Boston
Metropolitan
Region

Hit the Road, Jack!

Stu Bristol, Reel-Time's Northern New England Regional Editor's report this week offered some very valuable advice. The title of his article is The Mobile Fisherman Catches The Most Fish. I could not agree more.

One sure way to get skunked is to remain in a spot where you have already proven that the fishing isn't good. Yes, you may manage to scratch out a fish here or there, but the best idea is to get to a spot where the fish are more actively feeding.

Many years ago, I took a lot of heat from my ex-wife over the fact that I'd often run all over Boston Harbor, often fishing some spots for as little as fifteen minutes, looking for fish. "You spend more time cruising than you do fishing!" she'd complain. Often, she was right, but there are several things she didn't take into consideration. Most importantly, there are many spots which are particularly tide/current sensitive, which are only good at particular stages of the tide, sometimes with fairly short windows of opportunity. There's a pair of rocks along the coast of Hull that fish particularly well for about ½ hour an hour on either side of low tide, as the current sweeps across them. I can't recall ever catching anything around them at any other stage of tide, although I've often stopped on my way to the outer harbor for a few casts.

Other times, some of the signs would denote that a certain spot wasn't worth putting in too much time. Lack of bait in the water is a no brainer. If there isn't any bait around, chances are that you will find better concentrations of fish in a spot where the bait is more abundant. This is extra important a times like this when there is an abundance of herring around. Find the bait and you will find the fish.

Since I blew the crankshaft on my Johnson last season, I've been limited to fishing from shore. I still am apt to fish a variety of locations during the course of the day. One particular morning at the North River comes to mind where I started out at Fourth Cliff, then in the South River, then up to Mary's Boatyard, then over to the Old Shipyard, up to the third bridge and finally down to Damon Point. All in 6 hours on the water. We didn't start taking stripers until we hit Damon Point, close to noon time.

If you aren't getting fish, take the show on the road.

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

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Boston Metro Regions

Boston Harbor

At Old Salt Outfitters in Hingham, Capt. John Perette hasn't been having to travel too far to get the fish. "We were blown out yesterday morning. This morning we got out and took a lot of schoolies. There are a lot of herring around and lots of little silversides churning up the water around Thompson Island. We got stripers over by the Fire Station, off of Moon Head, near the Anchorage, off the east end of Spectacle, off Bumpkin Island and by the Hingham Yacht Club. Big fish are being taken on chunk bait. Offshore, the sharks have been slow, probably due to the warmer water off the Cape and the abundance of bait which keeps them down there. The white marlin have been going crazy off the south side."

Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters in Scituate reports:

It was a pleasure taking Bill Fleming and his friend, Chris from Baltimore, fly fishing on Tuesday. Although the harbor was socked in with dense fog, there was enough visibility to fish inside Hingham Harbor. We found fish on top early and both Bill and Chris had fun catching schoolies on light rods with poppers. Later, as the fog lifted, we found many larger fish off the yacht club channel and on the flats using half & halfs with sinking lines. Bill managed to catch and release a nice 24" striper on his 5 wt at Hangman's. I did a little scouting myself today and found birds working off Spectacle and Moon Islands. I landed a beautiful, fat 28" linesider that took me into my backing off Moon Head. On the way in, there were birds working off Nut Island and World's End. So, the fishing remains good and should only get better! I still have openings for charters during the week and weekends. After Sept. 2, I will be guiding only on the weekend. So, give me a call at 781-545-6263.

Until next week,

Capt. Wayne Frieden, Reel Dream Charters

At Stoddard's of Boston, Lou Edwards has seen the fishing remain strong in the harbor. "The islands remain super hot. There's a lot of bluefish around them. Small fish, up to three pounds. Wollaston Beach has been tough. It's not devoid of fish, but it has taken work to get them. The north east wind hasn't helped things, but it should clear up nicely for the weekend. We have really low, new moon with good tides. The Sugar Bowl at Castle Island has been fishing well, but anyone who fishes it regularly will know that. One of our good friends fished the mouth of the Charles River yesterday and it was okay. No big fish, but a few in the mid- twenties. One of the fellows that works here was anchored off Revere and got a lot of fish two nights this week on the incoming tide. I had a client from Minnesota out the other night. We were fishing Deer Island (at one of the legal locations to fish) and it was very good, which made him very happy. Nothing really big, I think the biggest was about 32", but a lot of nice 24-26" fish.

Another customer who lives in Nahant has told us that the rocks there have been incredible. It's been good and I also understand that the bonito are all over the Cape right now."

