Massachusetts Fishing Report – June 15, 2023

The blizzard of nice bass photos that I’m seeing says it all – striper fishing is fantastic! Even more so is that the linesider love seems evenly dolled out among all practitioners; boaters, booters and yakers have all been included. With favorable weather predicted over the foreseeable future, the question some are posing is whether it can get even better!

Just maybe the best part of the angling euphoria is how spread out it is. Hunter Thayer has been posting in this column about lighting it up at night in the Three Bays. Simultaneously wet-suit wearing surf stud friends of mine been having their way with cows grazing among boulder fields of Boston Harbor. Fly guys chasing feeds are having fun. I even got into the mix with my Hobie homies on the North Shore and we have been reveling in sleigh rides and singing drags. While there is a lot to love about our favorite fish, front and center has to be how they are such an equal opportunity pleaser, and right now – there are a lot of grins out there!
 

Massachusetts South Shore/South Coast Fishing Report

The Race is finally rocking and rolling according to Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters. Hordes of sand eels are like candy to slot and up stripers as well as gator blues. The bite has been best at the “turn” in 50-85’ of water with X-Raps working well. Mark will use the X-Raps to find the fish and then target them with live mackerel. Anglers just have to be weary of winged “thieves” of the osprey kind which are not shy about plucking a mackerel off an angler’s line.

Regarding mackerel, tinkers are the ticket to tight lines according to Peter from Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate. Those little striper snacks are easy pickings not far out from the Three Bays, Green Harbor as well as Scituate. Occasionally bass are pushing them but more often than not anglers toting them inside are feeding them to hungry linesiders. The night crew working eels as well as soft plastic stick baits are catching on-average better bass than the blue bird brigade. The notable exception is those who are loading up with larger mackerel or trolling deep diving plugs among deepwater ledges in 90-100’ of water. Those anglers are talking of 30 pounders while slots are the scuttlebutt inside.

Few are fishing for flounder with striper fever so pervasive but the ones who are, are catching half-limits plus at The Spit as well as Green Harbor and Scituate Harbor. A ten pound tog was weighed in the shop with Pete surmising that the white chin came from either Tobias Ledge, Strawberry Point, Chest Ledge or the Glades. Beginning this Friday, Captain Jason Colby’s Little Sister begins its Buzzards Bay adventures out of F.L. Tripp Marina in Westport. I’m fortunate enough to be part of the initial search mission with the caveat from my perspective being just what to bring! Odds are, we’ll be initially focused on black sea bass so a conventional along with bait rigs and vertical jigs will be in order. Next on the list may be a tautog search, so spinning gear with a jig will be mandatory. And should there be enough time, fluke could be very much on the agenda which will mandate three-way rigs with gaudy squids and wide gap hooks. If you’re getting the impression that the South Coast has a lot to offer than you’re right. Meanwhile the Little Sister is done with winter flounder out of Sesuit Harbor until next May; undoubtedly the blackback fishing was a smashing success with limits of fat, healthy fish achieved on most trips. And unlike most everywhere else the flounder bite there lasts all summer long!

Greater Boston Fishing Report

Ho-hum, it looks like another hot year in the harbor. It’s almost as if Neptune is bequeathing banner days for everyone! “Fly guys, stripers for you”. “Boaters working bait and lures, you get stripers”. “Shore jockeys, here’s your share”. “Kayakers, want a sleigh ride, here you go?”. With the last leg of the striped bass migration nearly complete, ideal water temperatures and a new moon fast approaching, could the catching even get better? So what is the pattern? Boaters are finding them on bait and usually inside of Hull, Quincy Bay as well as the inner harbor. That bait varies from silversides to tinker mackerel to herring to pogies and at times the fish are selective so when working your wares among the feeds be prepared to switch up from 3/4” paddletials, to 6” swimmers and maybe even a few of the flutter spoons which are the rage this year. Of course a tube-and-worm will always wrench out fish from a pile as will a bucktail jig worked below a blitz. My buddy Captain Carl Vinning would often pluck out a cow from what would appear to be a schoolie feed by twitching a SPRO Jig close to the bottom.

