Thanks to willing striped bass, fluke, flounder and black sea bass, “oohs and aahs” will not be relegated to fireworks displays this weekend. Anglers following the feed and the fleet are finding arguably the highest concentration of stripers in Cape Cod Bay. Variety continues to be the hallmark of life along the South Coast, with fluke fishing remaining a standout.
South Shore and South Coast
Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish didn’t have to tap into AIS to find what might be the biggest bass biomass in the Bay State — he just had to figure out where the bait was. Squid, sand eels and mackerel, which are awash at Race Point, are holding a huge aggregate of striped bass. A few blues are tearing up tackle and reports of Charlie are beginning to trickle in. This year the craze seems to be centered around Mojo Rigs and Umbrella Rigs of all sorts. Of course, trolling or dropping mackerel amidst the marked fish is a solid idea, too. Others are doing just fine with slow-pitch jigs as well as the tried-and-true diamond jig. The fluke bite along the South Coast has been long on volume but short on size, according to Captain Jason Colby of Little Sister Charters. There are fish as big as 24” in the mix, but you’ll have to cull through a lot of shorts to get to them. However, something can be said for constant action — isn’t that what we really fish for? The black sea bass bite continues among rocks, reefs and wrecks just outside the Westport River. As for the river itself, as well as out front, there are fluke and plenty of mixed sizes of striped bass. Anchoring up-current from ledges and other structure, then letting out a good chum slick, is a surefire way to draw most every striper in the area boat-side.
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Pete from Belsan’s Bait and Tackle in Scituate said that the South Shore is definitely in hit-or-miss mode regarding stripers. The good news is that the plethora of prey shows no signs of abating, with sand eels and mackerel in abundance. A recent report put both species just outside the Gurnet. During the first few hours of light, surface feeds are springing up along beaches such as Duxbury, Rexhame, Peggotty and Egypt. The North River is still holding fish, albeit in diminishing quantities as the herring runs wane and water temperatures rise. The shop has been moving a lot of soft-plastic sand-eel imitators such as Albie Snax and Bill Hurley Cape Cod Sand Eels, as anglers are doing well matching the forage. A few blues have been taken by those trolling X-Raps among deepwater ledges, but there is no targeted fishery as of now.
Greater Boston
As befitting this Great American Holiday, Boston’s longest-tenured shop owner, Pete Santini, offered to open the Fishing FINatics playbook of best bass bets this weekend. His tips include trolling his namesake tube or live mackerel along Long Island, back and forth from Camp Harbor View to the tip of the island. Gallops Island has also been good, with the area by the seawall especially stellar. Thompson Island is also perennially productive, as is Peddock Island from the pier to the prominent “rock” which sticks out. If that doesn’t do it for you, check out nearby Rainsford Island. For mackerel, it’s usually a deep-water affair, with anglers having to pick around Martin’s Ledge out towards Graves Light and the B Buoy to procure a tide’s worth of bait. While on the way out towards deeper water, flounder can still be picked up off Peddock Island as well as George’s Island. Tog, while not Buzzards Bay plentiful, are terrorizing all manner of invertebrates along the jungle of pilings which dot the harbor as well as Chelsea Creek bridges and Deer Island. For a shot at a nice Larry, the Mystic River by the West Medford Rotary has been hot, with shiners doing the trick.
Lisa from Fore River B&T told me that the stretch from Doctor’s Island out through Nantasket Beach and towards Point Allerton has been productive, as bass have been hitting X-Raps. Mojo Rigs are also getting it done there. The tube-and-worm has been hot off World’s End, Smith Beach, Mound Beach and Avalon Beach. Pogies are present in Quincy Bay as well as deeper into the harbor from Spectacle Island out through the Lower Middle and in the direction of Castle Island. Squid are readily available off Nut Island Pier and Pemberton Pier, with some anglers, after catching them, setting them adrift along Hull Gut or baiting them on the bottom for bass. Anglers looking to offer bass a mack snack should check out the ledges off Hull and Martin’s Ledge.
