Massachusetts Fishing Report – March 2, 2017

Pictured above: Unusually warm water temperatures have holdover stripers stirring!

New England has a well-deserved reputation for fickle weather. While I’m no meteorologist, I’d say it’s a safe bet that this year has been one for the books! Almost overnight, safe ice gave up the ghost, even out west. But there’s every reason to be cheerful since open water possibilities abound, even for a certain seven-striped favorite!

Exit Ice, Enter Open Water

“I’m looking down at Lake Pontoosuc as we speak and it’s 90% open!” reported Jim from JCB in Cheshire when we spoke on Wednesday. It’s only fitting in a lackluster winter for the frozen water fraternity that the one area which was a constant – out west – played its swan song for the season. Jim said it was crazy in that the ponds and lakes melted almost overnight, something that is not supposed to happen when the calendar still reads February. You can still find ice among the “Hilltowns” in the Berkshires and odds are that that’s the case at the always reliable Clubhouse (or Sheomet), but with hatchery tanks bursting with trout and biologists checking for healthy water to dispatch this year’s class, there are safer alternatives.

If you’re more in the mood for something more inclined to pull drag, then the Merrimack Valley Region may be for you! Don from Merrimack Sports informed me on Wednesday that anglers were anticipating the shops delivery of pike-sized shiners the next day. When asked incredulously if there was safe ice still, Donny replied “They’re still catching fish!” The delivery of Merrimack’s 6″ to 7″ long shiners is longed for because anglers are hooking into pike throughout the Merrimack, Shawsheen, and Concord rivers. Pinch points where rivers and tributaries adjoin tend to have the most action. Donny did give the nod to the section by the now-closed Ogden Martin power plant in Haverhill as a special spot. The shop is also selling sea worms to satisfy white perch fishermen who have been catching at the effluence of the Merrimack and Shawsheen as well as in the Parker River. A quiet cadre of anglers also successfully target holdover striped bass in the Merrimack and they are not all schoolies.

Boston’s never-quit elder statesmen of all things striper in the harbor, Dave Panarello and Carl Vinning, started their ’17 campaign off with a bang by boating and quickly releasing (along with yours truly) 2-dozen pot-bellied schoolie holdover stripers, and it was still February. Other than reveling in getting doused with striper slime already, what was telling was that water temperatures in this section of the harbor were 46 degrees. Sometime this month the first wave (albeit a small wave) of alewives will begin coursing natal rivers ready to spawn. That will wake up the bigger bass and pepper catches of schoolies with 15-pound fish (and up)! There is no finer late winter tonic than seeing a bass belting and tail-slapping a herring on the surface while trees are still bare. Just about every Greater Boston river along with nearby embayments has a population of holdover harbor bass. They will hit all matter of jigs/soft plastics dangled tantalizingly in front of marked fish, or you can make it easy for yourself and troll a tube and worm right in front of their noses.

If you’re looking for seaworms than Noel Leslie of Bridge Street Sports is your man this time of the year. In the modern era, his shop is the only one I know of that still keeps a stable of seaworm diggers at the ready. With water temperatures as such, I have a hunch there will be a need for flounder worms very soon from Deer Island through Swampscott. Regarding flounder, I received word from a solid source that the highly anticipated Deer Island Pier is not only a go but should be completed by the end of this summer. I believe it will have onsite parking, it will be lit, and it will jut out into the Deer Island Flats section of the harbor. I can’t imagine a better place for a pier in the harbor than that spot. The possibilities from flounder to squid to stripers are almost limitless, and this will be one coveted shore destination. I’m going to keep abreast of this project and will keep you folks appraised.

Maria of Fore River said that some are starting to target the harbor’s holdover striper population. The shop is also selling shiners briskly as anglers pursue bass in Whitman’s Pond and Ponkapoag Pond. Some are also catching holdover trout from Jamaica Pond and Houghton’s Pond. Who knows about Houghton’s, with the fall furor from tilapia being caught there, they might be stirring now too. One angler successfully caught these interlopers with a jig/worm bounced on the bottom.

Russ Eastman from Monahan Marine is transitioning from having trout on the brain to having trout on the line. Along with shopmate CJ, he got into rainbows up to 17″ long that were belting shiners at South Pond in the Brookfield area. The fishing was however bittersweet since the goal was one of the trophy brown trout which thrive on the landlocked alewife forage there. Sonar is a must if you fish this spot since it’s imperative to slowly troll your offering just on top of marked fish or forage. Secondly don’t think in terms of small shiners because you’re trout fishing. One time Russ saw what he estimated to be a 6-inch alewife sticking out of the maw of a 4-pound brown trout.

Peter from Belsan’s told me that holdover stripers swim in the North River but are a tough catch. If he had to pick a place, it would be upstream by Blueberry Island. The bait would be a soft plastic/jig head such as a Bill Hurley Mole Tail, and the time would be at night. There is no break from losing sleep if you’re serious about catching stripers, even in winter. Elsewhere anglers are catching holdover trout from Little Pond and Long Pond in Plymouth. Soon those trout (this week or next!) will be joined by stockies. Belsan’s best bet is green Power Bait.

Berkshires Report From Paul K Tawczynski of chartertheberkshires.com:
Last week the forecast was anything but favorable to ice fishermen, although even I have to admit that a day of ice fishing in a tee shirt are nice and few and far between. The biggest problem with the forecast of course was that…..it was wrong! We did not have high temperatures in the 60’s for much of the week like expected…we had high temperatures that were almost 80 degrees! Standing on Pontoosuc lake with clients on Monday in a spot with nearly 13″ of ice. That same spot on Saturday had less than 7″, and it was spongy. You could scrape down a few inches with your foot if you put enough time in.
For that reason, I cancelled the last three weeks of trips for Charter The Berkshires. No fish, no fun, is worth someone’s safety or wellbeing. Sure, yes, there is still some pockets of ice that is fishable, especially at high elevation, but nothing that I would recommend, and certainly nothing that I would sit here and write is “Safe Ice”.

The past week was FANTASTIC fishing however, with big fish coming it seemed every day. Personally, I had clients put pin sized fish on the ice literally every day of the week, off of 5 different bodies of water! Trout, Bass, Pike, and White Perch were consistently large across the county!

That being said, there are already some decent open water opportunities presenting themselves. Several of the spillways in lakes with dams have opened up and shore fishing is easy. The Housatonic river remains high, but some of the backwaters and oxbows are free from ice and can still produce pike from shore.

Withy how fast the ice melted, it will only be a short matter of time before you can access most if not all the waters by motor boat, if not already from a kayak or canoe. Please remember that this time of year the water is still cold so PFD’s are not only a necessity, you are legally required to wear one right now!

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

Now that ponds and lakes all across the commonwealth have shaken free of ice, expect trout stocking to begin in earnest as soon as next week. You can get daily updates from Masswildlife. Additionally, bass are shaking free of their winter slumber and when sluggish, “Larry’s and Sally’s” have a hard time passing on a shiner. On the South Shore, check out Jacob Pond and Lilly Pond. Closer to Boston, there’s Ponkapoag and Whitman’s Pond. Unusually warm harbor water temperatures have harbor holdovers stirring with a tube and worm a slam dunk throughout most local estuaries and rivers. The North Shore Rivers such as the Merrimack, Shawsheen and Concord should not be ignored, just ask Donny from Merrimack Sports who is having a hard time keeping big bait in stock!