Throw cold water on fish tale

FISHING FORECAST

One thing to keep in mind this time of year, as we sweat through a string of 90-degree days, is that striped bass are coldblooded.

While that might sound like a good thing when dealing with a summer heat wave, it means that fish are at the mercy of their environment. When the water gets too hot for their comfort, the only way they can find relief is by flipping their fins and heading for someplace cooler.

That’s why if you want to catch a striper right now, you should keep the water temperature in mind. Bass will vacate inshore, shallow waters and estuaries that have been baking under the July sun, moving to cooler, deeper waters farther offshore.

However, there are a lot of factors that influence local water temperatures. For example, a strong southwest wind might bring hot, humid air to the South Shore, but it can actually push hot surface water offshore and result in a drop in water temperature along the beaches.

Tides can also play an important role. While the mouth of the Merrimack might be devoid of striper life when an ebbing tide drains hot river water into the Atlantic, an incoming tide will bring a flood of cool ocean water onto Joppa Flats and bring in the bass.

It’s much simpler for fishermen. When it’s 90 degrees in your backyard, it’s almost always cooler at the coast, so beat the heat and get out on the water.

South Shore

A large school of stripers off the Sandwich beaches in Cape Cod Bay has been drawing in hundreds of boats on commercial striper fishing days. The bass are moving back and forth between the east end of the Canal and Barnstable Harbor. Look for strong tides to bring some bait and bass into the east end of the Canal.

Bluefish have been unpredictable, in thick off the power plant in Plymouth one day, missing the next. Troll deep-diving plugs to cover water if you want to search for the blues, which could reappear in the waters off Gurnet Point, outside of Green Harbor, or 2-4 miles off Scituate.

A drop in coastal water temperatures reinvigorated the bass bite, reported Pete of Belsan’s Bait in Scituate. Mackerel have been a challenge, but can still be found most days. Tube-and-worm rigs are a good option if you can’t collect live mackerel.

Flounder fishing should be petering out at this point in the season, but fishermen are still finding limits in the North River.

Boston Harbor

Bluefish are providing the bulk of the action for Boston Harbor anglers. You’ll find bluefish on the ledges off Hull, and from Graves out to the “B” Buoy, tearing through what’s left of the mackerel schools. Striper fishing has been taking place mostly in deeper water outside of Boston’s Outer Harbor Islands, Broad Sound and Nahant Bay. Slow-trolled live mackerel are the top bait fuor bass.

Flounder fishing is slow, as would be expected in late July. Shift to deeper flats around the outer Harbor islands if you find your inshore spots devoid of flatfish. Or, target the black sea bass that are hitting jigs on rockpiles around Hull Gut.

North Shore

Salem Sound to Gloucester Harbor has been as consistent as any stretch of shoreline this month. Warming waters have moved fish out of the Danvers River, but there are still bass being caught outside the harbors in Beverly and Salem channels and out at Misery and Bakers islands. Fly-fishermen are enjoying the early-morning action on school-size stripers inside Salem Sound.

Bluefish have been in thick off Cape Ann and at the mouth of the Merrimack.

Offshore

Bluefin tuna have moved onto Peaked Hill Bar, and there are giants on Stellwagen and Jeffries. However, many tuna chasers are trailering their boats to get in on the action south of Martha’s Vineyard, where large numbers of tuna from 30-55 inches are schooled up from Gordon’s Gully to the Dump.