Massachusetts Fishing Report- June 20, 2024

Warm winds from the southwest. Daytime temperatures that exceed 90 degrees. The current Massachusetts forecast seems to indicate the arrival of warm, summer weather patterns that typically precipitate tough conditions for inshore anglers. However, those targeting striped bass and bluefish are still reporting strong action, with fish chasing pogie and tinker mackerel schools in isolated areas throughout the bay state. Meanwhile, the offshore tuna bite is just picking up, with anglers reporting recreational-sized fish from Stellwagen, Stone Ledge, and Crab Ledge.

Massachusetts South Shore and South Coast Fishing Report

According to Captain Rich of Black Rose Charters, striper action is still going strong south of Cape Cod, as far east as Monomoy rips. The only limiting factor according to Captain Rich has been the strong Southwest winds that have kept him from running scheduled Tuna trips. When it is possible to reach offshore tuna grounds, Rich reports a strong bite of recreational sized fish on spinning tackle, with plenty of casting and jigging opportunities.

With the wind too strong to comfortably and safely embark on offshore tuna trips this week, Captain Rich has been taking clients out to enjoy some epic scup and black sea bass fishing. His report is consistent with the overall inshore bottom fish pattern in Buzzards Bay and Nantucket Sound over the past few weeks; large, hungry scup are hard not to hook, and willing to hit anything from frozen squid to scented Fishbites® and Berkely Gulp® soft plastics. Rich caught nine fish in nine drops on one trip with this past week! Sea bass are still around, but one must cull through a large amount of short fish in order to find keeper-sized knotheads.

Captain Jason Colby of Little Sister Charters out of Westport MA certainly corroborated this excellent scup and black sea bass report. Captain Colby and his charter customers have seen decent fluke fishing, but a much better scup and sea bass bite when the wind and weather cooperate. He is still finding solid numbers of varying sized stripers coming on chunk bait in the waters in and around Westport, including slot sized bass, and some fish over the slot as well. Some Bluefish are present in lower Buzzards Bay, but stripers, scup, and sea bass remain primary targets.

On the South Shore, Pete Belsan of Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate was excited to see bluefish move in as far north as Hull. Some of these early-season bluefish have exceeded ten pounds! His customers have reported the presence of small, tinker mackerel as the key forage base in Cape Cod bay for bass and the newly arrived bluefish, and are trolling deep-diving Rapala X-Raps® in mackerel colors to imitate these tiny, fleeing pelagic forage fish. On the offshore front, Pete also reported recreational sized tuna at Stone ledge.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

The continued presence of pogie schools in Boston Harbor should be a sign of strong early-summer action. Captain Brian Coombs of Get Tight Sportfishing said that he is currently seeing an abundance of sea-lice covered bass in the Boston Harbor area, indicating that fresh, migrating fish are arriving in this area day-by-day to supplement the already strong bite. According to Brian, anglers have been attracting aggressive striper bites and blowups on live pogies, snagged with a weighted treble, and then re-rigged on circle hooks. Re-rigging any snagged or cast-netted pogies on circle hooks is critical, not only to comply with conservation-oriented regulations, but also to ensure that all anglers are able to quickly revive and release over-and-under-slot stripers.

If artificials are an angler’s preferred choice to target Bass around the Boston Harbor area, Captain Coombs has enjoyed immense success on topwater plugs, especially the ubiquitous Doc, as well as straight-tailed soft plastics fished on a 2-3oz jighead below early-morning blitzes. He mentioned the Al Gags Whip-it Fish® in white as a top producing soft plastic selection. As seen in this picture of a very healthy over-slot fish, it is critical to switch out stock treble hooks for inline singles in order to minimize the potential of mauling a big bass with sharp treble hooks, or sticking them in an unlucky fisherman’s hand. Soft plastics have the advantage of coming standard with only a single hook, aiding the angling catch and release process.

Lisa at Fore River Fishing Tackle in Quincy also reported pogies as the predominant baitfish currently in her local waters. Some of the same soft plastics used by Captain Coombs were working well for her customers, also in white, along with Daiwa SP Minnows®. Additionally, tube & worming has been a productive technique for boat-based anglers catching bass from slot-sized fish to the mid-30” class.

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

Even beyond the Greater Boston area, schools of pogies are captivating slot and over slot bass. At Tomo’s Tackle on the North Shore in Salem, Tomo stated that fish from the slot to 40” were furiously fixated on pogies. While he did say that fish could be caught on topwater walk-the-dog plugs and soft plastics, he recommended flutter spoons as a perfect presentation to imitate adult menhaden. The flutter spoon is an extremely effective tactic to target feeding striped bass that are not showing on the surface, as long as the angler wielding the flutter spoon is adept at identifying pods of bait and bass on their electronics.

Tomo also mentioned that boats on Stellwagen bank targeting tuna were dropping jigs to the bottom, and coming up with a welcome by-catch of haddock! While the tuna bite has yet to reach its full potential, these secondary species targets are undoubtedly welcome. Still, rec-sized bluefin tuna are present on Stellwagen, and can currently be caught on spinning tackle.

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This week, TJ at Three Lantern Marine and Fishing in Gloucester also commented on stellar haddock fishing, and said that the flounder bite has been so strong lately that his shop has had trouble keeping a supply of seaworms in stock. This may also be due to the immense productivity of the tube & worm for many of his customers. The classic trolled tube tipped with a worm seemed to be one of the only things that could fool striped bass in TJ’s home waters this past week. He speculated that the bite was tough because stripers are currently in a transitional stage with strong winds and big, full-moon tides keeping them on the move.

Martha at Surfland Bait and Tackle in Newburyport held a similar sentiment regarding finicky striped bass in her area. She added that widely varying water temperatures could be a piece of the puzzle; the Joppa flats exceeded seventy degrees this week, while oceanfront temperatures were still in the frigid low-fifties. Local anglers who could find milder water in between these temperature extremes were likely to do well, not just from the boat with the tube and worm, but also from the beach with straight-tailed soft plastics such as the Gravity Tackle® Eel, and a rigged Sluggo®.

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

Fishing options for this coming weekend, from South Coast scup, to Boston harbor bass, to an offshore tuna mission, could be incredibly productive. However, as of right now, the only window in the windy weather forecast will be on Friday afternoon through Saturday. This is certainly a weather window worth taking advantage of. If current patterns hold, boat anglers anywhere around pogie schools would be well-advised to keep one eye on their electronics, and one eye on the horizon for working birds and blitzing bass.

Flutter spoons, soft plastics, deep diving trolling lures, and topwater plugs are critical components of the boat fishermen’s arsenal right now. When pogie or mackerel schools are not present, the tube & worm is likely to produce. Surf anglers should be excited about this week’s new moon. Straight-tailed soft plastics, topwater plugs, and lipped plastic swimmers are essential when packing a weekend plug bag.