As typical of mid-September, striper numbers are beginning to shift towards favoring estuaries and rivers as opposed to the open ocean. For a shot at your seasonal best however, the ocean front still remains your best bet. But be prepared to get to know the skunk more often than the cow – however, when all is right, it could be a night you won’t soon forget. Stripers aside, many are anticipating this Sunday and the prospect of catching (and keeping!) a cod!
Massachusetts South Shore and South Coast Fishing Report
According to Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters catching a cod this Sunday should pose no problem at all. For small boat anglers launching from the South Shore you may have to go no farther than Stone Ledge. Don’t be surprised if you encounter a few blackfish to go along with those brown bombers out there. However with seas expected to be very friendly this Sunday, you may find a window to set sail for the eastern edge of Stellwagen with 150’ of water the sweet spot for haddock and cod. The place is also swarming with sea herring and they are in turn attracting tuna of all sizes. In fact, Mark felt strongly that a few staggered baits under anchor will not last long before Charlie comes calling. For school to medium tuna, Peaked Hill Bar has been the place to be.
From Captain Mark Petitt of Fire Escape Charters came news that striper action in Cape Cod Bay have picked up a bit in both size and aggressiveness. The Plymouth night bite in estuaries and beachfronts with eels has been excellent. There are still lots of blues all the way from Provincetown out to Nauset and some blues in the Three Bays. “Sharking” on the bank is pretty close to it’s peak and many are reveling in being able to keep a cod beginning on this Sunday for two weeks. The regulations are one fish/per person/per trip at a minimum size of 21” for the GOM.
Pete from Belsan Bait in Scituate said that the best bass he knows of have been caught by live mackerel from the Third Cliff and chunk macks among the rocks of Minot and The Glades. Of course, the nighttime estuarial eel tossers will always get theirs! A few blues shook things up recently in the Cohasset area, in fact, one crew caught 12 jumbos.
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Greater Boston Fishing Report
The mantra for Greater Boston striper fortunes for the rest of the season could be summed up with the expression, “here today, gone tomorrow” with the qualifier being that the next day or more accurately the next night, those fish may be back again! That’s exactly how recent days have been playing out.
Inshore bays, estuaries and rivers should all hold schoolies right now and pretty consistently. If you tool around those same places at night with soft plastics/jigheads or eels you’ll get an uptick in the size of the fish. Beachfronts will often be lonely excursions but when the stars are aligned properly you may use the word epic to describe your outing as someone I know of called Wednesday night. And of course the probability of that real big bass is greater along the ocean front.
Captain Paul Diggin’s of Reel Pursuit Charters has been having his way with mixed sizes of bass with live mackerel from the harbor out to Nahant. For bigger bass, Broad Sound and Nahant Bay still get the nod. Regarding that keeper cod many of you are thirsting for, drop a jig or bait over humps and bumps between Graves Light and the B Buoy. Egg Rock and through Swampscott/Marblehead should reward also for rock cod. Look for edges where ledge meets up with soft bottom, cod tend to hang there.
Lisa from Fore River Fishing Tackle said that most aren’t missing the recently departed pogies with mackerel making a more-than-adequate substitute. Kayak anglers are catching solid stripers with eels at dusk and dawn in the shadows of the Fore River Bridge. Anglers trolling the tube and worm are still getting their due by Jackknife Ledge, Veezie Rocks, Sunken Ledge and Hangman Island. It seems that just when blues are counted out, a few choppers have been making short work out of mackerel baits and soft plastics. For a better shot at a blue, try trolling deep diving plugs off Point Allerton or the Brewsters.
Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report
Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle said that he’s still getting some reports of small schools of pogies, most recently in Beverly Harbor. Off the Beverly Pier as is the case with Salem Willows there is still news of mackerel. Schoolie surface feeds sporadically pop up in Salem Sound and the mouth of the Danvers River but for bigger bass he’s steering patrons to Nahant Bay through Lynn and Swampscott with kayak anglers working eels and soft plastics doing especially well. For that sought after Sunday cod, Tomo suggests Saturday Night Ledge and the Middle Ground. The late Pete Koutrakis from Pete’s Bait in Beverly, who I learned a ton from during my formative years, used to always tout Hills 47 and 101 as being cod magnets as well.
Matt from Three Lantern Marine talked up a blistering bluefin bite as we spoke but the giant season is scheduled to end Friday, at least temporarily. For a chance at a cod for the highly anticipated opening day on Sunday, you probably won’t have to go far beyond the Groaner, Spindle or Dry Salvages. When jigging up mackerel with my friend, and Captain of the T-Sea, Tom Ciulla we would inadvertently hook market-size cod so I can only imagine what the results would have been had we actually targeted them!
Most of the striper action has been south of Gloucester from the Salem Sound Islands out through Manchester-by-the-Sea. When found, the schoolies are aggressive and the bigger bass are more apt to hit mackerel. Martha from Surfland said that there have been mixed size stripers blitzing on the southern end of Plum Island with the source of the feeds consisting of peanut bunker. Upstream areas are showing more action now especially at night especially Plum Island Sound, the Parker River and Joppa Flats. By day, anglers trolling a tube-and-worm or drifting mackerel are catching and, of course, so is the Graveyard gang with eels. Regarding mackerel, they have reappeared inshore.
Fishing Forecast for Massachusetts
With gentle seas predicted many of you will be targeting cod. While offshore standards such as Stellwagen, Tillies and Jeffrey’s offer the best chance of putting a mixed bag of groundfish in the cooler, on the South Shore, Stone Ledge is a solid, safe choice. The Three Bays are featuring better bass fishing with a few blues thrown in for good measure. For the harbor home team, consider World’s End, the Neponset River, the Mystic River or the Saugus River as select spots for schoolies and possibly larger. For beach fishing on the North Shore a fresh chunk of mackerel off Devereux Beach or the southern end of the Parker River Wildlife Reservation should do the trick.
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