Merrimack River Report #16 August 29,2006
Merrimack River Report #16
August 29, 2006
The fishing in and around the estuary has been pretty steady. Stripers and bluefish are plentiful near the river mouth around low tide. The water temperature has dropped and more seals are around. The baby bunkers have not been coming up river with the rising tide as they were a week ago. The fish are favoring soft baits and flies with gray blue color (similar to baby bunker). Also the smaller flies and lures are more effective.
My clients have enjoyed catching and releasing schoolie stripers and bluefish. Some of the blue fish have been 5 or 6 pounds. Hopefully the hurricane heading this way will not spoil the fishing later this week.
Today I took out a novice fly fisherman. I have been giving Marc instruction on fly casting and saltwater fly fishing techniques. It was not the best of conditions for fly fishing with a steady wind out of the north and light rain. The wind created swells that moved into the river mouth between the jetties. I managed to keep the boat in close to the north jetty for some protection from the wind while Marc exercised his new skill. He hooked a nice bluefish but the fly was bitten off. Another threw the hook. But he did get his first fly rod striper before we headed into calmer water.
Later as we fished the Salisbury side of the river I hooked a heavy fish on a gray/white clouser. The fish moved slowly and I could not bring it close. It stripped out line against my heavy drag setting at will. As the boat drifted into the mooring area I tried to get it closer before getting caught on a mooring line or boat. I managed to turn it but then the hook pulled out. I never saw the fish. I wondered what it could have been. Since it moved slowly with a steady pulsating pull The only possibility I could come up with was that it was one of the sturgeons known to be in the Merrimack River. I wish I could have seen it.
Merrimack River Report #15 August 21, 2006
Merrimack River Report # 15
August 21, 2006
In the early part of August it was hot and dry and the fishing slowed down. It was difficult to consistently find fish although there were usually some blues and/or stripers somewhere in the river or just off the outside of the jetties. About mid August the baby bunker showed up in the river on the incoming tides and with them came droves of schoolie stripers. The average size was about 17-inches and ranged between 15 and 22.
They were aggressively hitting bunkers they chased to the surface. There was constant action on flies and soft baits. In the case of the latter, many were chopped off by snapper blues that were mixed in with the stripers.
Today I took out clients, Adam and Powell (father and adult son). We left the dock at 7AM and hooked onto the first striper about 7:02, just outside the last slip. From then until we quit about 11AM they were catching and releasing stripers. They caught them on fliesd and soft baits. Anything that resembled a baby bunker in color and size caught stripers and an occasional snapper blue fish.
From past experience I am expecting schools of larger stripers to come into the area as they begin their migration south from along the Maine coast.
I saw a photo taken by one of charter captains at the marina. It showed a 27 pound football tuna that he caught somewhere between here and Province Town. But the tuna fishing remains very slow according to most local reports.
Merrimack River Report #14 August 7, 2006
Merrimack River Report #14 August 7, 2006
The fishing has drifted into the August routine and was further slowed by the extreme hot humid weather. Bluefish have moved in all over the area. Both snappers and 7 or 8 pound blues are being caught. Sometimes they are in the river and at others out along the beaches.
I enjoyed one morning, fishing between the jetties, around the low tide, catching blues and then stripers as the tide rolled in.
On Sunday morning I saw breaking fish just off the marina docks as I prepared for my charter. When they arrived I took the boat out and my clients enjoyed catching schoolie stripers on light spinning gear. I followed the fish up to Ram Island before they dispersed. Later they caught more fish up near Eagle Island. We tried for blues off of Plum Island but had no luck while we were there. It was a good morning considering I didn’t see many fish being caught anywhere. The boats anchored off of Plum Island and those fishing off the beach were not catching stripers or blues around the high tide.
