Massachusetts Fishing Report – October 24, 2024

For those still in the game priorities are shifting. The quest for a PB bass or a big fish period have given way to simply hooking up as we near the eleventh month. A palpable appreciation for extending the season is more likely the goal now and fortunately striped bass are still playing the enabler role. Tog and cod round out the salty options while in many cases freshwater is only getting better.

Massachusetts South Shore and South Coast Fishing Report

Pete Belsan is back in his roll as captain of the premier South Shore B&T – Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate. While playing hooky, and playing out more bonito than he ever thought possible in Martha’s Vineyard, blitzes off area beaches have been routine. Upstream areas of rivers throughout the Bay State as well as the South Shore continue to attract some of the bigger bass remaining as they can always count on a nighttime snack of which eels are often on the menu. Multiply a river by the herring x factor for those watersheds which feature fry right now and you have a place worthy of putting in some serious nighttime hours. As for cod, give Flatt Ledge and the 21 Can area a look with the money zone being 90-110’ of water. The shop has been weighing in tog to 9 pounds which have been caught among structure within 1 1/2 miles of Scituate Harbor. High Pine Ledge off Duxbury has also been giving up a few tog.

Anyone who has fished aboard Captain Brian Coombs’ Get Tight Sportfishing CC knows that equipment failure is simply not part of the equation. Meticulous by nature and with an eye on premium and highly maintained gear, the last thing the captain leaves to chance is for a charter to lose their PB because of stodgy tackle. But in this case, black nickel would lose out to blackfish, A charter hooked a beastly tog which exerted enough pressure on the tackle to break the hook just before the barb. The hook was tog-sturdy yet even the sturdiest gear can fail when tied to a determined trophy tautog. With limits a foregone conclusion and easily accomplished, Brian’s been offering his crew the striped bass or even weakfish combo when time allows.

Captain Jason Colby continues to bail Buzzards Bay blackfish with the size fish taking an upturn now that we’re nearing November. The bite has been between 30-45’ with both jigs and bait rigs working. The trend aboard the Little Sister over the last decade has been towards jigs/spinning gear as opposed to the stout conventional/bait rigs of yore. On Thursday Jason called me and said he’s ben rethinking his position. The reason is that the tog he’s been encountering are bigger than most spinning gear can handle – woah! As proof of the captain’s prowess, the Division of Marine Fisheries tapped him to take two of the staff fishing for research samples. I’ve been invited on the Friday trip and will report on the purpose and the findings in this column next week.

Greater Boston Fishing Report

An awful lot of you succumbed to the sweet late October weather and played hooky this past week according to Lisa from Fore River Fishing Tackle in Quincy. Eels don’t ordinarily fly out of the shop nearing November but it’s not every year that there’s a red hot striper bite at low light from Wollaston Beach, the Weymouth Back River, Gunrock Beach and Black Rock Beach, Random surface feeds are rewarding the boaters who haven’t wrapped their vessels in white just yet. For those looking for mackerel for fun or bait they are as close as Nut Island Pier and Pemberton Pier. Cod continue to please those who look beyond striper obsession with anglers finding them among irregular bottom between Graves Light and the BG Buoy, As for smelt the best bite seems to be in Hewitts Cove. Increasingly anglers are switching over to freshwater with Houghton’s Pond trout and Ponkapoag Pond bass among the better options. The multi-species Charles River should not be discounted as crappie move in closer and can be found among downed trees and branches in the effluence with the Muddy River.

Massachusetts North Shore Fishing Report

Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle in Salem this week was less of a reporter and more a part of the report! He’s been out most mornings and has been finding feeds and fish in Salem Harbor as well as Nahant Bay, Many of the fish have been respectable 32-36” bass with mackerel accounting for a lot of the action. Some of the feeds have been one-stop shopping as mackerel and bass join in on the baby bunker buffet. Anglers are simply stringing together a bunch of macks on their sabiki rigs and catching the bass on the available bait. For cod, consistency lies just north a bit with the area from Thatchers Island through the Salvages. A few have been taken not far from Tinkers Island as well Halfway Rock.

TJ from Three Lantern Marine and Fishing said that the nightshift guys are still picking up drag-pulling bass in the Annisquam River, Little River and Essex River. The shop is no longer carrying eels but will continue to stock seaworms for tube-and-wormers. A few feeds are still happening in harbors all across the north shore. Anglers looking for mackerel are finding them of the Dogbar Breakwater as well as inside Gloucester Harbor occasionally. As for cod, the local best bet has been Tillies Ledge and Southern Jeffrey’s where in addition to brown bombers pollock are increasingly becoming a player.

Liz, from Surfland Bait and Tackle in Newburyport, told me that anglers who want to take advantage of nighttime fishing in the Parker River had better do so soon as it all comes to an end at the end of the month. You’ll still be able to access the refuge during daylight but as every angler knows that’s hardly productive this time of year. What has been productive is the fishing for stripers inside the Merrimack River with the flats getting a nod. Surfcasters punching needlefish plugs into the horizon off the ocean front near the shop are catching fish of mixed sizes with some as small as 12”! Anglers are still requesting eels with Sandy Point through Plum Island Sound the best bet to use them. The other eel option is the mouth of the Essex Rive where it merges into Cranes Beach.

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Massachusetts Freshwater Fishing Report

Rick from Jerry’s Bait and Tackle in Milford said that anglers have been catching impressive rainbows out of Pratt Pond in Upton with some fish topping 4 pounds! Reflexively I asked what the flavor du jour Power Bait was but was pleasantly surprised to hear that old school lures – Al’s Goldfish and Rooster Tails – were getting it done. Ashland Reservoir has been solid for trout while Whitehall Lake gets the nod for bass. Dan Southwick has been taking his extensive swim bait arsenal down to Plymouth and hanging hawgs with notables including a 6-2 pounder and a 7-1 pounder!

Shawn from Merrimack Sports said that the local pick for pike remains the section of the river which can be accessed by the Covanta Plant in Haverhill. For trout one of the best bets is Round Pond while Lake Attitash and Tuxbury Pond are two good ones for bass with the former in Amesbury and the latter in South Hampton. I took a trip to Wachusett Reservoir on Wednesday and was treated to leaf-peeper worthy foliage, a pristine environment and willing lake trout. What worked for me were metallic perch Krocodiles and red/gold Kastmasters.

Eddie of B&A Bait and Tackle Co. in West Boylston said that due to the lack of water/current in the Stillwater, few if any salmon are making it up there to spawn. Instead most of the fish have been found around both sides of the causeway as well as through the Thomas Basin. A crawler drifted along in the current will catch them up just make sure you opt for light line – 6 or even 4 fluorocarbon – as salmon are notoriously line shy. Rainbows up to 7 pounds have been caught in the “Rezy” and the smallmouth action is still on. Right now the lakers are spawning in shoal water but by early November they will be finished and determined to feed.

Massachusetts Fishing Forecast

With terrific tautog fishing from the South Shore through the South Coast, those big blackfish have to be a Bay State best bet. Anglers looking to push their preoccupation of all things linesider into the eleventh month will still find feeds off South Shore through North Shore beaches with bigger bass occupying the role of nocturnal predator in rivers/estuaries. Anglers craving cod have until the end of the month to keep one with Graves Light and Thatcher’s Island two of the highlights. If the call of the salt is beginning to sound like taps to you then consider switching to sweetwater. Plymouth bass, Metrowest trout, Merrimack pike and Wachusett salmonoids should be enough to take the sting out of saltwater withdrawal.