Merrimack River Report #18 September 6, 2007
Merrimack River Report #18 September 6, 2007
The fall fishing is here. This morning my clients and I found hordes of busting stripers in the river near the Route 1 Bridge. The fish were smashing what looked to be baby bunker minnows. The guys caught a few on flies and then switched to 6-inch Sluggos. The action was pretty steady for well over an hour just before the morning high tide. Most of the fish were about twenty inches. As the tide slacked the fast action stopped. We found more stripers near half tide rocks and couple inside the north jetty. It was a good morning of fishing.
There are still plenty of bluefish around. Many fishermen are taking them by trolling umbrella rigs ( that is not a method of fishing that I like, however ).
There was a fishing tournament over the long weekend and the winning stripers for boat and shore categories were in the 50 pound range. One was weighed in at Surfland on Plum Island.
I know people get busy with other activities in September but, if you can get out for some fishing you could have some great fishing trips.
Merrimack River Report #17 August 30, 2007
Merrimack River Report #17 August 30, 2007
I had a free morning so I ventured down to the mouth of the river just before low tide. As I cruised in the river towards Plum Island I was watching for any signs of surface action. There wasn’t any but, just a couple days ago I saw a few individual stripers chase bait to the surface above the route 1 bridge. When I arrived at the mouth, just below the sandbar I marked fish down deep but didn’t see any signs of action. The few boats at the mouth and just outside trolling or drifting bait weren’t doing much. I saw a couple schoolies get caught.
I tried along the north jetty using my light spinning rod with a jig head rigged Fin-S. Nothing happened. Just before the low tide I saw some birds working off of the south jetty. I ran over there and made a cast with my 8 weight fly rod (still rigged with a 50# shock tippet and olive white clouser I had used for recent bluefish action). I had a good hit and could tell it was a good sized fish as it kept taking line and I was soon using the reel drag to slow the fish. After a few minutes I got the striper near the surface and then boat side. It was a nice 26 inch fish. In the next hour or saw I caught a lot of stripers in the area as I moved into where there was bird activity. It was a fun morning.
Earlier in the week I found stripers outside the north jetty. They were all 20 plus inch fish.
I am still waiting for one of those blitz type trips when the stripers and/or bluefish are chasing baby bunker. Maybe my clients will enjoy such action tomorrow morning.
Merrimack River Report #16 August 23, 2007
Merrimack River Report #16 August 23, 2007
Striped bass and bluefish are still plentiful at the mouth of the river and for those trolling deep they can be found off the Plum Island beach. The later type of fishing is not my stile as I and my clients enjoy a more even battle using fly and light spinning tackle. We have been quite successful over the past week. In fact last Sunday I took out one of my clients, Charles, and a coworker who came here from India about seven years ago. She is an engineer with two masters degrees. She had never fished before and wanted to try catching stripers after hearing about and seeing the results of Charles’ fly fishing excursions. She did not know how cast or use a spinning outfit but after a few quick lessons and some encouragement she got it.
The tide was high and outgoing as we began the trip so I took them to the Salisbury side of the river near Newburyport. I hooked a couple of small schoolies and let her bring them to the boat. Then she started making casts and soon had a striper hit the soft bait lure. All the fish were small schoolies so I suggested we go down to the river mouth to where I had been having good action. We fished inside the jetties and although it was Sunday the boat traffic wasn’t bad in the early morning. Both she and Charles caught many 19 or 20 inch schoolies with an occasional mid-twenty inch fish. They also caught several small bluefish. It was a good morning. Charles told me later that she is now hooked on fishing.
Throughout the week the fishing action seemed best on the lower half of the outgoing morning tides. I ventured down off the Plum Island beach a couple of times but I always found the fish to be down deep. I am waiting for the good late season surface action.
Joppa Flats didn’t produce when I got out to fish there. But I didn’t try it very often.
