We can’t say enough about the Boston Harbor flounder fishing, so we decided to report on this fish first. They seem to be the fall-back fish of early season. Anglers targeting, but not catching bass, seem to always round out their fishing trips with some island flounder fishing to ensure their coolers don’t come back empty. Deer Island flats, Hospital Shoals, Green Island and Governor’s flats are still producing large numbers of derby sized fish. Your chances of catching these fun-tugging fish however, are lessening each week. Soon they will be retreating to deeper water and proving more of a landing challenge to anglers. Drifting sea-worms on the double-hook flounder rig with a 2-3 oz bank sinker is resulting in many fish over 16 inches.

Now let’s talk about the bait. Among reports of no more mackerel, reports of large numbers invading the outer islands came in this week. Another spot of “spotty” mackerel was Minots Ledge. Get out there early morning though before you’re dogged by Dogfish. Once they show up – your game is over. Team GoPogy snagged two large mackerel over at Deer Island flats while flounder fishing. The Esca lure rigged above the glo-worm flounder hooks secured these, proving the mackerel haven’t pushed out completely yet. Pogies are definitely here. The snagging has begun on the Winthrop side of Boston Harbor. No large numbers yet, but if you spend an hour dedicated to catching this bait, you can get just enough to land a few nice-sized bass. Eels seem to be the night-time choice of Kayakers. Fishing them live as well as dead are landing keeper fish.

Bridge fishing turned out a major success story this week for Winthrop. Bledar Naco landed a 42 inch striped-bass beauty. Bait of choice…..clams. Way to go Bledar!   Reports of multiple keepers came in this week from Danvers. Bass were enticed by the Green Mackerel & Oreo Cookie Shad Umbrella rigs. A huge Bass blitz was called in at the entrance of the North East Channel mid-week, providing excitement for over 20 boats.

Even GoPogy got in on the action this week. We married up the Esca light with the Shankas eel over at Deer Island rip and the outcome was 4 keepers, all mid-30 range…a blissful union indeed.

The fish are getting bigger and the fishing is getting even better.