Saugus River pier frequenters out for fish

LYNN – Josh Vasquez sailed a long, arcing cast out over the Saugus River and started reeling in his chunk of fish bait as soon as his hook hit the water.”I’m going to get a crab or seaweed,” announced Vasquez, 10, as the filament line stretching from his hands out to the water snapped taut and bowed his rod.He reeled in his hook and bait and got ready to cast again while other fishermen lining the wood pier rail baited hooks or dipped small nets loaded with chicken legs into the water in hopes of luring crabs.The pier thrusting out from the Lynn side of the river and paralleling the General Edwards Bridge is a prime fishing spot for locals like Vasquez and Jim McDonough who spent last Friday dipping hooks and lures into the river hoping to snag a striped bass.”They are starting to hit really good up in Maine,” McDonough said.The Lynn resident said the pier is a good spot to fish for striped bass all through August. He pulled four of the tasty fish out of the waters off the weathered and hole-pocked pier last year.”I wrap them in aluminum foil with celery,” he said.High tide draws fishermen and women down the dirt road off the Lynnway to the pier during daytime or even in the middle of the night when McDonough has seen the railings lined with rods. He was on the pier one night when fellow casters baited the water around the pier with blood and landed an eight-foot shark.Jose Quinones hoped to land a striper last Friday as he cast off the pier. Returning home empty handed still meant he spent the afternoon enjoying himself.”It’s a chance to be away from everybody and it’s kind of peaceful,” he said as he fiddled with a lure designed to catch sunlight then reflect it underwater.”It’s a matter of the fish passing by and seeing it. Mostly, it’s a lot of luck.”