Massachusetts Fishing Report - June 22, 2017

Unless you’ve been marooned among mangroves off the Mozambique coast, you’ve seen the photo of a soaked Eric “Slappy” Harrison (On The Water’s Kayak Corner columnist) clutching a striper the length of which never seems to end. It’s not supposed to be easy, and a guy who pursues his passion from a kayak at night, during downpours at the tail end of relentless easterly winds, certainly has earned it. While you may not care to go to such lengths to land such a fish, you can do yourself a big favor by fishing hard during the next week – because historically this is when the cows come calling!

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

Captain Mark of Legit Fish Charters motto could be “There’s no place like home”! He’s sticking close to port in the Scituate area and doing just fine. While it’s no secret that your mackerel search will be more fruitful at first light, that favorite striper snack does not sprout wings and fly away at sun-up, they just drop down to the bottom. The Legit crew are having luck finding macks just outside of the North River higher in the water at dusk and then dropping a Sabiki towards the bottom during daylight. Drifting from The Spit through Fourth Cliff remains productive and the fish seem to be upsizing to keeper-plus stripers. On a hunch that there’s bigger still at dark, they are going to start carrying eels and let them do the yeoman’s work for them. The haddock are drifting eastward now and the skipper is planning on combining a shark/groundfish combo for perspective charters.

Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate believes that the Buzzards Bay bass he was hearing glowing reports about should be knocking at the South Shore door about now. Meanwhile, east of Minot’s Light with a live mackerel is still your most consistent choice for a 20-pound-plus striper. There’s not a lot of fish hovering around those ledges at the moment, but reports are still tickling in daily about a few good ones caught. The reason things aren’t better is that there are not the inshore numbers of mackerel as years past. Pollock, however, remain a plentiful option and they can be found among most any ledge, kelp forest or bubbleweed patch. This is the time of the year when word leaks out about a wayward fluke or two caught in the North River, and not surprisingly a few have been caught off Damon’s Point and at the mouth of the river.

Greater Boston Harbor Fishing Report

After a winter that featured a March colder than January and February, you’d expect an unpredictable spring segueing into summer, and that’s what we got so far in June. Those incessant east winds blew in a chill and dropped the south side of the harbor to mid-May-like mid-50 degree temperatures! Similar results were gleaned aboard Captain Panarello’s mighty Bite Me as he and first mate Carl Vinning crossed into Nahant and observed water temperatures dipping into the mid-40s! For a cold-blooded critter that kind of swing is huge. This is one time when paying attention to your temperature gauge is every bit as important as your other electronics. Find the warmest water and chances are you’ll find the fish from flounder to stripers. In fact, you may find both practically swimming together. The other day, Captain Colby and the Little Sister contingent carved up a considerable swath of Quincy Bay to finally find flounder in the lee of an inner harbor island. The keys to the eventual limits were finding current and sending out a good chum slick. There has been an unusual culling “problem” this year as stripers of mixed sizes continue to sniff out the chum and gulp down the bait.

There has been a lot of surface activity from the Quincy Yacht Club out to Nut Island and out toward Wollaston Beach. One of Boston’s best long-term charter captains, Monsieur Roger Brousseau of Midnight Charters, was working the same stretch with umbrella rigs and by the grins it was apparent that he had a happy crew on board. When asked what size the fish topped out at, he held is hands apart impressively wide. Roger’s secret umbrella rig tip: select gaudy, bright shad bodies.

Three of Fore River’s most consistent striper slayers – The Triple Threat – are at it again, sniffing out mackerel and good bass as others are struggling. While Lisa didn’t know for sure where the three pals are hooking up, she was leaning towards Harding’s Ledge.

Laurel from Hull did send me a pic of a 37-pounder taken by Ed Hanson off Point Allerton on a live mackerel! If you’re looking for a bookend Boston adventure that combines sight-seeing, fishing and flounder fillets look into a charter by Captain Paul Diggins of Reel Pursuit Charters. He’s been taking folks out flounder fishing off Peddock Island and then capping it off with a tour of the inner harbor and the Tall Ships! It’s a trip that keeps on giving since the flounder fillets the anglers are going home with are leaving a pleasant taste in their mouths.

Mike from Bob’s Bait Shack said there are rumors of pogies popping up throughout the East Boston/Winthrop area but no word on numbers big enough to sink a weighted treble into. For more consistent catching, try for bass off the Belle Island Bridge, Coughlin Park or Deer Island. The flounder fishing is still fine off the flats of Deer Island and Hospital Shoals. Mike did say that there was an unconfirmed report of a moby bass taken on a mackerel chunk off the Point of Pines. This would not be surprising since generations of anglers always considered this surf one of Boston’s best bets for a big bass.

