Boston
Metropolitan
Region

Doggone Dog Days

Things have slowed up generally accross the area, which is probably due to the heat we've been experiencing. I've been getting reports from all along the coast of fly anglers having trouble, while the bait chuckers are meeting better success, probably due to their ability to get down deep.

Now is a good time to dust off your 350 grain sinking lines to fish the deeper structure. Go with a heavily weighted Clouser or half 'n half and short leader and you'll dramatically increase your odds of scoring.

Unless you run into obvious signs of fish feeding on the surface, plan to fish deep. On my boat I like to keep two rods ready to go, one with a sinking line/half 'n half combo and another with a clear intermediate and a fly that will imitate the prevailent bait in the area.

One of the big surprises I've had recently is that I've found from speaking to (or typing at) reel-timers, many do not fish nights, especially from boats. That rather surprised me. I've always found nights to be a great time to get out and fish. In Boston Harbor, the big problem with fishing nights is the chance of running over floating junk. Give it a try, but be careful!

Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Guidelines - Your chance to question the pros. Send your questions to brodgers@ddtcom.com.

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Boston Metro Regions

Boston Harbor

Capt. Bill Smith of Draggin' Fly Charters forwarded this report:

Solid week of good fishing in the Harbor. Fish have been on top early morning, then move into deeper holes to escape the heat. Paul Ryan and Paul Callinan worked hard in Monday's heat. But their efforts paid off with fish up to 38 inches. Henry Donnelly, from California, got into some big fish up to 39 inches on Tuesday. Early morning the fly rod popper produced much action. On Wednesday, Eric Failoa brought along brother Jake. Best action was early. As the wind turned Northeast, the fish broke up. Leadhead jigs with shad bodies out-produced flies. Maybe it had to do with the 25 m.p.h. wind gusts.

Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters in Scituate has been getting out weekends and afternoons, but the approaching close of school will give him the chance to get out on the water full time for the next couple months.

The big blow we had last Thursday evening into Friday seems to have stirred things up in th Harbor. Took Tony Chamberlain of Boston Globe and friend Wayne Ogden out early Friday morning. With @ 20 knot winds, we sought out structure in the lee to fish. Wayne landed his personal best striper on the fly, a 38" 22 lb. beauty which fell for a 4" chartruese and white half & half on the north side of Bumpkin I (see attached photo ). It was a windy and choppy day with little bird action to speak of.

Had the pleasure of taking Chet Loiselle, an avid fisherman, out on Saturday. We found fish on top early near the Radar Antenna and than later in the inner channel off the Hyatt. No keepers but many nice fish in the 24-25" range.

Sunday's trip, despite being caught in the rain and an unexpected and nerve racking squal, yielded about 60+ fish for the Paul Maffa charter including one fat 29" linesider and a nice bluefish caught by Paul's father (see attached photo). All fish were caught using soft plastics such as shad bodies, sluggos, and fin s fish.

My trip on Monday late afternoon was less productive but a great day to be out on the water and to beat the heat. The fish didn't come up until 8:00pm near the #10 can. When they did, it was fast and furious top water action!

On Wednesday, we found birds working early in Hingham Bay, Moon Head, Dorchester Bay, and Governor's Flats. We also found some small blues in the mix. However, it was another windy day which made it tought to stay on top of the fish at times.

Plymouth & South Shore

Capt. John Hayes of On Call Charters in Pembroke reports:

High (almost 73) surface temps have had bass down deep. Last Fridays winds changed the patterns from the previous week.

Deeper pockets of cooler water produced sporadic keeper bass for Dr. Michael Rogers and Karen Churchill. These guys were on the bottom and wire line was the best bet. Some smaller fish at middle depths on a high speed troll.

Massive schools of baitfish and Blues on the Southwest Corner Saturday. Quite the whale show too ! A return to more normal conditions should find bass in their usual summer hangouts this week. Don't buy that summer doldrums stuff - just change your tactics and do whatever you need to get the lines down and fish the first or last of the days>

At North River Bait & Tackle in Pembroke, Mitch reports that “It’s been a little slow with the hot weather lately. Schoolies are still prevailent in Duxbury Bay, around Pwoder Point Bridge, and as usual the best time is early morning. They have been catching fish at the mouth of the North River, Damons Point and South River. I haven’t heard much from Cohasset, but there should be fish there. There have been small bluefish in Duxbury Harbor.

