Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Jigfishn10]

Beauties for sure @Mr. Aquarium! Sounds like a great day.

My son and I had a guest on my boat last Friday. Had a great time. Unfortunately our trip got cut short with t-storms that rolled in.
My son got a PB cod all of 24”. The bucktail jig was really buttoned in and I had a hard time getting it out so no weight was taken. Just wanted to get it back in the water.
Plenty of pollock. At 1 point there were 4 caught right in a row. Couldn’t get your bucktail in the water fast enough. Matter of fact a short pollock was caught by my buddy and then his rod doubled over. A sea raven decided to join the party. Ended up with the pollock and sea raven on the same hook. Sea raven are one ugly fish. 

My buddy also caught a cunner. At first I thought it was a silver hake but later found out it was a cunner. 
The sea raven and cunner were both firsts for the boat.

All but the cod - 10 fish total - were caught on a new spot I charted over the winter. Glad the cunner revealed its location. They usually mix in with tautog. Togs are on my bucket list this year.
We were heading over to a hump to striper fish but the t-storm threat put an end to our day. 

[bass.slayer69]

Striper fishing has continued to be pretty terrible for me in Cape Cod Bay. Oddly enough, I have been getting a good amount of bluefish tho. Been doing a lot more freshwater fishing in the Sandwich/Falmouth area, which has been going well. Typical summer patterns going on, smaller fish in the shallows holding near laydowns and lily pads, and bigger fish out on drop offs in around 10-15 feet of water. I normally fish shallow, but my last trip, I only took my jigging rod, and threw the jig around out deep. Nothing. Switched to the T-rig, and got 4 nice LMB. Me and jigs just don’t have a good relationship I guess. 
 

Good to see everyone catching fish, good luck if you manage to get out this week. Things getting busier for me, and won’t have much time in the fall for fishing, so making the most of it now.

 

Tight lines

[Mr. Aquarium]

Went out tuna wishin on Saturday.  Got to the spot at 430 am. Fished from

430-1pm. We finally hooked up at 1230. It quickly spit the hook. The hunt for my dream fish continues 

[Jigfishn10]

Did you go out to Stellwagon?

[Mr. Aquarium]

2 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Did you go out to Stellwagon?

Yep. One of the few boats to hook up in the fleet 

[Spankey]

You Mass. guys look to be having a good time up there. Nice looking fish. Good luck, good fishing. 

[Jigfishn10]

18 hours ago, Spankey said:

You Mass. guys look to be having a good time up there. Nice looking fish. Good luck, good fishing. 

A lot of these guys are pretty good guys too. 
Where ya from Spanky?

18 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Yep. One of the few boats to hook up in the fleet 

Really? That’s surprising. I’m hearing some decent reports of tuna being caught out on Jeffrey’s ledge north of Stellwagon? 
I’m thinking of a tuna trip in the fall after I pull my boat out. Would love to get into a bluefin. Heck, bonito or skipjack are a ton of fun! ?

[Spankey]

1 hour ago, Jigfishn10 said:

A lot of these guys are pretty good guys too. 
Where ya from Spanky?

Really? That’s surprising. I’m hearing some decent reports of tuna being caught out on Jeffrey’s ledge north of Stellwagon? 
I’m thinking of a tuna trip in the fall after I pull my boat out. Would love to get into a bluefin. Heck, bonito or skipjack are a ton of fun! ?

I’m from Eastern PA, clean good looking Bass up there. 
 

I’m retiring a bit early next spring. I’m gonna make it my plan to get to a few of these places and meet up some guys from this site. Really would like to meet all y’all. Won’t have the pressure to be at work and be able to enjoy the water more where I’m at and where I’m going. 

[Jigfishn10]

56 minutes ago, Spankey said:

I’m retiring a bit early next spring. I’m gonna make it my plan to get to a few of these places and meet up some guys from this site. Really would like to meet all y’all. Won’t have the pressure to be at work and be able to enjoy the water more where I’m at and where I’m going. 

I envy you!

The welcome mat is out.

[Mr. Aquarium]

3 hours ago, Spankey said:

I’m from Eastern PA, clean good looking Bass up there. 
 

I’m retiring a bit early next spring. I’m gonna make it my plan to get to a few of these places and meet up some guys from this site. Really would like to meet all y’all. Won’t have the pressure to be at work and be able to enjoy the water more where I’m at and where I’m going. 