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that seaworms have been sizzling hot off the Lynn beaches. Such spots as the Halfway House and Red Rock have been responsible for fish up to the mid-40 inches. Boaters and kayak anglers are doing well with mackerel by day and eels at night. Swampscott and Marblehead Harbor have also been steady. Oddly the mackerel seem to be close to the crags off Nahant, Swampscott and Marblehead while anglers a few hundred yards out are getting little more than a workout. Keep your eyes out for pogies folks, they are around! A few can be found among the Salem Harbor mooring field. Mackerel are also present off Salem Willows and some have been catching stripers over 40″ from the pier with the freshly caught bait. Never discount well-traveled shore spots for the possibility of a cow! Gas Tank Park in Lynn, Lynn Heritage Park, the Beverly Pier and Salem Willows are all ease-of-entry locations to wet a line for stripers. I was reminded how productive these spots can be at Tomo’s recently as I admired the big Beverly Pier bass print the shop has on display.

Skip of Three Lantern Marine said that the bigger striped bass he’s hearing about are lurking among pogy schools in Manchester By The Sea and off the backshore of Gloucester where pollock are common prey. There have been whispers that Wingaersheek Beach is holding pogies, too!  The Essex River, Ipswich River, Little and Annisquam have plenty of the class of 2011 “graduates” and it should be no problem for you to catch those near-keeper sized-stripers. Like much off the Bay State coast, there have been better years for mackerel but early risers are finding a few and they are not lasting long when cast close to The Groaner or inside of Gloucester Harbor.

Liz from Surfland said that surfcasters in Plum Island are connecting with striped bass most everywhere they are fishing. There are some reports that Joppa Flats has been jumping and the mouth of the Merrimack on an outgoing tide still has fish. The jetties as well as the ocean front have been two of the better locations, especially when anglers are tossing an SP Minnow into the wash. When asked which color, Liz said multiple colors are working. There have even been a few catching consistently in Plum Island Sound as well as the Plum Island River. Bait has been best with the winner waffling day to day and sometimes tide to tide from chunk to clams to seaworms.

Captain Chris from Manolin Charters has been sticking with live mackerel (and occasionally pollock) and the fish have jumped up from smaller keepers to fish now nudging into the mid-30-inch category. With alewives tumbling out of the Merrimack, the fishing can be explosive anywhere along the river out to the mouth so be on the lookout for surface flares. When bass are busting on the spent river herring, a mackerel heaved into their direction will not be ignored. Now freed from school trappings, Chris is looking to mix in some eel casting into the equation to see if he can put his charters into a larger class of fish.

Massachusetts Freshwater Fishing Report

Crowds may be a thing of the past, but according to Rod from Flagg’s, the few who are catching Curtis Island salmon in the Quabbin are not complaining. Some are even catching those salmon almost as soon as they clear the Gate 31 boat ramp! Ornate streamers and spoons with plenty of orange, yellow and flash are the trigger for the silver leapers. The salmon sweet spot is 15 to 25 feet down while, as you’d expect, the lakers are belly-to-the-bottom. While salmon get most of the accolades, those who target lakers are tallying 30 to 40 fish a day up to 6 pounds! A Dave Davis flasher just ahead of one of Rod’s hand-tied shiner rigs sure helps. His rigs differ from most in that they feature a sliding single lip-hook that adjusts to the size of the bait, thereby eliminating bent bait which leads to a twirling, unnatural presentation.

Eddie of B&A Bait by the mighty Wachusett said that in some ways the lakers are easier to find than in the spring in that if you know where the deeper holes are, you may find concentrated fish. You can access deep water by the “bluffs” off Gate 8, the left side of the shoreline off Gate 13, the coves off Gate 22 and Sandy Point (by the trailer) off Gate 35. For some odd reason pickerel are popping up all over the ‘Chu. Eddie’s hearing of them in the Stillwater Basin, Thomas Basin and he even caught his second in a week off Gate 22! Smallies are stirring at first and last light and there has been the beginning of a topwater bite!

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

The reality is that you cannot count on mackerel, so you had better have a backup plan. Thursday morning a couple crews in boats I’m friendly with scorched the Greater Boston seas to only come up with 6 mackerel in aggregate. Meanwhile, I had been pedaling around since the predawn darkness in my Hobie off a local beach and had been catching fish up to small keeper size with regularity. By the time my friends showed up, the sun was up and the bigger bass had moved off leaving nothing but micros in their wake. While I did not catch large, I did startle a staging striper that left an imposing boil! Increasingly squid are a factor in a striped bass’ diet in these parts, so first and last on my line was one of the best squid dupers I’ve even seen, Bill Hurley’s Squid Jerk Bait in pink. The bigger bass overwhelmingly will bite better when dark, so don’t spend too long searching for mackerel! Consider what skilled skippers such as Captain Jason Colby and Captain Roger Brousseau employ, such as clams for the former and umbrella rigs for the latter! Other artificials that have been hot are the venerable Daiwa Salt Pro Minnow, which has especially been wreaking havoc on the North Shore. Regardless, this week oozes with big bass potential, get out there!