The College Student’s Guide to Fishing Boston – On The Water
Each September, more than 250,000 students inundate Greater Boston to pursue their undergraduate education at any of the 60 or so colleges in the area. While Boston might be an absolute fairytale land for many undergrads, with its large college-age population, active nightlife, and, of course, the best sports teams (and fans) in the world, there are sure to be a number of fish-crazed individuals whose first question after getting the keys to their dorm room will be, “So, where can I wet a line?”
For the stressed-out college student, there’s no better way to blow off steam than by logging a few hours on the water with a realistic shot at catching some quality fish. Depending which species you’re targeting, you might also be able to supplement your college dining hall fare with some fresh fillets. And, who knows, a relaxing evening on the water with a potential significant other might make for a unique and exciting date. Crazier things have happened, although I seem to have a tough time converting bites into hook-ups when it comes to these things.
Consider the following as a 100-level survey course that will introduce you to the endless options available to the Bostonian angler. Fortunately for the car-less undergrad, the Boston area offers a diverse array of both fresh and saltwater angling options within easy reach, either by foot or public transportation. Whether you cut your teeth pursuing largemouths in the farm ponds of the Midwest, snapping wire for stripers off the coast of Virginia, or jigging cod in Europe’s North Sea, there’s bound to be some type of angling in the Boston area that hits close to home. And you just might pick up an affinity for a distinctive local fishery along the way.
Fishing Tackle to Travel
In terms of tackle, simplicity is the best policy. A jumbled mass of rods, reels and lures in your dorm room is not only a pain to transport to and from campus but is also likely to incur the wrath of your roommate should a misplaced hook or plug result in an unintentional piercing.
Two setups should give a suitable, if not the perfect, outfit for all the fishing you’ll encounter in Boston. A 6-foot medium freshwater spinning rod with 8- to 10-pound-test monofilament will serve as a sweetwater setup, and a 7- or 8-foot medium-heavy saltwater spinning combo with 20-pound-test monofilament or 30- to 50-pound-test braided line should enable you to throw plugs and chunk bait to stripers, bluefish and the like. Two-piece rods are convenient both for storage and for transport on Boston’s subway system, (the T) but if one-piece setups are your preference, then you’ll be able to take them wherever you go if you employ a little creativity. Trust me, I know from experience.
Another item in which you should definitely invest is a bridge net. Many of the most productive locations in the city place the angler a solid 10 feet or more from the water’s surface, and landing a substantial fish in such a circumstance is all but impossible without the assistance of a bridge net. Do yourself a favor and buy one before finding yourself stranded on a bridge in the middle of the night with a 30-plus-pound striper wallowing at the end of your line, 20 feet below, out of reach.
Freshwater Fishing in Boston
We’ll start with freshwater options, of which there are plenty, both within, and just outside of, the city. Before beginning your quest, be sure to purchase a Massachusetts freshwater fishing license from masswildlife.org. That website also provides a bounty of useful information, including maps of ponds, lakes, and rivers, and trout-stocking schedules for many Massachusetts water bodies.
The easiest and most accessible choice for many college students in Boston and Cambridge is none other than the lower portion of the Charles River. Cleanup efforts by the Charles River Watershed Association over the past few decades have significantly improved the river’s water quality, and angling opportunities have surged as a result. The stretch that begins at the Watertown Dam and ends at the river’s termination at the locks in Charlestown offers good year-round action for largemouth bass, carp, white catfish and various panfish. Popular locations include the mouth of the Muddy River under the Massachusetts Avenue Bridge, the Esplanade in the Back Bay (easily accessible via the Copley T stop on the Green Line), and the warm-water discharge behind the Royal Sonesta Hotel, a short walk from the Kendall Station stop on the Red Line. A viable holdover striped bass fishery exists at this latter location each winter, as does a summertime white catfish fishery. The cats can be taken with raw bacon, night crawlers, or other tasty baits fished on the bottom at night, although you’ll usually have to pick through numerous eels and bullheads to connect with one.
For fast action, which is normally what I’m looking for before or after a long day of classes, I prefer to walk the shoreline with a light spinning rod and cast a small crankbait or spinnerbait like a 1/8-ounce Johnson Beetle Spin parallel to the bank. Keep an eye out for structure, whether it’s natural, like brushpiles and boulders or so-called “city structure” – submerged bed frames, shopping carts, and the like (it is the Charles, after all.) You’ll pick up yellow and white perch, largemouth bass, crappie, and maybe even a smallmouth bass or pickerel. The most consistent action for crappie and bass tends to be in the late spring, when they move to shallower venues to feed and spawn. That said, plenty of opportunities for these aggressive members of the sunfish family exist at other times – my first fish of the year is usually a chunky Charles largemouth taken on a slowly fished plastic worm on New Year’s Day.
Carp are perhaps the most reliable fishery in the river. Ubiquitous, hard-fighting, and generally willing to eat a baited hook, they can be spotted rooting along the shoreline and will often slurp up a doughball or other tasty bait cast into their vicinity. Take care to be stealthy as you walk along the bank, as they’re skittish fish that will bolt if spooked. A light spinning rod will allow you to get the most excitement out of these overgrown minnows.
There are a number of other freshwater locales easily accessible to the college student that provide good spring and fall action as well. Brookline Reservoir, a short walk from the Brookline Hills stop on the Green Line (D-train), offers a great spring fishery for crappie and big largemouth bass and is also home to some immense carp that are notably smarter than their Charles River counterparts. To cull out the larger bass from the multitude of 10- to 12-inch fish that populate the reservoir, try using outsized jerkbaits or wood swimbaits during periods of low light. The reservoir receives a healthy stocking of rainbows each year, too.
