As befitting the quintessential American holiday, anglers are reveling in RED rock cod with a few WHITE bellies thrown in the mix for good measure, and from Plymouth to Pine Point there are BLUES up to 33 inches long! Of course, even a Yankee Doodle Dandy would be depressed without some striper action, and thankfully I have two solid reports of a slug of fresh mid-30-inch bass that have just moved into town for the Fourth!

The predominate year class of striped bass – 10-year-old, low to mid-30-inch fish – continue to be the fish most frequently tugging on angler’s lines. If your attempts recently could have been more fruitful, there’s hope that this time you’ll fare better as that size fish has been reloaded with sea-lice-shorn recruits that are in the mood for food. And while the meal has mostly consisted of mackerel, some angler are tiring of the exhaustive search for live macks and tossing mackerel-colored poppers into the surface feeds and finding them a heck of a substitute.

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

Patronizing local tackle shops can be rewarding in many ways. Of course you will help the local economy and can often find niche tackle that is next to impossible to find on-line, and then there’s the invaluable tips from the owner that can put you into the strike zone. But sometimes there are unexpected benefits from frequenting these establishments. Bob Pronk from Green Harbor Bait and Tackle in Marshfield told me of a neophyte who was gearing up recently in the hope of pursing pelagics. This was definitely a case of being in the right place at the right time as part-time pilot and full-time tuna fanatic Ralph Pratt happened to be there, and after eavesdropping took the guy on a virtual tuna tour that was all of about two hours and had the guy geared-up and educated on chasing Charlie by the time he walked out the door.

That guy just might be able to put those techniques to good use because tuna are suddenly on a tear. The hot bait is bunker and the bite is on the Bank – and there have been granders taken! Early risers are finding mackerel off by Mackerel Rock, Brewers Ledge and Howland Ledge. The theme could be: when the water is still black, you’ll find the macks! Launch late and you’ll have to haul out to as far as 4 miles before you find the bait; harbor pollock are a reasonable alternative bait and are a more reliable inshore bait source and can be found near most ledge and rockpiles. The stretch from Beetle Rock through Rexhame Beach has been productive for trolling live bait as well as the tube-and-worm. Beach casters are catching stripers on chunk mackerel from Rexhame, Berks and Humarock beaches.

If access is a pain, then do as The Canal cadre does and create your own “Canal Cruiser.” Snoop around, find available parking offsite and then pedal to the Promised Land. Speaking of promising, inshore cod catches are encouraging from 70-foot depths as rock cod and the occasional white belly, up to 10 pounds, have been pounding bait and jigs especially pink/blue Butterfly Jigs. Some customers are finally heeding the advice of Mr. Pronk and targeting tautog and catching them from Bryant Rock to Bartlett Rock.

Peter from Belsan’s in Scituate suggests that anglers steer clear of the rivers which run muddy from the incessant torrents. Fortunately there’s a better option as mackerel still are available to early-risers or those who steam a few miles from the coast and chum, chum and chum until they find the macks. Successful anglers are employing two methods: they are trolling mackerel out by deep ledges such as Davis Ledge, Scarlet Ledge, Flatt Ledge or the Stellwagen Ledges and others are taking them close to shore and tossing them into the wash by Volkswagen Rocks or Long Ledge or The Sisters and finding the bass hanging close. While most fish are teen-sized, there have been a handful of 30-pounders. Shore guys “slinging serpents” at night off Cedar Point and into the rockpiles off Egypt Beach are doing well.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

It’s hard to say whether this is the swan song for the flounder fishing for the season but if it is, it has gone out with a bang. Last week aboard Captain Jason Colby’s Little Sister on the Quincy side of the Harbor there were three 4-pounders hauled on board in a single outing. Al Sharaf scored an even 4, Dr. Jeff Kotkin a butterscotch-colored 4 ½, which was certified at Fishing FINatics in Everett, and yours truly took a 4 ½ as well. Mine however was not a blackback but a black sea bass, a turquoise-dappled humphead that was my personal-best black sea bass to date. And for all those who insist on using only sea worms for flounder, each fish was caught on clam! Props to Pete Santinti for being one of the few shops around that keeps the scale certified! Increasingly this is a service others are no longer offering. Lately the Little Sister has been finding flatties by Boston Light and Point Allerton indicating that warmer water temperatures are triggering the fish to move offshore.

However if you chum for groundfish by the outer harbor, you may capture a real mixture. Pounder-plus pollock are a real possibility as are tautog, big cunner and maybe even a cod or two. Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics and Russ Eastman of Monahan Marine in Weymouth both confirmed that keeper cod are being bested by the bumps out by the B-Buoy. Pete’s patrons are pounding them with jigs and a pelican green teaser while Russ suggests a novel approach which may net you a steaker brown bomber – drop live mackerel down to the bottom. Stripers aren’t the only critter that views mackerel as candy.