Come on up. Get some saltwater fishin done, some great smallie and  largemouth to. Wide variety of water. From deep sandy clean water, clean weedy ponds and stained swamp water. You name the style of fishery you like and we got it. Stump ponds, rocks. Deep grass, 

4 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

A lot of these guys are pretty good guys too. 
Where ya from Spanky?

Really? That’s surprising. I’m hearing some decent reports of tuna being caught out on Jeffrey’s ledge north of Stellwagon? 
I’m thinking of a tuna trip in the fall after I pull my boat out. Would love to get into a bluefin. Heck, bonito or skipjack are a ton of fun! ?

Yea it was slow out there on SW corner. We saw a boat get a thresher.  Monday was great to be out. I was sitting on my back porch watching boats come in with giant tuna. Saw at least 6 boats that caught.  My buddy went out yesterday they got a 90 Inch fish. 
 

the hunt for my first tuna continues 

[MassYak85]

10 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Come on up. Get some saltwater fishin done, some great smallie and  largemouth to. Wide variety of water. From deep sandy clean water, clean weedy ponds and stained swamp water. You name the style of fishery you like and we got it. Stump ponds, rocks. Deep grass.

That's my favorite part about fishing in MA. You don't have to drive hours to go fish the only Reservoir in reach that everyone 3lse is going to. You've got 20-30 smaller options within half an hour drive depending if you want to shore bang, kayak fish, launch a boat, fish deep, junk fish shallow. Sure we don't have teeners to dream about but for just catching some fish it's pretty nice.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Just now, MassYak85 said:

That's my favorite part about fishing in MA. You don't have to drive hours to go fish a big Reservoir. You've got 20-30 options within half an hour drive depending if you want to shore bang, kayak fish, launch a boat, fish deep, junk fish shallow. Sure we don't have teeners to dream about but for just catching some fish it's pretty nice.

Yea that’s why I love fishing around here for bass. Such a variety of spots. We don’t have giants like down south or out on the west coast but we got some d**n good fish tho. 20lbs plus bags  for tournies are very common.  We do get some large fish around here. 5s and 6s are pretty Common

[MassYak85]

8 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Yea that’s why I love fishing around here for bass. Such a variety of spots. We don’t have giants like down south or out on the west coast but we got some d**n good fish tho. 20lbs plus bags  for tournies are very common.  We do get some large fish around here. 5s and 6s are pretty Common

Yea I see tons of 5s and 6s posted. That cutoff once you get to 7s and 8s seems pretty sharp. And I hear about one or two 9s a year maybe. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

7 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

Yea I see tons of 5s and 6s posted. That cutoff once you get to 7s and 8s seems pretty sharp. And I hear about one or two 9s a year maybe. 

Yea that 7 lber is the cut off.  8 plus is just hard man. They are out there. I’ve seen them, I’ve hooked them. 

[MassYak85]

Question for you guys...

 

If you could choose two weekends this Fall to take some days off and make long weekends to fish which would you choose? 

 

Typically Thanksgiving weekend is when I call it quits for the year, get gear put away and prepare for ice fishing. I usually do decent during this weekend and I already have the 4 day weekend. 

 

I'm thinking the days before the October 20th full moon and the Friday of the November 19th full moon. Is it worth chasing the moon phases in the Fall do you think or does it not matter much? I feel like for the spawn it plays a role for sure but in the fall when they're just feeding up idk, I don't have enough experience to really say for sure. I did get my biggest of the year last year in November on a full moon but that could be pure coincidence. 

 

September usually sucks for me lol. Mid October until Thanksgiving is when I personally have done the best in the past. How about you guys? 

 

 

[Don51]

I agree with October. When they are feeding you can have some killer days. Things do slow down as you head into November. I don't think the moon plays a big factor. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

September-November are great.  There’s a ton of other fish I target in the fall. Stripers, pike, salmon, steelhed, brown trout, lakers   and albies.  I’ve seen some blitzes from smallies in the fall in 20 feet of water. You can get one some great fishing.   As it gets colder out. I go slower. Some places are better then others for cold water fishin. But I’ve had great nights of topwater fishing in mid late November with ice on my rods. 

[Ratherbefishing75]

I Usually have to pack it up by late September not by choice the way to school teacher and she’s back in full swing and I can’t get out in the water after work. When I do get out in September I do alright  toed the end of the month  just before I have to pack it up 

[DogBone_384]

22 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

If you could choose two weekends this Fall to take some days off and make long weekends to fish which would you choose?

 

I'll be in Dennis Port the week after Thanksgiving and first week in April '22 with my boat and at least one kayak.  I also plan on getting down there as much as my schedule allows.  Outside my reserved weeks, the first two weeks in October would top my list.