Today’s Newburyport Daily News has a story about a rare catch at the mouth of the river. A fisherman using a jig head rigged with a 6 inch Sluggo caught a 6 foot long sturgeon. He thought it was some kind of a shark at first. It took him 15 to 20 minutes to get the fish to the boat. Sturgeons are and endangered species so they left it in the water and got the hook out.
I think I hooked one last year when fishing the Salisbury side of the river. I was using my fly rod with an olive/white clouser. I remember that at fist I though I had hooked a submerged log that was drifting by but headed up river against the tide and I definitely felt th pulsating tail action. I couldn’t move the fish and eventually the fly pulled out.
Merrimack River Report #15 August 16, 2007
Merrimack River Report #15 August 16, 2007
I am a couple days late getting this report out but I was busy – fishing. I had some days to myself and enjoyed fine weather as well as pretty fine fishing. There has been some very good schoolie action in the morning, with hungry hard fighting 19 to 24 inch stripers. In addition there have been lots of bluefish around.
Last Monday I had clients and we fished the mouth of the river around the morning low tide. There was fast striper action near the north jetty until well into the incoming tide. When it slowed down we ventured out along the Plum Island beach to try for some blues.
One of them had never tangled with a bluefish on with a fly rod. When we reached an area about half way down the Island I marked some fish on the fishfinder but they were down about twenty feet. That is a difficult depth to get the fly to but, I had 350 grain fast sinking lines on the reels. They sink at about a half a foot a second in dead water and we were drifting slowly so I told them to cast, feed line and count for 10 or 15 seconds before beginning to strip the line in. It wasn’t long before one of them had a hit. I knew by watching the fight that it was a good size bluefish. However I hadn’t had a chance to put on a heavy shock tippet and the leader was only 23 pound test fluorocarbon. Fortunately the fish was hooked on the outside of the mouth and after about 15 minutes the angler got it next to the boat. I grabbed the Boga Grip with one hand and the leader with the other. As usual, the bluefish, which looked to be about an 8 or 9 pounder, continued to thrash and before I could get the tool into its mouth it chopped the leader. It was a little disappointing for the angler (and me) but he enjoyed the experience.
There have been bluefish out on Joppa Flats on some high tides. One of my clients landed a 7 pound blue which followed and grabbed a 7 inch sluggo.
The party boats have been gathering off of the Plum Island beach to get bluefish. One day there were five of them anchored in the area off of the old Polio Camp. I also heard that there has been good bluefish action off the southern end of the island.
Someone reported that last Sunday bluefish or stripers drove baby bunker up onto the beach.
Yesterday I took my grandson out and we both enjoyed graet striper action near the north jetty. He was using one of my jig head rigs with a Fin-S attached. He probably caught and released 25 stripers (me too). We were bit off by blues a couple times.
Merrimack River Report #14, 2007
Merrimack River Report #14 August 6, 2007
Over the past week the schoolie stripers have taken over to provide the light tackle action. We found them at various spots along the river below Newburyport. The tides were not right for fishing out on Joppa during the morning so I didn’t get out there. Most fish that we caught were between the jetties around the end of the outgoing tide. They ranged from about 18 to 22 inches. There was an occasional marauding blue fish that chopped off the soft bait lures. For the most part my clients used light spinning tackle with my jighead rigged with a Fin-S five, or five-and-three-quarter inches long.
I heard that night fishermen have been catching big stripers out on Joppa Flats.
I fished alone one day and went down to the Parker River where there has been consistent bluefish action. It was slow the morning I was there. I caught one nice striper (about 26-inches) and several 3 or 4 pound blues. I was only there for a little over one hour so it wasn’t bad fishing.
People trolling off of Plum Island have been getting blue fish in the area about half way to High Sandy. Bait fishermen have been getting blues drifting outside the jetties.
There has been lots of bird action over hordes of sand eels as the tide dropped over the sand bars by #11 buoy and off the north end of Plum Island but not many fish under them so far. I keep expecting to see signs of baby bunker in the area but haven’t so far.
