Every week we pinch ourselves and say “what a season”. Things are still shaping up to make this year the best it’s been in recent history. The numerous pods of various bait fish continue to amaze local anglers and cause feeding frenzies inside and outside the harbor. Many people didn’t even have to use their fish-finders this week, but rather secured their fishing spots by following the diving birds. The spike mackerel seem to be the talk of the harbor. It is the end of August and this baitfish is literally everywhere. Anglers have been able to Sabiki them up in large numbers and live-line them for bass & blues. Every fish we caught this week was so full of mackerel and herring that they were coughing them up on their way into the boat. The only complaint to the bait situation in Boston Harbor is the lack of top water pogy action. There are definitely pogies out there, they just aren’t in the large schools yet like past seasons. Gigantic bass and blues have been reported from Gloucester to Nantasket Beach. I was able to spend two hours reeling in over 2 dozen keepers in the midst of a 6 day blitz at Hull Gut. Biggest fish to come to the surface and hit my Yozuri Mackerel shallow diver was 38 inches. We were heading out of the Gut and I convinced my husband, as I do every trip, to just give me 5 more minutes. The water was so choppy, and the number of boats cutting others off was both amazing and frustrating at the same time. I threw out my yozuri shallow diving plug and I watched a huge swirl right around the landing spot of my cast. Oh yeah baby….it was on. As I willed the fish to grab my lure, it did. My little bait runner reel was peeling out. My pink flounder rod was bent in half. The entire time I was reeling in the fish, I was praying for my rod to just hold it together. “Please don’t break, please don’t break”. There was a charter boat right next to us, cheering me on. “That’s how its done!” they screamed. After 10 minutes of praying to the pink gods, I got the fish to the boat. The fish was 38 inches. Although I caught my biggest flounder on that rod this year, it was not even close to 38 inches.

Another great spot this week was Broad Sound. I have never seen bass chase and harass pogies across the top of the water and in such great numbers as I did this week. I literally watched the shadows of bass rise to the surface to chase my pogy. My pogy looked like it was running on top of the water with a huge surfer wave right behind it. I literally screamed “Go Pogy, Go!” and then the line just began to peel out feverishly. I had a circle hook, so although I wanted to cross the eyes and yank back on the stick, I had to watch the line go and go and go. Now I was praying to the line god. Please don’t let him spool me before he swallows the pogy. The pogies in the harbor this year are huge. This means the only fish that is able to take it completely is a big fish. So good news and bad news. If I lose it, I lose big. So as I watched the line go out and the sweat began to drip from my forehead, I waited for the fish to stop and shake its head. On the fourth run, I thought, “this is it”. I began to reel in and the fish didn’t fight back. It was tired out.  My husband was busy reeling in his own fish as I brought mine boatside. I kept yelling at him…”are you ready”.  He came over with the boga grip and hoisted it onto the boat. Once the fish was on the boat, the hook practically fell out of its mouth. If I had let the tension off at any point, this fish would have swam away. The fish weighed in at 37.2 pounds and measured 45.5 inches. Even though I haven’t fished as much this year as last, this has been by far, my best season yet and I’m just getting serious. These fish are feeding and feeding hard. We caught a 20 pounder and a dozen bluefish in the double-digits that trip. One day later I heard about the 61 pounder caught in Newburyport and I have to say, it didn’t take away any of the giddiness I felt for landing my 37. Not bad for a 90lb gal.

