Fish On!: Fishing for a cause

This weekend marks the 8th Annual Help Hook The Cure striper tournament in Boston Harbor. Like I mentioned last week, it benefits the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Disease and has raised $85,000 to date for this great charity. The tourney starts Saturday morning at 5 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m. It’s not too late to sign up, just contact the Winthrop Elks for more info. We’ll have some nice tides this weekend; with High Tides falling on those magic times of dawn and dusk, we could be in for some great fishing. The fish just have to cooperate!Boston HarborFishing has been steady in the Harbor lately, with stripers falling for tube n’ worm rigs at night, and topwater plugs in the mornings. And there are some quality bass around the pogie schools. There are plenty of pogies in the harbor right now, but the key is finding a school that has bass on it. Big bluefish are being reported in the Harbor as well, so bring along some steel leaders if you’re fishing the tournament this weekend! Deer Island and Castle Island are fishing well from the shore with chunk baits.Lynn/NahantIt’s funny, lately the surfcasters are outfishing the boat crowd! Some nice fish are being caught along Lynn Beach this past week. Ippi from Ippi’s Bait and Tackle in Wyoma Square reports that there’s a nice black sea bass bit going on in Lynn Harbor on seaworms, as well as snapper bluefish and fluke. There’s a nice picture of a fisherman at Red Rock last Sunday with a trophy striper caught off the wall on the shop’s website. Tube n Worm rigs have been working for the kayak crowd lately, with black at night and orange or red during the day. A fresh seaworm on the end is the key.Salem/MarbleheadUnless you’re one of the guys snagging pogies in Salem Harbor and livelining them, it’s been pretty slow. One angler stated, “It’s been brutal for a couple of weeks” in the Salem/Beverly area. Reports are that unless you come across topwater blitz here and there, it’s been dead. Mackerel are hit or miss out by the Islands, but there’s plenty of small Pollock to be jigged up instead with a Sabiki Rig, which seem to work almost as well as a live mack. Marblehead, however, is a bright spot, as Devereux and Preston beaches have been producing for the surfcasting crowd, as well as Castle Rock. Clams and herring are working best.Cape Ann/NewburyportBass and blues are being caught off Andrew’s Point and around the Lanesville area of Rockport. Topwater plugs are working when surface feeds pop up, and diving plugs like the Yo-Zuri Deep Divers and jawbreakers are working for blues below. I stopped in to Surfland Bait on Plum Island this week, and the folks there report, “Bait at night! The nighttime guys fishing the beachfront are doing well, and we have a group of youths who have been coming in and buying little shad fish and they seem to be doing well up and down the beach.” Clams and seaworms are the go-to baits right now.The Bottom LineWhile fishing has been on the slow side, there still are some big stripers around, likely due to the pogie schools in the area. And if the bass aren’t cooperating, there’s bluefish, fluke and seabass to keep us happy! The key for stripers is mobility right now, if an area isn’t producing when you thought it would, give it an hour and move to another spot. And the old adage of “Find the bait, find the fish” holds true. Finding what bass are foraging on, such as a school of pogies, is the way to success. Good luck this weekend to everyone who is fishing the Boston Harbor Tournament, and as always, be safe!Joe Holey can be reached at [email protected]