By most accounts this striped bass season has been stellar and was still holding up in spite of the recent heatwave and skyrocketing water temperatures. With the onshore wind dropping water temperatures back into a more striper-friendly range, the question is: can it get even better?
Massachusetts South Shore Fishing Report
According to Peter Belsan from Belsan Bait in Scituate, you have to set the time machine way back to perhaps 10 years ago to find comparable striped bass fishing along the South Shore. That legendary yardstick was the “Memorial Day Massacre” of 2009, which was one of those “you had to be there” moments. Bass from 15 to 30-pounds have been pushing pogies hard up against the shoreline. Third Cliff has been best but the bait is under one big striper-siege and blowups can be anywhere.
The most amazing photo I saw this past week was of a 22-inch bonito that was caught on the South Shore in the midst of the recent heatwave. Many have been hoping that after a year of growth that these little tuna will find their way back this year.
Captain Mark Petitt of Fire Escape Charters has the answer for those longing to battle it out with a big bluefish – Provincetown’s Race Point. When asked about size, the skipper described the fish as “horseheads”. Typical of blues, they are hungry and not fussy. For bass, Mark is doing what most everyone is doing among the Three Bays, poking around pogy schools to find the one which has bass under them and when found the bass are all drag-pullers.
Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters has been offering a package deal to patrons that includes a dose of haddock fishing as well as striped bass. The bass are in close, at the mouth of the North River or outside of Scituate Harbor and they are massacring menhaden. In the middle of everyone going bonkers for bass, the haddock on the bank are getting lonely. Lately the Legit crew has been finding the groundfishing great with the haddock on surprisingly shallow water in the Stellwagen area. Clams are the go-to bait with many fish pushing 19 to 20-inches.
Tuna are tearing after halfbeaks which makes them extremely bait-centric. Trolling a Joe Shute head/ballyhoo rig has been a requisite for successfully chasing Charlie. In the teeth of the heat CCB water temperatures swelled to over 70 degrees which is mahi mahi perfect; with the heat scheduled for a revisit, maybe those pelagics will push inshore as they did last summer. Like most, Little Sister Captain Jason Colby has bass on the brain but in addition to striped specimens, the other bass are cloaked in black. Chumming is the key among rockpiles just outside of the Westport River in Buzzards Bay. However, when the current is cooking it’s hard to beat “squidding” vertical jigs over marked “humpheads.” The skipper is offering a unique combo of “stripers under the stars,” which usually involves casting eels into river/bay rips, and then a black sea bass happy ending.
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Greater Boston Fishing Report
Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sportfishing has been so dialed into big Boston bass that he’s been employing a bait-and-switch technique to put fly fisherman into the striper-of-a-lifetime. Obviously, the handicap with the long rod is getting close enough to catch a cow. The skipper has taken to teasing the big bass in towards the GTS with a hookless Doc and after repeated swipes from frenzied bass the fly guy puts his presentation in the middle of the explosions and – you guessed it – the angler comes tight to a mid-40-inch striped bass.
On a recent outing with city kids from Johnny Hoffman’s Fishing Academy, it was pretty obvious that more than just stripers were hooked as those kids now have a full-blown case of striped bass fever and they will not soon recover.
Pogy schools have been bigger and bass more numerous by the dredging operation just east of Deer Island. There has also been mixed-size blitzes with fish averaging anywhere from 12” to 15 pounds. For the better bass, opt for a jighead/soft plastic such as a Bill Hurley or RonZ.
Lisa from Fore River in Quincy said that the fishing is so good that she’s beginning to suffer from “picture fatigue” as customer after customer flash photos of their big bass while in the shop. Some surfsters have been catching cows by snagging pogies off beaches such as Nantasket, Avalon and Wollaston. You know it’s a great year when 40 pounds is the baseline for bragging rights with long term local sharpie Charlie Murphy catching the cow of the week with a 48-inch, 42-pounder on a pogy.
Squid are no problem off Nut Island and Pemberton Piers. For a shore thing, there have been 45-inch fish hauled in from Hull Gut on clams. Captain Anthony Ahrens of Chasin Tail Fisheries is sticking with what has worked for him since May, namely pounding the bass with Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnows. When asked what color, he replied, “As long as they have a color!” He’s been focusing on fish among the “dredges” as many have and putting charters into a lot of action. When the crew want’s cows than they are switching over to pogies exclusively.
Captain Paul Diggin’s of Reel Pursuit Charters is a bit of an outlier among the fleet, he’s sticking with mackerel. Owing to his comfy ride, he’s able to almost always make the steam out as far as the B Buoy to find the macks. While everyone else is snagging-and-dropping pogies, he’ll quietly bump troll the macks on the outskirts of the madness and pull all kinds of fish out of the edges. It’s refreshing and effective. The added advantage of hitting the outer harbor for bait is that odds are that when the blues eventually invade Boston, he’ll be among the first to catch them.
Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report
Proving that it’s not all a bait-or-nothing bass-fest, Matt Zimmerman has been cruising in close among the crags and tossing Docs among the white water and wrenching stripers out of the rocks. Swampscott through Marblehead have been especially productive.
Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle said that he has also been hearing of more bass in close among the rocks even for those targeting the pogy schools among Tinkers, Misery, Bakers and Children’s Islands, Halfway Rock and Bass Rocks. Scads of squid are swarming Beverly Pier, Salem Willows and Gloucester Harbor. While pogies have been all the rage, mackerel have never fully gone away and can be found among Misery Channel.
The Bluefin Blowout is the big news on Cape Ann as this seven-year-running weekend-long tournament donates proceeds to the battle against Alzheimer’s Disease. Three Lantern Marine is one of the sponsors and Skip’s tip is to consider making the steam out to Platt’s Ledge for a chance at a bigger bluefin. The fish are feeding on sea herring, so it’s hard to beat the real thing.
Closer in, the water has been black with the backs of pogies just outside of Gloucester Harbor. Not every school has bass with anglers hedging their bets by targeting pogy pods in tight to rocks/depth breaks. Liz from Surfland said that some are finding the New Hampshire side of the Merrimack more productive thanks to mackerel schools. It seems that the bass are looking for an alternative snack to all those pogies. Portsmouth has plenty of squid, mackerel and striped bass.
Closer to home the tube-and-worm is not be ignored in the middle of pogy mania as Joppa Flats fans have been finding out. Not surprisingly some of the commercial striped bass anglers are the most effective, and for them, it’s pogies off Plum Island by day and eels at night. Sandy Point, Emerson Rocks and Plum Island Sound all were mentioned.
Fishing Forecast for Massachusetts
The superb striped bass season marches on with the Scituate area a highlight of the South Shore. It’s a novel treat when finding pogies in Boston Harbor is a slam dunk making the challenge more of a case of finding bass balling up the bait. The dredging area has consistently been among the hottest over the last week. The rocky North Shore is holding bait and bass in tight among all that structure with big plugs and the tube-and-worm making for an artificial alternative to pogies, pogies and more pogies.
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