Laurel from Hull B&T said that the tube-and-worm has been pay dirt at Peddock Island. Mackerel have been found off Minot Light, Martin’s Ledge and the B Buoy. Anglers trolling X-Raps and Mojo Rigs in those areas are catching well. Pogy schools are popping up intermittently in Quincy Bay as well as Deer Island.
North Shore
The commercial consortium had been traveling from afar for selling-size fish between Gloucester and Essex, but effort has given way to what’s happening at Race Point. Striped bass are nothing if not creatures of habit, and with all the bait off Cape Ann, that bite should pick up again. Tomo from Tomo’s Tackle in Salem said that anglers are spotting finning and finicky stripers off Nahant and out towards the Harbor Humps. When the fish turn on, they are prone to taking down topwater plugs in explosive fashion, but then there are those moments of complete lockjaw. A friend of mine who is a charter captain in Maine has found glide baits to be effective when faced with such a puzzle.
Salem Sound remains reliable, with stripers pushing brit herring, small pogies and occasionally mackerel to the surface. Albie Snax remains one of the more effective offerings. That same bait has also been working among blitzes off Revere Beach, where the forage has been described as “rain bait.” When found, many of the mackerel are bite-sized morsels, with Misery Channel holding schools. A few blues have been encountered, but they continue to be more of a bycatch than a targeted species. After a brief lull, squid are available again off Salem Willows and Beverly Harbor. What’s interesting is that the fleeting blip of shortfin squid has ended, leaving the more typical longfin squid in residence.
Garrett from Three Lantern Marine told me that anglers have been doing well with live mackerel off Magnolia. The lights-out eel-slinging brigade has been catching quality fish from Wingaersheek Beach out along Coffin’s and out through Crane’s Beach. By day, the tube-and-wormers are catching them, as are those trolling mackerel and X-Raps nearby in deep water. There has been a school of pogies off Magnolia, but no word of any bass belting them. Some mackerel along with harbor pollock have been jigged up as close as the entrance of Gloucester Harbor.
Unless you’ve been on a sabbatical in Siberia, you know that Plum Island has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Obviously, safety has to be the priority, and it doesn’t make sense to take a chance and expose yourself to water deemed unsafe — but should conditions improve, the angling there is still good. What is wince-worthy is what Martha told me about a sudden bump in flounder catches. Anyone who was around during the heyday of the winter flounder, when it was common for an angler to fill a 5-gallon bucket with flatties, knows that the hot spots were — sewage discharges! So, now we have all these reports of an uptick in flounder catches at the mouth of the Merrimack River. A coincidence, I fear not!
Prior to the malodorous mess from Haverhill, the bass bite was hot and the mackerel close. Keep in touch with the folks from Surfland for the “all is well” alert!
Fishing Forecast for Massachusetts
In all probability, the mass of bass that were hunkered down in federal waters have moved onto Race Point and are now feeding on a buffet of forage unrivaled in the Bay State. Vertically jigging diamond jigs or slow-pitch jigs should entice hits. Mojo Rigs, trolled X-Raps and Umbrella Rigs have been working, as has mackerel. Shoals of sand eels from Plymouth through Marshfield have been igniting intermittent feeds, with slim-profiled soft-plastic stick baits killing it. For an action-packed outing that doesn’t begin and end with all things striper, check out the fluke bite on the Westport side of Buzzards Bay. The tube-and-worm off Hull and throughout the harbor islands has been effective, with a special nod to Doctor’s Island, Gallops Island and Long Island. Pogy schools from the Lower Middle through Castle Island are worth a long look, as linesiders should not be far off. The outer Harbor Humps out to due east of Nahant are featuring finning bass that, while finicky, will commit to a live mackerel, well-placed topwater or glide bait. Sonar in Salem Sound is reading like one big bait ball, with the stripers taking notice. Nearby piers have scads of squid and happy anglers looking forward to bait and dinner. After a couple weeks on top of the big bass heap, the Cape Ann through Ipswich Bay bite has dropped off. However, as we know, big striped bass tend to be creatures of habit, and with the volume of mackerel, harbor pollock and crustaceans crawling among inshore ledges, those bass are sure to come back.