Cooler nights have turned on striped bass and anglers from Green Harbor through Great Bay are reaping the rewards. And with the New Moon waning over the next few days the action could be something really special.

South Shore Fishing Report

Finally anglers from the South Shore can stay put and expect to catch striped bass. There have been blitzes throughout the morning hours from Scituate Harbor out through Cohasset Harbor. The source of the feed is sea herring fry that seem to be part of a bumper crop of greenbacks that stretches all the way into the North Shore. Snapper blues have invaded the harbors and are making it easy for parents looking to get their kids into fast action. They have been doubling as bait for bass up to 20-pounds from the Third and Fourth Cliffs. A few blues appear randomly inshore for a more consistent bite near Davis Ledge or Stone Ledge, where the choppers chase down mackerel. A few cows are being caught from The Cliffs of Scituate, especially Third and Fourth Cliffs according to Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate. With outgoing tides coinciding with the period of the New Moon, the eel/estuary bite should be super. Bridges, shadow lines, the edges of eel grass, and the mouths of inlets are all worthy of working an eel. Don’t neglect the boulders of Egypt Beach, Second Cliff, the ledge of The Glades or The Spit. Those are all potentially hot spots for serpents/stripers.

Captain Scott Sinclair was subbing for Bob at Green Harbor B&T in Marshfield on Wednesday when we spoke and he gave me the goods on a sizzling hot pelagic bite offshore. About 100 miles southeast of Martha’s Vineyard between the Atlantis and Fishtails Canyons bigeye tuna up to 250 pounds have gone on a tear. And with them are 50-pound albacore (often found near bigeye) and plenty of yellowfin. Swords have been cooperating come dark. It looks like it might be time to beg, borrow or whatever you need to do if you’ve been aspiring to sample this world class fishing. For more common fare, stripers are slamming clams off Duxbury, Rexhame, Hummarock and Berks Beaches. The best news is that if the fishing is this good in early August, odds are it will remain so for a solid two months!

Greater Boston

Rick from Fore River B&T in Quincy said that there is no shortage of bait and plenty of blitzes but some are coming up short cast after cast and are not sure why. One recommendation this decades-long shop owner suggests is to throw them something white. It kind of plays off of the old adage about lures designed to catch fisherman rather than fish. Sometimes we get too caught up in computer-graphics, lustrous paint jobs and “wow” realism. Rick suggests you show those bass something that sticks out from the hordes of baitfish such as a 4” white Queen Cocahoe. It’s ironic that Rick brought up the white thing. When I’ve been out I have noticed that white has been the hot color also. Dave Panarello and Carl Vinning, who log as much time in the harbor as anyone, have been slaying stripers all summer long with white Zoom Flukes. When I opted for something more durable yet every bit as effective as a soft plastic I chose a white Shimano Waxwing “Boy” and that thing caught fish from most every surface show I encountered. Yes, white has always caught fish, but I’m still unabashed sucker for a good paint job!

Rick Newcomb also told me of solid surf action off Wollaston Beach for mid-thirty inch bass that are partial to clams. Watson Park in the Weymouth Fore River has been hot for fish on herring and silversides. While it started off slow, the squid fishing now is consistently good. While Nut Island is the Hub, squid are caught from Castle Island and Deer Island and for that matter many a lit platform that lies just outside of the main current.

Bass and sometimes blues have been busting bait in Hull outside of The Gut and by Rainsford Island. The other side of Boston Harbor has been best by the North and South Channels out through Broad Sound. Most fish taken have been teen-sized fish, which aren’t half bad, but there are cows among the kids. The bigger bass are still being bested by those going through the effort of acquiring mackerel or pogies and live-lining them by inshore structure. The former can be found in sporadic numbers between the BG Buoy and the B Buoy, while pogies are slowly permeating Wollston Beach. Try tossing livies under a balloon by Strawberry Ledge, Point Allerton or Toddy Rocks off Hull. Other options are by Faun Bar, the Five Sisters and Kelly’s Rocks. Dave Panarello saw a few of these fish they were 35-pound plus brutes!

