While you’ll still find striped bass around herring runs such as the Town River, South River and North River, the feed has followed the forage farther out. I wasn’t surprised to hear Captain Mark Rowell of Legit Fish Charters tell me that Scituate Harbor has woken up and stripers now can be found all throughout it. Tinker macks just outside the harbor as well as outside of The Gurnet are a snack too tempting to pass up for stripers still sniffing around for river herring. Mark also talked about tautog in the 5 to 6 pound category which are mostly finished with spawning in estuaries and have now taken up residence among rockpiles, wrecks and ledges as close as a 1/2 mile off the coast of the South Shore. In order to buy live crabs you’ll have to travel to a cape shop, but a loaded crab trap placed near marinas or bridges most anywhere along the South Shore should find its mark in short order. Seaworms and clams, while not as effective as crabs, make for adequate bait also. Many of that same inshore structure holds cod as well, but for haddock, count on steaming to the “mud” on Stellwagen or east of it. What you won’t have to work too hard to catch is those darn sea ravens which seem to be everywhere. "On The Water"