Massachusetts Fishing Report - March 24, 2016

Plentiful forage is a linchpin of good fishing, and on two diverse fronts there are reasons to be hopeful. Herring continue to push upward into their natal rivers, which is keeping lock operators busy. The conundrum for those who fish Quabbin Reservoir the last few years has been the downward cycle of smelt, but that might be changing as some who keep watch are describing what they are seeing as “swarms!”

Stocked trout aside, rivers just might be your best option to catch something special during spring’s infancy. Rod from Arlington Bait and Tackle said that a customer showed him a picture of a huge catfish that he recently took where the Muddy River flows into the Charles River. The tale of their scale pegged the beast at over 14 pounds before they released it. The anglers believed they had bested a white catfish, which would have been the new state record, although it could have been a channel cat. Either way a killer catfish for sure. About now the crappie should be cooperating there as well. A kayak or pram with sonar would certainly help with the search. A customer of Rod’s has already been putting his kayak/sonar to good use along the upper Mystic Lake as he’s been pounding schools of slab crappie. The offering of choice has been Joe’s Flies – which that angler seems hell-bent on buying every last one.

From Lake Attitash in Amesbury came a 9-pound, 5-ounce largemouth that was weighed in at Merrimack Sports! This “hawg” had a 19” girth! It purportedly fell for a jig and trailer. A 22-inch brown trout full of eggs was taken with a Kastmaster from Round Pond. Two best bets for rainbows are Millvale Reservoir and Round Pond. The shop is moving a lot of pike shiners, so the toothy bite out of the Merrimack/Concord River must be good. For crappie, check out Big Island Pond across the border in New Hampshire which, according to Dave, is loaded with them.

It’s probably the calm before the storm for Eddie of B&A in West Boylston, as activity levels will certainly increase in the shop the closer it gets to April 2nd, which is opening day for Wachusett Reservoir. Meanwhile, anglers are poking around the Stillwater Basin as well as upstream of the Oakdale Pumphouse in the Quinapoxet River for the errant trout or salmon.

Greater riparian riches may await you in the Miller River, according to Rod from Flagg’s. Over 1,000 browns, including some breeders, were stocked there in the fall, and it has received scant attention. For fly guys, Mr. Flagg recommends Wooly Buggers, which closely resemble the ubiquitous hellgrammites that make up a large part of the trout diet in the Miller. For matching what is just emerging from below, try a Hare’s Ear Nymph. Miller Falls is a good bet, where you may even find a wild brook trout. There are often plenty of colorful native brookies in Mormon Hollow Brook, which is a tributary of the Miller River. Another best bet for a brookie according to Rod is Moore’s Brook in Orange. Anglers who fish for salmon in Quabbin know that the health of those leaping, silvery fish depends on smelt numbers and lately there hasn’t been a lot to be happy about. However, for the second week in a row, I’ve heard of hordes of smelt shoaling in a few feet of water close to the shore. Last week it was the Gate 8 area, and this week they were balled up by the Windsor Dam. Rodney saw a picture and described the mass as nearly the size of his parking lot! The cyclical smelt may now be recovering leading to the halcyon days of about 7 years ago, when it took a 5-pound salmon to even raise eyebrows.

Lisa from Fore River in Quincy said that a customer who lives on the Weymouth Back River is seeing plenty of splashing river herring making their run. She’s betting that the appearance of the alewives is incentivizing holdover striped bass to become more active. DCR employees at the Amelia Earhart Dam have been letting in herring through the locks for about a week now. The sudden appearance of cormorants is an ominous clue if there ever was one.

Russ Eastman of Monahan Marine in Weymouth has a customer who put in a few hours recently looking for that first flounder of the year at Peddock and Rainsford islands but he had nothing to show for his efforts. Odds are there were flounder close by, but we need a few degrees of improvement in water temperature for them to begin to consistently feed. Regarding forage, the premier live bait for many who fish for stripers in Massbay – mackerel – have made an appearance in Boston Harbor. We can only hope that the wait for their predator will not be very long!

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

For fast, fishy action, your best bet remains stocked trout with Jamaica Pond and Houghton’s Pond solid bets for those who live near Boston. Upsizing to bait nearly as big as a stockie could reward you with a pike from the Merrimack or Concord rivers. Of course, with the recent landing of that lunker largemouth in Attitash this might be a great place to live-line big bait! A sign of spring and a sign of striped things to come are the herring which are splashing their way upstream of the Weymouth Back, Charles and Mystic Rivers. However there is more to rivers than watching herring, as that 14-pound catfish out of the Charles River proves.