Massachusetts Fishing Report - September 13, 2018

Pictured above: Rick Paone of Medford with a nice harbor striper that took a pogy!

We know that striped bass cannot read a calendar, but they are feeding as if they can! Yesterday’s fussy, frustrating fish are now feeding with ferocity as “the run” is on. The question has now shifted from “What are they hitting?” to “What AREN’T they hitting?!”

Massachusetts South Coast Fishing Report

While aboard the The Little Sister on Wednesday morning, the Westport side of Buzzards Bay seemed like one big bait ball. Bass of all sizes pounded peanut bunker, sand eels, and a roving plethora of prey too numerous to list. What also would take a lot of time to list would be a compilation of what the stripers were hitting. The bite began at dark with eels, transitioned to metal lips and droppers/teasers, and then the fun really kicked in as Captain Jason Colby and I struggled to find an offering that the bass would not attack – we gave up! My top catcher was Bill Hurley’s new Canal Killer. One word to the wise: should you fish soft plastic, bring a lot of spare bodies, you’re going to need them! Spare a few hours to tempt a tog or two from rockpiles and wrecks in 35 to 50 feet of water, the blackfish bite is running inverse of water temps as they drop and the bite picks up.

Massachusetts South Shore Report

Pete Belsan of Belsan Bait in Scituate said that the shop has been a ghost town with the snot and steady east wind. But history shows that NOW is the time for marshes, estuaries, and rivers to come into their own. A few southern spots worth considering are Ellisville Harbor, the Eel River and the mouth of the Town River – all of which are in Plymouth.

Last week, regular report commenter “Walleye” graciously posted on this report that jumbo, wicked blues finally showed up in Plymouth so you might want to consider using your prized mental-lip plug collection judiciously. Green Harbor should be a go, especially with all the peanut bunker around, along with Scituate Harbor and the North River. You’ll increase your odds substantially for having a banner day by frequenting rivers that have healthy herring runs. Fry are staging and gradually shifting out into the sea between now and the late fall and the stripers will sniff them out like bears to honey.

Other than Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters, my South Shore skipper associates did not answer my calls on this day, doubtless taking advantage of the last two days of the GOM “for-hire” haddock season. In hindsight, it has been a solid year for haddock with shoals of them refusing to budge from the shallows of Stellwagen, Tillies and Jeffreys. The Legit Fish captain did say that big boy bluefin have been busting bluefish in CCB. He emphasized the bluefish part, saying that Charlie is focused on those bluefish in a big way. Other than blues, the skipper suggests squid bars, which are often money this time of the year. For stripers, he’s finding mixed sizes prowling around peanut bunker schools in Scituate Harbor.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

The big news in Boston is also potentially bad news and has many wondering, “What on earth has happened to the pogies?” Over the weekend there were plenty and now after the pounding from the east wind, the bait seems to have dried up. If this were a month from now than concern would be more warranted but it’s too early for all those pogies to have fled the harbor; odds are better that they have hunkered down to ride out the nasties. Still, the harbor’s never-say-quit team of Captain Dave Panarello and second-in-charge Carl Vinning rode out the rollers with their Bite Me II tin boat and did just fine trolling a red tube-and-worm throughout Greater Boston’s inshore herring nurseries.

Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sportfishing has been hauling out towards Nahant to load up on mackerel and tossing them into bays, estuaries and rivers to find aggressive low 30-inch stripers. The sheltered waters of Hull Harbor through Hingham and out to the mouth of the Weymouth Back River deserve a look as do the mouths of the Charles and Mystic rivers. Deep inside from Winthrop through East Boston are often good this time of the year also.

Harbor bass probably breathed a sigh of relief this week since Captain Paul Diggin’s Reel Pursuit Charters remained at its slip. There will be no such sanctuary this weekend since he’s out all three days! His plan is to load up on macks by the 2 Can off Nahant and first snoop around the PR Can, if that’s not doing closer to Deer Island may pay off and then there’s the offshore between the BG and B Buoy possibility. Paul care’s about the pogies only in so far that they hold the bass, but as he’s concerned it’s the mackerel that make the magic.

North Shore Fishing Report

Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that peanut bunker have been the conduit to a lot of catching in Lynn Harbor, Salem Harbor/Sound and off the Kernwood Bridge. Anglers have been catching both Atlantic mackerel and chub mackerel off Beverly Pier and chucking chunks off the pier to catch stripers. There are pogy schools still present and occasionally bluefish crashing the schools throughout Salem and Beverly.

Tina from Three Lantern Marine told me that the east wind and dropping water temperatures have lit a fuse in North Shore harbors. Gone are the complaints of hot water temperatures and they’ve been supplanted by the revelry of hot fishing. Tina herself had a recent 12-fish outing in Gloucester Harbor for linesiders up to 40 inches long by trolling a tube and worm throughout. Peanut bunker have been under siege by striped bass of mixed sizes. Harbor pollock have moved in closer and with the volume of mackerel and peanuts there is no shortage of forage to keep local cows content. Rocky coves have featured some surface action as bass pin the bunker in close. There have also been football forays in close as small tuna are taking advantage of all that bait in close.

The motto of Surfland’s hardcore anglers could be, “rough surf, bring it!”. Mike from the shop told me that there was plenty of catching from the ocean front into the Parker River Wildlife Reservation in spite of the kicked-up surf. Successful striper catchers were tossing weighted rigs of clams into the suds. As for those partial to artificials, sinking Super Strike needlefish and bottle neck poppers were doing the most damage on fish into the low 30” range. If he had to check-mark one spot in particular it would be the parking lot 6 area of the reservation.

Fishing Forecast for Massachusetts

There’s a bluefish presence in Cape Cod Bay as well as the Three Bays. While those fish up to 12 pounds are fun in their own right, those toothies are the ticket to grabbing a giant tuna! Scituate Harbor, Hull Harbor and Boston’s Inner harbor have peanut bunker and resultant surface feeds which are the result of very aggressive mid-September stripers. On the North Shore those peanuts are the fuse igniting feeds in Salem, Beverly and Gloucester Harbors. If the surf is your home base, then sling weighted baits or plugs from the wash of the Parker River Wildlife Reservation.