Massachusetts Fishing Report – June 25, 2015

Wednesday morning I got word that Boston Harbor looked like a scene from one of the Tall Ships events, except all the nautical interest had less to do with schooners and more to do with schoolies. The rough count was dozens of boats, many of which were charter captains determined to put their clients into all those 25″ fish. If you’re not impressed by those figures, here’s some that you may find more exciting – locally there were at least three 50-pound-class stripers taken within four days!

Inspired by that, I’m skewing this week’s “forecast” into just that, a forecast, rather than a report recital. Recent history tells us that NOW is your best time to catch that cow of your dreams. All three of those fish were caught with time-tested baits and in environments which are favorable to holding these savvy survivors. Not in any particular order, the “baits” that did the damage were mackerel and “big wood”! The environments were all places defined by structure and current and habitually known for harboring huge bass.

First on the list were Fred Shaff along with his son Fred, who last Thursday lugged in a 53-pound beast to Surfland for an official weight at 2:30 in the afternoon. The fish fell for a live mackerel in the Merrimack River. The second stunning striper that I know of was my friend Russ Burgess’ 47.3-pounder that broke a lot of hearts at the Boston Harbor Striper Shootout on Saturday. Before you cry foul that Russ’ fish was not a true 50, the truth is that he waited a full 2 days before he put a weight to it. While most would rush to the nearest official weigh station after catching a beast like that, this was hardly Russ’ first ride at the rodeo so for him it wasn’t that big of a deal. The last entry into the cow sweepstakes, which you can read all about on this website was the touching account of the 51-pounder bested by Keith Colli while fishing with his son Wade Colli!

For the inside scoop on the Shaff’s fish from the Merrimack River, I spoke to Martha Moulton of Surfland, who along with sister Liz and mother Kay manage the iconic shop in Newburyport. As she glanced at the shop’s legendary “wall of fame” and the photos of big bass caught through the years, Martha recounted how the dates reflect that now is one of the best times of the season to not only catch a huge striper but also to catch it during the day! The reason she feels that this is so is because water temperatures are firmly in the striped bass comfort zone and mackerel are present. During the months of July and August, you are more likely to find bigger fish feeding at night with eels the offering of choice. Above all, the mouth of the Merrimack River is where most of the magic takes place. An outgoing tide matters and sharpies fish one of two ways with the live bait: a 2 to 3 ounce egg sinker with a 6’ leader or floating the bait along in the current under a balloon/float. Timing is good for you here since mackerel are herding herring up against the beach-front!

You’ll find no bubbling livewell or mackerel scales on Captain Russ Burgess’ boat, but you might find a cooler with a fish big enough to shock you. Regardless of the time of the year, Russ does his handiwork from dusk to dawn and pokes around Boston Harbor looking for moving water and structure, usually within 20 feet of the bottom. He’s no carpenter, but he’s partial to wood, as in big, baseball bat-sized wooden plugs. He carry’s just two types of plugs aboard his boat: the Gibbs Deep Diving Danny and Gary Soldati’s Pike, especially the 10″, 7-ounce troller! On the night he took his “almost-50”, he also caught what he guessed to be an upper 20-pounder (he has a tendency for estimating conservatively) and then two smaller fish. If you think size doesn’t matter, then know that the two bigger bass fell for that massive GRS Pike. Keys are a snail-paced trolling speed along with the developing of a “feel” for the plug. The deal killer is weed on the line and only an educated eye/hand can tell when the plug is fouled. Here’s a hint, if you bump bottom, pay rapt attention to the action of the plug since that is where you stand a high probability of catching weed. Undoubtedly, you’ll wince whenever you bump those pricey plugs against bottom, but big bass hunker close to the bottom and will not travel far to strike.
For a shot at putting you closer to duplicating Keith Colli’s feat, I spoke to Captain Mike Bousaleh of Ave Maria Charters who for years has been one of Boston’s best at working the ledges at the outer edges of the harbor with mackerel. While Mike is as accommodating skipper as there is in these parts, it was tough getting a word out of him in between his continual yelps of “fish on” as he was putting clients into cows up to 36 pounds Thursday afternoon as we spoke. Mike employs Daiwa Accudepth multicolored braid to measure how far back the mackerel is swimming. He staggers his spread at 150′, 90′ and sometimes as close as 20 – 30 feet. He uses inline sinkers as well as egg sinkers, usually between 6 and 8 ounces and prefers having the mackerel swim between 20 and 50 feet above ledge. He opts for 60 to 80 pound fluorocarbon leaders (he leans towards heavier if there are blues present) and ties a “harness” composed of one hook in the nose of the bait and the other behind the dorsal fin. What’s noteworthy about this sort of fishing is the distance that big bass will travel to mug the mackerel. He has seen big fish rocket off the bottom as much as 20 feet or more to hit the bait. This underscores the desire striped bass have for mackerel. You might want to try this by the BG Buoy, Saturday Night Ledge, Three-And-One-Half-Fathom Ledge, Minot’s Ledge as well as the multitude of anonymous humps and bumps out by the B Buoy! Mike wanted to say more but he had a three-way hook-up so he had to hang-up.

Fishing Forecast

Flounder continue to bite as well as all season. There are all sorts of surface activity from the South Shore through the North Shore, but they are overwhelmingly the work of mid-20″ stripers, which are not very fussy. And then there’s the little old factoid that RIGHT NOW there are 50-pound stripers swimming in local waters! So what are you going to be doing with your weekend?