What’s Biting in July in Massachusetts?
South Shore
By Billy Mitchell
Looking for a Tuna Turnaround
We are at the mercy of the tuna gods—and there are none I’d rather sacrifice blood, sweat, and missed hours of sleep to. Local anglers still speak in hushed tones about the July blitzes of 2022, hoping to not draw any bad juju and in hopes of a repeat performance this season.
No one I have talked to has explained just why there were so many school-sized bluefin busting sand eels on the surface around the Outer Cape at that time. Those hoping for a repeat performance (like me) the past two seasons were treated to hours upon hours of searching through bird piles and whale shows for fish that never showed. In fact, these trips became known to us as “The Skunk Loop,” going out to Middle Bank, to the corner of the Lanes, down to Golf Ball, and up to Peaked Hill. Much of the entire summer was the same, stopping and jigging every single pile of life we saw and managing only a handful of fish on the troll.
(Note: On The Water is reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.)
I’d even take 50% of the 2022 bite. Starting in early July, fill the fuel tank and find a course that works for you, especially if you have no recent intel. The Skunk Loop mentioned above is a good place to start. Plan to be at your initial location at first light before boat traffic becomes a problem and prioritize having lines in an hour before and an hour after slack water. We fish when we can fish, but try to find days with smaller tides, ideally outside of the full and new moons.
School bluefin in the area during the summer will be feeding primarily on sand eels throughout the water column, or mackerel, herring, and whiting around the middle and bottom of the column. A RonZ, Hogy Harness Jig, or Bill Hurley Sand Eel will effectively mimic all these baits and provide the versatility to work topwater, mid-column, or deep. Metal slim-style speed jigs also work, but I find them to be less effective north of the Cape as opposed to east of Chatham and south of the Vineyard.
Swimbait-style lures are another top contender for versatility. Cast one into a bird pile and let it sink for a few seconds before starting a slow retrieve back. These lures have incredible action on the fall. When fish are finicky, a stickbait like the Siren Deep Seductress, Strategic Angler Proteus, or the Hogy Slider will often get a reaction bite. Make sure to vary retrieve and pauses using big sweeps of the rod. The best advice with these lures is to just keep casting.
The size of the tuna will be mixed, so make sure your gear is up for the challenge of a large fish hitting your lure. An extra-heavy rod and a 20K reel loaded with at least 80-pound braid and 80-pound leader is almost a necessity. It may be overkill on a 40-inch tuna, but you’ll be happy to have it when an 80-incher decides to hit your lure.
A simple five-rod trolling spread is a great way to kill time and cover ground, especially in between tide changes. Directional spreader bars with an assortment of colors and styles make it easy for the small-boat fisherman to put out a respectable spread. Make sure to run a skirted ballyhoo in the wash or all the way back.
The presence of big stripers around the South Shore will be dependent on where the pogies end up. Gone are the days of big summer bass waiting in every rip or offshore rock pile in our home locale. These bass have had a taste of bunker, and they’ll follow the schools wherever they go. If last year was any indication, the pogies won’t be nearby. But much like the tuna bite, all possibilities are in play. Will we have a repeat of 2022 on the striper grounds as well?
The end of August means ramping up. Fall patterns begin around the middle of the month, with peanut bunker and herring fry pouring out of the harbors and rivers. It’s quite a drastic shift to go from searching for bunker schools to scoping out diving terns, but it’s my favorite time of year. The “pre-fall” run has the potential for monster stripers to join in on eating small bait. As these patterns change throughout the summer, stay vigilant.
Greater Boston Area
By Ron Powers
A Break from Bass
If you’re wringing the summer season for all it’s worth, July through August could be viewed as an intermission. That’s especially true for those consumed with chasing striped bass. Since the fall run is just around the corner, now might be a good time to take a breather, step back, and sample a few other angling options in New England.
If you’re one of the growing throngs of anglers who fish Wachusett Reservoir in the spring, do I have a treat for you! In addition to the fishing, I’m sure you love the sights, smells, and pageantry of this pristine place but could do without the crowds. The conditions are a lot more favorable this time of year because there are far fewer anglers, which means more fishing enjoyment. If you’re conditioned (as I am) to a white-knuckled, pre-dawn rush through the woods to secure your favorite spot, you’ll really appreciate having most of its 37 miles of shoreline all to yourself. This holds true regardless of what time or day you visit the reservoir.
Should you come upon other anglers, you’ll also notice a different mindset as well. In summer, almost no one lugs along bait and squats in one place. If you’re packing light and plan to be mobile—which you should—you’ll find like-minded individuals who aren’t the least bit territorial about where they are fishing because they plan on covering a lot of water until they find fish. In many ways, fishing the Chu now is the antithesis of what you’ll experience in spring.
