Refocus with a clear mind

FISHING FORECAST

Fishing has a reputation for relaxation, but for regular practitioners, it can more accurately be described as meditative.

Don’t believe it’s possible to achieve mental clarity through fishing? Try fishing a Spook-style plug. Its rhythmic side-toside movement, known as a “walk the dog” retrieve, will focus your senses as you feel the rod twitch, watch the plug sashay and listen to it swish across the surface.

By the third cast, your mind will have cleared and you’ll be in an emotionally calm state, but it won’t last. When a striped bass hits a Spook, it’s almost always with a violence that sends white water flying. Suddenly, you’re back in the moment, your adrenaline is flowing, and your heart is racing. Talk about being present.

The classic cigar-shaped Zara Spook topwater plug, developed by the Heddon company more than 75 years ago, inspired countless variations. For striped bass fishing, two popular models are the Rapala Saltwater Skitter Walk and the Yo-Zur`i Hydro Pencil. If you’re targeting big bass, dare to throw the nineinch Drifter Tackle Doc, or the RD Bomb by Massachusetts-based Daddy Mac.

South Shore

Bluefin tuna have been hanging on the edges of Stellwagen Bank, where fishermen are hooking up by live-lining mackerel.

Schools of 28-to-32-inch stripers have been feeding in Scituate Harbor, and fishermen are catching them by trolling tubeand-worm rigs. Larger bass have been haunting the schools of Atlantic menhaden, a large oily baitfish locally known as “pogies,” which have also attracted dolphins and minke whales.

The larger tides brought on by the approaching full moon have brought an uptick in action in the Cape Cod Canal where schools of 20-pound and larger stripers are feeding on mackerel at first light. Pencil poppers, Sebile Magic Swimmers, and soft-plastic paddle-tail jigs in mackerel patterns are working best.

Boston Harbor

The striper fishing cooled a bit from last week’s red-hot action where fishermen reported big bass chasing down herring on the surface. Difficult weather conditions contributed to the slow down.

Pogies moved in in huge numbers. There was a fish kill in the Mystic River where thousands of bait fish have floated to the surface dead. This is not uncommon with menhaden, as the densely schooling bait fish occasionally move deep into backwaters where they exhaust the oxygen supply and die before they can escape to open water.

With so many menhaden in the Harbor, not every school will hold striped bass. Fishermen will have the best luck moving between schools until they find some “nervous” bait. Pogies with stripers lurking nearby will form tighter, faster-moving schools than pogies without nearby stripers.

North Shore

Schoolie striped bass to 25 inches are providing fun, light-tackle action at the mouth of the Danvers River. Small spooks, paddle-tail soft plastics and minnow plugs are getting the most action. A few bluefish have begun to poke their toothy heads around, but overall it’s been an unusually slow year for the blues.

Menhaden schools have thinned out, as the fish move toward New Hampshire and Maine, but there were still enough around this week to draw a school of small bluefin tuna into 20 feet of water!

The best striper fishing is taking place at night, along the ocean front from Plum Island to New Hampshire, with live eels the preferred bait.