Massachusetts Fishing Report - November 19, 2015

There are white-chinned tautog big enough to beat and embarrass you on the Westport side of Buzzards Bay with the challenge being less about catching and more about finding a break in the seas and wind! Closer to Boston Harbor, schools of stripers are proving that the game is not about smelt or northing. However, with the clock ticking down for Wachusett Reservoir for the season, this may be your best bet until the end of the month.

Massachusetts Freshwater Fishing Report

Finally, some fortuitous news of fine forktails from Eddie of B&A in West Boylston. A 7-pound 11-ounce lake trout fell for a perch fry on the Sterling side of Wachusett. With water temperatures finally cooling down, reports are trickling in of a more sustained lake trout bite. Expect the final week and a half at Wachusett to go out with a flurry. In a flash it’ll be over; have no regrets come December.

Salmon notwithstanding, the glory fish of Wachusett used to be brown trout. Talk to folks who indulged in the fishery as recently as the 80s and it’s enough to put a lump in your throat. With the resurgence of smelt, there’s been an uptick to the brown trout fishery, even though biologists have adopted a mostly hands-off approach to managing brown trout. The concern, rightfully so, is that too many brown trout would impact the only self-sustaining water body in Massachusetts that supports the regal and indigenous to New England landlocked salmon. Mostly the impressive brown trout catches have taken place in the Quinapoxet River, but there are signs that that may be changing. Further proof is the 8-pound 3-ounce female brown trout which recently took a 3/8-ounce gold Kastmaster by the Gate 9 side of the reservoir. The tributaries are also holding more salmon than recent weeks and with rainfall predicted that should only get better. Big bows have been fooled by worms tumbled in the current just below the Oakdale Pumphouse in the Quinapoxet.

Brandon from Granby’s B&T said the plunging mercury of the previous two nights resulted in skim ice on small sloughs. Along with a shop full of recently-arrived augers and traps, there is budding anticipation of hopefully imminent hardwater. If ice fishing to you means pike, then why wait! The shop has pike shiners and some are putting them to good effect and catching pike in the Oxbow. Even if something toothy doesn’t snap up the shiner, there’s a good chance a big largemouth will. A few even target walleye among drop-offs where fish of over 6 pounds have been caught. For ‘eyes Brandon suggests a jig/small shiner or jig/worm combination bounced throughout depth changes. If he had to pan in on one particular stretch of the Connecticut River for walleyes it would the Hatfield area and points upstream. For those with trout on the brain, Goose Pond in Pittsfield gets the nod, especially for larger browns and rainbows. Last year a 7+ rainbow was taken there last winter through the ice.

Massachusetts Saltwater Fishing Report

More than just the bird will give up the ghost come Thanksgiving, it will be Captain Colby’s last hurrah for putting the Little Sister on top of tautog. The catching is the relatively easy part, finding a break in the wind/rough seas—not so much. Odds are that some of the biggest crab-crunching white chins will fall during the next week and the fish are still uncharacteristically close for late November, most likely due to the unseasonably warm water temperatures. How weird have the water temperatures been this year? Last week Jason caught a gray triggerfish and he even found a juvenile grouper in his killifish trap at his slip! The skipper was all set to snap a picture of it when it flopped right out of his hand back into the water.

Pete from Belsan’s said that the only sport in town is trout fishing among the stocked ponds of Plymouth such as Long, Little and Fearing’s. There are still striped bass in Boston Harbor! A buddy of mine who keeps his boat at Marina Bay said that there are plenty of schoolies lurking around the docks and marina mates are getting them with shad baits. It’s unclear whether these fish are holdovers bedding down in Boston for the winter or migrants which will finally feel the need to clear out once water temperatures get really frosty. The harbor’s never-say-die duo, Carl and Dave, continue to poke around inshore bays and estuaries in the harbor and are finding fish up to 30”! There secret is a tube and worm with preferred color shuffling between black and red. Recently the worm part of the tube has been getting some interesting attention. After continued nibbles, Dave decided to downsize to a smaller hook and found flounder! I’ve also heard of smelt anglers catching small flounder while targeting smelt with bits of seaworm. Just maybe we have a vestige winter time inshore fishery for flounder few are aware of? Another interesting tidbit is that some of the stripers have sea lice on them, which may add legitimacy to the theory that the harbor is home to a strain of winter-over stripers that migrate from the Maritimes.

Lisa of Fore River B&T said that increasingly anglers leaving the shop with gills of grass shrimp are finding jacks. Bigger “jack” smelt are figuring in the mix with the bite best at the Hull Public Pier, the Hingham Harbor Dock, Hewitts Cove and the Town River. Paul from Bob’s in Winthrop said that the shop has sold out of the final four vintage smelt rods that were leftovers and handcrafted by the shop’s namesake – Bob Cox. That’s a clear indicator that they’re catching smelt locally. Patrons are plucking away at smelt at the Winthrop Public Landing as well as Lynn Heritage Park.

Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that some are catching smelt and mackerel from the Pickering Wharf Piers as well as the Congress Street Bridge. Anglers are also catching a wayward winter flounder or two on their seaworm spiced Sabiki Rigs! It’s a heck of a leap to go from smelt to tuna in one sentence but according to John from Three Lantern Marine in Gloucester the bluefin bite is furious on Southern Jeffreys. Live bait is best and with mackerel still prevalent in the harbor making the bait search a cinch.

Fishing Forecast

With barely a week left to the season for the Bay State’s premier blue-ribbon coldwater fishery, Wachusett is a slam-dunk best bet. Tumble a worm or egg sack throughout the Stillwater or Quinapoxet Rivers and you may find a trophy trout or landlocked salmon. The flip side to this watershed is 37 miles of shoreline to the reservoir where bigger lakers and trophy browns are now just a cast away. Keep on the move, take with you a selection of 3/8- to 1-ounce Kastmasters and keep on casting. If you catch a break in the seas on the Wesport side of Buzzards Bay, you should find terrific tog fishing in close. Hull and Hingham remain hot for smelt with schoolie stripers still lurking around Marina Bay. Farther north you’ll find mackerel in Gloucester Harbor and tuna out on Jeffreys perfectly willing to make a meal out of them.