Pound Some Pollock
Gear-Up For Ice Season
While the short term weather forecast looks far from frosty, the temperature of freshwater bodies has dropped to the point where it wouldn’t take much to get many in New England to skim over. Rather than get caught by first ice with your ice-fishing gear in disarray, maybe it’s time to get your gear in order. But if you don’t fashion yourself a hardwater junkie, there’s solid salmonid action in the Connecticut Valley Region of Massachusetts. And in the salt, smelt stalwarts are still at it– and there’s even a little linesider love to go around.
You may have noticed some skimming of puddles and smaller water bodies throughout our area. Hopefully that’s a sign of some solid ice to come, and if that’s the case there is no better time to give your gear the once-over. For a tip or two, I enlisted the service of Mike DeVillers of Indian Hill Ice Traps of Worcester. If you have a set of his traps or one or two of his Nor’Easters, then you know that Mike is on the cutting edge of ice-fishing gear development. First up, Mike recommends cooling your jets if you are like many of us who “suffered” through the balmy winter of last year when ice-fishing opportunities were in short supply. You are probably dying to get out there, but don’t take that dying stuff to a literal conclusion; make sure you have at least 3” or 4” of solid ice before you venture out and definitely pal up until you’re sure the ice is safe.
In order to get the most out of your gear, take the time now to have your auger blades sharpened, change the spark plug if it’s a gas drill, and make sure it’s all in working order before you haul your stuff out there. For trap perfection, pay rapt attention to the spools and frames of your tip-ups and sand down any burs that have occurred from off-season occupational mishaps; deal with imperfections now before they result in a sliced leader and lost fish. Make sure your main line is fresh, your leaders new and hooks are replaced or re-honed. A droplet or two of grease or oil on the working parts of your traps wouldn’t hurt either. Also, examine your cold-weather clothing layer by layer–holes are only good when it comes to nets. Lastly, pay heed to the ice fisherman’s version of Murphy’s Law, which all but guarantees that your boot laces/creeper straps will break the first day that you are out on the slipperiest ice of the season.
And if your traps haven’t been upgraded since you were first wowed by an Etch A Sketch, check out what’s new out there, including what’s available from New England’s own Indian Hill Ice Traps or JackTraps of Maine. Fresh from perusing IH’s website and ogling the pictures of the Nor’Easter rod holder being used not only for a range of ice-fishing applications but as strike indicator/rod holders for bait rods at Wachusett, I decided to pony up and order two.
Speaking of Wachusett, both biologists and experienced anglers agree that this was a stellar landlocked salmon spawn in the Stillwater River this past fall and it bodes well for future years. The surge in smelt numbers can be thanked for the improvement, and a byproduct of the bait bounty has been the growth rate of rainbow trout. In past years, spring stockies that survived into the fall would top out at 17 inches; this year a number of fish were taken between 18 inches and 20 inches and the colors of these fish were awesome!
While the smelt news has been good in Wachusett, it has been less so in the salt. After two super smelt seasons, this year has been poor. Some, such as the always-optimistic Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics in Everett, point out the unusually warm Boston Harbor water temperatures as the culprit – 49 degrees – and feel that it will be a late run. But anglers are tiring of the shivering without much to show for their efforts. Regardless, Rick from Fore River B&T is tirelessly capturing grass shrimp for the faithful; you will never know if there’s a late smelt surge if you’re not out there trying.
We haven’t been devoting much time to this late fall/winter tradition due to a late-season linesider preoccupation that just won’t go away. But family & friend demands for holiday smelt are compounding, so I see a concerted smelt effort in our future with hopefully a positive report to follow. And speaking of linesiders, striped bass in the Greater Boston area are still cooperating, but as you would expect their feeding window is shrinking with declining water temperatures. Most bites are courtesy of micros, but an occasional slug of 15-pounders reminds us why we’re not stowing the plug bags just yet!
For a real duel with some dynamos, consider what Pete Santini has been doing. He, along with good pal Doctor Brick, has been cruising out to Wildcat Knoll and in 400 feet of water they are finding tackle-pounding pollock, often two at a time, and fish of over 20 pounds! This fishing is not for those with a bad back or a full freezer as hundreds of pounds of these fish can be caught in an outing. The hot teaser is the pelican green shad with a splash of BioEdge to make it more alluring.
Rod from Flagg’s in Orange told me that it’s all about the rivers in the Connecticut Valley Region. The Quabbin River’s blue ribbon trout water, the Swift River, sees dramatically less fishing pressure during the cold months of the season and a few wily anglers are taking advantage of that and catching holdover rainbows as well as a few landlocked salmon. If a big brown trout is more to your liking then check out the Miller River, which is often overshadowed by the more patrician, pristine Swift but harbors some monster brownies. It is little wonder this is so because this river is stocked to the banks with brown trout; in fact it was recently stocked with 1,800 brown trout and then followed with rainbows!
Fishing Forecast
For those pining to get out on the ice this year, now may be the best time take a long look at your gear and repair or replace it before we have a winter wonderland. For something really special, grab your fly rod and head out west where there are some special salmonids in the Swift and Miller rivers. For a bruising battle, duke it out with a “Boston bluefish” and several-dozen friends as pollock have aggregated and are feeding aggressively east of Stellwagen Bank in 400 feet of water. Closer to the coast, it is hoped that the smelt doldrums will end soon, and if not and you’re willing to bundle up and stay on the move, there are still a few striped bass hanging around Boston Harbor.
Ron,
Have you heard anything about inshore cod near boston harbor.
Could you recomend a charter boat.
Brian, with the Cod Conservation Zone in effect there is no cod fishing allowed period in Boston Harbor until January 31st and “For Hire” vessels are not allowed to fish for cod in the harbor or for that matter the Gulf of Maine until April 16th, but the latter is still to be determined later next year. The Habor snub is a shame because we used to enjoy a cold but rewarding from-shore night cod fishery this time of the year in places such as Castle Island. And considering that a few folks were jigging up cod by Graves Light fairly recently there’s probably a few white bellies prowling the inner harbor right now, but our State Fish is off limits!
Is there anywhere around Boston known to hold pollock that can be caught from shore this time of year??
I’ve never known of a proific pollock fishery inshore during this time of the year, but we used to have one heck of one for 2 – 3 pound fish from May through the fall, but that went the way of inshore cod, haddock and whiting. The last one is especially painfull to consider now, because as recently as the 80s, the wharves of Boston Harbor fairy teemed with whiting which made for great winter time sport and fine eating. If we’re honest, the only sustaining/improving inshore fishery that we have in Massbay is winter flounder but there is a dark cloud looming. The DMF has recently doubled commercial trip limits for winter flounder, so we may be putting the flounder in that “used to be good” category soon also!
Like 15 or 18 years ago I used to go to Perkins cove in me and catch them in good numbers. I just don’t wanna drive that far for nothing lol