greenmachine96

I don't think there is any activity specific information other than hiking being banned. Fishing should be fine but I just hope this mandate wakes up the people that haven't taken COVID seriously. "Your local municipal park may still be open. The decision to open or close local parks is up to the local governing body, Murphy said. However, he warned residents not to travel to another town to use their parks if your local park is closed."

I'll take this. Will be in NYC Friday-Sunday if we can arrange a pickup?

I fish areas similar to you, typically a bit further north. For the majority of this year, I used the 9'6 black hole Suzuki paired with a Daiwa BG 4000 and found it pretty perfect for essentially any outer harbor or open beach area I fished. Didn't get into any 20+lb fish with the setup yet, but with heftier schoolies from 26-31 inches you have plenty of backbone in the rod to get the fish in quickly for a good release but still feel a solid fight as the rod is so light. I think the Suzuki casts well down to 1/2oz using 20lb Suffix 832, but I don't really feel comfortable throwing the larger SS 2.75 oz little necks with full force. I think that throwing 1.25-1.75oz felt great, the set up really bombed lures out there - ss needles, the smaller ss little necks, sp minnows, etc. You could consider pairing the 9'6 Suzuki with a Slammer 4500, which is apparently on sale now, and be looking at a total of ~$350 for a solid setup that is splash/dunk resistant and a reel that could be used at the canal as well.

Covered a lot of ground from the slack high until just about low tide today in moco. Rewarded with 3 schoolies to 26”. Beautiful day to be out!

Back early from MA for thanksgiving with the family, thinking moco/nomoco tmw for trip 50 of the season, couple of spots in mind. Will report back!

Awesome info, thanks @Southcoastphil. I was thinking about eeling with my conventional setup. I'm not the most confident caster with a conventional so my distance might suffer, but it might be worth it to keep good contact as the eel gets pushed down the current and to allow it to swim, as you mentioned. I'll let you know if I try it.

Thanks @Sandbar1!

Stripers - Catching: C, Learning: A. This was my first full season targeted stripers...well...ever. When I was in NJ for school I didn't have a car and couldn't get to spots easily. Most of my fishing was done in the late spring and early fall and I didn't really know what I was doing or think formulaically when planning trips. This year I was able to begin finding patterns in local spots, which I think will allow me to do a lot more catching next year. I would grade my learning as an A here, though. While I think that my catch ratios are quite poor as is my keeper ratio, I've definitely built confidence with a variety of lures, and had a few solid nights of fishing. For attacking spots close to Boston, I'm not upset. I learned a lot in my ~10 trips to the canal this year too. I'm MUCH more comfortable jigging but I don't have a large enough sample size to really make predictions as I do for my local spots. I have two trips left in me this year (mostly because I really want to hit 50 total trips on the year), so hopefully my keeper striper total changes. Sea bass - A. Limited out on every boat trip with a family friend around buzzards bay and the Elizabeths. I ended up with a random bycatch of cocktail blues on a bucktail on one of these trips, which was fun. I ended up getting some tog while deadsticking clams, which is motivating me to try to target them more. I think jigging for tog seems fun, and potentially doable close to where I live. I would like to try getting out for fluke up here next year. Apparently, some were caught from shore north of me and fluking from shore is how I first started my fishing addiction. I met a bunch of nice people out this year, but not many SOLers, so hopefully that changes next year too. Cheers!

Hi all, I wouldn't consider myself a ditch regular by any means, but I live around Boston and have gone down to the canal more than a few times this year. I've been learning a ton this year during my first full season in MA, and was wondering strategy for eeling the canal. For example, with strong moon tides, is it customary to use a sinker to toss the eel? Is it more common to liveline the eel and try to stay in contact? My thought was to maybe throw the eel with a 2-4 oz sinker on, with the eel on a decently long leader so that it can move somewhat freely and I won't be getting swept down current. I figure it is late in the year, one more canal trip where I try something new would be fun before I pack it up for the season, and hoping that getting better at this strategy would give me a shot at a fish to remember. Thanks in advance!

Hit the outgoing around sunset in the harbor and got skunked. Saw 3 dinks caught

@BillyBallGame didn't realize you did those podcasts, been following for a little while, awesome content. Graveyard is the man - nice, knowledgeable and super helpful. His rigorous logs and information kept me motivated and optimistic during my first full season in MA the past few months. This was a great episode.

@The Riddler spent a lot of time on a cliff and the rockpiles around there this year with 0 fish caught in various tide and wind conditions. has been disappointing. was assuming it was just me not knowing how to fish the area properly...

Finally got my go-to setup fixed and got back out. Got skunked at a spot with lots of good looking water and tide + wind conditions that proved productive for me in the spring..will keep at it. Threw mostly bigger stuff the entire time, got no bites, no bites on smaller offerings either when I just wanted to put a bend in the rod. Beautiful night nonetheless

anyone getting into anything from shore?

Got the double skunk last two nights - north and south of Boston