I have fished the Danvers River system and Salem/Beverly Harbors for 20 years. Like everyone, I have my favorite spots for Stripers, Flounder, Bluefish, and Mackeral. 10 years ago I went to college down in Newport RI and kayak fished the harbors during the summer months. That is where I was introduced to Black Sea Bass but I had never seen them back home in Salem/Beverly harbor. Nowadays I keep my boat at the marina in the Danvers River, not far from the water street bridge that I caught my first striper at when I was 8 yrs old. I have been reading reports the last couple years saying that Seabass have been showing up South of Boston Harbor and that guys were occasionally catching them while bottom fishing for flounder / fluke.
With the weather being so great last night I decided to head over to the boat dock and see if there were some stripers around. I put on a small chunk of herring with a fishfinder weight and tossed it off the back of my boat. Within 5 mins I hooked into a Danvers River Seabass ! The other guys around were just as surprised as I was since they had never caught any of these around the Salem / Beverly area and especially not from my marina which is way back into the Danvers River.
Over the next hour or so i kept getting quick and small hits that would steal the herring chunk. With the river usually having a lot of small schoolies and lots of eels, I attributed the bait stealing to one or both of these culprits. I starting thinking about the articles I read on how to target Black SeaBass off the Cape and in RI and remembered that a bucktail with a small piece of clam or squid was frequently the "go to" lure. Since I wasnt catching any stripers I figured I didnt have anything to lose and I would just give the bucktail a shot, "just in case" .
I tied on a 1 oz Spro Black and White bucktail and hung a small strip of clam from the hook. On the first cast I hooked up the 2nd Sea bass of the night, a nice 15 incher. By now it was 10PM and the very high tide was starting to finally go back out. I quickly caught 2 more on the bucktail for a total of 4 seabass. I couldnt believe I was actually "targeting" seabass in the Danvers River.
Right before packing it in for the night around 11PM I let the bucktail sit on the bottom for a few seconds longer before bouncing it and hooked into a big "Golden Sea Robin" This is another fish that I was used to seeing on vacation down the Cape and during my college days in RI but had never caught in the River that I have fished for 20 years !
It turned out to be one of those great and surprising fishing nights that I will remember for a long time.
Talking to friends today, they thought that these fish might have been around from the Hurricane that came up the coast last week. Has anyone else been catching Sea Bass in areas that they never used to?
With the weather being so great last night I decided to head over to the boat dock and see if there were some stripers around. I put on a small chunk of herring with a fishfinder weight and tossed it off the back of my boat. Within 5 mins I hooked into a Danvers River Seabass ! The other guys around were just as surprised as I was since they had never caught any of these around the Salem / Beverly area and especially not from my marina which is way back into the Danvers River.
Over the next hour or so i kept getting quick and small hits that would steal the herring chunk. With the river usually having a lot of small schoolies and lots of eels, I attributed the bait stealing to one or both of these culprits. I starting thinking about the articles I read on how to target Black SeaBass off the Cape and in RI and remembered that a bucktail with a small piece of clam or squid was frequently the "go to" lure. Since I wasnt catching any stripers I figured I didnt have anything to lose and I would just give the bucktail a shot, "just in case" .
I tied on a 1 oz Spro Black and White bucktail and hung a small strip of clam from the hook. On the first cast I hooked up the 2nd Sea bass of the night, a nice 15 incher. By now it was 10PM and the very high tide was starting to finally go back out. I quickly caught 2 more on the bucktail for a total of 4 seabass. I couldnt believe I was actually "targeting" seabass in the Danvers River.
Right before packing it in for the night around 11PM I let the bucktail sit on the bottom for a few seconds longer before bouncing it and hooked into a big "Golden Sea Robin" This is another fish that I was used to seeing on vacation down the Cape and during my college days in RI but had never caught in the River that I have fished for 20 years !
It turned out to be one of those great and surprising fishing nights that I will remember for a long time.
Talking to friends today, they thought that these fish might have been around from the Hurricane that came up the coast last week. Has anyone else been catching Sea Bass in areas that they never used to?
