than made up for it. The Route 70 side of the reservoir has been most hot, and the trick to catch the trout has been a small shiner under a slip-float. And some of these bows are beauties – purplish striped and 18 to 20 inches! Newly energized salmon, fresh from spawning, are giving trout anglers an unexpected thrill. While all this good stuff ends November 30th as Wachusett proper closes to fishing, you can still fish upstream of the Oakdale Pumphouse on the Quinapoxett as well as upstream of the Railroad Bridge in the Stillwater. I have a hunch that the laker bite would have been later this year due to unseasonably warm early fall water temperatures, so that basin upstream of the bridge could just be hot for forktails until it ices over.
The word from the “Shrimp King,” Rick Newcomb of Fore River B&T, is that in anticipation of expected 50-degree weather this weekend he intends on doubling his efforts to make sure that the shop is brimming with live grass shrimp. Rick is sending smelt stalwarts out to Marina Bay, Hewitts Cove and Nut Island. It just may be time to start looking at some easy access smelt locations that have rewarded generations of “lantern danglers” through the years such as the Belle Isle Creek on Bennington Street in Revere and the Chelsea Creek off Broadway (Rte. 107) in Chelsea. If you can gain access to some of the marinas of East Boston, they often produce a nice smelt bite as December looms.
And the smelt good times are not just limited to the Bay State. Jason from Suds ‘N Soda in Greenland, New Hampshire said that a few dedicated smelt anglers are scratching together on average one-and-a-half-dozen silver streakers during an outing. Good spots are the harbors of Rye and Hampton, as well as the Sagamore Creek in Portsmouth. Farther north, they’re catching smelt behind the Weathervane Restaurant in Kittery, Maine. For the limited ins-and-outs in Maine, I consulted Peter from Saco Bay Tackle Company. Those who can’t shake fishing fever are hitting the Ogunquit and Mousam rivers for sea-run brown trout. The only significant numbers in these fisheries is the amount of hours it takes to lure in one of these wily trout, but to catch one is a feat worth bragging about. Smelt fans are taking the trek to Commercial Pier in Portland where they are picking off enough to keep them coming back for more.
Fishing Forecast
Stripers are still willing to play, but you had better pay as much attention to what you wear as to what your wares are. Potential striper spots are the Weir River, the Weymouth Back River, the Neponset River, the Charles River, the Mystic River, the Pines River and the Saugus River. I would not be surprised if you picked up a few at the Danvers River and just maybe at the mouth of the Forest River where it empties into the Salem/Marblehead harbors.
Pick up a gill of grass shrimp at Fore River B&T and check out the Hingham area or Nut Island but a better bet may be to make the haul up to Hampton or Rye harbors; they’re catching smelt with worms and Sabiki rigs, so if you offer them some grass shrimp you may make a real killing. And for a freshwater fix there are 1,000 reasons to keep a watch out for a broodstock bonanza from Masswildlife,
Ron, any word on if MassWildlife will phase out the Broodstock program completely in the coming years or just reduce it? Also if MassWildlife phases it out completely or reduces it is there a plan to redirect the money elsewhere, say restarting up the pike stocking program?
Sad but true Jason. Masswildlife will definitely be phasing out the program, without federal backing it doesn’t make sense to continue. We will be periodically receiving a few broodstock from the US Fish and Wildlife hatchery in Nashua, New Hampshire but it’ll be small potatoes compared to the 3000 we once received. And who knows about the future of that program; as scary as it sounds a biologist recently referred to the Atlantic Salmon in these parts as “extinct”. I suspect the Roger Reed State Fish Hatchery in Palmer will retool for other salmonids, so maybe we’ll see more tiger, brown and brook trout.