Pete Santini trolled up 35-pound class fish with leadcore and Rapala X-Raps between the North Channel and Graves Light. The Santini tube has been taking them by Faun Bar out to Nixes Mate as well as by Spectacle Island. Rick from Fore River in Quincy finally has put the finishing touches on a hundred-plus Cape Cod Spinner rigs, which perennially is one of the hottest offerings to present to a striper. Rick, Lisa and Maria awaited shipment of just the right type of bead, Colorado blade and correct hook before tying them up. Rick suggests you try the CCS rigs tipped with a seaworm by Raccoon Island, Moon Head Island, Wessagusset Beach and Veazie Rocks. For flounder, Rick recommends trying places that haven’t been pounded such as by Gallups Island, Rams Head Flats and Thompson Island.

Laurel from Hull Bait & Tackle may have to include steel leaders in her 24-7 vending machine as blues have been blowing up on bait just off Nantasket Beach. Some of the toothies are 33-inch choppers. There have even been anglers tossing Sabiki rigs from shore between Gunrock Beach and Black Rock Beach and actually catching mackerel and then bass – from shore! The key to calling them in is to chum on an outgoing tide.

North Shore Massachusetts Fishing Report

On Tuesday Joe Holey passed off a sizzling hot striper report to me of a slug of teen-sized stripers that were bashing Gibb’s mackerel pencil poppers off Lynn Beach. Sounds like this blitz had all the trappings of insanity: birds, busting bass and bedlam for hours. The protagonists were low to upper 30-inch fish that were fat, feisty and covered with sea lice! Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that kayakers are launching from Little Beach at Collins Cove in Salem, jigging up mackerel in close and feeding them to bass most anywhere they find white water. At first light the pickings are good for mackerel between Bakers and Misery Islands with bass in close to the islands. Try casting or trolling a Rapala Clackin’ Rap over the smattering of ledges in Salem Sound.

Pete from Fin and Feather in Essex told me that anglers are appreciating the fact that most everyone is fishing in Boston or Plum Island, leaving the local cows to the Crane’s Beach casters. An explosion of sand eels has made such lures as those thin-profiled Backshore Plugs pencils and Ocean Lures Sand Eels deadly. The craggy coast of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Magnolia, Gloucester and Rockport is full of crustaceans, harbor pollock and stripers. Surfcasters should check out the backshore and boaters would be well served trolling a swimming plug by Loblolly Cove. And then there are always the yellow-eyed hellions off Halibut Point in Rockport; the teen-sized gator bluefish are slamming the standard troller: orange/gold Rapala CD18s.

Martha of Surfland in Newburyport told me that sand eels are ubiquitous off Plum Island making Bill Hurley Cape Cod Sand eels hot for those toeing the sand by the recently formed sand bar next to the shop. The simple fact is that it is July and the going can be slow with the most successful doing their fishing before sunrise and sundown between the mouth of the Merrimack River and Parking Lot 1 at the Parker River Wildlife Reservation. The latter location remains a best bet for bait soakers with predatory preference waffling between clams and seaworms. Joppa Flats is jumping for the kayak crowd, which trolls tubes, Slug-Gos and eels.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine

According to Jamie from Dover Marine, in spite of recent rains the mouths of the tributaries of Great Bay remain fishy. Its little wonder: the bass are there for the fallback bluebacks. Mackerel are still available outside of the mouth of the Piscataqua River with a live mackerel drifted along the banks of the river having the longevity of an ice cube in the sun. Beach casters are catching bass off York Beach in Maine; just make sure you wear waders as in spite of the calendar, that surf always runs cold. Eels are increasingly popular bait for the bridge-fishing brigade as a serpent dragged into the shadow line is often engulfed by a hungry striper. Groundfishing remains strong at Old Scantum and New Scantum with haddock running between 25 and 30 inches and pollock bigger still.

Ben from Saco Bay Tackle Company told me that the beaches were fishing the best with rivers running a muddy mess, but by the time you wet a line this could all change and there is that matter of fallback herring to attract the bass. Jetty jockeys are jigging up macks on the spot and finding bass hot on the bait. The go-to lure for beach casters has been the Yo-Zuri Magnum Crystal Minnow in yellow/clear and black/clear. Boaters are hitting irregular bottom off Higgins Beach with live mackerel or eels and doing good. While there has been no mention of toothies from the Granite State, Downeast they are singing the blues. The blues clues are in severed soft plastics, halved mackerel and tattered leaders. The bluefish bite has been occurring just outside of the islands of Saco Bay.

Best Bets for the Weekend

If the fireworks you’re fancying for the foreseeable future are courtesy of a tail-slapping cow on topwater, then be on the “blackwater” before dawn and look for surface activity in Plymouth Bay, Duxbury Bay (where they may be with pogies) or outside of Cedar Point in Scituate. It may be last call for blackbacks as warming water temps have them thinking in terms of migrating to cooler offshore waters but you may be able to scrounge out a limit by targeting Gallup, Thompson, Lovells or some of the other lower-profile harbor islands. But all is not bleak in the harbor for groundfish, as humphead black sea bass may be filling the void. An influx of stripers covered with sea lice have made for some explosive surface action from Boston Light to Graves Light and to Lynn Beach. Up north, the rocks off Cape Ann hold crustaceans, bite-sized pollock and adjacent deep water which always holds the interest of striped bass. Across the border, fallback herring are leading to high-fives for anglers fishing Great Bay tributaries, while Maine fishermen are putting plastics in peril thanks to a toothy presence! Have a fishy Fourth of July holiday!