Academy real learning experience
For youngsters seeking an outdoor experience close to home, check out The Fishing Academy, a nonprofit organization housed in the West End House Boys and Girls Club in Allston. The academy opens June 28 from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. with three weeklong sessions -- June 28-July 2, July 5-9, and July 12-16. The instruction will focus on the techniques of fishing and the environment in which fish live. There will be a trip to the state fish hatchery in Sandwich one day during each weekly session.
One camp instructor, Roy Leyva of Hyde Park, was 2003 co-angler of the year in Massachusetts. For more information, call 617-782-2614 or visit www.thefishingacademy.com.
Area A: In northern waters, striped bass continue to please anglers in the Saco River and Bay along the southern Maine coast with some good catches. Live-lined mackerel is still the best approach. The rock piles and structure along the north coast are alive with stripers, and offshore the party boats are finding decent cod and market haddock, with wolffish in the mix. Yankee Fleet is offering half-day trips. Good-size stripers are being caught around the approaches to Gloucester Harbor. The Merrimack mouth is so full of fish and anglers that you have to elbow your way in.
Area B: Cut herring helped Emma Pearle land a 42-pound striper Wednesday near Georges Island, an indicator of striper action from the North Shore into Boston Harbor. Deer Island and Faun Bar have been attracting lots of action. This weekend is the Striper Shootout out of Fishing Finatics in Everett. Keeper bass have been coming up all around Boston Harbor, with recent catches both inshore around Thompson Island and in the outer harbor -- Lovells, Georges, to Pemberton Point in Hull. Live mackerel is still the best bait.
Area C: Good-size stripers between The Graves and Minots Ledge. Gull Island and Strawberry Point off Cohasset offered up bass, and flounder fans are finding luck around Scituate's Peggoty Beach. These waters also have black sea bass and good-size pollock. The North River mouth to the Bridge Street Bridge is worth fishing, as is the South River into Humarock. In Duxbury, the big bass have slowed down but there are plenty of schoolies around, and the fly fishermen are enjoying that action. Not a lot of bait in here this year. Flounder at Howlands Landing and a few sea bass at the bridge. Lower Cape Cod Bay along the shoals has been very hot.
Area D: Scup and sea bass are providing good action in eastern Buzzards Bay out to Clevelands Ledge, where you'll see plenty of boats. The catches have been plentiful from Wings Neck to Scraggy and across at Nye Ledge. A couple of 40-plus stripers were taken at Cuttyhunk. Elizabeth Island holes are good fishing, especially Woods Hole.
Area E: Squid in Vineyard Sound have brought in lots of fish, which are best plugged up top. Check out Middle Ground, Squash Meadow, and the approach to Cape Poge. Good fluke fishing at East Chop in toward Oak Bluffs. Bass and bluefish putting on the usual show at Wasque in the rips. Also, plenty of blues along the Falmouth beaches and just offshore. One keeper bass in the 40s was taken off Nobska Point yesterday.
Area F: Plenty of stripers along the oceanside beaches to Provincetown and also on the inside, especially between Pamet River and Billingsgate Shoal.
