Striped Bass (Striper) Flats Fishing the Massachusetts South Shore

Extending as far as Plymouth, Marshfield, and Kingston, or about 10,000 acres, the striped bass fishing flats east, south and west of Myles Standish Park in Duxbury, Massachusetts are enormous. The bay's voluminous tides bend in around the Saquish Rip and cover the striper waters from the deeps beyond.

You can't do better than this striper flats fising area where on smooth waters you can sightfish for stripers schoolie sized and up to 32". The area's flats fishing sprawl is enormous. The stripers are separated from the open ocean and wind by the long barrier beach to the east. This is a good place for flyfishing or trying kayak fishing for the first time,

Frequented by both striped bass and baitfish, you won't find striper fishing better anywhere north of Cape Cod. The bay and striped bass fishing flats includes three access areas open to craft of any size short of any ocean-liner. Once in at low water, it's striped bass flats fishing, striped bass flats fishing, striped bass flats fishing in all directions of the compass.

The tidal currents activate a confusion of rips, seams, back eddies, trenches, and where striped bass gather; as you wander this vast flats fishing ecosystem in a shallow craft, you'll see both striped bass and baitfish finning and collecting in the shallow areas. Some days the mats of baitfish are so thick they change the water the color of their skin.

Sixty-six percent of ten billion gallons of water is a formidable conveyor of striped bass and bluefish. The baitfish rarely find their way out before the tide turns, crowding into ever smaller and smaller channels and depressions. Some days you will hook as many striped bass as you have strength to reel in.

And with striper flats fishing areas which extend as far as Plymouth, Marshfield, and Kingston, you won't run out of flats fishing acreage very soon, especially when you consider the light striper fishing pressure. Two to three hours before low tide, two to two-and a half hours after and dead low are best for striper flats fishing here. 66% of ten billion gallons is a lot of water to herd in schools of baitfish, and striped bass, to leave them exposed on the flats and in shallow areas.

One of the best times of day and places for flats fishing for striper here is late afternoon in the roughly 300-acre High Pines flats fishing area, in the Bay's far southeastern corner. A barely noticeable rise in beach vegetation, High Pines is little more than a dense clump of scrub-pine, beach plum bushes, and beach grasses about 110 degrees s'east of the Harbormaster's dock in the bay's west corner. A massive striper flats fishing area, it's also one of the bay's more secluded flats areas, and tough to get to at low water, when its channel narrows to the size of a barely-open door. Casting fast, the striped bass pandemonium begins. Then, jaw-droppingly, it spreads.