More fun weather. Storms rolling through, winds on the weekend, all manner of foulness have kept fishermen close to shore and picking not just their days, but their hours to fish. When it has been good enough, the heats been enough to make you wish you were in the water, not on it.
Still, good results can be found. Visual proof is just inches away with the great pics I got this week.
Send in those Boston saltwater fishing reports – you guys are the key to making this report better!
Merrimack River
At Surfland Bait and Tackle they report we’ve moved into the summer slump
What a week. Rain, rain, rain, and then some more rain. The air has been thick, the water warm, and the fishing slow from the surf. Don’t get me wrong, there are fish there, lots of them, but just like us in the heat they get sluggish. They slow down on their eating and kind of just laze around.
The hottest action has been from the boats. These guys are mostly targeting the mouth of the river (!!!deeper water!!!). Mugsy and Tommy from the store went out on Tuesday afternoon. They took some frozen (tinker) mackerel and headed out to the mouth to drift the bait. The party boats were there drifting mackerel and hooking up as well as the boat guys using live mackerel. Mugsy and Tommy landed a few fish and lost a few more in the process. Then they headed out along the oceanfront to try for blues and bass on the outer side of the sand bar. They marked a lot of fish but didn’t get anything to bite. Water temps are high right now. They said the river was registering at 73 degrees and the ocean was 70. Other fisherman from the boats have had a few days of luck followed by slow days. Bluefish have been around but not in any great number. We were told late this morning by one of the guys that he got into some bluefish inside the mouth of the Merrimac River.
Cape Ann/Salem
In Salem at Tomo’s Tackle, Tomo Shiraishi reports:
This week, squid bite has picked up in north shore harbors in Marblehead, Salem and Beverly. Salem Willow Pier has reopened, and has been producing day time squid action. Yamashita Range Hunter in size 1.5 and 1.8 in various colors are what many angler have been using. Revere Beach, Phillips Pt. in Swampscott and Magnolia area has produced surface feeds of stripers that lasted for hours. There has been great amount of juvenile atlantic herring in Beverly Harbor. Tinker size mackerel has been found still in Salem Sound. Live lining mackerel has been producing good amount of 30 – 40” stripers.
Thanks!
Tomo
Boston Harbor
Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters reports on his site:
July 10: Fishing has improved over he past two days. We fished the rocks around the tip of one of the islands yesterday and just off the channel today to find lots of bass feeding on 5″ herring. A combination of unweighted sluggos and weighted DOA baits worked very well to land a bunch of stripers up to 35 inches.
July 8: Well, it’s been a few weeks since I updated my report. Lots of rain during June and lots of heat over the past week, but you already know that! We’re also seeing lots of baitfish, mainly herring and still mackeral, and stripers feeding on the bait but moving really fast ~ hard to get in the deep water. We’re seeing surface feeds but they are short-lived as the schools of bait and bass are moving quickly. The usual soft baits and buctail jigs are working equally well and the fly fishing has been much better when we’ve fished structure around the islands. Today began Session 1 of the Kids’ Fishing program. We baited and set our lobster traps and got a bunch of very large macks with the assistance of a couple of friendly anglers who were chumming up bunches of them! My charter on Sunday produced a handful of small bass and one nice keeper on light tackle. CJ Donovan, his wife Rachael, her sister Rene and Rene’s husband Matt had a great time.
At Boston Fishstix these pictures from last weekend give you an idea of the Boston Harbor fishing
Jason lands a nice striper
nice striper Rich!!!!
South Shore
Tclprin on the RT Forum reports:
Lots of 20″ fish in the rips and the fog today. Long rods only. Repetitive hook-ups throughout the bite…..that ended at slack tide.
And the the dicey ride home in the fog.
Fun day.
Mission accomplished.
Capt. Shaun Ruge of RipTide Charters reports:
Schools of macs on top Saturday around Manomet up in the rocks/lobster pots inside the exposed rocks at low. 15-20 ft of water. Ran over a bunch on the surface on the way home as well in front of Stellwagen Rock in about 40ft.
Mark N. Cahill has been writing and editing for Reel-Time.com since 1995. He started fishing in the mid-1960's and caught his first striper off World's End in Hingham in 1966. From there on in it was an obsession. He loves fishing for tuna, and fly fishing for striped bass. In a pinch, anything with fins will do...
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