 

Perhaps we can get a few of us down there for  some group fishing.

 

Historically, water temps in September are in the low 70's and don't hit the 50's until nearly Halloween. 

 

As far as moon phases, I don't live by them but my records reflect better fishing when solunar tables say so.

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC July Update

Only made it out freshwater fishing 5x this month (mostly short trips after work), but after-dark action proved much more reliable. Daytime patterns on CC kettle-holes are all deep (+25fow) and forage-related, so it can get a bit boring sending drop-shots and spoons down over and over again and again and again to fish you see on your graphs, with limited success. Instead, I prefer power-fishing at night up shallow around grass/docks this time of year...bonus is you don't have to deal with jet-skiers and pleasure boaters running around. Managed a few decent fish on chatterbait/topwater this way, but no giants. 

 

Instead, spent several weekends offshore tuna-fishing with much better results, the recreational size bluefin fishery really improving the last 3-4yrs. Went 3 for 4 getting <73" fish in the first two weeks of the month, with a few decent afternoon striper trips mixed in with fish up to 36" in the rips off Monomoy. 

 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

@Dunks N Dinks awesome fish. I want a tuna so badly. My number 1 dream fish.  I fished the rips twice this year. I zeroed each time for stripers.  The striper fishing has been the worst I’ve ever seen in my 27 years of fishin 

[MassYak85]

Was going to stick to swimbaits today but it didn't work out. We started shallow early fishing sparse lily pads near shore. I got a decent 2.8lber on a PB rat, my dad got a nice 3-8 on a frog. But that was the end of that bite for a while. We went out trying to fish some deeper weedlines we found earlier in the year only to find them gone...absolutely non existent. I think they treated parts of the lake. Which was a shame cause it blew up my strategy going into the day. So we started shore banging which only produced one fish just over 2lbs on a jig off a tree. 

 

It's a very shallow lake without much true "thick vegetation"...but that's where we found them later in the afternoon. The thickest lily pads doing some true punching. Not something I have much experience doing but today opened my eyes a bit to some possibilities on other lakes I fish. Not giants but a few solid fish and some missed bites as I got used to doing it. I was using a 1oz weight and it probably wasn't enough. Don't have any 1.5oz or 2oz (yet) so had to stick with it and wiggle the bait down through.

[MassYak85]

Tried to use the punch rig again on a different lake...no luck. Tried chucking the citizen 6 around for a bit, got 2 bites. First was was definitely a bass but I missed it. Second one I briefly hooked up, fish came off. Might have been a pickerel. Those 8/0 beast hooks are no joke trying to set lol.

[MassBass]

Reporting in, hit the river in perhaps its most urban stretch. Paddled out in a rental yak, and spent some time with a chatterbait but hauled water. Soon switched to  a proven spinner. Hucked the spinner off the back of the yak for a quick troll, and bam smallie on and jumpin. Brought him in for the catch, photo, release. Continued on trolling and casting the inline. Came to a great bridge with an expanse of pillahs and switched to a rattlebait. Savage strike, fish on, then he jumped and threw the bait, then jumped again just for the heck of it! Made an adjustment and put new trebles on the rattlebait. Fished more and more pillahs, tried dropping and swimming a white grub around the pillahs, I was getting sunfish nibbles alot I reckon, but no solid bass takes. Put the rattlebait back on and bam landed a sm. Trolled back and landed a good white perch on the spinnah.     

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, MassBass said:

Reporting in, hit the river in perhaps its most urban stretch. Paddled out in a rental yak, and spent some time with a chatterbait but hauled water. Soon switched to  a proven spinner. Hucked the spinner off the back of the yak for a quick troll, and bam smallie on and jumpin. Brought him in for the catch, photo, release. Continued on trolling and casting the inline. Came to a great bridge with an expanse of pillahs and switched to a rattlebait. Savage strike, fish on, then he jumped and threw the bait, then jumped again just for the heck of it! Made an adjustment and put new trebles on the rattlebait. Fished more and more pillahs, tried dropping and swimming a white grub around the pillahs, I was getting sunfish nibbles alot I reckon, but no solid bass takes. Put the rattlebait back on and bam landed a sm. Trolled back and landed a good white perch on the spinnah.     

I always love fishing the Charles. Never do amazing there but occasionally you get rewarded and it's just so cool to be fishing smack in the middle of major city. 

 

Also you can get out and cross the street to get Dunkin Donuts!