The Harbor and adjacent crystal clear waters were alive with bait fish of all kinds and plenty of game fish to chase them this week. The bass and blues had a buffet of prey all week: bunker, herring, spiked mackerel and butterfish were hopping and popping all over the harbor, reaching out to Broad Sound and Nahant and extending to Nantasket Beach. Bluefish blitzes were going off at Brewsters, Graves Light and the BG Buoy. I caught an 11.5 pound bluefish slow trolling an X-wrap deep diver. All bluefish landed during the blitz were in the 10-11lb range. We spent 3 hours trolling and reeling in bluefish during the splashing action. The deep diver plug was definitely on their radar. Because the lure worked so well, a customer of GoPogy was having trouble catching. Now I know we are all in search of that 50lb bass and we don’t ever set out to catch smaller or to catch bluefish. I knew I had to send him out into the “thick” of it with a sure-fire lure to get his arm loosened up. 3 hours after I sent him on his way, it was time for me to go fishing. I left the shop with my fishing gear and was headed to the GoPogy mobile, when a car came pulling in to the shop quickly. I thought to myself, “well maybe this person ran out of bait and doesn’t want to miss the rest of the tide”. The angler got out of the car and called out to me. I came walking over as he was opening his trunk. Well not only did he catch a big blue, he also landed a 36 inch chunky bass. My intentions were to make sure he caught and had fun…and we all know that bluefish 90% of the time provide that to us. Other times, they just steal your bait, your tackle and your spirits. He told me he used the deep diver out at the Brewsters and landed the fish all within an hour. The look of happiness on his face made me so proud of him. He was so grateful for the advice, but little did he know, I was so grateful to see his catches and also know that he took the time to drive all the way back to share it with me.  Congratulations to Dan on this great accomplishment. And a big Thank you to him for sharing it with me.

And I guess what they say about Karma is right, because the next morning I caught a fat – 40 inch bass.

40 inch Striper - GoPogy

The Quick and the dead, or just being in the right place at the right time, was the theme here on the Winthrop side of the harbor this week. Fresh bait was key, however, many who chose the chunking method also made out. Shore fishermen did quite well applying their trade at the tip of the Deer Island jetty. This spot produced several large striped bass and a few blue fish. Yes, that’s right, the blues are starting to show up in larger numbers and many pieces of tackle went missing this week.
The night bite, for those willing to go out in the wee hours of the morning, was very active for many anglers. Large bass were around Boston Harbor, Hull Gut, Deer Island Rip, Pines River, and Egg Rock. Live eels, pogy chunks and herring all turned up success stories. As for those of you who have been following the top water blitzes the past few weeks, they have moved out away from the inner harbor to north of Graves and Nahant. Capt Norm Hyett of Flying Fish Charters ran into several morning blitzes Thursday & Friday, which produced numerous keepers while using The Lonely Angler Top water poppers and the Fin-S split-tailed plastics. Look for the birds, or find yourself a bait ball and try one of these top-water enticers.
The Niner Rigs, along with tube and worm, worked well for Mark Strand and Carlton Sewell. They landed several fish from 35 to 39 inches Friday & Saturday. Granville of Winthrop caught a ton of blue fish and bass on a bucktail jig, and Oscar, also from Winthrop caught a 44”striper near the ILS Pier by Logan Airport using a pogy chunk. John Seaburg landed a 32 inch bass using this off of the Salem Willows Pier. Nice Job John!
Anglers are still buzzing about the late season Flounder bite. Catches are still being reported at their regular hangouts: Deer Island, ILS Pier, Green Island and Faun Bar.  These family-favorites are making a lot of people happy this summer with some relaxing fishing and tasty dinners. Football tuna blitzes have been reported 6 miles off of Nahant with anonymous catches on live-lined mackerel. GoPogy was out Sunday morning and witnessed a tuna blitz over at Theives along with jumping dolphin. Quite an exciting day of fishing in Boston. The off-shore tuna bite is also hot right now.  Large fish are being caught on live bait, mostly pogies and mackerel. Macks also seem to be the bait of choice for those who are targeting sharks.  The crew of the Micky Fin hooked up with 3 blue sharks Saturday. All hit on live mackerel just outside of the SW corner of Stellwagen Bank.

All in all, it was another great turnout this week. Sharks, Tunas, Stripers, Blues and Flounder all made it into the local fishing successes!