Massachusetts Fishing Report - September 6, 2018

Pictured above: Bill Gagnon with a nice Westport striper taken aboard the Little Sister

It’s strange days indeed when reports of bonito, chub mackerel, and pilotfish north of Cape Cod elicit little more than a “yeah I know” shrug of the shoulder! Pogies remain thick as thieves, but with so much bait bass fisherman are having to resort to stealthy methods to fool those full stripers.

Massachusetts South Shore/South Coast Fishing Report

Blitzes are a different sort of animal in Buzzards Bay. Captain Jason Colby of The Little Sister and angler Bill Gagnon got into one recently at the mouth of the Westport River that featured blues, bass, shad, and scup! All that was missing was funny fish, which were crashing peanut bunker there the day before. The Little Sister crew is finding a large volume of teen to 25-pound bass between the river and Buzzards Bay. The numbers are something else considering how warm water temperatures are. Nights are best and for bait it’s hard to top an eel. This has also been a better year for big black sea bass than in quite a while but that all comes to a close as does the season on August 12.

Finally, those looking for big bluefish bedlam can get their fix according to Captain Mark Petitt of Fire Escape Charters. From the power plant to High Pines, cast out your cherished soft-plastic stickbaits at your peril! The Three Bays have two species in good supply, namely peanut bunker and striped bass. The top of Stellwagen Bank has tuna and probably very nervous haddock.

Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters said small bonito are hanging close to lobster pot buoys from Stellwagen Bank through Cape Cod Bay. There are also some significantly larger cousins cruising around the Bank. On a recent outing, the skipper pointed out to his mate marks on his chartplotter that elicited one, long “wow” whistle. Not long after that, a friend landed an honest-to-goodness 119-inch grander! Halfbeaks have worked those tuna into a frenzy with a lot of surface action. It’s also “football” time and I’m not just referring to the Pats opening game this Sunday. Eight to nine miles from shore, small bluefin have appeared, probably attracted by the insane amount of bait in CCB!

Plymouth through Scituate is loaded with peanut bunker and snapper to harbor-size blues have noticed. Pete from Belsan Bait said that Scituate Harbor is loaded with peanut bunker leading to some impressive schoolie surface feeds. Pogies remain no problem but many are discovering that the magic bullet among all those pogies is mackerel. The current crop of macks is big, averaging a pound! You can find macks as close as the mouth of the North River. “Stick” fishermen are finding quite a few tautog by Minot Ledge.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

I had the good fortune of fishing with Captain Paul Diggins of Reel Pursuit Charters on Thursday. The timing was good since this was just after his best trip of the season on Tuesday. It really is a whole different world when you experience a known commodity such as the harbor from the perspective of a pro! From Deer Island out through Bob’s Bass Triangle, the water was boiling with pogies and there was no shortage of boats in on the bait. Most fished simply with pogies they snagged on site, but the skipper had a curve ball that the fish couldn’t resist – mackerel! We had no problem filling the livewell with mackerel by Nahant’s 2 Can and once we found ourselves back in the harbor, we had no problem catching stripers up to 45 inches. Looking around, I didn’t see anyone else mimic what we were doing. Was it magic? No, it was the mackerel and of course a goodly dose of competency from the Captain. Me and the first mate, Rick McKenna, took the conservation route and opted for Gamakatsu circle hooks, which did the job by locking in the corner of those striper’s maw each and every time making for a safe release.

Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sportfishing continues to put cows into the boat while others aren’t. As he puts it, the “code” that he and a buddy have “cracked” is to pass on the obtrusive hunk of led/treble that most are using to snag and drop the pogies and employ a more clandestine approach. He’s downsizing his hook so that it barely sticks out from the pogy. Also, keep a rod spooled with monofilament at the ready; in this era of the braid or bust mentality, some of the more successful anglers are eschewing expensive braid and picking throwback mono such as good old Stren and they find that they are outfishing the braid brigade substantially. Brian has also found a pile of bonito, false albacore and even the occasional king mackerel in Buzzards Bay for those looking to shake it up!

Fore River’s Lisa likened the linesider love lately to insanity. So many are obsessed with the pogy, bass, and occasional bluefish action that she’s thinking of replacing the shop door with a turnstile. Charlie Murphy took a 9-pound toothy off Point Allerton recently. Shore anglers tossing pogy chunks into Hull Gut are getting keeper-plus stripers. Pogies and the tube-and-worm have been working by Bob’s Bass Triangle. Those looking for mackerel are often coming up with baby bonito at the end of their Sabiki rigs. And it’s not all stripers either, as smelt have been caught at Hewitt’s Cove and there have even been a few flounder found foraging off Georges Island as well as Boston Light.

North Shore Fishing Report

With all the talk of peanuts on the North Shore you might think you’re at a Red Sox game but according to Tomo’s Tackle in Salem, the place is alive with peanut bunker. And where you find those baby pogies there are usually blitzes to follow. As if that bait wasn’t enough, big pogies remain plentiful and in addition to run-of-the-mill mackerel, anglers are jigging up frigate mackerel, chub mackerel, and baby bonito. You’ll find the bait as well as surface feeds in Marblehead Harbor as well as Salem and Beverly Harbors.

Skip from Three Lantern Marine said that mackerel and pogy acquisitions are no problem almost as soon as you clear Gloucester Harbor. The sizzling water temperatures of the harbor have resulted in a veritable dead zone, although on an incoming tide at night the breakwater has featured some good bass fishing. Anglers pitching mackerel in the pogy schools are often outfishing those who are sticking with the snagged bait.

Mike from Surfland told me of a 20/20 story that was interesting. An angler recently left the shop with fresh mackerel proceeded to cast in front of the store at the ocean front and came back in 20 minutes with a 20-pound striper. He’s hearing also of strange Sabiki rig catches of baby bonito as well as chub mackerel. The other night right in front of Parking Lot 5 of the Wildlife Reservation an unidentified shark pinned pogies up against the shoreline. All that was observed among the suds was the sight of a dorsal fin amidst pogies leaping for their lives! As usual, you’ll hedge your bets if you stick to the night shift with eels.

Fishing Forecast for Massachusetts

The weather forecast is calling for a sustained northeast wind for quite some time. While this could be a party killer a month from now, odds are that the cooler water will only serve as an accelerant to some already solid striper action. Two fleeting fisheries worth considering before their season ends are Buzzards Bay black sea bass as well as Gulf Of Maine haddock. Those respective seasons end on the 12th and 15th of the month! Meanwhile blues have invaded the South Shore with toothies tearing into bunker, both big and small, from the Three Bays out to off Duxbury Beach. Boston remains bunker-town, but the better anglers are capitalizing by being stealthy and in some cases feeding the fish a mackerel. Nights on the North Shore are making a big difference, especially when there’s an eel on the line.