Massachusetts Fishing Report | October 16, 2014

If you have the beam, brawn and gear then the tuna bite that has swept along anglers from Cape Cod Bay to Cape Ann should be tops on your list. For those more in tune to bottom fishing, tautog are gathering and gorging on green crabs throughout Westport and even to some degree the South Shore. Speaking of the South Shore, Duxbury Beach is smoldering, but for a real chance at a cow stick to Duxbury Bay and see if you can’t stick a pogy with a snagging treble. With the harbor hot for blitzes and Plum Island still producing, the fall run is in full swing!

Massachusetts South Shore / South Coast Fishing Report

If you have a taste for tuna, then you owe it to yourself to get out there, now! As to how and where, according to Scotty Sinclair of Green Harbor Bait and Tackle, it might be easier listing where they aren’t being caught! From school-size to spool-you-size tuna, the fishing is the rage. Recent action has taken place off The Regal Sword, the “Notch” on the SW Corner of Stellwagen, and if you don’t mind the haul, past Thatchers Island out toward southern Jeffreys Ledge. Live bait is fooling those bluefin, as are soft-plastic stickbaits, speed jigs and squid bars. And they are being bested on spinning gear as well as more typical conventional tackle. Did I leave anything out? You might say the fall run is on, but this time the contestants are very big and very fast!

Bass have been blitzing off Brant Rock and Duxbury Beach. In fact, the latter just went off this Thursday morning. Poppers, pencils and spooks were resulting in explosive surface action. There are still reports of pogies around Powder Point Bridge in Duxbury Bay and Scotty saw a picture of a nifty-FIFTY bested by a kayak angler! There are blues in the mix as well. The Plymouth area has been explosive with topwater shows courtesy of mixed sizes of stripers and bluefish. Estuaries and eels continue to go together like acorns and squirrels with the South River a steady spot for fish between 10 and 15 pounds. Cod continue to give hope as close as one mile from shore off the Scituate/Cohasset area in 50 feet of water. The catching is coming courtesy of jigs and bait; if you’re considering the latter just beware that the dog-pack is on the prowl.

Joe from Belsan’s in Scituate told me that a few tog were being taken in close to shore. Spring brings tog into estuaries/rivers to spawn, but dropping water temperatures brings them back in among rockpiles, bridges, and piers to pack on calories by crunching up a few crabs. I’d try Manomet Point, Blackman Point, Cedar Point as well as the Cunningham Bridge.

Captain Jason Colby continues to pick away and find limits of tautog at various rockpiles just outside of Westport Harbor. While we have totally jumped aboard the jig/crab bandwagon, when the seas are stirred up, conventional rigs will sometimes outfish the jig. Jigs require more of a learned “feel” which requires patience until the tog has that hook firmly in its maw before reacting. A bouncing boat sometimes inadvertently leads to pulling the bait away from the blackfish before you can set the hook. So it’s good to have both a rig and a jig at the ready. One thing we have noticed is that even when bait is outfishing the jig, the tog of the day is usually taken by the jig!

Greater Boston Fishing Report

Rick from Fore River B&T said the word that some of us long to hear in October – smelt! While it’s too early to say for sure, it is looking like a better year for these native New Englanders than the past two, which were woeful. An indicator is that grass shrimp are flying out of the shop as fast as Rick can net them, in fact they haven’t even lasted long enough to freeze a gill or two. Some have been finding smelt success off the piers of Hull, Hingham Harbor and the Weymouth Back River. I’ve also heard of 15-smelt outings on an incoming tide in Winthrop Harbor. Not quite legendary stuff here but a start nevertheless.

Stripers and blues have been blitzing off Wollaston Beach and out through Long Island toward Quarantine Rocks. Some of the fish have been so aggressive that anglers such as Dave Panarello, who fish a jig/teaser combo, have been taking two at a time! There have also been some surface activity off the Five Sisters as well as Revere Beach. Typical of October most fish are small but every once in a while you get wind of a 48-inch fish such as the one Paul from Bob’s Bait Shack told me about, which fell for herring chunk between the Winthrop Beach Jetty towards Yirrell Beach. Birds, bass and blitzing are random all around Deer Island especially the harbor side. Herring fry are beginning their gradual drop-down into the sea from the Weir, Weymouth Fore and Back, Neponset, Charles and Mystic Rivers and odds are there will be stripers “welcoming” them to Boston Harbor.

Tube-and-worm anglers have been scoring stripers off Jacknife Ledge, Squaw Rock and Sunken Ledge. Mackerel can still be found out towards the B-Buoy with a few cod prowling around under them.

Massachusetts North Shore

Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle told me that tinkers are being taken off the Beverly Pier and Salem Willows. With occasional surface feeds throughout Salem Sound this might be a good place to live-line/troll those small mackerel. There have been good numbers of cod falling for jigs with a strip of mackerel off Tinkers Island off Marblehead. The mountainous bottom off Marblehead/Swampscott between 30 and 40 feet of water historically was hot for cod and with the slight surge in inshore numbers this area looks as if it’s worth jigging again. Tomo also heard of a good groundfish bite within 1 ½ miles off the shore of Gloucester and Rockport. This might be a simple case of supply and demand. With so few cod in the GOM, maybe the fleet aren’t spending as much time targeting them thereby inadvertently allowing some to sneak inshore to the pleasure of the recreational angler.

It was a good week in the Plum Island area according to Martha from Surfland, in fact the shop scale has even gotten a workout for fish up to 25 pounds! Your best bet here is the Parker River Wildlife Reservation where anglers are catching keepers on seaworms and SP Minnows. An angler with only a couple of hours to kill and a beach buggy permit asked Martha where his best chances were. Martha suggested he four-wheel the reservation the next morning at daybreak. The guy came back and told her he had a ball chasing and catching striped bass! They are also tube-and-worming with good results Plum Island Sound and the eeling among estuaries and rivers, while hit or miss, is still proving to be productive. Where the Essex meets up with Crane’s Beach can be a bust one night and then deliver one or two good fish the next – such is mid-October!

Freshwater

The sound of rainfall on the roof of B&A Bait in West Boylston Thursday proved to be music to proprietor Eddie’s ears! That meant that flow from the Quinapoxet and Stillwater Rivers was imminent and rainbow trout, brown trout and landlocked salmon activity should increase! Meanwhile there have been 3 pound plus rainbows taken on Power Bait from Thomas Basin. And those who are jigging deep spots in Wachusett Reservoir are finding feisty, fat lakers up to 5 pounds full of smelt!

The torrent just might turn on a few toothies which live in rivers. The Sudbury, Concord, Merrimack, Connecticut Rivers, which have been dormant due in large part to the drought, might just might have a pike pick-up thanks to the flow. This combined with less pressure which comes with the summer and striper-mania may mean it’s time to buzz a weed-edge with a big spinnerbait or swimbait.

Fishing Forecast

The recent linesider luck off Plum Island means that the run has a ways to go still. Grab a pail of green crabs and bounce bait or a jig off the wrecks, reefs and rockpiles of Westport or even Manomet Point or Cedar Point off the South Shore. Stick a pogy by Powder Point Bridge and chances are a cow will be nearby or just maybe a gator blue. Hull and Hingham are getting hot for smelt, and for stripers, look for surface feeds off Wollaston Beach and Winthrop Beach. Pound irregular bottom in the Swampscott/Marblehead area for a chance at a cod or two. Plum Island is showing the most promise for those with an over-sand permit for the Parker River Wildlife Reservation. For those who know that the pouring rain brings on current along with landlocked salmon in Wachusett Reservoir, the showers have been pure sunshine!