At Skippy III Charters in Duxbury, Capt. Johnny Bunar reports that pogies have moved into Duxbury Bay. “We’ve seen some pogie schools move in, but they’re in very small pods. Nothing like the old days, but at least it’s a positive sign. We’ve also see an increase in the size of the fish, so perhaps the bigger bass came in on the tails of the pogies. No bird activity to show where the fish are feeding, as the terns just aren’t around anymore.

Flyfishing, we’ve been strictly sticking to structure. You just can’t run into the roving schools of breaking fish now, especially without the birds circling. Channel edges and guzzles are good spots to look. Saquish Rip has been especially good. There has also been good fishing at Gurnet Point, with a lot of large fish moving around. Mostly chartreuse or olive half ‘n half’s have been the fly of choice.”

Capt. Johnny B., brought up a good point. He notes that the lack of terns that usually nest down there has made it much harder to spot the fish. In addition, he mentioned that terns will fly as far as 70 miles to feed, so lack of birds in areas like Boston Harbor are definitely related.

North Shore - Revere to Cape Ann

Capt. John Pirie of On-Line Fishing Charters forwarded this interesting e-mail:

The On-Line Fishing Charters weekly report is as follows: The Salem Sound area has been on fire for a solid week. Fish are breaking under birds every morning like clockwork. Action usually lasts for three to four hours. Most fish are 16-24" but we have pulled a few fish over 35" out of the melee. Fish are feeding on huge schools of juvenile herring. The bait was balled up and trying to hide between our outboard motors. Life as a baitfish is short and not very sweet in these parts. Fish were banging bait hiding under the boat as well. The action reminded us of the hot albacore fishing in North Carolina. We even shot some underwater video of bass eating bait. On the flip side, however, the shoreline and rock fishing has slowed somewhat. There are some large bass to be had along beachfronts and in the early hours around the islands. Bluefish continue to appear sporadically throughout the North Shore area. Schools of blues are appearing with some regularity in Ipswich Bay and the Essex river mouth. Cranes beach is still overrun with bass. On the offshore scene tuna are getting picked up occasionally. A large thresher of about 500 lbs. was released off Jeffery's Ledge this past week. Some porbeagles are showing up in these cooler waters as well as the first few blue sharks. No makos expected yet. Have a good week. JTP and the crew @ On-Line.

Capt. Derek Spingler of First Light Anglers reports that things are changing. Bass fishing along the North Shore is no longer a sure thing. “The rocks have been pretty quiet. Beverly and Salem Harbor have been going nuts mornings. The fish are feeding on little 3-5” herring. We’re seeing some big fish on the front side of Crane’s Beach and the front side of Plum Island right in along the shore. They’re hitting really sparse sand eel flies. Otherwise it’s been pretty quiet. I don’t know if all the fish are going into the harbors after these herring, or if the opening of commercial season has affected the fish. I don’t normally think that affects the recreational fishery.

A couple weeks ago we were getting a lot of big fish out at Stellwagen Bank. It was crazy, we’d never seen that many big fish, all offshore, wave after wave of 40+” fish. Maybe the fish are staying off shore. Since there has been so much bait around, I suspec the fish are running around chasing bait and not hanging on the rocks like we’d usually expect.”

North Shore- The Merrimack River and Plum Island

Dave Griskevich of Rivers Edge Trading in Beverly has seen things slow down over the past week. “Beverly Harbor and Salem Harbor are fishing pretty well. The Essex River has been hot and cold, although one of the guides who doesn’t fly fish got 40 fish the other day. There have been blues to 10 lb. in Ipswich Bay. Cranes Beach has been spotty also, with rave reviews from one angler, while the next gets skunked.”

Juro Mukai of Blue Northern Trading in Ayer forwarded this note:

Bill Stanton of Reel-time fame stays within a Letfy Kreh's cast from my place down on the mid-cape south side each year. I was fortunate enough to show him around some of the "homewater" spots that he would be able to fish before breakfast or after dinner without disturbing those fragile nuptial requirements that vacations are famous for. I don't know why women complain so much - they control half the money in the world, all the foolin' around and come to think of it - a whole lot of the fishing too!

