The news from offshore is not good. Charlie chasers and draggers are reporting more than just their intended quarry, as increasingly they are encountering big schools of stripers moving on. It is October after all. There are still plenty of stripers left, but to succeed, adjustments and expectations may be in order.
South Shore and South Coast
No such doom and gloom exists on the South Coast for those targeting tautog, however. One glance at the gallery of photos coming from Little Sister Charters says it all – the big fish bite is on! For those who worship at the altar of the white chin, this month could be called – Togtober! Captain Jason Colby’s crew is also still catching black sea bass (curtain call October 14th), stripers, and there remains the ever-present possibility of bluefish and bonito. The captain did tell me that patience is required because tog have their own feeding timetable, unbeknownst to anglers. On a recent trip, marked fish were behaving as if they weren’t there. Conversations with other captains revealed the same thing – the crab crunchers had lockjaw. As if flipping a switch, the blackfish brought on the bite and the drags started singing. The tog bottom line is not to leave marked fish: sometimes it takes but a subtle change in tide/water clarity to get them to chew.
Bluefin on the bank are in binge mode as dropping temperatures and a bait surplus (especially squid) have triggered terrific action. That’s the good offshore news; the bad news is that large schools of stripers have been observed on the way out. Not all bass have beat it out of the South Shore, thankfully, according to Pete from Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate. Under cover of darkness, stripers move into prey-rich estuaries and rivers where they can always count on a meal.
Having a herring run helps, but it isn’t necessary, as most any estuary/river will hold forage which the opportunistic striper will take advantage of. While the open ocean is more of a gamble, those inshore areas offer a buffet of prey species that striped bass can always rely on. The first factor you’ll need to increase your odds of finding bass in these areas is current with the ebb just after high tide, my personal favorite. The second condition is structure, some of which is obvious, such as exposed ledges or bridges, but more subtle structure will also hold fish. Rip lines tip off irregular bottom will concentrate bass, as will shadow lines. The dark side of those shadow lines holds stripers which unsuspecting prey can’t detect until it’s too late.
Bait for the most part in these areas will be on the small side with 3”-5” paddletails and 6”-7” stickbaits matching much of what’s for dinner. I’ve done especially well through the years with a jig/penny-colored 7” Gulp Jerk Shad combo. Eels, of course, will always be the panacea regardless of what the predominant forage is. Likely spots to consider are Ellisville Harbor, the Eel River, and the mouth of the Town River in Plymouth. Green Harbor deserves a look, as do the South and North Rivers.
For cod, South Shore anglers are getting their keeper on clams at Scarlett Ledge and the southern end of Stone Ledge.
Greater Boston
Lisa from Fore River Fishing Tackle in Quincy submitted a ringer for the believe it or not category this week when she reported pompano swimming around the Fore River! The two errant southerners, which were videoed, were only about 10” long, but still – pompano in Quincy Bay? A few pogy schools and prowling stripers are hanging in there between the Fore River and Town River. The estuary/river option is paying off in the Hull through Quincy stretch, with World’s End/Weir River especially noteworthy. Anglers have also heeded the news of herring fry released from Whitman’s Pond into the Weymouth Back River, with the result being some impressive striped bass reports.
Squid from area piers are waning, but mackerel can still be found off Pemberton Pier and the Nut Island Pier. Some anglers are beginning to search out alternative species now that striper fishing is in the eleventh hour, with cod and tog a few of the top choices. The Brewsters, as well as Green Island, Little Calf Island, and Calf Island, have been holding some tog. And as for cod, Thieves Ledge, Harding’s Ledge and the BG Buoy are better choices.
To match surging interest in smelt, Lisa is planning on stocking grass shrimp possibly by this weekend!
Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics in Everett agreed with what others are saying, in that increasingly those who are consistently catching quality stripers are sticking to a nighttime script. A few old-school captains- Gino and Russ – have been hitting harbor rips and catching very well with metal lip plugs. The harbor is dotted with all sorts of rips, some famous and others not so well known but still fishy. While most rips form on an outgoing tide, a few, such as Faun Bar, fish best on an incoming. The Gibbs Deep Diving Danny is the gold standard for this sort of fishing, but RM Smith and Big Fish Bait Company all make suitable wares. Anglers are doing well at night with eels and sea worms catching well off harbor parks which border the Charles River locks where the bass remain for the herring fry.
