Late Fall Fishing on the Charles: Chasing Holdover Stripers, Crappie, and Perch

Artificial Lure tuning in with your November 10, 2025, Charles River, Boston fishing report. It’s classic late fall out here—crisp air hanging in the low 40s this morning, with barely a breeze and even a hint of sun peeking through as sunrise hit at 6:32 AM. Expect sunset at 4:23 PM, so your prime window is tight today. The Charles is holding steady at around 53°F and water clarity is decent, with some gentle chop left over from last week's front. Tides are right in your favor: according to Tide-Forecast, low sets at 4:03 AM, high tide rolls through at 10:13 AM, then dips again in the afternoon before another big push at 10:50 PM. Those late morning hours line up perfect with outgoing water, and historically, November’s moving tides bring the last decent bites of the year. Now let’s get to the fish—action’s still steady for determined anglers. The fall bass run is all but wrapped, but local reports from Jamaica Pond Tackle and a handful of sunrise diehards on Fishbrain say schoolies and a few bigger holdover striped bass are showing around the Museum of Science and down at the BU Bridge, especially on that high tide swing. Most fish are running 16-22", with the occasional 26” linesider still feeding up ahead of the true winter slowdown. Largemouth bass are hunkered down in slower stretches—think behind bridge abutments or the drop-offs near Magazine Beach. Recent catches are fewer, but chunkier fish have been hitting black or green pumpkin jigs pitched tight to cover. Crappie and yellow perch are staging up in the wider flats between the Weeks Footbridge and the Charles River Basin, making for solid action if you’re working small shiners or a chartreuse feather jig under a float. For baits and lures, it's a “match the hatch” month. Soft plastics in sand eel or shad patterns are money for the last stripers, rigged on a quarter-ounce jig head for a slow, twitchy retrieve just off the bottom. The all-time river favorite, the silver-bladed Mepps spinner, is also drawing strikes from both perch and occasional late-to-bite smallmouth. For largemouth, nothing beats a slow-rolled Texas rigged craw on a 3/0 wide gap hook—absolutely deadly in the deeper bends. Hot spots to hit today: - The outflow below the Longfellow Bridge during the outgoing tide has been a sleeper spot for schoolie stripers, especially just after 9 AM as the water starts to move. - Upstream at the Harvard Boat House lagoon, perch and crappie are stacked on the inside weed edges—toss a mini soft swimbait or live shiner and you’re in business. A few heads-up notes for the late-fall crew: bait shops around Boston are moving to winter hours, so call ahead for shiners or nightcrawlers. Also, if you’re working artificial only, bring small profile jerkbaits and downsized jigging spoons—these finesse options have consistently outperformed the bulkier stuff on cold, pressured fish. With temps set to slide a few more degrees this week and daylight shrinking, this is the final push for op