Massachusetts Striped Bass

[Fly Rod]

The commercial season for striped bass in Massachusetts tentively starts Sunday, July 12th.

All fish must be over 34 inches in length when fishing commercial. You can only fish on Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday till midnight. Check with your local dealer on what time that they close for the day on Thursday, if you have any striped bass after midnight you will be in violation.

All striped bass regardless of commercially fishing or recreationally must be landed in the round,( whole ) you can not fillet them while in a boat,you must be at the dock.

Highgrading ( keeping smaller size fish alive and discarding them when you catch a larger fish )Highgrading is illegal commercially and recreational.

You are not allowed to fish outside the 3 mile limit for striped bass no matter what state you are in. They are protected by the Federal Government.

Exsample: If caught outside the 3 mile limit commercially or recreationally with striped bass you could lose everything that you have with you at the time, your boat, your trailer and vechicle if you trailered your boat to a landing and a hefty fine.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Hopefully this little windy thing we had the past few days will push them north a bit faster

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

They never come too early or too late.

 

[JustMrWill]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Thanks for the info. Learned something new...just wish I knew what I forgot to make room for the new stuff....hmmm.

I didn't realize there was so many rules. Now I just need a working boat by July.

-JMW

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Also if you have a BOAT license all people on your boat are covered under your commercial boat license.

If you only have the $35.00 individual commercial license everybody on your boat needs to have a license.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Hopefully this little windy thing we had the past few days will push them north a bit faster

Still in the rivers spawning at the moment so don't hold your breath. This past week is typically "the week" around here but this late season cold weather still has them up in the rivers waiting to spawn. We need several more days or temps in the mid to upper 70's to get them to start moving out of the rivers and back into open water. Unless something drastically changes in the next week better figure two weeks behind schedule, minimum.

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

THEY ARE HERE!!! ON TIME !!!

Where else then CAPE ANN a fishing PARADISE!!!

 

[dingbat]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

I'm sure Cape Ann is a great place but for the next 10-15 days the best Striper fishing on the East coast is going on right here off the end of my dock

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

And U didn't even invite me down. Where abouts U from?

There is a lot of great fishing up and down the coast.

Here on Cape Ann the fishing for stripers is GREAT from May-
Sept.. They do travel up to Maine but the biggest pod of stripers lounge here for the summer. The big girls R here from the 3rd week of May. Also during the Mass. commercial striper season of about 21 fishing days, we catch over a million pounds just using rod and reel. And also we have a great haddock fishery and there is cod and tuna.

And lets not forget about the DOGS, "Who Let The DOGS Out!!" you can catch a thousand of them in a day.

Have a GREAT DAY!!!

 

[dingbat]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Come on down. The only problem is that you'll have to learn to fish with planner boards and braided line like us "Chessie" boys

We've got 10-15 days of wide opening fishing coming up. Yesterday was the first time we've started to hear about huge fish causing break offs so they're finally starting to show in the main stream of the Bay.

Fishing a 3 day tournamant this weekend and it's going to take three huge fish to get into the money.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Come on down. The only problem is that you'll have to learn to fish with planner boards and braided line like us "Chessie" boys

We've got 10-15 days of wide opening fishing coming up. Yesterday was the first time we've started to hear about huge fish causing break offs so they're finally starting to show in the main stream of the Bay.

Fishing a 3 day tournamant this weekend and it's going to take three huge fish to get into the money.

What is considered huge?

 

[dingbat]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

What is considered huge?

It will take something over 50 to get in the money.

Lots of mid-40's fish out there right now. Released 3 over 40 yesterday morning.

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Good Luck in the tournament!!!!!

Why planer boards? We dead drift herring when there is no live mac,s around we also use eels.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

Down here it’s an intercept fishery. These fish are coming back out of the rivers after the spawn and following the shipping channel back to the Atlantic ASAP. For the most part these are big solitary fish that spend very little time feeding on the way back out. If you put bait in front of them they might take it but waiting for them to come to you is fruitless. The solution, take the bait to them.

The concept is easy, drag as many baits as possible back and forth across the channel in hopes of running into one of these fish which is where the planner boards fit in.

I run tripe planer boards out 100’ on each side of the boat. This allows me to run up to 14 rods with 28 baits (5 off each planner) and cover an area 200’ wide at the same time.

Boards also serve the purpose of getting the baits away from the boat. The fish are typically in the top 20’ of the water column so the boat moving over them causes them to sound so you can see the advantage of getting your baits away from the boat. An umbrella rig running right below the surface off the planner line is absolutely deadly during the week when boat traffic is low, if there is such a thing in season.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

If you try any of that around the cape or Gloucester,you would probably be illegal.Besides you better have 10 pairs of arms and legs ,because if you pull that contraption through a school around here you would have 10 simultaneous hookups.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

If you try any of that around the cape or Gloucester,you would probably be illegal.Besides you better have 10 pairs of arms and legs ,because if you pull that contraption through a school around here you would have 10 simultaneous hookups.

Why would it be illegal? I don't see any gear restrictions on hook and line fishing in Mass.

 

[Fly Rod]

Re: Massachusetts Striped Bass

The only restriction for rod and reel is you can only have one hook on a line and you can have as many rods out as you want. When fishing 4 rods or more up here, you could have multiple hook ups and twisted lines. The other problem here is when trolling like you do with all that gear out you have to contend with thousands lobsta bouys. I do troll with 4 lines out for Bluefish but you have to be very sharp eyed or you will snag them bouys.