Boston's North Shore fishing report

[Capt_Dave]

Locating macs continues to be a hit or miss situation. Somedays we are able to fill the bait wells in 30-40 minutes, others it takes an hour or two and sometimes we can't locate them at all. While fishing for macs in the usual locations, we have begun to notice an increase in the numbers of stripers in the chum slick, which effectively shuts off the mac bite. <br><br>Striper fishing continues to be spectacular. Saturday's mornings trip on 6/30 produced numerous keepers in the 30-32" class, but only one fish at 35". Things changed for Sunday morning's (7/1) trip though. In less that 2 hours on that day, we boated and released 8 fish over 34" with the largest being a 45" 36 lb fish, followed closely by a 33 lb, a 28 lb, a 24 lb and several others ranging from 16-22 lbs. Monday evening's trip (7/2), Tuesday's trip (7/3) and Wednesday's trip (7/4) also had great fishing. Each trip produced numerous keepers and many fish in the 20-30 lb class range, the best of these days being Tuesday when we boated and released 7 fish over 34". <br><br><br><br>Capt Dave, North Shore Charters

[jerryvovcsko]

Capt Dave,<br>The macs had been thick down at the Sandwich end of the CC Canal but they seem to be getting a little more scarce...maybe they got good sense & departed what with the arrival of the bluefin? <br><br>Jerry Vovcsko<br>Moderator: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island Forums

[Capt_Dave]

Jerry, would like to think that but in our area right now I believe it is the stripers that are making them scarce. They have been around again yesterday AM and hopefully today. The only problem was yesterday they were huge. Haven't seen macs as big as we were getting yesterday for awhile. They would have been great tuna bait, but we could only use about 1 in every 4 we caught for striper fishing.<br><br>Capt Dave, North Shore Charters

[jerryvovcsko]

Capt. Dave,<br>Overall, I'd say that's good news about the big macs(sorry, couldn't resist)...I've been hearing a lot of concern about the lack of large and plentiful baitfish (menhaden especially) for the stripers to feed on. Some folks seem to think that's why we're not seeing the 50 & 60 pounders anywhere near as frequently as we used to. Maybe if there's a resurgence of mackerel in this region we might start cracking that 50# hurdle more often. Hope so anyhow...<br>Thanks for the observations, Capt Dave. Good to have you dropping by.<br><br>Jerry Vovcsko<br>Moderator: Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island Forums