You don’t need to look over at you’re panting “best friend” to realize that the Dog Day doldrums are here; the striper stupor due to 70-degree water temperatures is proof of that. But all is not lost, you just have to augment your technique or maybe look for a new venue. Freshwater is an option worth considering with bass, lakers and salmon opportunities abound.

If you’re sick of hearing about the live mackerel/catch a bass cocktail and you’d like to reach for an alternative, I’d like to suggest a few that are working. Two are courtesy of my friend Captain Jason Colby who has a cavernous bag of tricks aboard the Little Sister. He generally steers clear of the boats that chase the birds that give chase to the bait that are (hopefully) being harassed by a few bass. He put a charter recently into a triple of 15-20 pounders that all went off at the same time by trolling fluorescent UV-bending pink and chartreuse Mann’s Stretch Deep Divers. Others mixed it up in the surface melee the skipper sought out a contour line of 20’ in the Winthrop/Revere line, which he tracked closely. The hat-trick took place at a hump in the middle of that contour line. Recently we out-fished a gaggle of charter captains in the Hull area who chased birds and fished live mackerel by “squidding” Crippled Herring and Lucanus Jigs in moving water. In fact, Corey Briggs who on this day was a de facto member of Team Little Sister hooked a tank that straightened out the sturdy Siwash on his jig.

Another option that is almost never employed in these parts is snapping bucktails on wire-line. I have a story due out in August’s issue on this method and while I don’t have the space to go into much detail here, in a nutshell it is a minimalist method that yields maximum results. My friend Capt. Walter Peterson is a decades-long practitioner of this art aboard his Fortier Valkyrie and when I’m out with him I’m most amazed at two things: how many fish we catch and how clean his deck is. On board there are two rods, outfitted with wire and a bucktail jig a tub of sea rind. That is it. No arsenal of lures, no bait, no blood but plenty of glory. The key to snapping wire, as with most methods of striper fishing, is to find moving water and structure, especially in the pivotal 15 to 20 foot depths.

Freshwater Fishing

After weeks of scant attention due to late spring/early summer Striper-mania, I had a hunch that things were hot in the Bay State’s bluewater reservoirs – Wachusett and Quabbin – and I was right. Eddie of B&A Bait & Tackle in West Boylston had tales to tell of angling acquaintances of mine who are racking up 4 ½-pound salmon, 4 ¼-pound smallies and even 6 pound brown trout. And to think this happens while seldom seeing a soul among the 37 miles of shoreline (not including the tributaries). The “Res” (what the old school call the ‘Chu) is always a gem but it is never more underappreciated than the summertime. Forget about bait this time of the year, you’ll want to pack metal such as Krocodiles, Kastmasters, Kastmaster XLs and Trophy Spoons as well as some smallie stuff. Swing in B&A, gear-up with tackle, tricks and tips and have at this world class fishery!

That is unless you’d rather key in on the Quabbin. Rod from Flagg’s in Orange is running out of crawfish most weekends because the smallie bite is so good at drop-offs near shoals and the islands off Gate 31. A pal of mine, Bobby May tallied 8 silver leapers up to 4-pounds the other day on white perch streamers that Rod ties at the shop. The salmon are gorging on the perch fry. The bite is best by Curtis Pond in 30’ of water at the 100’ drop-off. If you want lakers you’ll have little difficulty catching them as guys working Dave Davis spoons and shiner combinations near the bottom are finding 30-40 forktail outings with fish averaging between 2-6 pounds. Other worthy spots are the “Barrels” and Gate 43, where you could be into fish within five minutes of your launch. An 18-pound lunker of a laker, which all but sews up that category in the Masswildlife Sportfishing Awards, was caught by Gate 8.

