Massachusetts Saltwater Fishing Report
It goes without saying that in this time of Thanksgiving, it’s wise to be grateful for the little things. Of course, a heaping dinner with all the fixings followed by a little gridiron on the tube goes a long way also. Some of those small things to be appreciative of the fishy persuasion are smelt, herring fry, and panfish fry. If those larger, more glamorous gamesters which we obsessively pursue could talk, no doubt they’d heartily agree.
Massachusetts Fishing Report
Fishing Fishing FINatics in Everett could be viewed as a farm team where some of the more accomplished anglers cut their teeth. From Gloucester to the Galapagos, that shop has left a mark. According to Captain Pete Santini – the decades-long proprietor – one neophyte who proved to be a shooting star from the start was Willy Goldsmith. From the onset, when he was little more than a kid, Willy showed promise in the fine art of chum churning, tube-turning, and was a whiz at piecing the panoply of parts together to make the flounder-fearing Zobo Rig. While Willy has gone on to bigger and better things as a member of fisheries management, he never forgot his roots.
That loyalty was on full display when Pete was looking for fresh, local smelt for the holidays – an Italian tradition for sure. It took little more than a gentle request, and Willy was on it. First on the schedule was a trip to the shop to get some essentials, which Pete laid out in a photo he sent me. While grass shrimp have always been viewed as a smelt aphrodisiac, the rapacious rainbow smelt can be caught in other ways. One important tool of the trade is a small sabiki rig – especially those with a fish skin or shrimp teaser. When the bite is hot, you’ll need little more than this rig. I can recall a number of times when I’ve been too lazy to put on a shrimp or seaworm, yet caught every bit as well as the friend next to me using bait.
Your favorite light-duty trout rod will suffice, as will an ice fishing rod. When aggressive, smelt will also hit jigging spoons such as Kastmasters and Swedish pimples. While the shop will be keeping reduced hours, the 24-7 vending machine out front will be continuously stocked with all that you need for a successful smelt outing.
Unquestionably, it’s been a better year for smelt than in recent years, and for that, we have two main reasons to be thankful. Principally, the ongoing removal of upstream dams in such rivers as the Weymouth Fore and Neponset is allowing upstream access for this anadromous species to spawn. Ongoing efforts to reintroduce eel grass to estuaries are providing more smelt sanctuaries and nurseries, and it, in turn, harbors grass shrimp and killifish, which the smelt prey on. As to the all-important “where”, the action is spread about with anglers catching them among lit piers/wharves and marinas throughout Hull, Charlestown, and East Boston. Who knows, should you hit one of those spots, you might run into Willy Goldsmith. If so, prod him as to just what his secret ingredients are for that killer chum; that stuff is incredible!
Smelt fishing is a quintessentially unique New England pastime that generations of anglers took to, and while not quite at the level of yesteryear, it does seem to be getting better – get out there and enjoy!
I’ve been admiring a few photos of some impressive Larrys, which look as if they haven’t missed many meals lately. One friend whose success stories almost seem as if they are on an AI-generated loop is Dan Southwick. Dan does his homework and searches out the tailwater of herring runs throughout the Bay State, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, where he has a hunch hawgs will have plenty of hapless herring fry at their disposal. While most would be thinking of emulating the approximate size and profile of the 2” to 3” forage, Dan seeks out rocky areas where the bass grovel for crayfish. A pumpkin football jig – Dirty Jigs are a favorite – with a big trailer bumped along the bottom will interest Larrys looking for a crayfish lunch.
Some of the spots Southwick hangs those hawgs are nondescript water bodies, which get short shrift from most anglers. What narrows down the search for Dan is that these places have ample forage to grow exceptionally large Larrys. Watersheds that have a healthy herring run often look as if they are raining fry as they dimple the surface by the thousands. All that food makes for an exceptional growth rate.
For far different reasons, smelt are also of interest to anglers in Wachusett Reservoir and Quabbin Reservoir, but not for their sporting attributes, but rather as fodder for salmonoids. What might be an even more important forage this time of the year is yellow perch fry, which school up tight to the shorelines now and attract rainbow trout, lake trout, landlocked salmon, and black bass. Firetiger and metallic perch-patterned spoons, such as Kastmaters and Krocodilies, tend to be among the most effective offerings as the coloration is similar to yellow perch. Now is not the time to exclusively go deep as the bait seeks the relative sanctuary of shoal water. Supplement casting the standard 3/4 once spoons with 3/8 to 5/8 versions. Not only will the lighter spoons be less likely to hang bottom in the shallows, but they have better action. Uniform water temperatures now, with the addition of in-tight bait, make most any place you can gain access to potentially productive.
It’s the curtain call for Captain Colby and his Little Sister Charters full court press on most everything which swims in the Westport side of Buzzards Bay. When seas are navigable, the crew is more often than not able to boat limits of blackfish. If you’ve spent a few tides with Captain Jason, then you know that what qualifies as acceptable conditions for him is not for everyone; regardless, it’s worth the price of admission just to watch his mastery of wind, tide, and boat position over tautog waypoints. While with other species you may be able to get away with being in the approximate area, for tog, the sweet zone is really small.
Sometimes the honey hole can even be a specific spot on the boat. I was fortunate to be on board on Tuesday, and while I did really well with the tog nursery, I could do little more than ogle others as they caught bigger fish – it happens. For whatever reason known only to the bigger tog, I believe they were held up closer to my deck mates. That might be the reason – or it may not – regardless, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
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Massachusetts Fishing Forecast
A thousand pardons if you’re finding this Thanksgiving forecast as thin as the picked-over bones of the big bird. While options are so limited, consider appreciating those smaller, unsung heroes of our sport. Whether the target is freshly-stocked trout, smelt, or forage only of interest to gamefish, we pursue – thank goodness for it all!
Does anyone know why these reports continue to call largemouth “Larrys?” Is there even a single person in New England who actually calls them this in real life?