The
crew of On-Line Fishing Charters has had some extraordinary offshore fishing this
week. Huge bluefish on Stellwagen sipping 1/4 inch juvenile sand eels. You can
locate the fish not by finding birds but by looking for nervous water with a bunch
of huge fish poking their heads and half of their bodies out of the water. There
are no birds because the bait is too small to interest them. There is relatively
little breaking and busting because the blues are sipping these juvi baitfish
like brown trout suck in emerging mayflies. This is an incredible sight to see.
The
blues will happily eat almost anything. Different flies and strips seem to work
at different intervals. Matching the hatch is hard but tiny sand eel flies work.
Slow twitchy strips work sometimes and other times use large baitfish flies and
rip it through the schools of blues.
There
have been some tuna around although they are infrequent. We started carrying shark
gear in case of the appearance of an early season mako.
Inshore,
the action is best in the morning and hopefully during a moving tide and with
some swells. Flat calm water is tough to fish in the rocks. Salem Sound has not
been particularly active under birds. Ipswich Bay still has a lot of small blues
5-6 lbs and plenty of bass under birds.
Thats
all for this week, good luck and if you have any questions about the fishing or
are interested in booking a trip.
Call
us at(978) 468-1314, visit our web site www.olfc.com, or drop me a line at jpirie@olfc.com
Thanks,
John T.Pirie
Merrimack River.
Both
John Gribb and Barry Clemson report that the Joppa Flat is silly with larger school
bass, but that they are spooky and require a quiet and careful approach. Hence,
weekends should be avaoided (I heard there were 150 boats on Joppa Sunday before
last).
Both
captains suggest using a small lightly weighted fly. Barry has been using a Crazy
Charlie in size 2 and John Gribb favors a bead eye Clouser in Chartreuse or olive.
This
just in: (6/23) Yesterday afternoon, good friend and customer Frank Hallowell
caught 8 legals (one of which was 38") on Joppa at the top of the tide guided
by Barry. The fly was Barry's Cape Ann Special.
Ipswich,
Parker and Rowley Rivers and Plum Island Sound..
Jeff
Melanson (and his lovely wife Stephanie) was just in and says the Sound is just
alive with school bass to 29". Multiple pods are pushing bait at Middle Ground
and other flats. No need for heavy lines here! Fish are taking just under the
surface and an intermediate or floating line is all you'll need. Jeff favors a
large Rhody Flatwing for just about all breaking fish situations in the sound,
but a deceiver or realistic herring imitation will produce very well.
As
reported above, the beachfront is fishing very well, but prospecting can be tough,
so move fast along the beach and look for sign such as working birds or feeding
swirls.
Essex
River
Fished
the evening with David Griskevich. It was a real treat because I don't get many
opportunities to fish. A semi-secret flat on a beachfront provided some awesome
fishing. Although not all the fish we caught were sighted, you could literally
see pods of four to twelve fish cruising this flat and chasing down bait. At times,
fish were no more than two feet off the beach in water that seemed not deep enough
for them to swim in. David struck a 25" beauty that ripped the length of a small
curling wave, showing dorsal and tail all the way. Water was gin clear, no other
anglers and not a breath of wind. Perfect! It's nights like this that keep you
coming back. Floating lines, long (12') leaders and very small size 1 Enrico's
were the winning combination.
Had
great friend Dave Michno and his nephew John out. John has guided on the Hiwassee
River in Tennessee and on blue ribon trout water in Colorado. Take it from me,
when you're guiding a guide, the pressure's on. Well, The morning fishing sucked.
It was bright and breezy and we only managed 3 or 4 fish all morning. After lunch,
the trip was technically over, but I had to see if we could find fish up on the
flats. The tide had turned and the water was just the right depth in Great Bank.
Wind and sun at our backs we Lencoed (electric trolling motors) across the flat.
Shots at 2 30" plus fish, but we came on them too fast and lined them. Got a bunch
of smaller fish and ended the day on a much better note.
Same two guys again, but this time we started at noon and fished into dark. The
falling tide provided some great actionwith weightd flies and sinking lines, but
we were really a lot more interested in surface action. The tide turned at 6 PM
and we were not to be disappointed. Dave landed a 26" fish and we got several
in the 24" range. Poppers and light flies saw all the action. I'm really glad
John got to see breaking fish and how much fun our bass can be with light lines
on top!
James
Shanley and the Hon. Lisa (???), the mayor of Newburyport out this morning. Fishing
was steady but mostly smaller fish. On both the falling and rising tides, fish
were up top busting the same 21/2 inch white herring. Nice morning with nice folks.
