Cold waters still run deep

FISHING FORECAST

Even when the air temperatures spike into the 90s in June, the ocean water remains cool and comfortable for our sevenstriped quarry.

I recall my first summer in Boston some two decades ago, taking a drive to Ipswich during a June heat wave to beat the heat and do some fishing at Crane Beach.

The first step into the 55-degree Atlantic water was a shock, but my first cast produced a hit, so I waded in up to the waistband of my bathing suit and fished until well after my legs went numb.

Eventually the summer sun will warm our near shore waters to levels comfortable for taking a dip, but those temperatures will also push stripers out to deeper waters.

So this is the time for shore-based fishermen to strike while the water’s cold, and the stripers are within reach from the beach.

Note that this Father’s Day weekend is a free fishing weekend in the commonwealth, so no permit is required to get out and go fishing in salt water.

South Shore

Not much news from the Cape Cod Canal, where the only positive reports have been from fishermen working the night tides. The Cape Cod Bay beaches have good numbers of 20-inch-class stripers from Sandy Neck to the Brewster Flats.

Boat fishermen are finding mackerel outside of Plymouth Bay and running them across to Race Point to feed to stripers in the rip. Fishing inside the three bays of Plymouth, Duxbury and Kingston has improved, with fish feeding on the edges of the flats on the falling tides.

Early mornings are the easiest for finding mackerel in 50 to 80 feet of water off Scituate. Look for schools of big bass following mackerel in the deep water, or live-line them off Fourth Cliff.

The ledges from Collamore to Whitcomb and Minot are also starting to give up some nice bass, and there have been reports of big bluefish getting in the mix.

Green Harbor and Scituate Harbor have had very good flounder fishing. Fish sea worms on the bottom, and consider sinking a chum sack to draw the fish to you.

Boston Harbor

The flounder bite in the harbor has been good to great, with most fishermen catching their limits. The Deer Island flats and the waters around Rainsford, Peddocks and Gallops islands are good spots for drifting with sea worms on the bottom.

Light-tackle bass fishing remains very good inside the harbor from Castle Island out to Long Island and Deer Island. Deer Island is a great spot to fish from shore and either cast artificial lures for schoolies or soak pieces of cut mackerel for a shot at a bigger bass. Clams fished from Castle Island in South Boston should also produce.

Your best shot at catching a striper over 20 pounds is to fish live mackerel off the outer harbor islands from Graves to Martin Ledge and out to the B-Buoy.

North Shore

Fishermen are catching haddock without running all the way to Stellwagen Bank. Deep water just a few miles off Egg Rock in Nahant, Halfway Rock outside Salem Sound, and a 10-mile run out of Gloucester harbor has been holding keeper-sized fish.

Mackerel are present in Salem Sound and anglers trolling and drifting by Misery and Bakers islands have been finding willing fish.

For flounder, give it a go at Good Harbor Beach in Gloucester as well as Niles Beach. The Dogbar breakwater remains one of the best possibilities for a keeper striper.

The Essex River is giving up schoolies and small keepers from the boat launch to where it joins up with Crane Beach.

There are still a lot of school-size stripers around Plum Island, but some bigger bass have shown up at the mouth of the Merrimack River and inside the river on Joppa Flats.

Look for this bite to only get better as more bass push north.