Early this morning there were big stripers and an occasional big bluefish out on Joppa according to a couple of my friends. I caught schoolies later at the upper end of Joppa.
Merrimack River Report #13 June 30, 2007
Merrimack River Report #13 July 30, 2007
This season seems to be flying by. I guess it is true that time goes faster as you get older. Anyhow, it has been very good fishing so far and given weather and bait conditions as we have enjoyed lately we can expect more great inshore fishing action. There were reports of baby bunker showing up along the Maine coast last week. I haven’t really confirmed any around the area as yet but as August matures I expect to see them. When I see flocks of terns diving into the water mingled with the splashes of fish during the month I usually see the schools of
baby bunker that they are feeding on. It happens in the river as well as out along Plum Island beaches.
I had some opened days last week to enjoy some fishing on my own. It was nice weather and good fishing. There were some big bluefish in the river and I found them in Newburyport near the Route 1 Bridge. It isn’t an easy place to fish because of the boat moorings and traffic, but in the early morning I could do it, with no traffic and near low incoming tides. I caught some 7 to 8 pound blues on my light spinning tackle. It was a challenge to keep the fish away from the mooring lines and the boat away from the moored craft.
Later in the week I hosted Larry, a transplant to Florida who spends summers up here. I fished with him and we caught lots of s
tripers. Most were caught down between the jetties where I could only find bluefish earlier in the week. They were scrappy 18 to 22 inch fish.
Saturday I guide for Jim, his son-in-law and grandson Brendon. We fished mostly between the jetties, catching many stripers. They were mostly around 19 or 20 inches and provided great fights on the light spinning tackle. It was difficult fishing because of the heavy boat traffic that forced me to maneuver the boat many times during a drift. All of the fishermen were steady on their feet and had no difficulty casting or fighting a hooked fish. I took them over to the sandbar located off the south jetty because I saw a few terns diving into the water. We just got to the spot and Brendon made a cast and hooked up with a strong fish. It stripped
line off the spinning reel easily, so I tightened the drag as Brendan worked the rod. It took about ten minutes to bring the fish to the boat, as the fish and angler fought it out. Brendon said his arm was getting tired. However at 15, or so years old, he didn’t have any real problem mastering the fish. It turned out to be a 29 inch, 9 pound bluefish. Brendon was a very happy and proud fisherman as I congratulated him on his handling of the struggle. It is that kind of experience that highlights my enjoyment in doing what I do.
Check out the photo!
Merrimack River Report #12 July 23, 2007
Merrimack River Report #12 July 23, 2007
I had a couple off days the past weekend. It was a nice break with beautiful New England summer weather so I could get some yard work done. This morning, I hosted Pete and his son, Adam. They have fished with me each year over the past few and I know they enjoy our bountiful Merrimack River Plum Island area fishery. As sometimes happens the weather turned down during the night and the stripers and blues felt the change in conditions so that they were not easy to find or get to hit lures or flies. Further, the weather became poorer as the morning progressed as rain moved in along with stronger NE winds. I tried all the places that have been producing striper action. The fishfinder didn’t show many fish anywhere until we traveled up river near Eagle Island where I marked pods of stripers in deep water. The guys managed to get a few to hit jig head soft baits. Later as the tide began moving strongly, they caught some schoolies that were feeding near the surface. We finished the morning down on the upper end of Joppa where in soaking rain with a strong NE wind. Sometimes being a guide is frustrating but as any experienced fisherman knows there are just some days when it is tough to fish and have successful results. I appreciate clients that understand that it does happen.
Last week I found lots of stripers and bluefish in the river. There was some good action on the outgoing tides along the channel edge of Joppa. There was also lots of activity off the sandbar at the north end of Plum Island as well as between the jetties where some big bluefish could be found near the time of the tide change. The blues would hit surface poppers as well as flies and other lures.
The weather forecast for this week shows improving and much warmer conditions so I am looking forward to good fishing.
