New England - South Shore Massachusetts to Maine Fishing Reports

Pete was holding down the fort at Belsan’s Bait & Tackle he said the little bit of peanut bunker they were seeing a few weeks ago, has been “missing in action” since the nor’easter. This comes with some long faces on the part of local surfcasters, since these pint-sized pogies have fueled some incredible blitzes in local waters over the past several fall runs. There are still striped bass around locally and they are being caught from shore and boat. The North River has been the hot zone this week. There have also been reports of big movements of bass offshore, even out at Stellwagen, the consensus is that these fish are taking a shortcut in their migration and might make landfall somewhere along the Cape. Speaking of Stellwagen, the crop of school bluefin that we were reporting ahead of the nor’easter seemed to weather the storm and we’re still hearing reports of these 50-inch class tuna being caught on squid, mackerel and squid bars. Cod fishing has been tough this week, there are lots of short fish, but finding a 23-plus incher has been tough. Luckily bottom fishers have tog to fall back on. The local bite has been good on some of the nearshore ledges, with Minot being one of the best.

Over at Surfland Martha said, for the better part of a solid month, the best surf reports were coming from the Refuge. A slight change this week would be that there have been some good catches coming from the backside of this area as well. As the sunset time gets earlier and earlier, it will become more difficult for many to get there before the gate closes. There are still bass reports coming out of Maine as well, evidenced by Maine striper addicts driving down to Surfland to get eels. The storm moved a lot of those fish, but not all of them and the locals are trying to squeeze every last drop out of the incredible 2026 striper season in Maine.