Pogies thrill anglers, bass alike

FISHING FORECAST

When the calendar flipped to July, excited whispers filtered in from fishermen and through our community’s vast network of tackle shop counters, online reports and social media posts. “Pogies.”

To an outsider, the excitement over a 1-pound fish that won’t hit a baited hook or lure and is too oily for table fare is difficult to understand, but the appeal of the pogy, or menhaden, is not as food for humans, it’s as a preferred prey item for big striped bass.

Of course, striped bass aren’t the only organism that will make a meal of menhaden. Bluefish, bluefin tuna, whales and seabirds also depend on them for nourishment, earning menhaden the title “most important fish in the sea.” But it’s the magical magnetic pull they have on stripers that starts pulses racing when a school of pogies is spotted splashing at the surface.

After decades of scarce sightings, better management of the commercial fishery, which turns them into fish meal and fish oil, has resulted in more menhaden migrating into New England waters in recent years. This bounty of bait is thrilling striper fishermen, and the bass seem pretty happy about it as well.

South Shore

Favorable morning low tides this weekend following the new moon have fishermen excited for a big bass bite in the Cape Cod Canal. With pogies reported in Cape Cod Bay, they could be the baitfish that gets pulled into the east end of the Canal and brings bass with them. If so, expect Sebile Stick Shadds and various pencil poppers to do a lot of damage. If the predominate bait is mackerel, Savage Sand Eel jigs, Yo-Zuri Long Cast Minnows and Daiwa SP Minnows in mackerel patterns will produce best.

The striper bite has been a little less consistent out at Race Point as the bass are starting to spend time offshore in federal waters (where it is illegal to target them). It’s also possible that some stripers have shifted their focus from sand eels and mackerel to menhaden and are pursuing the pogies wherever they go.

While mackerel have been tougher to find, pogies in Duxbury Harbor and moving along the beaches are providing another live bait option. Fluke get very little attention inside Plymouth Bay, but jigging bucktail and Gulp combinations along channel edges can produce keeper-sized specimens this time of year.

Inshore bass fishing has been best before sunrise and at night off Scituate and Marshfield. The North River continues to fish well for bass under 30 inches. First light is the best time to find mackerel, though you might have to travel out to the edge of Stellwagen for them. The ledges around Minot are still holding bass.

Bluefin tuna have arrived on Stellwagen Bank and the tuna fishing should continue to improve in the coming weeks. Haddock fishing is excellent in deep water to the east of the Bank and blue sharks are providing plenty of action.

Boston Harbor

Pogies are drawing some bigger bass inside the harbor, but most of the striper action is coming from schoolie-sized fish feeding on smaller bait. Deeper water around the Outer Harbor ledges is more likely to hold big bass now that inshore water temperatures have jumped.

Flounder are still biting but most of the fish have shifted out to deeper water. Check out the flats around Green Island, or switch your bottom-fishing efforts to target black sea bass. Once a rarity in Boston, the sea bass are common now on rockpiles around Hull. A 2-ounce bucktail jig baited with a strip of squid or a Gulp bait is your best bait for keeper sea bass.

North Shore

If you can track down a school of pogies off Nahant and outside Salem and Gloucester harbors, you have a shot at great action on bass from 20 to 30 pounds. Snagging the pogies and fishing them on the spot is the top technique, but topwater plugs and soft-plastic baits will fool fish as well. Inside Salem Sound, schoolie-sized bass have been active chasing bait under birds.

Pogies from Thacher Island to Ipswich Bay and all the way into Maine have fishermen racing between bait pods looking for “nervous” baitfish that are under attack from big bass.