May 31, 2009 Merrimack Fishing Report
May 31, 2009 Merrimack River Fishing
The striper fishing has been good. There have been some difficult days with few fish, but there have been some good days with lots of fish.
I had a problem with my tilt motor on the Honda. I had to take it into Hudson’s to have a new one installed. Ken gave me great service so that the boat was only out of the water 3 days. The tilt motor is important when I fish skinny water, especially Joppa Flats. Any how I am all set now.
Early in the week I took my son out. We fished the end of the low tide and start of the incoming just outside of the jetties. . It was Memorial Day so there was a lot of boat traffic as the morning progressed. We caught some mid –twenty inch stripers before it was getting to dangerous due to the boat traffic and concentration of boats at the mouth.
The last couple of days I have caught some stripers up river and down on Joppa. This morning we brought a half dozen to the boat using rigged Fin-S on jig heads. Most were smaller schoolies with one 22 inch. I lost the biggest fish which hit my lure on a spin rod as I trolled up the flats to start a new drift. Someone had cranked up the drag on the reel I was using so when the striper hit it snapped my 23 pound leader. It was another reminder to check the drag setting prior to fishing.
A 48 inch, 40 pound striper was caught by a surf fisherman off the beach. He was using a live mackerel. It is the largest fish weighed in at Surfland on Plum Island so far this season.
May 22, 2009 Fishing Report
May 22, 2009 Fishing Report
There was a big influx of striped bass into the Merrimack early in the week. The fish were in the 20 to 28 inch size range with few smaller ones. The school moved onto Joppa flats and we found them on the mid outgoing tide the early part of the week. There were some fish up river near Carr Island around the high tide.
My charter clients on Tuesday had some great action on Joppa after a slow start up river. They caught around 15 to 20 fish each using flies and light spinning tackle. The fish were all over the flats in schools chasing sand eels. It was a very good morning of fishing.
The action continued on the flats Tuesday and I did not have a charter so I was able to enjoy catching and releasing a bunch of stripers up to 26 inches using my 9 weight fly rod and olive white flies.
I guided for dad and his 10 year old son on Thursday. The youngster pulled in two nice stripers on the spinning rod. Overall the action was much slower than the previous days. The morning tide was incoming and after an early flurry of activity the stripers disappeared. As we ended the trip, in the late morning there were signs of the stripers coming back as we saw some breaking along the Salisbury side of the river.
I went out around 6:30 AM this morning. On Joppa the tide was mid-incoming. There was no fish activity. There were a few fishermen out but those I talked to hadn’t had any success catching stripers. I noted that the water temperature had dropped a lot from the earlier days of the week. The water outside must have been cold as I recorded 52 degrees at the lower end of the flats.
May 15, 2009 Report
May 15, 2009 Report
Although my boat is now in the slip at Newburyport Basin Marina, all of my fishing has been from shore. Most of my fishing over the past week has been off the beach at the North end of Plum Island. The stripers have been appearing on the outgoing tide with good action some days and slow on others. I have been catching schoolies using jigs rigged with soft tails with good success. The fish for the most part have been over 20 inches with a few keepers. My biggest was about 25 inches.
As word about the stripers coming into the river has traveled around there has been increasing fishing pressure as the beach gets more crowded but still not as bad as later in the season.
I will begin serious fishing from the boat this weekend. Check for news next week
May 9 Follow Up on May 8 Fishing Report
Today was good. I caught and released 3 stripers, one, caught off of the Plum Island Beach was a 20 inch fish. Later on the Parker River, near the high tide I got two that were about 25 inches. I also saw a keeper caught. The season has definitely begun. I am still a bit concerned that we haven’t seen any smaller schoolies. Normally the smaller ones arrive before the bigger fish. I am attaching a couple photos of the early catches.
May8, 2009 Report
Merrimack River Fishing Report
May 8, 2009
Here we are. A new season is here and before today’s report it is time to take a quick view of the last one. I have been talking to many fishermen about 2008. The overall consensus is that it wasn’t a good one for us sport fishermen. The “commercial fishermen”, pursuing the big stripers did pretty well, from what I have heard. But, that doesn’t help the future prospects for those us who want to preserve this great fishery. I have heard many stories of large illegal striper catches. Remember, the more mature fish that are killed, the more likely that future fishing will decline. I remain a strong supporter of giving striped bass a game fish status and thus not a commercial target. I hope that every serious sportsman will support the Stripers Forever Organization in there efforts achieve game fish status and preserve our fishery.
Last year, the early season was very promising. We didn’t have any of the floods of the previous two years. Stripers showed up in early May. The fishing was good. Then as we got into early June there was an influx of the really big stripers. Joppa Flats produced some extradinarily big fish. We released almost everyone that was brought to the boat, only a couple were taken for cooking.
As we got into July the striper catching declined. The small stripers were not around. What happened? I have heard many striper fishermen talk about having the same experience.
I heard that the Chesapeake Bay waters have become polluted by farming chemical run off into the water causing poor water conditions. I don’t know what the explanation is but I do know what I and other serious sport fishermen experienced last season.
That is all I want to say about last year except that I hope that it was a sporadic down turn and this year will be better.
So far this very early season has been slow but each one is different and therefore it is too early to make a judgment. I have been shore fishing during the past week, waiting for my marina to open. I haven’t got a striper but I know of a 15 pound striper caught yesterday and witnessed two fish being pulled in today. One measured 27 inches and the other was a bit smaller. I am hoping to see an influx of 18 to 20 inch fish over the next week.
Check my report again in about a week.
