Massachusetts Fishing Report – July 29, 2021

If we’re checking off the boxes in Massbay, it’s pretty evident we’re having a good year. Most of our species have been cooperating with one noticeable exception – bluefish! Well, you can now put a big fat check mark on that box as those toothy devils have arrived in force!

Massachusetts South Shore/South Coast Fishing Report

Captain Mark Petitt of Fire Escape Charterssounded the bluefish alarm in the Three Bays when we spoke! Additionally peanut bunker are a factor which not surprisingly is resulting in a mixed specie surface feed bonanza! Stripers have pretty much left The Race but that vacuum has been filled by gator blues.

Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters has been legitimately hanging with giants! He boated a 450 pound herring-sated giant bluefin the other day that tested the will of the charter crew for 3 1/2 hours. Slack tide, as is often the case, was the trigger and Middle Bank was the venue. Interestingly he had to make an unexpected in-the-water engine fix and no sooner did he get back on deck when a 10’ Great White came sniffing around for that tuna!

Pete from Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate said peanut bunker are already sparking roving surface feeds in Kingston Bay, Cowan Rocks, Egypt Beach, Mann Hill Beach and Sand Hill Beach. Blues have been joining in on the blitzes as well. A few fluke have been caught in Scituate Harbor and off Damons Point. Tinkers are the most popular size mackerel at the moment and the area is loaded with them in spite of the appearance of bluefish. Haddock are still hanging in there at Stone Ledge and reports of cod in 80’ of water hopefully will pay dividends when the recreational season opens up for two weeks in September.

For some however, there is no need to have the “see you in September” attitude! Just ask Captain Jason Colby who is consistently putting South Coast cod into the coolers of charters while aboard the Little Sister! Black sea bass continue to cooperate as are stripers in the Westport River. Crabs in his slip-side traps are getting nervous as the skipper is also dialed into tog lairs.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

On a recent trip, Captain Brian Coombs hefted two 50 pounders aboard his Get Tight Sportfishing center console and he’s spending his time both inshore and offshore! He said that some inshore spots from Winthrop through Broad Sound are fishing well during a SW wind while winds from the north will shove the fish offshore more towards the harbor humps! Pogies are plentiful as are mackerel but expect to haul out to deepwater to find the latter. One bait alternative which Captain Coombs is fond of is the Al Gag’s line of skirted soft plastics which at times has been as effective as live bait!

Captain Sam from Boston Saltwater doesn’t often use the word epic, but that’s how he described a recent outing as the crew lost count of fish of over 40”! Pogies can be found by the PR Can with stripers occasionally with the bait. Should that not prove to be the case, Sam will steam out to the B Buoy and beyond in search of mackerel. The macks are the ticket to trolling between there and the BG Buoy. An inshore option while fishing mackerel is Point Allerton and the rockpiles of Long Island.

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Lisa from Fore River Fishing Tackle in Quincy said that many patrons are picking up good bass while trolling a red Santini tube-and-worm between Hangman Island and Sunken Ledge as well as Quincy Bay islands. Pogies are still in the Fore River and Town River and anglers are catching quality stripers on site with them. The shop is moving a lot of squid jigs making chances of ink stains on Nut Island Pier a safe bet. Wollaston Beach pogies are intermittently getting pounded by bluefish. Pete from Fishing FINatics said not to discount inner harbor haunts especially when trolling the Santini tube. Anglers dragging the tube-and-worm from the Tobin Bridge all the way in to the Amelia Earhart Dam are being rewarded with lots of acton in a convenient, close and sheltered location! Pete added the bluefin bite on the bank is reminding some of the “good old days”, it is that good right now!

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

According to Sam over at Tomo’s Tackle, the bonito bite seems to have waned for the moment but has been replaced by big schools of bluefish! Reports have been trickling in of a bluefish presence from Marblehead out through Cape Ann with some fish, double-digit drag pullers. Finding a pogy school will doubtless short circuit your search but trolling ornate X-Raps or Rapala CD-18s will help you cover a lot of water while searching them for them. Sam along with his buddy Mike Slaven slayed solid stripers right off the Cape Ann shoreline on Thursday for two straight hours! The fish were on the feed and not the least bit fussy as they hit Bombers, SPs and Dannys. Anglers looking for bait, are finding a lot of good sized inshore cod!

John from Three Lantern Marine out of Gloucester told me that there had been an influx of big bass in Gloucester Harbor but that seems to have waned. A better bet for a big one according to him is to find a pogy school between Thatcher Island and Ipswich Bay and stick with it. Another option is to locate balls of mackerel which John is doing in 160’ of water and culling 44/45” fish out of them and he’s not even using a weight – woah!

Martha from Surfland Bait and Tackle said, as typical of this time of the year, all kinds of critters are putting on shows just off the ocean front, from tuna to whales – no pogy pod is safe! The tuna bite is terrific with both Jeffrey’s Ledge and Stellwagen holding fish. From an angler perspective, the rivers have gone cold, or more appropriately – hot, as in water temperatures which are a bit intolerable to striped bass. What’s also hot is the surf fishing off some of the Cape Ann beaches with one of the targets being big bluefish!

My friend Steve Pappows and a few buds are putting in the time from false dawn through first light and finding a solid topwater bite for bass and blues! We can only hope that the blues hang in there, having a fall replete with bluefish/bass bedlam would be dream stuff!

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Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

The appearance of big bluefish throughout the Bay State is just the tonic for those lamenting lethargic linesiders which have a reduced feeding window due to warmer-than-preferred water temperatures. From Provincetown to Plum Island, bluefish are reminding anglers what a world-class sportfish they are, even if they are quietly cursing their cigar eels and tattered soft plastics! As crazy as it sounds, cod fishing is hot off the South Coast while their silvery cousins – haddock – have set up shop on Stone Ledge on the South Shore. If you have the gear, the boat and a strong back, bluefin are terrorizing most everything that swims between Jeffrey’s Ledge and Stellwagen.