Lisa from Fore River Fishing Tackle in Quincy provided proof of the presence of bluefish when we spoke! Irish Tyler tied into some major toothies from Wollaston Beach through Squantum while aboard his kayak. These were big fish too of 34/35” and they were willing to take down a topwater.

Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics in Everett said stripers are still gathering at the mouths of the Charles and Mystic Rivers as the last of the river herring move out. One of the groups that Pete caters to are inner city anglers who are doing well off piers throughout the harbor, especially in Charlestown. The shop’s hand-tied Vella Rigs are proving to be go-to terminal tackle for chunk, worms, eels and tinkers. I’ve used that rig while livelining eels and it does work really well. Doctor Alt has been trolling bigger mackerel on wire line by the Boston Humps and scoring fish up to 40 pounds. Inverse to that has been surf sharpies off Greater Boston beaches who have been catching cows nearly that big on metal lips, bottle neck swimmers and darters. As water temperatures rise flounder are beginning to transition out to deeper water. Look for them now by Green Island, Boston Light, Point Allerton, Strawberry Ledge and Ultonia Ledge.

Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sportfishing has been spending most of his petrol pursuing deep water bass on the hunt for sea herring and mackerel amongst the Boston Humps. In addition to no shortage of stripers from slots to slobs there has been a bluefish presence. Beyond deploying live macks, Al Gag’s Whip-it-Fish, flutter spoons and Doc’s are working. He’s also heard of a good bite inside the harbor between the Lower Middle and out through the Reserve Channel.

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Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

The presence of pogies is big news on the North Shore! Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that Salem Sound has pogies; if you were a big bass in the area where would you be? Tinker mackerel can be found off Nahant, Swampscott and Marblehead and when fished tight to structure are almost immediately inhaled by slot stripers. Surface feeds have been encountered at the mouth of Salem Harbor and Beverly Harbor with Winter Island getting a special nod. The stretch of the Danvers River between the Kernwood Bridge and the Salem/Beverly Bridge has also been good. Here’s one right out of the throwback fishing playbook! It seems that a lady who fishes for flounder in Marblehead Harbor is doing quite well. Taking a page out of a bygone era when flounder were the quintessential minimalist quarry, she’s catching them from a dingy while deploying little more than a – handline! I can’t speak on what her terminal gear is but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a good old flounder spreader.

Martha from Surfland Bait and Tackle in Newburyport told me that the whale show in Ipswich Bay tipped most off that pogies have arrived. Not surprisingly boats have been gathering in the same stretch. A lot of very solid striped bass are being caught and in myriad of ways. As for specifics, success is coming from the Salisbury “drift”, Joppa Flats, the mouth of the Merrimack, ocean front and Plum Island Sound. Did I leave anything out? Actually I did, flounder can be found off Cranes Beach and mackerel off Breaking Rocks, Speckled Apron and Hampton Shoal Ledge and unlike southern environs the macks here are – big! There have also been pods of pogies present off Mangolia and Gloucester. Mackerel of mixed sizes can be jigged up just outside of the Dogbar Breakwater. Some are doing well by sticking close to the pogy schools with live bait while for others the solid option is trolling live bait in close to structure off the backshore of Gloucester. Manchester and Gloucester Harbors continue to hold flounder with less anglers targeting them now that the striper fishing has taken off.

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

It’s nice to report of a bluefish presence to supplement the stellar striped bass fishing in Massbay. While random, should you luck into a school of pogies be prepared to encounter something with – bite. Historically the sweet spot of the summer season for big striped bass is between now and the first week in July. The approaching new moon should make for some banner big bass nights for those working big soft plastic stick baits as well as serpents. Deepwater migration routes off Hull, the Humps, Halfway Rock as well as Ipswich Bay should be producing for those trolling mackerel and for a shot at a blue try a deepwater trolling plug such as a Rapala CD18 or X-Rap to supplement live bait. While running out of steam, the herring runs are not completely dead making downstream areas and embayments nearby worth a shot. One old school method which works well there is live-lining macks for stripers looking for a herring snack. Should you really feel like resurrecting that old school feeling, see if you can dust off that handline you have in the corner of your basement and probe Marblehead Harbor for some flounder. Should you have pram or some other utilitarian craft at the ready, all the better!