BOSTON HARBOR -Stripers 6/22/01

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BOSTON HARBOR & SOUTH SHORE-Stripers 6/22/01<br><br>The fly fishing early in the week was excellent in the inner-harbor in and around Quincy Bay. Both Dr. Don Meyer’s (Cambridge,MA) trip on Monday and Paul Duffy of NETS Electronics from Bedford,NH on Tuesday experienced Boston Harbor at its best. The bass were feeding on silversides primarily with some herring mixed in. On the morning incoming tide, the stripers were up and crashing the baitfish.<br>Gray and white Half & half’s “matched-the-hatch” best using fast sinking 400 grain DepthCharge line.<br>This pattern produced excellent numbers of bass between 20 and 27” as well as 4 “keeper’ size linesides for the flyfishers between 28 and 32” on both trips. On the last two hours of the incoming tide, great action using surface attractor patterns like Winslow’s afternoon delight slider and Gartside’s gurgler in white or chartreuse was found in the upper reaches of the bay as the water flooded these shoals.<br><br>The ledges of Cohasset were fairly quiet through most of the week. Typically, fishing does slow on the spring tides each month and picks up again after the tides shift back to normal. Further, a few days of east wind, as we are experiencing now, are helpful in “re-stocking” the ledges with a new batch of stripers moving up the coast. <br><br>On Wednesday and Thursday the fishing was much slower in the inner-harbor. The bait was much more scattered, possibly the result of the bigger tides. Parker McComes’s group did take a few bass early in Quincy Bay using gray and white Half & Half’s, however the bait and the stripers were moving fast and hard to get onto. Again, the last hours of the flood on Wednesday morning produced the best fishing in the upper reaches of the bays. Tom Keer on the LIZA B, found the bass off Thompson’s feeding on silversides. As a result of a timely networking call, Parker’s group, on the BAY FLY, was able to finish a slow day on a good note, pulling in double after double of schoolie bass on the long-rods. <br><br>Thursday was more of the same in the inner harbor for Jim and Jason from the Fishing Department of Orvis Boston fishing on the B_FAST. Fishing structure proved to be the best method in the outer-harbor, early. Again, gray and white Half & Half’s as well as Blanton’s SAR-MUL-MAC produced a few bass in the 25-27” size class from the ledges of the outer harbor Islands. A few small schools of bass did show briefly in the outer harbor channels working herring. However, on the last few hours of the incoming tide, we found bass erupting on schools of herring in the Anchorage. The blitz was on and the wind came up making casting difficult. Nevertheless, Jason and Jim were up to the task, targeting the bass as they popped the herring to the surface. Throwing tight-loops into the wind with the tip-flex Tridents, using chartreuse Half & Halfs tied with gold tinsel by Rudy Ciecko, produced double after double for the Orvis boys before the 25 knots Northeast winds drove us back to Rowe’s Wharf.<br><br>Capt. Mike Bartlett<br>B-Fast Charters<br>www.bfastcharters.com<br><br><br><br><br>Capt. Mike Bartlett<br>B-Fast Charters<br>www.bfastcharters.com