Tuna are on an absolute tear throughout Stellwagen Bank with anglers staggering squid at various depths – especially at night – doing best. Regarding “giants”, I heard from Captain Paul Diggins of Reel Pursuit Charters who, while out of the game for the season, still entertains fishy thoughts. He said that smelt are cooperating off the Charlestown Marina dock and they are hitting bare-bones Sabiki Rigs. There are also a few smelt being taken from the Alford Street Bridge, which makes me suspect that the pier off the Schrafft’s Building may also be good.
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North Shore
The ghosts and goblins aren’t the only things scaring people in Salem, according to Tomo of Tomo’s Tackle. Up tight to North Shore rocks, there are very big bass which are falling for small lures. That big bass keying in on small stuff seems to be a common theme throughout Massbay right now, especially as pogy schools wither. Tomo’s take on the bait is that it’s probably sand eels making Slug-Gos, Albie Snax, and Whip-it-Eels good choices. Don’t neglect metal offerings either, such as Hogy Epoxy Jigs, Deadly Dicks, and Ava Jigs, all of which are the go-to lures being employed farther north now. While smaller in number than a few weeks ago, the presence of two pogy boats in Salem Sound is proof that this most prized big bass bait is still around. Cod continue to be caught among the smattering of inshore ledge, but the better bet for a keeper remains making the haul to Jeffrey’s, Tillies of the Northeast rim of Stellwagen Bank. Mackerel can still be caught among the usual haunts along with baby bonito.
TJ from Three Lantern Marine told me that he’s been selling seaworms which might be an indicator that some are finding flounder possibly in spots where they did well early in the summer. The rebound in that fishery was one of the more remarkable storylines this past year, in that even headboats from New Hampshire were making the trip to target flounder. The areas just off Wingaersheek Beach, Coffin Beach and Crane’s Beach were where the bulk of those blackbacks – and even yellowtails – were caught. If your boat is still at the ready, it may be time to revisit that fishery, as historically fish have moved back inshore in the fall. Meanwhile, stripers stubbornly remain deep inside of Gloucester Harbor, with a few diehards capitalizing on their good fortune. Eels are doing the trick, as are mackerel, which can be found as close as Gloucester Harbor.
Martha from Surfland Bait and Tackle in Newbury said that there’s been an improved striped bass bite in the Plum Island area. As typical of this time of year, the bite is best when dark with eels and slim-profiled tin dong the trick, especially off the sand bars “out front”. Dusk and dawn have also been productive times throughout the Parker River Wildlife Reservation, with success split between casters and chunkers. The tube-and-worm continues to give up the goods in Plum Island Sound, and finally it looks as if Joppa Flats has woken up as herring fry migrate on through the Merrimack and get walloped by stripers. A few shad have been encountered off the ocean front, and the leaping sturgeon show continues to shock and awe. Those sturgeon are also the source of many a misguided tall tale of sharks or other beasts exploding onto the surface.
Massachusetts Fishing Forecast
It may seem blatantly obvious, but at this stage of the fall run, striped bass are behaving like – striped bass. While sporadically anglers can run into them, open water blitzes are now a thing of the past. For those who adhere to the risk versus reward principle, their time is better spent now pursuing stripers from sundown to the first few hours after sunup. Hard shorelines will hold fish until the last of the biomass has moved on. Herring and shad fry will continue to slip through rivers in stops and starts in some capacity as late as November; heck, I’ve even seen them swimming around in December! That easy prey will not go unnoticed by passing striped bass, which will hit the pause button on their southbound ways.
Estuaries/rivers can be trickier to fish than open water areas, as stripers will be in a continual state of flux as they rearrange their position to take advantage of current, bait aggregates, and ambush locations. If you’re unfamiliar with these inshore areas and would like to try, check one out at low tide and look for reefs, sand bars, ledges, drop-offs, and bridges, the pilings of which will thwart current and allow stripers to stage behind the structure only to rush out to grab a meal. The down current side of such structure will hold the bass. As for bridges, the down current side of shadow lines formed by various light sources can be very effective. It was told to me many years ago that if you looked down from a bridge spanning most any organic, thriving estuary you’d see the black backs of feeding stripers even in the dark of the shadows, and this has proved true.
Just as I was wrapping this up, I spoke to Captain Jason Colby, whereupon we had a Jekyl/Hyde conversation. The cheery Hyde part was filled with anecdotes about how hot the tog fishing has been along the Westport side of Buzzards Bay. But then the beast came out as he sounded off about weather-related cancelled trips just as the bite got good. I could feel his pain!