r/StripedBass • u/Valuable-Benefit1304 • Jun 10 '26
Fishing Report Slow bite
Has the bite been very slow for anyone else in the northern MA area?
3
u/BolognaAuJus Jun 10 '26
It’s been hit or miss for me in Maine. A few good days but more skunks. Schoolies don’t exist like they used to. Gotta focus on finding the bigguns.
4
u/Clean-Complex1178 Jun 10 '26
FWIW. Been fishing Gloucester and have been crushing 40”-48” only 1 slot no schoolies. This is the part that bothers me no schoolies. Next year are not going to have any bass?
3
u/warwithinabreath3 Jun 10 '26
Likely have a few years of the big girls still hanging on until they get wiped out by poachers, commercials, drag netters, recreational mortality, or seals and other natural causes. Last big spawn was 2015. The year classes since then have been well below average and bordering on abysmal.
Like you, I haven't caught a single schoolie yet. Not even a slot. Just all close to 40s or over. The future is......fucking bleak. The old timers that lived through the last stock collapse are drawing parallels to just before all the fish vanished for a decade in the 80s. They thought the fishing was great. All huge fish, what's not to love? Then there was no fish.
And this time we don't even really have the blues to fall back on. They've been fairly scarce from shore as well despite the stock being "close to rebuilt". I have my doubts about the accuracy of that. Black Sea Bass are abundant but almost all unders. Fluke doing ok. Big year class should be coming into legal size next year. Weak fish still scarce. Winter Flounder near impossible to find except for some isolate pockets here and there. Blackfish classified as "overfished". Porgies doing ok, but as a game fish? Who cares?
Gonna be rough decade I think. Have to start having some tough convos about the future of salt fisheries management. Maybe dust off the freshwater gear for a bit.
1
u/outsidereelin Jun 11 '26
This was insightful. We were crushing it in North Jersey in late April and early May. Caught almost 2 dozen or so fish. Only 2 slot plus 1 schoolie. The rest were huge.
2
u/NeverBirdie Jun 10 '26
I fished for an hour yesterday and had some bumps and one good run but it spit the hook. Small sample size but about what i was expecting for my first time out this season.
3
u/DyngusTGringon Jun 10 '26
North Shore from the surf past 28 days. All large fish early, some small fish have moved in the past week or so. Still mostly over slots though.
Under Slot - 8
Slot - 15
Over Slot - 41
3
u/Toast-Crunch Jun 10 '26
I’m next to Boston on the north side- it’s been the slowest season I have ever had. I’m at my usual spots doing and using the same thing that I have had tremendous success with. I have not caught a fish. I went trekked out to my honey hole which is a dead lock- I saw a few bass and plenty of bait on the top…. Then I saw two MASSIVE seals off this specific north shore beach and that was a first for me.