Waterlands

UPDATEDAUTO-REFRESH 5 MIN

ScupPeak season

Bay · Massachusetts

Upper Neck Cove

42.25°N · 70.93°W · Bay · Boston Harbor

LOADING MAP

Best score today · 7 PM · Scup

76/100Great
Now
757 AM EDT
Best window
5-10 PMFlood tide
Tide now
Flooding7.5 ft ▲

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

Notify me when Upper Neck Cove scores 75+

Checked every morning against the 14-day forecast. Free by push and email.

Sign in to set an alert

24-hour conditions

Thursday, Oct 1 · 5 PM

Time5P
Score77Great
Tide8.8 ft ▼Ebbing
CurrentEbb0.2 kn · toward E
Wind5 kn Wgusts 13 · steady
Air temp70°Warm
WeatherMostly cloudy51% cloud
Water62°FPersisted

Current regulations

What you can keep here today

IN EFFECT NOW

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

Source: MassDMF · synced yesterday

Seasonality · 52-week view · this week ringed

When Scup is best here

Peak season for Scup · 1 more week at peak

Scup season by week of the year. Peak season for Scup · 1 more week at peak.
  • Peak
  • Shoulder
  • Off
  • Not here
  • This week

Scup in Massachusetts

Spot profile

Upper Neck Cove

Depth
3-15 ftSlope
Structure
Bay · Inner · ProtectedBay · slope
Season
Peak seasonScup

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 Upper Neck Cove

Upper Neck Cove is a bay in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. Depth is 3-15 ft, with a slope. Its profile reads bay, inner water and protected.

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

Tackle & technique

Scup
Scup school over hard and mixed bottom, rock piles, mussel beds, piers and jetties, usually in 10 to 60 feet of water. Fish a high-low rig with small hooks and squid or clam strips on the bottom, and chum with clam to hold a school under the boat. If nothing bites within 15 minutes, move to the next piece of structure.
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.
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.

Nearby spots

Other spots within an easy run

  • Weymouth Back River

    Bay · 0.9 mi

    73
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 73
    • Little tunny 64
    • Striped bass 64

    10 kt NH 8:01 AM · 7.9 ftL 1:54 PM · 2.4 ft

  • Lower Neck

    Cape · 0.1 mi

    70
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 70
    • Little tunny 69
    • Striped bass 68

    10 kt NH 8:01 AM · 7.9 ftL 1:54 PM · 2.4 ft

  • Stodders Neck

    Cape · 0.3 mi

    70
    Top: ScupPeak season
    • Scup 70
    • Little tunny 68
    • Striped bass 68

    10 kt NH 7:57 AM · 7.9 ftL 1:51 PM · 2.3 ft

  • Upper Neck

    Cape · 0.4 mi

    68
    Top: Little tunnyPeak season
    • Little tunny 68
    • Scup 68
    • Striped bass 67

    10 kt NH 8:01 AM · 7.9 ftL 1:54 PM · 2.4 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.