07-04-2001, 01:15 AM
Boston Harbor & South Shore-Stripers 7/3/01<br><br>Friday through Sunday Quincy Bay was alive with blitzing bass feeding on herring. The surface activity continued until about 8 am each day. Without doubt, Tuesday’s incoming tide produced the best striper action of the season. Bass were crashing herring and silversides from the harbor entrance all the way in to Dorcester from first light until 8:30 am. <br><br>The Nardone family, Joe, Joe Jr. and Tim, from Weymouth and Duxbury had a banner day in Quincy and Hingham bays on Friday. Large herring patterns on the long rods and Fin-S baits fished on ½ oz jig-heads on the spin rods were the ticket for keeper bass to 35 inches. Jack Hudak from Stratford, CT found the same excellent fishing on Saturday. Once again, 6 inch herring patterns on size 5/0 hooks enabled Jack to land his personal best bass at 35 inches and 19 pounds as well as another 30” 10 pound keeper, off George’s Island in the morning feeding foray.<br><br>Wayne Neuls (Newtown,PA) wasn’t disappointed on the first day of his annual two-day striper trip. Four keeper bass to 32 inches and a plethora of others in the 20 to 27 inch size-class slammed the rubber baits, herring flies and surface gurglers in Quincy bay for most of the morning. Day two never came to fruition as Mother Nature intervened with 25- knot winds.<br><br>Richard Hurd of Boston, MA and friend Dan, both long time fly-fishers, were treated to one of the Harbor’s best days in years on Tuesday. Arriving just after low-slack at 5:00 am, we found no surface activity in Quincy bay and very little in Boston’s inner harbor. Looking east, on the first hour of the flood, a large-school of bass were coursing through the herring in the outer harbor with the herring gulls giving evidence of the feeding foray. Both Rich and Dan hooked up immediately to what would prove to be keeper bass of 29 and 30 inches. Dan’s next two fish, on the herring fly, were keepers of 30 and 31 inches. Meanwhile, Rich hooked into a larger bass but dropped it on the first run. He continued to have hit after hit with no hook-ups. Finally checking the fly, we found that the big bass had broken the hook at the bend. Changing the fly, Rich hooked keeper #5. Looking back toward Deer Island, the harbor had exploded with activity. Birds and bass were everywhere from Long Island to Dorchester on to the Airport and the Anchorage. Before the blitz ended at about 8:45, Rich and Dan has accounted for 7 keeper bass on the Tridents and all to many bass to count between 24 and 27 inches. Although the ledges off Cohasset have not been producing much this past week, Dan and Rich did hook a couple of good sized bass on Minot’s and had a couple of really big bass follow at the top of the tide.<br><br>Capt. Mike Bartlett<br>B-Fast Charters<br>www.bfastcharters.com<br><br><br><br><br><br> <br><br><br><br><br><br><br>Capt. Mike Bartlett<br>B-Fast Charters<br>www.bfastcharters.com