Plymouth & South Shore

Capt. John Hayes Jr. of On Call Charters reports:

Our last trip to The Race on Saturday saw bass to 42.5" and 25#. 12 year old Samantha Rogers boated her first keeper at 31".These cows are bunched up on the bottom. Smaller fish bust sand eels on top and may be taken on the fly.

L.L. Bean has some new Clousers tied in browns (crustacean they say),which look a lot like sand eels when pulled fast. I fished these in Maine last week with Andy Raio,at Pine Point inlet. The fish here were really turned off, but Andy as usual hammered fish all day!

They also have a new "silversides" which is neat, and looks like small baitfish. Both these worked great on our 8/9 Redington and 10 St.Croix Fly Rods.

Some of our recent video footage is going to appear on a new cable videomagazine this fall.

We will post the details on Reel-Time.

Jim McKay of Henry Weston Outfitters in Pembroke reports:

Plymouth/Duxbury: Capt. Charlie Lemieux reports good fishing outside of Browns Bank and along Plymouth Beach. He also caught fish from the Sparkplug to the bell in Plymouth in large numbers. The biggest fish were caught in the Kingston, Rocky Nook Point, and Cortage channels. He recommends long sparse Clousers and likes them with a gold eye. Powder Point Bridge looks good this coming week with an outgoing tide early in the morning, try there.

North and South Rivers: Just inside the mouth up to Damons Point remains the best place to catch fish in the North river on an outgoing tide. Hickory Shad are about and fun to catch on a fly. In the South River, I also like fishing near the mouth on the going, the tides are right this week for early morning fishing.

Scituate/Cohasset: Third Cliff to Scituate Harbor is fishing well some bigger fish caught here this week. Shore and Boat fisherman both doing well. The Glades have been spotty, but still a place to look for fish, and near Cohasset Harbor the best of all. Check it out!

Boston Harbor: On the edge of Governors Island Flats near the Airport has been good according to Tom Kelly who fished it this week. He likes Epoxy Flies that look like silversides for this area.

Catch the tide and fish this week, Jim.

North Shore, Cape Ann & Merrimack River

This week we welcome Capt. Charles Crue of Channel Edge Charters in Newburyport as a sponsor. Here's his report:

If you subscribe to The Fisherman weekly magazine and would like to get a some good information on fishing Joppa Flats, and get a look at my "mug" check Mark Quarantiello's article, "Fool ‘Em on the Flats" in the August 13 issue. The 18-pound striper that I caught (and released) took an olive/white clouser in about three feet of water. I spooked many fish before I got that one to strike.

The fishing has been improving with some larger stripers being taken with flies. Yesterday I brought in a couple of mid-twenty inch fish just outside the river mouth. There was also some good action with small stripers on Joppa Flats on the high outgoing tide. I tried my new Sage RPLXi 6 W.T. and had a good time with the small schoolies. They also took surface poppers. The one I used was a foam body that I tied. It is one of Jack Gartside's creations (Gartside Slider) and is in his book, "Striper Flies". It is exciting to see 15-16 inch stripers come out of the water and hit the slider on the way back in.

Friday evening I guided a couple of folks for a relaxing evening of fishing around the river channel and Joppa Flats. They had a good time catching many small stripers on flies and light spinning tackle. Saturday morning I had a family, including 11 and 14 year old sons. They had a really good time as the stripers were in a feeding mood. The 11 year older took several fish casting with the fly rod. It is a great feeling to be involved in getting young folks into this great sport. Their parents deserve credit from them for taking the time and covering the expense for the experience.

Stripers were breaking off the North Jetty on Monday morning. They readily hit a large white Deceiver. I took half a dozen twenty inch fish before the fog rolled in and I opted for going up river (I was glad I had my GPS ).

That is it for this week!

Good Fishing,

Captain Charles Crue

Channel Edge Charters

At River's Edge Trading in Beverly, Dave Griskevich has seen things slow down on the Merrimack River. "The Merrimack has been slow. We fished Ipswich Bay Friday and Saturday and had a couple great mornings with lots of fish in the 20-26" range. They were feeding on sandeels at the surface. A couple of the guys were fishing poppers and the sandeel patterns were working as well. There are plenty of fish in the Essex River. The Manchester area is still fishing well, although the fish have been very selective, requiring tiny flies, like #6 and #8's. It's almost like trout fishing as they sip them right off the surface. Lots of small fish in Plum Island Sound."

At First Light Anglers in Manchester-by-the-sea, Pat Brown reports that the fishing has been really good. "A lot of the big bass that are migrating now are starting to show up. We've had hordes of fish out of Manchester. Sluggos and plugs are working for spinners and Glazies, tan with a white belly, about 2 1/2" long, have been working well for fly fishermen. The water has been very clear."