South Shore

With water temperatures breaching 70 degrees, you would expect a species such as the striper, which prefers 55-65 degrees, to become languid and that is the reality most are facing, except for the night crew! According to Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate guys eelin’ the North River up to Damon’s Point are still catching stripers up to 20-pounds. The same can be said for those waking a dark Danny, needlefish or swimmer along the surface of beaches. The graveyard gang is scoring with chunks as well from Duxbury Beach, Humarock Beach, Mann Hill Beach and Egypt Beach. Boaters are earning their mackerel with first light rises and a lot of chum but they are finding this favored forage east of Minot’s Light and the macks are resulting in stripers tossed or trolled over upwellings and close to white-washed shorelines. Anglers snapping a jig on the bottom of Sabiki rigs are finding rock cod while searching for mackerel. Keeper fluke are being taken at the mouth of the North River and if they are there, then the fish must be numerous in Duxbury Bay.

Bob Pronk of Green Harbor in Marshfield said that anglers are still catching flounder just east of the jetties which lead to the harbor. There are some black sea bass in the mix as well. Dawn by Farnham Bell eastward is the ticket to mackerel for bait especially for chummers. Troll macks, the tube-and-worm by the Gurnet, High Pine Ledge and Beetle Rock for stripers; others are popping with mackerel Shimano Orcas and doing well at these same destinations. As for blackfish, Bryant Rock is a best bet for those that are targeting tautog. Hot surface temperatures have chased “Charlie” to the depths off Stellwagen and those that are doing well are exclusively using live mackerel, pogies (Duxbury) and speed jigging marked fish with Butterfly Jigs.

Greater Boston

Warm temperatures often call up the “exotics”. Russ Eastman of Monahan’s Marine in Weymouth was fussing for flounder off Portuguese Cove Wednesday evening when he and a few friends slammed 9 scup! Earlier that day, Russ met up with Chris Howie and I in our Hobie kayaks just north of Boston and I took an 18” fluke that gulped chartreuse Gulp! Swimming Mullet. What’s next? Weakfish? Don’t laugh– there have been more caught in Buzzards Bay this year than in recent memory. In fact, I got the call to come on down in May from my editor friends in OTW for the one indigenous fish above all that I badly wanted to catch. And I caught one! It was 24” of silvery, golden-finned, purple-hued splendor and when numbers are up and the water temperature is ratcheted to “sizzle”, they have been caught in the Boston area. Weakfish love bays and estuaries. Two that I know of that were caught in the past were taken off Wollaston Beach and inner Winthrop Harbor. Weaks will wallop small Storm shads and tiny pink soft plastic stick baits such as RonZs, Slug-Gos, Savage Sand Eels and Hogys. Look for a shell-lined bottom and you never know.

Those that are catching stripers most consistently are jigging up mackerel among the outer harbor from Point Allerton to Nahant. Trolling mackerel from Strawberry Ledge to Ultonia Ledge to Point Allerton and out to Martin’s Ledge has been productive for 40” plus stripers. But I’ve also heard of scores of similar-sized stripers up close among rockpiles off Revere Beach. Rick Paone of Medford has three-days of consistent striper action in the inner harbor by ignoring the boat show that chased the birds and instead stuck to trolling mackerel at the edges of the inner harbor shipping lanes. Almost as soon as the live bait reached the shallower edges the mackerel were “greeted” by 30” striped bass.

North Shore

The rocks of the North Shore are often the antidote against the doldrums of summer. Dave Flaherty of Nahant has been bending hooks, straightening split rings and chafing the color clean off of SP Minnows and Magic Swimmers on bruiser bass that know how to use the crags up there to good effect. And he has been catching more than his fare share of cows in the process. Rock jockeys should look for pockets of white water that form when combers crash over ledge – the bass will using the washing machine for cover as well as an ambush point.

Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem gave me good news for those who crave calamari as squid have shown up at the newly refurbished Salem Willows Pier. With the squid comes the occasional 30” striper. The kayak crowd is finding tinker mackerel in the channel separating Marblehead from Salem and they are livelining them to good success most anywhere they find rocks/white water. There have been blitzes most evenings off Philips Point in Marblehead, with the bass averaging upper 20” to lower 30”. An interesting alternative to mackerel has been harbor pollock. Ordinarily I have found that pollock are a poor alternative to mackerel but some are finding stripers more willing to engulf the pollock. Drop a Sabiki rig wherever you find the combination of ledge/bubbleweed in deeper water and you should find pollock.

