Channel Edge Charters

A Merrimack River Fly Fishing Story By Captain Charles Crue Channel Edge Charters One of the things that I enjoy about fly fishing is to have the unexpected take of a fly by an exceptional fish. I had that experience this morning! I had a free day from chartering and decided to go down to the marina and if conditions looked good go out fishing for a couple of hours. Overnight the weather had changed as a cold front pushed through with thunder storms, dropping temperatures from the low nineties to about sixty degrees with some light cloud cover and a light wind from the north. The tide was low about 6 AM and I was at the boat around 7 AM . Since I have often found fishing to be slow with a north wind, I was considering to just enjoy my morning coffee, do a few small chores on the boat, and then go home to do some fly tying or yard work (I prefer the fly tying and had a reason to do that since I had an order for some flies). It was quiet around the marina with no boat traffic. The wind was not strong and the air was refreshing so I opted to go fishing. It was then that I remembered that I had taken the shoulder pack that contained all of my flies out of the Jeep yesterday in order to reorganize the contents and make up some new leaders. I had my fly rods, each with a leader and fly attached so I thought I could make do for a short fishing excursion.
I figured that I would move down towards the mouth of the river fishing the likely places on the way. I marked some fish but didn’t get any hits so after a few casts with my 9 wt rod equipped with a 300 grain sinking line, six foot leader and one of my old reliable olive/white clousers, I headed to the area between the jetties.
On the way I met Tom, who was just on his way in because he had to go to work. He told me stripers were breaking inside the south jetty. When I arrived there several fishermen were hooked up to some nice size stripers. They looked to be in the mid-to-high twenty inch range. It was only a few minutes later that I caught and released a 26-inch striper. Stripers were chasing bait (sand eels or silversides, probably) right to the surface. The water was choppy with some small swells making casting a bit tricky at times. I made few more casts before drifting away from the breaking fish so I started the engine to get positioned for another drift. Half way through stripping in line I had what felt like a good fish. It didn’t take long to realize it was a very good size fish. He took me into my backing and didn’t slow down. Before I knew it I was well into the backing and the fish was out a bout 50 yards and still going away from the boat. On top of that the boat was getting close to the jetty so I started the engine and moved towards the fish. Jim, another friend of mine, was nearby and was enjoying the battle. Finally I shut the engine off and continued the struggle to get line back. As the fish tired and came in closer I caught glimpses of him and could see he was a big fish. I finally got him to the side of the boat and managed to get hold of my Boga Grip. It is always the most risky time trying to hold the fly rod and get the fish at the same time. The Boga Grip jaws snapped close on the striper's lower jaw and I had my “moment of truth” as I hoisted a beautiful large striper into the boat. The scale on the tool indicated the fish was a little over twenty pounds.
	Jim brought his boat over close by and offered to take photos with my camera. As we bounced in the waves he took a few shots. I measured the length of the fish. It was a solid 41-inches long. The fly was a small olive/white clouser about 2-inches long tied on a 2/0 hook. So much for the big flies for big fish rule (at least in this case).