Massachusetts Fishing Report – September 29, 2022

Bonito-eating-bass, and on the North Shore? The world has surely gone crazy! Highlights this week are blitzes of legend off South Shore beaches and pogy schools have reappeared in the harbor. As for tuna, Charlie in all sizes are cruising for a mackerel dinner on Stellwagen while anglers throughout Massbay are finding purpose for their little bonito cousins which both anglers and apparently striped bass are finding – tasty!

Massachusetts South Shore/South Coast Fishing Report

It’s not often that a charter captain tells a patron NOT to cast towards a big fish, but that was the case aboard Legit Fish Charters! The biggest tuna Captain Mark Rowell ever saw came completely out of the water during a recent trip and with the quota closed he told his eager crew to hold off deployment of the baits. Cognizant of the multi-hour war of attrition it would take to bring such a beast boatside, only to have to release it, it made little sense risking the survival of that great fish. So the group held off and was rewarded with a 60” butterball that they could keep. Word has it that later, as the charter savored the sushi, they agreed that it was a good move! What’s also was a pretty good move was staggering mackerel baits a half mile northeast of the Stellwagen Bank shipping lane in 109’ of water.
 
Over the weekend Pete Belsan from Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate shot me out a video of a beach blitz that had me itching for one of my Van Staals! For much of the weekend, beaches such as Duxbury, Burkes, Humarock and Egypt had bass up to 35 pounds pinning peanut bunker up against the shoreline and surf fishermen were living the dream! There are times when bass will be picky when on peanut bunker but from all indications this was not one of them as they hit everything! I also recently received an anecdote and pictures of a hot South River bite from Billy Hurley whose namesake soft plastics are among the sweetest around. His squid bait was doing the damage there with mostly slot stripers. If you’re looking for a cod to catch and one for the cooler Pete said that wrecks and ledge not far out from Duxbury, Marshfield and Scituate are holding cod with enough 25-28” fish in the mix to make it worth your while.

The alphabet soup of storms hitting the coast may have turned Buzzards Bay into a giant washing machine but Captain Jason Colby’s Little Sister Charters didn’t miss a beat, he just tapped into his cache of river stripers. Slot through bigger bass have been making for a heck of backup plan! When seas settle, the insane tautog bite is sure to continue and with dropping water temperatures it should only get better!

Greater Boston Fishing Report

Far from just a builder of one of the best tubes around, when fishing for stripers Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics in Everett uses the Santini Tube! On a recent trip with his friend Doctor Brick, Pete and the good Doctor put the hurt on slot stripers off of Point Allerton and at the same time he heard from a friend pulling off the same trick off Nahant! Two colors of leadcore line is the sweet zone for the tube! Pogies have reappeared between Crystal Cove and the Lower Middle and of course, there are stripers shadowing the bait schools. Mid-20” blues have been “welcoming” herring fry into a very hungry sea at the Amelia Earhart Dam. Cod are there for the choosing among structure from Graves Light out to the B Buoy and out to the Dumping Grounds. Mackerel can be found by Flipp Rock and the 2 Can provided that you can get a sabiki rig past the ubiquitous baby bonito! Many complain about these 8-10” bonito feeling that they have no purpose. However, I’ve heard from a few who said that they are delicious fresh off the grill and they actually make under-appreciated striper bait. The rub is that they aren’t very resilient and do not last in a livewell, but should you be able to live line on site, you’ll find that stripers relish them!

For years what I most wanted to hear when I called Fore River Fishing Tackle in Quincy was of a red hot smelt bite! The late Rick Newcomb made it his mission to catch grass shrimp from Black Creek and keep them live on hand as well as flash-frozen gills in the freezer. That was the quintessential offseason fishery in Massachusetts and I so miss it, so my ears perked up considerably when Lisa who runs Fore River now told me of a patron who reported jigging them up recently with a sabiki while targeting mackerel! The whereabouts were a bit fuzzy but I intend on zeroing in on that location between now and next week! If somehow we had a bounce in smelt numbers in these parts that would be something sweet. A buddy of mine 10 years ago used to keep his boat at a Winthrop Marina and he came up with the ingenious idea of placing underwater “fishing lights” around his slip. Those things attracted everything from squid to sea herring to hickory shad to – smelt! The show of just watching all the life swimming around in those lights was almost as fun as catching smelt. But boy did we ever catch smelt! The good news is that I may have access to that marina and we have two sets of portable versions of those same lights, It’ll sure be interesting what we find beginning the middle of next month and if the bite is on, I’ll pass it on!

• Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for Massachusetts

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

While an accomplished angler, my buddy Dave Flaherty of Nahant has a touch of amnesia when it comes to fishing. Last week’s hot lure or bait is often thoroughly flushed from his memory bank in favor of a new crush that the stripers simply can’t seem do without. Lately it seems that bonito to a bass is like a doggie to fleas! That combination this late in September on the North Shore kind of seems unnatural but according to my friend “bass just love ‘em!”. Moreover, it’s hard to cast a sabiki rig out there without coming up with a few.

Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that feeds on the move have been commonplace from Egg Rock through Devereux Beach and out to Tinker’s Island. Most fish have been between schoolie and slot size but night stalkers such as my buddy Marco Ciccerano of Somerville are finding a whole different class of fish come dark among North Shore beaches. Peanut bunker-fueled blitzes have been observed in Marblehead Harbor and Salem Harbor and by the Jubilee Yacht Club in Beverly. As recently as last week blues were still cooperating for anglers willing to troll deep-diving swimmers in 35’ + water. Tinker mackerel have become ubiquitous providing anglers can sink a sabiki rig through the aggressive bonito.

John from Three Lantern Marine said that the shop is moving plenty of seaworms and not just for the tube troupes but also for anglers who are catching flounder! Gloucester Harbor could be the last spot standing for fall flounder. In a bygone era, flounder would start moving back inshore about now but any semblance of a fall fishery elsewhere is sadly non-existent. Ten Pound Island, Pavilion Beach and Niles Beach are among the better bets for a late season blackback. Bass on baby bunker blitzes are still common in the North Shore harbors as well as off Long Beach, Cape Hedge Beach and off the backshore of Gloucester. Mackerel as usual fished under the feeds usually plucks out the larger linesiders. Cod continue to cooperate with Manchester through Magnolia among the hotter locations.

Not usually given to hyperbole, when Martha from Surfland Bait and Tackle in Newburyport uses the word huge to describe the volume of stripers off Plum Island than it might be a good idea to check the place out. Stripers have been pushing peanut bunker in tight to the shoreline off the ocean front and randomly throughout the Parker River Wildlife Reservation and out to Sandy Point. A few feeds have even involved mackerel being pushed shoreward. Obviously, that’s an indication that there is no problem finding mackerel in Ipswich Bay! Nighttime jockeys are catching cows off the surf with blurple SP Minnows and of course – eels. A few anglers determined to wring from the season the last toothy are trolling a few up in 40/50’ of water with deep divers!

Massachusetts Freshwater Fishing Report

More than just the foliage is popping out west according to Spencer from Berkshire Bass! Smallies and pike are on the prowl throughout the Housatonic River with Megabass Popmax and Megabass Vision Oneten Jerkbaits the go-to baits.

Some impressive largemouth are making an impressive trifecta throughout the river. Spencer and his buds will stay at it through November and according to him, it’s only going to get better! Regarding better, a few of us found a new crush last fall, namely Merrimack River pike. While it’s hard to shake the striper addiction this time of the year, pike make for an interesting alternative and with water levels up and temperatures down they are beginning to feed! Some are getting them now throughout the Haverhill, North Andover stretch with River2Sea Whopper Ploppers and white spinnerbaits crushing it!

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

With fresh recruits on the way from the North Shore and north of the border, the fall run should have stamina! Bass blitzes in tight among a number of South Shore beaches are giving the advantage to the surf fisher with insatiable fish hitting most anything. Once the wash dissipates, expect the terrific tog fishing in the Westport side of Buzzards Bay to continue. Pogy schools in Hull are keeping some of the harbor’s biggest cows content. Herring fry moving out of the Charles and Mystic Rivers are running into a bass and blue massacre. Baby bunker and even baby bonito are attracting a lot of attention from stripers off Nahant, Marblehead and Salem. A few bluefish are still hanging in there for trollers working deep divers in Ipswich Bay. Regardless of the location, those sticking to working serpents at night are catching the cows!