Fish On: Mackerel are the key to catching bass

They’re Baaack!!Here we go again! Finally, after a brutal New England winter, and a spring that brought rain, rain, and more rain, our most beloved saltwater gamefish, the striped bass, have returned to our waters after their long migration here from Chesapeake Bay. They started trickling into our area around the first week of May, and now they’re showing up in droves! It’s as if Mother Nature times it perfectly each year for the bass to arrive at the same time as one of their all-time favorite foods, the mackerel. Bass are everywhere, and chasing more mackerel than I’ve seen in years. The key to catching some truly big, early season stripers is just that – find the macks. They don’t call them striper candy for nothing! And they won’t be hard to find! So change that line from last year and sharpen up the hooks because another fishing season is upon us, and so far it’s started out great!Here’s a look at our areas:Boston HarborBoston Harbor fishing has been great. Mackerel, pogies, herring, and alewives, just a plethora of bait, are all over the Harbor. Stripers to 40 pounds have been taken along the Deer Island wall in Winthrop on large Stan Gibbs Danny plugs, pencil poppers, and tube ‘n worm rigs. Orange and red tubes have been the best colors. Flounder fishing is great as well right now. Flatties to 3 pounds are being taken around hospital shoals, Governor’s Island, around the Logan Airport runway pier, and on Deer Island’s Fawn Bar. A 2 hook, weighted flounder rig with half a seaworm on each will do the trick for these prized table fish.Lynn/NahantOur area is perhaps the best place to be at the moment! It’s a North Shore Mack Attack! Huge schools of Mackerel are all over Lynn and Nahant. Just yesterday I met a gentleman fishing East Point Nahant, a Boston Pops violinist named Gerry Mordis, who was fishing for mackerel with a green deadly dick. The mackerel were everywhere and were being pummeled by stripers below, and a mass of seagulls from above. We watched him hook into a mackerel, then proceed to be spooled and broken off by a large striper that hit his mack during the retrieve! What a show! Stripers to 40 pounds were taken for three days straight all around Egg Rock off Lynn Beach with live mackerel. You can jig them up with a standard Sabiki Rig with a weight. A live lined mack in June is a sure bet for an early season cow, just be sure to be using heavy enough tackle or you’ll end up like Gerry!Salem/BeverlyOnce again, mackerel is king. Macks are all over Beverly and Salem harbors. Anglers are catching them right off the Salem Willows Pier, the Beverly Pier, and in between Bakers and Misery Islands. Live lining them is the way to go, but if you can’t get any, a chunk of fresh mackerel or a fresh clam from your local bait shop has been working. Also, there are whisperings of pogies being sighted in Salem Harbor in the morning already?Cape Ann/ NewburyportPlum Island has finally heated up. Fishing with clams or seaworms in the Merrimack River by the mouth has been producing huge numbers of stripers for fishermen. They seem to be hitting the best during the last 3 hours of the tide in the river, and on the oceanfront during the incoming. Joppa Flats is also producing quality fish on live eels when the sun goes down. Sassy Shads, jigs with a rubber worm, and Ron-Z’s are working great. Gloucester is loaded with mackerel as well, and again, live lining them is the way to go.The Bottom LineIf you’re going out fishing this weekend, the name of the game is this: Find the Macks! Find the macks, find the bass. Bass will be all around the mackerel schools, and the key to livelining mackerel is to drop your bait on the edge, or behind the school. Big stripers are opportunistic feeders and will wait for wounded bait to drop out of the school for an easy picking. Hot spots for the weekend will be around the tip of Nahant, and Plum Island, either at the mouth or on Joppa. Good luck and be safe!If you have a photo of yourself with an