Jamaica Pond in Boston is also stocked with trout each spring and fall in addition to receiving a slug or two of broodstock Atlantic salmon. Power Bait fished on the bottom is generally the tactic of choice, although casting small metals like Thomas Buoyant spoons and Kastmasters or an Adjusta Bubble-and-fly combo will produce too. Quality largemouths are a realistic possibility here as well.
Chestnut Hill Reservoir is located adjacent to the Boston College campus, but for other undergrads it’s easily reached via the C-train on the Green Line, just a short walk from the Cleveland Circle stop. I like to walk the shoreline here at dusk and cast spinnerbaits and walk-the-dog-style topwaters. There are some crappie in the reservoir, but the main game is large chain pickerel, which can be a fun diversion from mundane academia during the warmer portions of the school year.
These are, of course, just a few of the most proximal sweetwater opportunities for an undergrad tethered to the city. Many more options exist in the suburbs and can be accessed via public transportation. A bit of online scouting and trip planning will go a long way toward locating your own personal honey hole.
Saltwater Fishing from Shore in Boston
Those who would prefer the taste of salt on their lips will be happy to learn that Boston offers nearly endless saltwater angling options throughout the seasons. The star of the cast, of course, is the striped bass. Your arrival in early September will put you in town right before the beginning of the fall run, which can last through October and annually is responsible for some of the biggest catches of the season. The first stripers of the year typically arrive in mid-to-late April, with the action becoming hot and heavy for larger fish in mid-May. As for locations, access to Boston Harbor is ample thanks to the efforts of The Boston Harbor Association, which is in the process of creating a 46.9-mile walkway along the harbor known as the Harborwalk. The Boston Harborwalk’s website details locations where there is angling access as well as how to get to those spots using public transportation.
Favorite locations for a bass quest include Long Pier near the Aquarium stop on the Blue Line, Castle Island in South Boston (accessed via numerous buses), and the Charles River Locks in Charlestown, a short walk from North Station. That last spot is a popular spring location due to the herring run that spills out of the river each May and June. Large rubber swim shads and 9-inch Slug-Gos on jigheads tossed into the current when the locks are open have accounted for many a big bass. Bluefish will occasionally venture to these inner portions of the harbor, but for the most part expect to tangle with linesiders. Try to focus your efforts on areas of moving water, especially around high tide, although the locks often produce best during the last half of an ebb tide.
My good friend Kevin Cheung, a 2007 UMass graduate, grew up in Quincy and has been fishing the metro Boston area from shore for years. For the college student who wants a good shot at a quality striper but is pressed for time given classes, homework, and social engagements, Kevin recommends fishing chunks of mackerel or pogies (menhaden) on a 50-pound-test fluorocarbon leader with no weight. If you have some, chumming will most certainly help your cause. He notes, however, that due to the proximity of these fish to dockside restaurants, they’ve often been conditioned to consume more anthropogenic fare: “You could just as easily catch them on French fries,” he says.
If artificials are more your thing, it’s hard to go wrong with swim shads of various sizes and Fin-S Fish rigged on jigheads weighted to suit the depths and conditions. Kevin adds that, especially during the fall at night, the stripers will gang up on schools of silversides and smelt milling under dock lights and are best targeted using the aforementioned soft plastics as well as surface twitch baits like a Rebel Jumpin’ Minnow.
As for other saltwater options, it’s not unreasonable to target winter flounder, smelt and even cod from shore. On The Water’s own Ron Powers has enjoyed success with flounder by dunking sea worms from Harbor Point, near the JFK Museum. Other muddy or sandy areas, especially near regions of crunchy bottom, often hold good populations of blackbacks. Another, almost mythical surf option is the elusive codfish. I wouldn’t include it as a viable fishery here except that I’ve heard of anglers consistently tallying some pretty impressive catches while dunking clams off the Castle Island pier on spring nights.
As for the smelt, it’s generally a feast-or-famine affair when targeting these tasty relatives of the salmon. One night might produce dozens while the next might deliver the skunk sans sculpins, cunners, and perhaps a tommycod or two. Grass shrimp or bits of sea worms fished on shiny size-8 hooks at such locations as the Charles River Locks (saltwater side) and the Summer Street Bridge in South Boston on chilly fall evenings give you the best odds. And there are few better brain foods during a late night of studying than a plateful of crispy, fried smelts.
Speaking of which, if your goal is to put meat on the table, the best bet is to find another fish-crazed undergrad or two, pool your funds together, rent a car, and make a party boat foray in search of cod, haddock, blackfish or other tasty bottom-dwellers. The fall provides a great chance to load up on pollock out of Gloucester or Lynn, or on blackfish in Rhode Island, while the spring offers an excellent cod fishery on Stellwagen Bank. Or, if you’re really hard-core, how about a weekend multi-day tuna trip to the canyons? You might be all but unconscious for your 10 a.m. Monday class, but a fridge full of tuna steaks and a stockpile of Ahab-like stories with which to woo the ladies might make it worthwhile.
Although the above information is enough to get a college student started, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of building a working network of other college students and anglers in the Boston area to keep tabs on how different fisheries and locations are faring and to exchange helpful advice. And finding a buddy or two to fish with in metro Boston at 2 a.m. isn’t a bad idea, either. The proprietors of local tackle shops, of course, are another excellent source of helpful information.
Classes may have begun, but with a bit of dedication and ingenuity, college students in the Boston area can enjoy a smorgasbord of angling opportunities right through the school year. And who knows, maybe when the time comes to move out of your dorm next May, you’ll find yourself loath to abandon the fishy waters of Beantown for your summer destination.
