Waterlands

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Summer flounderShoulder season

Bar · Massachusetts

False Spit

42.32°N · 70.91°W · Bar · Boston Harbor

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Best score today · 12 AM · Summer flounder

82/100Great
Now
544 PM EDT
Best window
5-7 PMFlood tide
Tide now
Flooding3.9 ft ▲

Data from: NOAA CO-OPS + NDBC + ECMWF + Open-Meteo Marine · Waterlands engine

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24-hour conditions

Friday, Oct 2 · 7 PM

Time7P
Score35Fair
Tide5.9 ft ▼Ebbing
CurrentEbb1.0 kn · toward ENE
Wind5 kn Wgusts 13 · steady
Air temp65°Mild
WeatherClear9% cloud
Water61°FPersisted

Current regulations

What you can keep here today

IN EFFECT NOW

No rule for Summer flounder is on file here yet, so its status is unknown, not closed. Confirm limits with MassDMF before you keep a fish.

Seasonality · 52-week view · this week ringed

When Summer flounder is best here

Shoulder season for Summer flounder · 1 more week at shoulder

Summer flounder season by week of the year. Shoulder season for Summer flounder · 1 more week at shoulder.
  • Peak
  • Shoulder
  • Off
  • Not here
  • This week

Summer flounder in Massachusetts

Spot profile

False Spit

Depth
9-45 ftSlope
Structure
Bar · Inner · Semi-exposedBar · slope
Season
Shoulder seasonSummer flounder

NOAA NCEI DEM, sampled Sep 13 on a 3.4 m grid. Depths are feet below NAVD 88, not chart datum (MLLW), so they can differ from a chart by a few feet. Not for navigation.

About this spot

Fishing False Spit

False Spit is a bar in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. Depth is 9-45 ft, with a slope. Its profile reads bar, inner water and semi-exposed.

Waterlands scores 10 species here; the best right now are little tunny, striped bass and bluefish. It is peak season now for little tunny, striped bass, bluefish and Atlantic cod, and shoulder season for tautog and summer flounder. Little tunny peak from September through October. Striped bass peak from May through June and from September through October. Bluefish peak from June through July and in September.

Tackle & technique

Summer flounder
Summer flounder lie half-buried on sand and shell bottom and ambush bait along channel edges, inlet bars and ocean reefs, from a few feet deep in back bays to about 100 feet offshore. Drift with the tide and bounce a bucktail tipped with a squid or fish strip along the bottom. The bigger fish move to ocean reefs and wrecks in late summer, so follow them out.
Little tunny
Little tunny travel fast in schools that pin bait against inlets, points, jetties and tide rips, usually within a few miles of shore and often in less than 60 feet. Stay off the school's path, wait for it to surface within range, and cast small metal or epoxy jigs with a fast retrieve. When fish stay down, troll small feathers along bait edges and color changes to find them.
Striped bass
Striped bass feed where moving tide pushes bait past structure: inlets, points, jetties, bridge pilings and rips in the surf, usually in 2 to 40 feet of water. Fish dawn, dusk and night hardest, casting plugs, bucktails and soft plastics or drifting live bunker and eels, and chunk bait on the bottom in current. In midsummer the larger fish drop deeper or feed mostly after dark.

Nearby spots

Other spots within an easy run

  • Toddy Rocks

    Bar · 0.8 mi

    73
    Top: Black sea bassPeak season
    • Black sea bass 73
    • Scup 73
    • Atlantic cod 70

    8 kt ENEH 8:13 PM · 8.8 ftL 2:41 AM · 1.5 ft

  • Great Brewster Spit

    Flat · 0.6 mi

    70
    Top: Little tunnyPeak season
    • Little tunny 70
    • Striped bass 70
    • Bluefish 66

    8 kt ENEH 8:08 PM · 8.6 ftL 2:36 AM · 1.4 ft

  • Black Rock Channel

    Gut · 0.7 mi

    70
    Top: Black sea bassPeak season
    • Black sea bass 70
    • Scup 69
    • Striped bass 68

    8 kt ENEH 8:08 PM · 8.6 ftL 2:36 AM · 1.4 ft

  • Nash Rock Shoal

    Bar · 0.9 mi

    68
    Top: BluefishPeak season
    • Bluefish 68
    • Little tunny 68
    • Atlantic cod 67

    8 kt ENEH 8:08 PM · 8.6 ftL 2:36 AM · 1.4 ft

Scores and forecasts are for planning only and can be wrong. Conditions on the water change fast; check the marine forecast before you go. Regulations change during the season, so confirm limits and closures with MassDMF before you keep a fish.