Jimmy from Fin and Feather in Essex told me that boaters are doing best by trolling live mackerel by the shallow edge of the 180’ contour line in Ipswich Bay. You’ll need 8-ounce plus cannonball or drail sinkers to accomplish this but the payoff can be great. Big double-digit blues are pounding this rig as well. According to Jimmy the southern sector of Cape Ann seems to be fishing best with bass being taken from Manchester Harbor as well as Magnolia Harbor. Jimmy busted a big bass from the backshore of Gloucester recently on a Backshore Plugs pencil.

Kay from Surfland in Newbury told me of a big batch of small blues which have just invaded the stretch between the Parker River Wildlife Reservation and the mouth of the Merrimack River. A boater Thursday morning found plenty of stripers at the mouth that couldn’t pass up live mackerel. Kay’s son and other big bass sharpies are fishing exclusively at night with eels and they are doing far superior than the day crowd. Drift the eels along the Merrimack River or sling them from the shore by the Rte. 1A Bridge on the Parker River. The sand spike gang is still picking off bass while chunking from Parking Lot 1.

Southern New Hampshire and Maine

According to Fred from Suds ‘N Soda in Greenland, the A-game in the Granite State is the groundfishing off Jeffrey’s Ledge. Fellow Suds-mate Tim tore into cod, haddock and big pollock on jigs on the ledge. The hot lure is the new dimpled 16 ounce jig that the shop is carrying. The feeling is that the fish pick up on displaced water and vibration from the hammered finish and they belt the lure. Striper fishing is inconsistent with the best bite courtesy of live pollock which can be jigged up by Newcastle and the Navy Yard. The pollock are drifted at the edge of the Piscatagua River Bank. I would patronize the bridges of this river at nighttime. Look for lurking bass positioned just behind the uptide/upstream shadow line of the bridge and drag a bucktail jig right in front of their noses.

Chad from Dover Marine agreed that the groundfishing was great on Jeffrey’s Ledge with one annoying caveat – the dogs are back. Therefore baitfishing is not an option. The incessant rains have roiled Great Bay making many stages of the tide in the Piscatagua River difficult to fish. The benefit to this is that if you’re fishing within the feeding window – an hour before up to the top-of-the-tide – you’re most likely killing them. The entire river is tending to turn on at this time and the fish are not fussy as menu items run the gamut from swim shads to chunk. For a solid option check out the black bass fishing in Union Meadows Pond, the Branch River and the Merrymeeting River. The black/gold Live Target smelt crankbait is the killer lure; just make sure you put plenty of pops and pauses into the retrieve.

Peter from Saco Bay echoed others by saying that the rivers are best avoided but the beaches more than make up for it. Boaters trolling a tube-and-worm by Old Orchard Beach are doing well and shore guys casting Daiwa SP Minnows are also slaying them. Kennenbunk Beach is also good for both the boot and boat brigades. Bill Hurley Cape Cod Sand Eels are crushing the bass at night as anglers increasingly substitute them for eels which are getting very rare.

Best Bets for the Weekend

If the dog days of summer have you howling because of a lack of fish consider sweetwater. Wachusett has been cranking out trophy brown trout and salmon and the lake trout action in Quabbin has become a numbers game – 40 fish outings and forktails up to 18-pounds. On the south shore, stick to slinging eels at night at the mouth of the North River or waking a topwater from Duxbury Beach. Closer to the Hub, steer clear of the “chase” and try jigging wherever you find fast flowing water. For those who think in terms of mackerel for mobies, you’ll find macks by Martin’s Ledge and out to Nahant. Troll the bass up from offshore ledges or maybe toss them into rockpiles during low light levels at beaches. North Shore sharpies are cranking in SP Minnows through the wave-formed foam near ledge in southern Cape Ann. Up north, the freshwater fishing is fine for bass in the Branch River and for stripers in Southern Maine toss a Bill Hurley sand eel into the rollers of Old Orchard Beach.