Boston
Metropolitan
Region

January 16th, 2004

That Time of The Season...

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Well, you can almost smell it...it's that time of the season. Doldrums, down time, the lull before the storm.

The reports for the past week are almost non-existent, and those that have come in aren't too encouraging. The usual suspects aren't posting reports on the forum, even if they've been out, because there just isn't that much to say. The weather's been aweful, which keeps many off the water. The forum is rife with the smoldering discontent of long wanders jonesing for a fix of the old brine and the tight line. As usual, that brings up all the issues of controversy for the sport in general as well as Reel-time in particular.

We're not without our issues. Over the years, we've had numerous recurring themes. There's the age old bait vs. fly fishing arguement, which gets more tiresome by the day for me. Then we've got the Catch and Release vs. Catch and Grill (or catch and sell) issue, which has become even more intense with the regulation change this year. Even issues like "Clouser: fly or jig" or the age old "are dropper flies truly fly fishing..." can become epic struggles in the vast fog of the Internet.

A personal favorite is the question of posting fishing reports at all. Every year I am alerted to email campaigns by person or persons unamed (at least here) to have forum posts edited to remove any semblance of useful information, especially locations. True enough, some locations can't handle the fishing pressure, and others are only suited to a handful of anglers, if that. But the cold hard fact of the matter is this: the genie is out of the bottle, and any amount of enticement isn't going to get him (or her) back in. Case in point: go to Google.com and enter the name of your favorite fishing spot then the word "fishing". For instance, Crane's Beach - take a careful look at the results. The information is out there, folks, if not from Reel-Time, then from any one of a dozen other sources.

We all need to decide whether we want to be a positive force in this community, or if we simply want to be another grain of sand wearing away at the fabric. There are many new fly fishermen and fisherwomen joining our sport and we help them, or we can tear them down. There are many great sources of information, from guides, to everyday fisherfolk like yourself who we can either embrace into our online community or run off with the mere clicks of our keyboards.

You decide...

And while we're talking openly...

I'm going to say that this week is the worst yet for reports. For next week, your homework is to get out on the water and send me a report. Even if you run into that black cat with the white stripe, these things only work with your input. Since I've got the next two weeks off for holiday, I will be out on the water and should have some first hand stuff for you.

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

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Boston Harbor

Capt. Wayne Frieden reports:

Saturday, August 2, 2003: The fishing in the Harbor is beginning to pick up a bit with first light top water action near the Back and Fore River area and in Dorchester Bay. We're seeing loads of small herring dumping out of the rivers. Top water baits such as Bass Assassin's and Sluggos have been bringing fish up to the surface whereas small clousers (@3") in white, gray/white and chartreuse/white have been working well on fast sinking lines fished slow to moderately slow. Today's charter was cancelled due to pea soup fog that made navigating around the harbor unsafe. We'll try again tomorrow...
Sunday, August 3, 2003:  Took out Eric Holmsten and his dad, Charles, who is from Texas and was visiting for the weekend. We managed to get out early but had to contend with areas of dense fog throughout the morning. Although we found large schools of baitfish (mostly small herring) we had a hard time finding schools of bass. A tough morning of fly fishing and only a handful of fish for our efforts. That's fishing...
 
Monday, August 4, 2003: It was a real treat to take out David Segel and his daughter Stephanie who were visiting from England. Along with David was Michael Landes and his son Matt of Palm Springs, CA. Both Stephanie and Matt were avid anglers and caught way more fish than their dads (as usual!). Today, our anglers fished mainly light tackle using large white and lavendar Bass Assassin's (unweighted). Although we didn't see much in the way of bait or working birds this morning, we did find bass that were willing to take our baits and landed and released enough fish for all to have a good time (despite the downpours!).

 
Until next time,we'll see you out there... 

Capt. Wayne 

Capt. Wayne Frieden
Reel Dream Charters
fish@reeldreamcharters.com
PO Box 274
Scituate, MA 02066-0274
617-909-7122

Capt. Bill Smith of Draggin' Fly Charters has been out fighting the weather as well.

Saturday, July 26 Bob Sutherland of Pittsburg, N.Y. returned to Boston
for his annual trip aboard the Draggin' Fly. The fish were a bit slow getting
started, but once they came up, they drove bait throughout Dorchester Bay. Bob
used a 9 weight fly rod to tame several bass up to legal size. At one point,
Captain Bill had Bob casting into very shallow water where the bass had the bait
pinned into inches of water. After the surface bite died out, the Draggin'
Fly moved to the Deer Island Flats where two small bass were hooked. Bob kept
Captain Bill entertained during this slow period with tales of his tarpon
fishing this past winter.

Draggin' Fly regular, Dave Gale of Sharon, brought along Joel Kessler of
Stoughton for an early morning trip on Sunday. The dawn bite in Dorchester
never materialized. Although a few bass were jumped along Thompson Island, Dave
and Joel never connected. They did get into a short spurt of action in South
Boston. The only fly that appealed to the bass was a bead headed maribou.
Captain Bill took the crew offshore to look for bluefish but found none. Joel did
hook up with a very large bass that put on quite a show in very shallow water.
Evidently, the fish rolled on the line and the line parted. And that was the
end of the story.

