Merrimack River Report #12 July 24, 2006
Merrimack River Report #12 July 24, 2006
The bright hot days of early last week made for some difficult fly and spin fishing. However stripers and a few small bluefish were caught in the estuary and near the river mouth. My clients on Thursday caught some stripers around the morning high tide. We covered a lot of the area from up river near the chain bridge down to the jetties. Most stripers were small schoolies with a couple nice larger ones.
On my day off, Friday, I spent a leisurely morning fishing Joppa Flats around the high tide. After Thursday night rain it was a gray morning without sun until later on. When I got out on the flats there was a school of stripers moving around the upper end but they were tough to get to hit flies or lures. I did get a couple of strikes but both fish got off. After the tide changed I caught a dozen or so stripers using the long rod with my trusty Rhody Flat Wing fly. A couple of them were mid-twenty inch fish.
Saturday morning was dark and very foggy. I had to navigate using my GPS. My clients had fished with me before and had constant action on stripers. Saturday was different. We fished our way down to the north end of Plum Island with no success. We came across one other boat drifting in the fog near the #11 buoy and that fisherman said he had caught a couple of bluefish on Sluggos (goodbye Sluggo). However we fished the same area without a hit. Later we moved back to the upper end of Joppa and picked a couple of schoolies. Then we fished along the Salisbury side and they caught more schoolies and one 23-inch striper plus one bluefish. It was a tough morning but at least there was some action. That’s the way it goes some days.
Merrimack River Report #13 July 31, 2006
Merrimack River report #13 July 31, 2006
Over the past week the bluefish have been the predominate fish at the river mouth and out along Plum Island. We were bitten off a couple of times inside near Newburyport. It seems that the big stripers that were coming into the upper end of Joppa have gone off. I haven’t seen or heard of any being caught by the bait chucking fishermen lately.
The water in the river and on the flats has been about as warm as it gets with surface temperatures around 76 degrees on outgoing tides. Often the incoming tide has brought in much cooler water in the mid-sixty degree range. The wide fluctuation does impact the striper fishing. For instance I have fished between the jetties on the last of the morning outgoing tides and caught only bluefish and then when the tide began running in I found schools of feeding stripers near the jetties in the cooler water. The fish were close to twenty inches and would hit a fly on almost every cast.
The report on the offshore tuna fishing is that it has been slow. I did hear of one 710 pound tuna that was taken. The football tuna have not been in the area thus far this season.
Merrimack River Report #11 July 18, 2006
Merrimack River Report #11 July 17, 2006
Last week the bluefish entered the river. We found snapper blues mixed in with feeding stripers on the incoming tide just outside of my marina near the Coast Guard Station. We followed them as they stayed with the bait and moved up river beyond the Route 1 bridge. There was good action using Fin-S soft baits at the surface.
On Tuesday I fished between the jetties just after the morning low tide. My first cast with a Rhody Flat Wing fly resulted in hooking a 6 or 7 pound blue fish which bit off the fly at boat side. I expected to lose the fish since was only using 18# leader. I had better results after adding a 25# shock tippet. I tried wire but saw stripers around so switched back to the fluorocarbon leader. My friend Bill and I got into a voracious bunch of mid-size striper
schoolies by the north jetty. That fun lasted about one hour before they moved on. By then I was tired and headed back to the marina.
That same morning there was a nice 40-inch striper taken on a fly near the #11 buoy.
Big cow stripers have been caught with live pogies and eels at the upper end of Joppa Flats. Much of this catching has been at night.
There are still prodigious numbers of small schoolies in the river. They attack flies and soft baits. During the hot bright days the best fishing has been during the early
Merrimack River Report #10 July 10, 2006
Merrimack River Report #10 July 10, 2006
Last Monday was a beautiful day. The morning was clear and it was a pleasure to be out on the Merrimack. I finally had a day to myself without a charter. I decided to go fishing when I was up and ready—no pressure. I left the marina about 6:15 AM. I enjoyed a snack breakfast and the began fishing on the upper area of Joppa Flats. As usual the small schoolies were hitting well. I decided to try some other areas. I did well with small schoolies by catching a 22-inch striper and I was fortunate to see my friend Steve hook up, catch and release a 35-inch striper. I took some video footage as he battled the fish. I cut my fishing short to get to some of the home yard and garden obligations. I remember thinking that I was already looking forward to another morning fishing the Merrimack estuary.
We fished early July 4th morning. The stripers were plentiful and bigger than we have been catching in the estuary area. There were many between about 20 to 27-inches with a few close to keeper size. It was a good fishing morning with most fish hitting flies. My Rhody Flat Wing worked best.
Wednesday and Thursday were excellent fishing mornings. Finally we were often getting stripers over 20-inches and up to the low 30-inch range. These fish moved onto the Joppa Flats on the high tide. They exhibited the reluctance to hit flies and lures, but experienced fishermen, including my clients and me, have found many fish that would hit the artificials.
Thursday I enjoyed a day off from chartering when I caught a 26-inch striper on my first fly cast of the morning. I caught and released a dozen stripers over 20-inches with the largest measuring 30-inches. Those fish were all hard fighting and gave the fly rod and fisherman a good battle. Great fun!!
Friday I chartered and it was difficult morning fishing. A weather front passed through Thursday night and the morning was very bright. In addition, the incoming tide was cold with a surface temperature of about 52 degrees. All of these factors and probably some I am not aware of, shut the fishing down. We caught some schoolies but that was it.
Over the weekend my clients form NH and NY enjoyed a great day of fishing on Saturday. They caught stripers from the early incoming tide and out going tide. They enjoyed about eight hours of catching as opposed to “just fishing”. The stripers hit flies and Fin-S lures (the latter on the surface). Mark caught two or three almost keepers on the flats. Early Sunday morning they had some fast action over the sand bar at the north end of Plum Island.
Merrimack River Report #9 July 3, 2006
Merrimack River Report #9 July 3, 2006
The estuary waters have returned to more normal flow and color. It is still has a coffee color to it but the incoming tides are running in strong. The striper fishing has been good with lots of action but most on small schoolies. However, some keeper sized fish are caught on almost every tide. A friend caught a 38-inch striper early Sunday morning. It had sea lice on it indicating that it just came in from the ocean. It could be a sign that our missing schools large stripers are finally coming into the river as it returns to more normal condition There have been reliable reports of schools of very large stripers off shore by captains looking for tuna.
My snake fly and Rhody Flat Wing fly have produced very well. For light spinning tackle Tufcore jigs and Suggos or Fin-S soft baits have been good. A Fin-S rigged with and either an offset hook or jig head have been getting solid hits.
Last Tuesday my three clients Grandpa, son-in-law and grandson had a great morning catching stripers. Evan (10 years old) and his dad, Mark, enjoyed catching lots of stripers with a light spinning rod while grandpa did well with the fly rod. The best fish of the day was caught by Mark. It was a 29-inch keeper which, after a photo was taken, was released to grow even bigger. They enjoyed a lot of friendly competition. Evan finally tired as the trip ended.
All of the trips had my clients enjoying lots of good action on Joppa Flats and around
Plum Island.