Bill and I snuck out to the flats on a plus tide with a small flood, which shortened our time on the shoal and cancelled out any chance for a crossing to the "fishy" side. The mainland shoal was not producing for anyone, and we awaited the incoming tide for a change of luck. The nice thing about the bayside flats is that you can feel like you are far away from anything mechanized, automated, or complicated - everything is simple and raw like the fly gear we were using. As the flood began, fish came in to resume their shallow water feeding spree. With only a brief interlude before our need to vacate, I began to cast feverishly along with Bill to increase the odds. Suddenly I felt that familiar thud and pump and set the fly into a heavy fish. As I shuffled over to Bill, the fly line cleared the basket and screamed into the rushing tide, leaving nothing but backing by the time I handed him the rod. I looked into his eyes and said "it's a big one, Bill" and we exchanged rods. The reel continued to let out it's wonderful screams as the fish knocked knuckles and warmed up the palms of Bill's hands in the blustery drizzly dawn. The rod was bent deeply, and we knew this was going to be very close to the "K" word for us. After an epic battle the handsome (and thick bodied) fish came alongside. It was really hard to tell whether it was or wasn't a keeper so we measured it. It was close, but about an inch shy. Not a bad first fish for Bill to fight on a fly rod! We took a couple of fast photos and the fish rejoined the pack to terrorize sand eels on the shoal.

Although the experience of bringing in a nice fish on fly gear is undoubtedly a valuable one, Bill was not to be satisfied until he hooked and landed one entirely by his own doing. He had been studying the art of casting and practicing the presentation of the fly for over a month and was ready to take his investment full circle. Next time we waded into the water he landed what I would estimate to be a dozen or so, each cast and missed strike leading to better stripping techniques and hook setting until he slid into that "fish magnet" zone from where there is no return.

Sorry ladies! This one's a goner too.

In the Merrimack River, Capt. Charles Crue of Channel Edge Charters has been busy on the water.

On Friday, a friend and I took a run to Cape Cod to try the Brewster Flats. Unfortunately the weather, in particular the wind, prevented us from fishing except for within the shelter of a jetty. We did manage to get a few stripers and blues. It reminds me of how we small boat, fly fishermen, can be easily foiled by wind and waves. Oh well, we will try again another day.

Merrimack River Report

On the Merrimack River estuary, over the weekend, the fishing has been somewhat subdued because of slow fish activity and holiday boat traffic (probably related). In spite of the traffic we caught, stripers, blues and shad. Most fish were taken around Plum Island Basin. The fish were feeding on the standard fare of late, i.e., sand eels. Hence, sand eel imitations were productive. Bait fishermen were scoring with herring and other chunk baits, to take some keeper stripers. I saw a couple of bait fishermen working together to land a nice size striper. Somehow the fellow with the net, missed the scoop and lost the net. I think they got the fish, however. Joppa Flats were "flat." A few fish spotted, but not hitting flies or lures.

Early Tuesday morning, I took my client out on Joppa Flats , near Woodbridge Island since it was a high tide. It has been slow there, and I keep expecting to hit it right one morning. However, that was not the case on this excursion. We saw some fish that were spooked by the boat as we approached, but no further signs. We then tried the Plum Island Basin area. It was dead but, as the tide began running out we picked up stripers over the sand bar at the north end of the island. Later we did well on schoolies while drifting along the channel up near Newburyport. The water continues to be full of sand eels.

Shore fishermen report slow action. Stripers are holding in deeper water. Most fish I find on the fishfinder are holding near the bottom. I did well on schoolies drifting with the tide near the channel on Wednesday. I caught and released eighteen schoolie stripers (up to 22-inches), and one snapper bluefish in two hours of fishing in delightful weather, late morning fishing (10AM to 12 Noon).

The storms that came through on Tuesday evening almost took one of my neighbors at the marina. These young guys latched onto a 500-pound tuna just before the storm hit, 20 miles offshore. They managed to stay headed into the storm and rode it out in a 22-foot boat. They brought the tuna in and were offered big money since not many tuna have been taken, as yet. Good money, but at high risk!

Good Fishing!