Monday, Damon Reed of Norwell joined Captain Bill well before dawn with
plans to search some rock piles for nocturnal bass. For this trip, Damonput
aside his long rod in favor of a 12 pound spinning rod. Captain Bill and Damon
managed to lure three bass from 32 to 36 inches out of the rocks before heading
to Boston to pick up Damon's fishing partner, John Kieley of New Hampshire.
Just outside of the city, the crew ran into busting fish and out came the fly
rods. John used maribou bunnies to catch bass up to 30 inches. Damon tried every
one of his tyes before admitting defeat and switching back to conventional
tackle and soft baits. This worked as he landed three bass from 34 to 38 inches.
   
Captain Bill convinced Jay Hoffman of Marshfield and Adrian Jackson of
Charlestown to meet him well before dawn on Tuesday. Again, this was worth the
loss of sleep. Both anglers landed bass up to 20 pounds. Once the sun came up,
the Draggin' Fly moved into very shallow water in Quincy Bay. Adrian shined
here, catching legal size bass in inches of water. He's hooked on the Harbor!
    Wednesday, Paul Callinan and Dan Haley of Holbrook met Captain Bill long
before sunup for their annual charter. It didn't take long for Paul to connect
to the first bass and the action lasted until the bottom of the tide. For the
rest of the trip, the crew worked the shallows of Dorchester Bay. Working
Bass Assassins VERY slowly in one to three feet of water, Paul and Dan caught
several more legal size bass. The tally for the day was twelve bass up to 34
inches and all but one of these were over 30 inches.

John Lordan of Cambridge and Harry Graff of Norfolk were surrounded by
bass minutes from their pickup at Rowes Wharf. John was the first to connect
with a chartreuse Passion fly. These fish proved to be difficult to catch. They
moved quickly around Dorchester Bay. There was another quick spurt of surface
action off of Castle Island with mixed bass and bluefish.The Draggin' Fly moved
into the shallow waters of Quincy Bay to hunt for bigger fish. Harry and John
switched to spinning rods to cast Bass Assassins. These experienced anglers
managed to lure three bass from 30-35 inches to hit. These fish are very leary
in this shallow water and lures must be worked slowly with side to side
action.

Friday was the annual outing for the Skaden law firm of Boston. Jay
Molloy worked with Captain Bill to coordinate this five boat trip. The Draggin' Fly
and Captain Al's Patty-Ann did the early morning run. The early boats were
into a serious blitz of bass minutes from Rowes Wharf. By the time the other
three boats got out at 7:30 the morning bite was over. The boats were forced to
troll during slack tide and everyone caught fish. The rain never let up and as
the fog rolled in, Captain Bill called it a day. On the way back to Boston, a
school of bass was found attacking bait on the surface. Switching to spinning
tackle, several bass up to 30 inches were caught and released. It was a
storybook ending that made these anglers forget that they were soaking wet.

The heavy rain and pea-soup for forced Captain Bill to cancel Saturday's
trip.

Shaun Ruge was out this week and I think his report can sum up some of the others I've gotten quite well...

Deer Island 8/4pm
Worked my way around the island for the end of the drop and into the incoming last night. A few bait guys out but not nearly as many as in past days. Wind was whipping on the harbor side, a good 1-5mph blow. Stuck with a 2" popper on a 350grn because it had been working for me at night pushing water. Nothing through the drop. Out by the rip there was only 1 boat, 1 more joined as I left that area for greater faun. Both anchored up current tight to the light. One hell of a bonfire on the lovells beach.
Anyway, thought I heard a few plashes on the walk from the rip to the bar, went through the motions of casting to them but nothing more than 2 red rock crabs... Walked out the bar as far as I could around 10pm. Switched to an int line, same popper, casting down wind. Did this for 1 1/2 hours when the tide started creeping in. Nothing.
Highlight of the night was excitement of being stung by a jelly fish wet wading on faun bar. No Stripers were hurt during this outing. Lots of fire in the water, cool to watch so that gave me something to do other than casting. Got a couple stuck to my legs, again, something to do. Sooner or later my luck will change. All in all prety quiet.

Dry Fly is just back from vacation and he's seen some decent fishing in Hingham.  Sounds like the schools of bluebacks are hanging in there again...

Inner Harbor 7/26- 7/30
Finally got my week off and headed out to see whats poppin' out there.

hull and hingham are loaded with stripers, 6 inch herring patterns matches the swarms of bait that are there, consistent action around all the islands fishing to holes in about 5-8 feet of water on all tides and all light conditions, who says stripers are light sensitive give them enough food and they are there, long leaders however are necessary, lots of fish from high 20's through low 30's, some bigger fish following but couldn't get them to eat, i bet night bite would take them.

Hit the blues too, no fly but trolled plugs on wire through hypcrite channel on dropping tide and had all the 6 lb rat blues you could handle.

All in all good fishing, great weather and I couldn't be happier.

South Shore

Not a lot going on.  Duxbury and Plymouth are quiet, although the fluke have picked up.  Look offshore for bluefish action and work the beaches with access to deeper water.  Rockpiles at places like Minot, etc. should be holding fish. 

Send me reports before I decide to start diming out access points....

North Shore

Danvers River has slowed considerably.  Cape Ann has had fish, but not a lot.  Perennial contributor Soundking mentions that he's found fish over 100' of water offshore, busting bait.  I've had similar word from off Chatham, so you've got to wonder if it's happening in other spots too.

The Merrimack River

Capt. Charlie Crues' been feeling the pain up on the Merrimack.  There are fish around, but it's a lot slower than the blistering pace of June and July.