Snapper blues have invaded Boston Harbor in huge numbers. A buddy of mine couldn’t keep them from nipping at the tail of his eels. Turn the tables on these little yellow-eyes by live lining them for bass. Try slowly trolling them close to Green Island, Calf, Little Calf and The Brewsters. There’s been a flurry of surf activity off Wollaston Beach with mid-thirty inch stripers taking clams.

North Shore

Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that there has been much surface activity in the Marblehead area with the players being herring and stripers. Eels as well as the tube-and-worm are effective in Salem Harbor especially where there is a rip present. Stripers are also foraging among the rocks around Winter Island. Squid are present in Hammond Park in Marblehead Harbor, which has also been invaded by snapper blues. Peter from Fin and Feather in Essex said that patrons have taken to slinging serpents in anticipation of a bass bite around the New Moon. The Essex River has been hot as has the rocks of Manchester Harbor. Boaters are launching early and finding surface feeds between Manchester and Marblehead most mornings.

Cooler water temperatures have also heated up the bass bite in the Plum Island area according to Bill from Surfland. He has been hitting them hard with Bill Hurley Cape Cod Sand Eels from the sandbar not far from the shop. Swarms of sand eels call this structure home, making the Hurley really hot. The eel at night option has also paid off for beach casters and boaters drifting them along the Merrimack River from the chain bridge out to the mouth. Mackerel remain a can’t-miss bait source but you’ll have to chum and really work for them by the Speckled Curtain, the Rockpile and Hampton Ledge. Joppa was jumping but the high river temperatures have cooled off the bite.

New Hampshire and Southern Maine

Fred from Suds ‘N Soda said that Great Bay is awash in snapper blues, the likes of which no-one can recall. Some are having a ball fly-fishing for them off of some spots such as Chapman’s Landing. One angler had an interesting trifecta on a Sabiki rig: a snapper, white perch and schoolie all on one lift. The shop is moving eels at an unusual rate because the night crew is catching stripers throughout the Piscatagua River, Little Bay, Rye Harbor Jetty, Newcastle and off the pier at Captain Simeon’s in Kittery. The latter has also been good for squid.

The big news in Southern Maine has to be the promising cod fishing on Southern Jeffrey’s Ledge. In an era where cod have almost become an angling anachronism the catch rate for cod there remains promising especially compared to Stellwagen which remains a dead sea. Bass along the beaches have become more active thanks to dropping water temperatures. Much of the bait is slim-profiled such as sand eels making needlefish plugs and Slug-Go type lures hot. Try surf fishing the Scarborough Marsh area, Higgins Beach, Biddeford Pool and by the pier off Old Orchard. Mackerel don’t always come easy but they retain their best bait status so boaters will go to extraordinary lengths to obtain a livewell full; some catch the macks by chumming or trolling east of Richmond and Monument Islands. Every once in a while a live-lined mack comes back in half as bluefish randomly rip through the area.

Best Bets for the Weekend

The South Shore no longer occupies spectator status in the striper sweepstakes as cooler temps have turned on stripers by Third and Fourth Cliff. The diurnal bunch are using snapper blues for 20-pound fish while slingers of serpents at night in the North River are catching the real cows. Peddock Island is fishing more like Buzzards Bay as scup madness continues. Boston Harbor remains blitz city with white Cocahoes, Zoom Flukes and Shimano Waxwings doing the damage. It may require effort to net some pogies off Wollaston Beach or jig up mackerel by the BG Buoy but the biggest bass in Boston are falling for this forage near inshore ledges off Nantasket and Revere. Surface feeds occur frequently between Marblehead and Manchester Harbor while it is sand eels which are sating stripers off the sandbar on the ocean front off Plum Island. In the Granite State snapper blues have invaded Great Bay while the Piscatagua remains promising for stripers. As for Downeast, they have the Jeffrey’s Ledge groundfish game which makes them the envy of the GOM.