Massachusetts Fishing Report – August 31, 2017

Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report

Unless you’ve been on a retreat devoid of all media and contact with the outside world, you know that the Canal was borderline insane for nearly two weeks. It looks as if some of those big bass may have spun off to the South Shore. Patrons of Pete of Belsan Bait in Scituate have been racking up numerous 30s, 40s and even a few 50-pound striped bass! The go-to bait continues to be the ubiquitous mackerel, which seem more numerous now than in June, which was once considered the peak period. The other predominate forage is peanut bunker. Hickory shad have been pounding the peanuts, especially from dusk to dawn, giving some the wrong impression that they are in the middle of feeding bass.

Plymouth has been productive as has Kingston and Duxbury. The cliffs off Scituate continue to be good. For a chance at a bluefish, your best chance remains by the Pilgrim Power Plant outflow. Best of all, the macks are in close as are the bass! Look for mackerel swarms from 30 feet of water all the way out to Stellwagen! Big fish have been caught off Farnham Rock, Minot and Point Allerton.

In this year of the Great White, the “supporting” cast of sharks is what Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters is seeing a lot of. East of Stellwagen Bank, there is a mixture of blue sharks, threshers and makos with the ratio 10-1 in favor of the blue dogs. Still there are enough 70-inch makos prowling out there to make things very interesting.

Tuna on Stellwagen continue to torment as they focus on halfbeaks and ignore most other offerings. The anglers who are doing best are staying on the move and casting stickbaits or other slim-profiled baits that mimic halfbeaks.

Massachusetts Greater Boston Fishing Report

Dan from Bobs Bait Shack in Winthrop said that the appearance of peanut bunker have increased the likelihood of striper surface activity. The juvenile pogies have been spotted between the Lower Middle of the Harbor and the Winthrop shoreline. Hopefully that’s just the tip of a huge wave that will spread northward like years ago! Anglers are already taking advantage of this by casting and catching with Storm Shads, which set the angling community on it’s collective ear 15 years ago because they were such a ringer for peanut bunker. Shore anglers have been getting in on blitzes from Bayswater Street through Shea’s Beach (Constitution Beach) and out to Wood Island Bay Edge Park. A farther-casting and more durable alternative to soft plastics is the venerable Acme Kastmaster! The broad shape of this legendary spoon gives the appearance of wide-bodied bait such as peanut bunker.

Mackerel can be found off Graves Light as well as Nahant. Short Beach/Seal Harbor continue to hold impressive stripers and numbers of them as it has all season long. From the tail end of last week through the weekend, that area between Winthrop and Revere looked like a boat show as anglers gathered from as far away as Gloucester! The action has cooled down considerably, but being creatures of habit, odds are really good the bass that survived the onslaught will be back!

When I asked Captain Paul Diggins of Reel Pursuit Charters if he caught a piece of that action, he said that he watched the zoo from afar but was too busy catching bass up to 34 inches by Egg Rock to join in.

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

The North Shore counterpart to Revere/Winthrop in the big bass sweepstakes continues to be Nahant Bay out through King’s Beach. As told to me by Tomos Tackle in Salem, there have been a number of 48-52” stripers caught there within the last week! The same methodology applies be it mackerel by day or eels at night.

The Saugus River has pint sized 5-7” snapper blues. The significance of this is that, other than providing fun sport for kids, is those little blues are among the best big fluke bait there is. We have more fluke in the Revere through Lynn area than most realize and a snapper drifted over drop-offs, channel or shelf edges is the surest way of finding out if there’s a keeper fluke residing there. You have about two weeks tops before fluke migrate out to deeper water.

Tuna are on an inshore tear according to Skip from Three Lantern Marine. The attractant, in addition to mackerel and pogies, is the reappearance of inshore sea herring! Greenbacks have largely been absent in significant numbers in the Cape Ann/Ipswich Bay area this year but not anymore and Charlie has taken notice! Giants have been reported rushing bait remarkably close to shore. This is dovetailing nicely with the NMFS decision to reopen the General Category for bluefin beginning September 1st.

Kay from Surfland told me that the southern part of the Plum Island by Emerson Rocks has been among the most productive on the island. Two of the hottest lures have been the Sebile Magic Swimmer and the Shimano Coltsniper. I wasn’t surprised at that new is the least as both of those plugs are well represented in my surf bag. For bigger bass, Kay suggests the jetty at the mouth of the Merrimack during low light conditions as well as Plum Island Sound when the tide is cooking!

Freshwater

As much as Patrick Barone of Early Rise Outfitters enjoys sampling the varied fish-bowl of the Connecticut River, what he really lives for is as he puts it, “Trout, trout and more trout!” And right now, the going is good! Cooler nights are flipping the switch and turning these coldwater patrician fish on! Patrick is seeking out wily, trophy brown trout in the Deerfield River. During lowlight conditions, the brownies will be shallow and primed for a streamer. During daytime, you’ll have to weigh your offering down and work runs, pools and other deep spots where the fish will be staging. Fife Dam and the Stillwater stretch are two of his favorite places. Lest you think small when you think of Massachusetts trout, Patrick has spotted 34” monsters lurking throughout the Deerfield! “Hopper” time has transitioned to nymph time in the Swift River now that there are less grasshoppers falling into the river.

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

With all the mackerel, peanut bunker and pogies on the South Shore, look for big schools of mixed sizes of stripers to stay put for some time in Plymouth Bay, off Minot and out to Point Allerton. Peanut bunker in Boston Harbor are resulting in impressive blitzes; if you’re a shore caster, keep an eye on the Winthrop and East Boston shorelines for surface feeds. There’s no knocking Nahant Bay, King’s Beach and Egg Rock as these locations should continue to hold stripers through October. The appearance of tuna within the shadows of the Cape Ann shoreline has pelagic pursuers pumped to say the least!