Massachusetts Fishing Report | September 25, 2014

It may be time to bid the BoSox farewell until Fort Myers, and Pat Patriot’s offensive line seems to have more holes than Swiss cheese, but for us – it’s game on! If I may submit exhibit one, it would be what occurred to my friends Dave and Carl this past Wednesday. It would be hard to say which was being more besieged: the pogies on their lines or their phones, as other harbor buddies called to tip them off to their own bites!

Massachusetts South Shore/Westport Fishing Report

Like that desert on the menu that your eyes keep straying to even as you haven’t even picked out the entrée, the tog-obsessed are never far removed from entertaining thoughts of tautog in the fall. How can you not long for arguably the most dogged, pound-for-pound powerful and addictive gamester which swims in the salt of New England? Catch an 11-pound striper and your pulse is not even likely to rise; win a tug of war with an 11-pound tautog, and you may need a break! Tog or blackfish are beginning to school up and aboard Captain Colby’s Little Sister we are finding a Tidal Tails Jig’z/green crab cocktail dropped among the plethora of rockpiles in Wesport is quickly under siege. And this is the gift that keeps on giving practically into December!

Dave from The Fisherman’s Outfitter told me that fish are feeding with purpose. There are pogies on the move throughout Plymouth Harbor and into Duxbury Bay and odds are if you snag and hold onto one it will be “greeted” by gnashing bluefish teeth or slurped down by a striper. There are high times at low light on the Eel River side of Long Beach, especially on an outgoing tide for those slinging eels or weaving spooks. Caution should be foremost but drifting or casting eels along a cooking Saquish Rip is a very fishy fall option. Big double-digit blues continue to bust on the surface outside of the power plant.

Bob from Green Harbor said that in a grand scale the best bet is the bluefin bite between the northern edge of Stellwagen out to Tillies Bank and Jeffreys Ledge. And the gambling is good on getting a giant. A recent head count of 24 boats revealed 12 with eventual giants on board – that’s better than most odds you’ll get from the “house”! Live bait will always be a lure, but a dressed 619-pounder taken by Scotty Sinclair on a trolled ballyhoo proved that there are other methods. Incidentally Scotty’s big fish came all the way from Wildcat Knoll. The trip was worth it since the fish took 1st place in a local tourney for him and his dad.

The beat goes on according to Pete from Belsan’s as cows aren’t coming easy but they are being caught. Live mackerel are a cinch almost as soon as you clear the Scituate Harbor bell. Trolling a mackerel out by Cedar Point, Third and Fourth Cliffs or working them near the crunchy bottom of The Glades are all solid starting spots. The estuaries/marshes/rivers will be continuously reloaded with bass on the run as they cruise into town from points north. Dusk to dawn is usually best but at this time with an increased feeding window bedlam can ensue at any given time. Slap an eel among the shadowline at the turn of the tide at night at most any bridge and you may be surprised by a slab striper. Such is the show that is autumn.

Greater Boston Harbor Fishing Report

While being preoccupied with pogies and the bass/blues which were making short work of them by Deer Island, the harbor’s senior dynamic duo – Carl Vining and Dave Panarello – were getting peppered by goodwill phone calls from angling associates on Wednesday. Governor’s Flats was happening, so was Long Island and then there was Hull which was hot. If it wasn’t for the mayhem at their feet they would have succumbed to a short term dose of ADD – anglers deficit disorder – and looked elsewhere, but only a fool leaves feeding fish. There’s been surface action for the blitz-first folk, a trained eye can spot pogies and rest assured there will be bass and blues in tow. One of the keys to success is to follow the pogy schools and keep your live baitfish nearby; with less fish than in past years and less competition, there is no need for the predators to stray! A few years ago, I would have suggested steering clear of the main mass of baitfish as larger linesiders often staged near structure/drop-offs nearby, but that is no longer the case. Find the bait, stick with the bait and you’ll catch more consistently in the modern era.

The cooling of the inshore marsh, river, estuary action sure didn’t last long, some of the most steady striper fishing is occurring upstream right now. It’s a low light thing and eels as usual are magic and will be until the waning days of October! When employing eels adopt the “splat” technique. Toss the eel upward a bit so that upon touch down it makes an obvious splat. I would sure like to have an underwater view to support our theory but I’m convinced that the bass bee-line toward that sound as soon as it happens. You can achieve the same sound with dead eels by coming tight to a falling line so that the eel “stretches” out before hitting the surface and “splats”. In the Boston area we have no shortage of such locations such as the Weir River, Weymouth Fore and Back Rivers, the Town River, Neponset and Mystic. You never know what’s lurking in these riparian playgrounds at night and the same goes for two-legged denizens, so make sure you buddy-up before you head out there for safety’s sake.

For those who believe in the best-things-in-small-packages adage, I’ve got word of a few smelt which were recently caught off the Nantasket Saltwater Club pier. This prompted a conversation with the Shrimp King, Rick from Fore River B&T, who vowed to start the grass shrimp search really soon!

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

Noel from Bridge Street Sports said that he his troupe of diggers have been hopelessly distracted while digging up seaworms among the North Shore because of blitzes. It’s been a schoolie-fest among the North River, but they saw far bigger action where the Annisquam River meets up with Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester. Right at the edge where the river drops-off they observed broom-brush-wide striper tails slapping hapless prey. Odds are pretty good that had they a surf rod at the ready few worms would have been dug that day. The Danvers River from McCabe Park through the Kernwood Bridge has been a steady striper producer. The talk turned to tautog and now is the time to target them again with green crabs or seaworms in that same stretch as dropping water temperatures bring them back in to feed. Forest River Park has been productive for stripers also with Slug-Gos a best bait bet.

Liz from Surfland said that most of the striper action is happening south of the shop. The beach buggy brigade is having a blast playing in the sands of the Parker River Wildlife Reservation. It’s schoolies with seaworms and clams by day punctuated with the occasional surface feed, and then there’s the eels at night crowd which are taking far better fish by such areas as Emerson Rocks. A regular of Surfland tallied some very impressive numbers recently by targeting the effluence where the Parker River meets up with Plum Island Sound. Sandy Point was mentioned as especially fruitful. The action has been topwater heavy and timing could not be better for the recent arrival of some of the shop’s most productive plugs. NTA Custom spooks and pencils, freshly turned by Neal Allen who used to help out in the shop years ago, are back on the shelves. The durability of his finishes stand out from other plug builders and his grey spook and olive pencil are among my favorite plugs period! They’re jamming them at Joppa Flats on the tube-and-worm and there’s plenty of striper throughout the Merrimack River but most are schoolies.

Fishing Forecast

Its fall, fish are on the feed, and you should be out there fishing. Tog are beginning to go on a tear in the Westport side of Buzzards Bay. For a South Shore big bluefish best bet, look for topwater action by the Pilgrim Power Plant or sling an eel on an outgoing tide on the inside of Long Beach for a bass or two. In the Hub, Hull should remain hot especially considering the sweet weather predicted over the weekend. It’s a case of find the pogies, find the bass (blues!) in the Deer Island stretch. On the North Shore, you should score schoolies from the North River and the Danvers River. But for a bigger bunch of bass wet your line at Wingaersheek Beach in Gloucester or plug a bit at Plum Island Sound.