Right about now, you may be thinking that less pressure is well and good, but how does that translate to a tight line? In some ways, the fishing gets even easier. Finding deep drop-offs short-circuits the search for lake trout and other cold-water species. Shallows, not far from those drop-offs, will hold smallies, especially during overcast days or as dusk begins to settle in. If I had to pick an ideal bottom condition, it would be the cusp or “spine” between shoal water and the depths. While lakers and other salmonoids (as well as white perch) stage in deep water, when the feeding switch gets flipped, they push panfish fry and smelt up against the shallows. Such conditions exist off Gates 7, 8, 13, 22, 30, and 35.
Probing those depths with a jigging spoon such as a ¾- to 1-ounce blue/chrome or gold Kastmaster will help find the habitat I’m referring to. The same areas will also hold Wachusett’s super-sized smallmouth, which in addition to ambushing the same forage as the other species, raids the shallows for crayfish, killifish, sunfish fry, and yellow perch fry.
Along with Kastmasters, Swedish Pimples, Hopkin’s Smoothies, and Krocodiles, I bring along an assortment of topwaters for the Chu’s incredible black bass. You may have noticed that I did not specify smallmouth bass. While smallies dominate Wachusett, I’ve often been surprised when a nice largemouth came out of nowhere and socked my lure. And just like their Sally cousins, the Larrys here are robust and colorful.
When the water is glass-calm, subtle offerings such as spooks often work best. When the surface is choppier, I up the ante to a wild gill Megabass Popmax or Whopper Plopper. The mantra of quiet when calm and noisy when nasty has always worked for me.
The only potential pitfall in the summer is if you don’t have the proper gear. In spring, anglers can get away with any old rod/reel because smelt are in close and inshore water temperatures are ideal for the salmonoids. Once the mercury is turned up, though, that changes. Having a combo that can launch a lure 80 to 100 yards into the horizon may mean the difference between stellar and a skunk. Many years ago, my friend Rick Holbrook lent me his rod and I was never the same. G. Loomis’ superbly crafted and balanced 8’6” #1025 salmon/steelhead blank in many iterations is a weapon and perfectly suited to fishing Wachusett. My original GL3 version still performs admirably as does my most recent acquisition, the E6X model. Ensconced on one of my rods is a Shimano Stradic 3000, while another is fitted with a Shimano Vanford 3000. When spooled with 10- to 12-pound Berkeley Nanofil line, these things are rocket launchers that load like a dream and can be cast for hours with little fatigue. Far from being one-trick combos, they also work well when running and gunning for bonito or false albacore in the salt.
Mass Bay Fluke
While I’m no conspiracist, for much of the summer, my world is flat. I simply love fishing for fluke and, ironically, we might have it better than where you’d “expect” to find them. A few times every summer, I haul down to Buzzards Bay to fish for inshore fluke and often get lukewarm results. Upon my return, I may give it a go locally and do far better. What I’ve also noticed is that the ratio of keepers to shorts is more favorable here than there. This year, “keeper” status is one inch lower for shore anglers at 16.5 inches as opposed to 17.5 inches for boaters. The possession limit and season is the same for both at 5 fish until September 23. For me, the difference is moot since I’m happy just to catch them and watch them swim off.
While I’m not suggesting that the fluke biomass is as populous as more southern environs, maybe our stock is not as pressured as those fish. I’m convinced that “our” fluke are self-sustaining—evidence of fry support this—and their only migration is an inshore/offshore one. It could simply be that the commercial fleet, principally the draggers, don’t target our stock as much as other populations. Regardless, fluke are thriving in these parts. In spite of season-long pressure, I’ve had some of my best outings iin September just before these fish migrate out to sea.
Far from a concentrated epicenter, fluke in Mass Bay can be found from the Plymouth flats to the sound of Plum Island. Estuaries are a fluke fisher’s best friend, places where all manner of small prey can be found—juvenile winter flounder, silversides, mummichogs, killifish, and even smaller fluke. As for rigs, I keep it simple with a 1/0 to 2/0 wide-gap hook embellished with a pink, white, or chartreuse Spin-N-Glo attractant, 24 to 30 inches of fluorocarbon leader (20- to 30-pound test), and finish it off with a 1- to 2-ounce egg sinker. One of the things I like about this rig is that it is snag-resistant … because where you find fluke in Greater Boston, you’ll also find no shortage of tackle-eating structure. As for bait, a variety of Gulp and soft-plastic curly-tail grubs will work, but if you have access to natural baits, such as squid, killies, silversides, or (best of all) snapper blues, you will fare better.
I prefer drifting on an outgoing tide from deep to shallow where fluke often stage, looking to ambush. Most of my fluke fishing takes place in 12 to 30 feet of water. To maintain good contact with the bottom but to limit hooking it, tailor your sinker weight so that your offering is more or less straight below your kayak or boat. Avoid substantial scope of your line, which is why the sinker sweet spot for me is usually 1 to 2 ounces.
