Massachusetts Fishing Report 7-10-14

To say that striper fishing this July is challenging is like saying an iron man competition is just a walk in the park. But some are catching quite well, and fortunately there are a few patterns out there that are working. Few would have predicted that in July some of the steadiest fishing on the South Shore would be inshore cod! But it’s not the cod that can most be counted on in Boston, it’s the flounder, and right now it’s as good as it has been all season.

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

After hearing shop after shop talking about slow striper fishing, the news I received from Bob Pronk of Green Harbor Bait & Tackle was a badly needed elixir. Fresh from weighing in a 35-pound striper, he quoted a patron who told him, “I could have filled the boat with these!” It seems that much of the serious catching is taking place over humps in deep water as much as 2 to 2 ½ miles off-shore. Some of it may because of the volume of sand eels and mackerel, which can be found throughout Cape Cod Bay and out to Stellwagen. When forage is plentiful enough and there isn’t enough competition from other striped bass, they’ll stick with the forage. Why would they want to leave? While Bob couldn’t say exactly where, he did say that one of the sharpies was commenting about 35-foot humps in 60 to 80 feet of water. And the guys are using live mackerel for bait!

The inverse of deep water dropping with mackerel also seems to be productive. River herring fry are beginning to stage among many rivers, estuaries and harbors making for fast light-tackle catching of schoolies. Inside of Green Harbor is just such a place, and I would suspect this is also the case by the Town Brook in Plymouth and sections of the North River.

Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate said that there are some impressive fish being taken up to 40 pounds. But for every angler having a banner day, there are many more who are going bust. The best bass fishing is taking place offshore and the ticket is to drop a live mackerel in front of those bass. Try this by Minot Ledge, Davis Ledge, Whitcomb Ledge, Bates Rock and Collamore Ledge. Another option is to troll the mackerel over this structure with a three-way rig, weighted so your offering will occasionally tickle the structure.

Some of this same structure is holding good numbers of red rock cod and the few that are targeting them are actually reaching their limits of 9 fish per day! Clams, jigs it doesn’t seem to matter cod are reminding people just how aggressive they can be. I’ve seen this personally having cod wallop good-sized pollock which I’ve live-lined for bass from shore.

Boston Harbor Fishing Report

Captain Jason Colby has been featuring the fishing version of one-stop shopping for flounder aboard his Little Sister. It’s hard to overstate how good the flounder fishing has been when seven anglers all reach their limits at the first drop, with the baseline size starting at 14 inches and extending all the way to 4 ½ pounds! If anyone knows of a comparable local inshore groundfishery, all I can say is, “Care to have a witness?” And the fish have taken up residence in shallow water among the inner islands. I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll have winter flounder in August! Poke around such islands as Spectacle, Thompson, Bumkin, Grape and Slate – the flounder are there and they are the biggest of the season! Why Jason even found a few one day in the Deer Island Rip while set up for stripers!

Striper success is coming in three ways in Boston Harbor. First up, anglers are catching at the mouths of the rivers as fish from schoolies to small keepers are preying on river herring fry, which are amassing by bridges, locks and dams. Try the Weymouth Fore and Back Rivers, the Neponset, Charles and the Mystic Rivers. There are pogies around, but they are roaming and can frequently be found between Long Island and Spectacle Island, Crystal Cove in Winthrop, the confluence of the North and South Channels as well as Revere Beach.

Should you find pogies, try live-lining them among Long Island, Spectacle Island, Deer Island, Seal Harbor and Revere Beach. The other option as has been the case all summer is mackerel, which remain plentiful and have recently been found by Martins Ledge, the BG Buoy and Nahant. In fact just Wednesday night my friend Joe Holey was into a ribbon of busting macks that stretched all the way from Egg Rock through Marblehead. The only problem is that there were no bass on the macks; the same could not be said for the previous night for Joe Holey Sr. who tallied eight cookie-cutter 20-pounders in a blitz the likes of which we don’t hear about much these days.

North Shore Massachusetts Fishing Report

Joe Holey also shared with me a photo of a slob of a striper which looked to be a 50-pound class cow and was duped into hitting a live mackerel at night in Lynn Harbor. Short Beach in Nahant is one of the more reliable spots for mid-30-inch stripers provided that you’re up tight to the crags and you have a live mackerel on the line. Red Rock remains hot and has no shortage of regulars who jam it nightly tossing chunks and seaworms out into the wash. Noel from Bridge Street Sports in Salem told me a customer who was in the shop recently showing a phone photo of a monster bass he caught from the shore of Marblehead. The customer usually uses clams and the cow was caught not far from Castle Rock. Bridge Street Sports is a throwback shop where a pool of seaworm diggers gather daily and supply many Bay State and beyond bait shops their seaworms. Noel’s brother got into a nice batch of blackback flounder recently by the Jubilee Yacht Club and they even caught an 18 ½-inch specimen for their efforts.

Anglers are still catching squid with boaters targeting Nahant and doing quite well while shore folks are finding them off the Marblehead Pier and the Beverly Pier as well as Salem Willows. Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem told me that those targeting them are still taking tautog among the non-descript rockpiles throughout Salem and Beverly. There are hickory shad in the harbors of Salem and Manchester and these make great bait for big bass as well as fine sport on light tackle. Nighttime seems to be best the hickory action, and they love gathering around docks and piers especially when the current is cooking. The best bass bite is taking place in deep water with live mackerel as the draw. Try working mackerel close to structure such as Saturday Night Ledge and Hills 101 and 47.

Liz from Surfland lamented about the lack of flounder fisherman pursuing what I bet is more blackbacks off Plum Island Beach than most realize. However, the Joppa Flats striped bass fishing in making up for it. Nighttime is best and the kayaks trolling a red tube-and-worm are the ones accounting for most of the action, which is composed of fish into the mid-30-inch range. There are plenty of mackerel not far from the beach from Breaking Rocks to Hampton Shoal Ledge, with adequate chumming short-cutting the search. If you’d like to bait and spike it, give Emerson Rocks at the tip of the Parker River Wildlife Reservation a go.

Fishing Forecast

If it’s slow and you need motivation, occasionally feast your eyes on that slob bass in the forecast. It seems as if not a week goes by where there is not a comparable fish taken, but it can’t be you in the frame if you’re not out there. For consistent schoolie to small keeper activity, target the rivers that host herring runs, where the newborns are finding the sea very hungry. The bigger bass are busting mackerel among upwellings in water as deep as 80 feet and as far out as 2 ½ miles. I know that’s a wide area to search, but the payoff is proving worth it. Flounder fishing remains nothing short of fantastic in Boston Harbor. If you’d prefer stripes, jig up macks or snag up pogies and toss them up against the “live bottom” of Long Island, Deer Island or Revere Beach. Squid are a cinch from the wharf off Nahant through the Dog Bar Jetty off Eastern Gloucester.