Historically, Greater Boston areas where there have been the densest populations of fluke are World’s End/the Weir River, the West Gut, the Town River, Wollaston Beach, Revere Beach, Lynn Harbor, and the Saugus River. Many of these are readily accessible and can be fished from shore as well as from craft. A bucktail jig/squid strip, fish strip, or artificial baits is all you need to tempt these toothies.
If you are ready to take a pause in all things striped bass, then you have some refreshing options out there. As for missing out on linesiders, relax. Haven’t you heard of the fall run?
North Shore
By Steve Gallant
Bluefish Bring the Heat in Midsummer
Well into our New England summer, it’s time to talk about midsummer fishing patterns. Water temperatures are rising toward their peak, and with any luck, we will be saved by our favorite yellow-eyed, sharp-toothed friends, the bluefish. Although we tend to think of mid-August as summer, for anglers it is also the start of the fall run.
July and August are still big striper months on the North Shore. I hope we will have decent numbers of large bass spending time in our waters. These bass are not found in the same places they were a month earlier because July is a time of transition. In many areas, water temperatures have risen past stripers’ comfort zone. They will push out of most rivers and estuaries, and the bait they have been chasing will also leave most of the backwaters.
Schools of adult menhaden will make their way out along the beaches and into the bays and harbors. In years past, some of the most epic and prolonged pogy bites along North Shore beaches happened in July. Long ago, when I was for working for Obsessed Charter as a mate on their six-pack charter boat out of the Merrimack, we had some insane days in July on big pogy schools. I remember going out several days in a row to the same stretch of beach off Plum Island, and the school of pogies was in exactly the same spot, day after day. The bass and blues stayed with them for days, too. Finally, the weather shifted, we got an easterly blow, and the school dispersed.
Many bass shift into feeding exclusively at night during July. Boat traffic probably plays a big factor in this. Not only does it drive bass out of certain areas, but it can also make some places downright unfishable. Even so, midsummer is a great time to be a boat angler. That’s not to say that surfcasters won’t be rewarded, but the odds are tipped in the favor of those who can go look for fish in deeper, cooler locations just offshore.
Mackerel can be a big player since they usually hit peak abundance in July. Use Sabiki rigs and hit a few different depths until you find them. (Larger offshore marker buoys can be a haven for schooling mackerel.) Once you load up on bait, the next decision is where to fish them. Deeper structure are good places to look this month. Reefs, drop-offs, offshore rock piles, and even sandbars are possibilities.
Inshore anglers will even have a chance at tuna in some locations without having to burn much gas. On several occasions, I saw 300-pound-plus bluefin tuna rip though schools of bait within casting range of surfcasters on the rocks. Hooking such a fish with feet planted on the rocks is a futile endeavor, as several fishermen and their empty reels can attest. A couple years ago, someone even hooked and landed a juvenile mako shark that ate a pencil popper intended for bluefish. You never know what you are going to see when the water heats up.
Every summer, I look forward to the arrival (I hope) of schools of ravenous bluefish. They can be found in a number of places, but I do best along open oceanfront beaches and among the rocks of Cape Ann. I have seen schools of them entering rivers and estuaries pursuing food, which they follow closely. I don’t usually find just one or two fish randomly cruising. They are usually in groups, harassing a school of some sort of baitfish. Birds and nervous water are two key things to keep an eye out for if you are on the hunt.
You can catch bluefish a number of ways, but topwater is one of the most exciting. Pencil poppers, spooks, and classic Roberts Rangers are all good options, as are bucktails and tins. I would avoid soft plastics, as the blues’ teeth will make quick work of them. Meanwhile, boat anglers will have good luck trolling deep-diving plugs. Bluefish are, pound for pound, some of the strongest-fighting fish in our waters. They will chase down a pencil with reckless abandon and sometimes three or four will fight over it at a time. They also seem to be able to see well when outside of the water, so be careful when you are reaching in to get your lure back. Some people get annoyed with bluefish and think they are a nuisance, but any hard-fighting fish willing to smash a topwater is a worthy pursuit in my book.
Our summer patterns will continue into August, but by the end of the month, I am always on the lookout for the first signs of the fall run getting started. While some think it is the first few cold nights that set the run into motion, I am more inclined to think that the shortening of the days is the driver. When I see the first schools of peanut bunker along our shores, I know that the run has begun. Their presence is usually given away by birds circling and diving overhead, nervous water, or fish blasting them at the surface. By the end of August, it is already time to get out your binoculars to check some of your fall-run routes. Pack some peanut-bunker imitations in your bag of tricks, and you can get a start on the fall run before the calendar turns to September.
Related Content
Pack a Plug Bag for Surfcasting at Night
Essential Plugs for Topwater Bluefish
Source: https://onthewater.com/whats-biting-in-july-in-massachusetts
$post[‘post_content’] .= ‘Source‘;
