Boston
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Bring your fishing gear if you ride the Water Shuttle

Brenda Philipen with a 42" 30 lb. monster harbor bass - taken 7/13/01 with Reel-Dream Charters

The harbor area is still producing some good size striper along with a few blue fish. Folks working downtown with views of the harbor have reported hour-long feeding blitz’s with hundreds of gulls and terns working over the fish. The fish where so intent on feeding that not even the T shuttle boat traffic did not bother them.

Linda and I finally managed to get a few days fishing in. We spent a couple days at the Cape but the winds made it difficult to get around in the boat. This past Sunday we took our granddaughter for her first boat ride on the Merrimack and Pops was lucky enough to land a striper for her. The lessons begin, it won’t be long before I will have yet another excuse to purchase more fly gear. “But Honey it’s for the baby.”

Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...

Tight Lines!

Bob Desplaines

Boston Metro Regions

Boston Harbor

NEWS FLASH - 7/13/01 2:55 Pm Update from Reel Dream Charters

July 13, 2001: I had the pleasure of taking Ray and Brenda Philipen of Nashua, NH, fly fishing for stripers this morning. We found the fish between Rainsford and Peddocks at first light and Ray was fast into his first striper, a 30" beauty that gave him all he could handle. Although it took Brenda a while to get her stride, I assured her (somewhat tongue in cheek) that she would most likely catch the biggest fish of the day. Well, Friday the 13th was anything but "unlucky" for Brenda! Fishing in tight to the shoreline, she hooked onto only her fourth striper ever and 20 minutes later a monster bass was brought to the boat! This 42", 30lb. cow was fooled by one of my gray/lavender half 'n halfs and fought superbly on an 8wt. rod using a fast sinking line. The big fish was properly revived and swam away happily to fight another day. What a memorable day!

Capt. Wayne Frieden (781-545-6263) of Reel Dream Charters reports:

 

Jim Leak with a healthy 32" linesider!

July 9, 2001: The Harbor continues to produce many good sized bass as well as bluefish this week. No charter today, so I took the opportunity to do a little reconnaissance and found fish at first light (well, a tad later as I slept in a bit) in Hingham Bay. I was using a clear intermediate striper line and white snake fly,which proved too much for the schoolies to resist! Found a school of finicky fish at low tide but these fish were not eating. Headed towards Boston and had some fun catching 22-24" bass on the snake fly and on a small translucent clouser/baitfish imitation fished on a 300gr. depth charge. As the tide started to come in, I went back to the area where I first found the school of finicky bass. These fish were finning on the surface and swimming just sub-surface and were still difficult to catch. Using the clear intermediate line and small clouser, I managed to fool two small bass and one 33" 13lb. beauty which took me, at least a few yards, into my backing. It was a great way to end a beautiful morning!

Ryan Morrisey

July 11, 2001: I had the pleasure of guiding Jim Leak, fishing manager and guest, Skip, of the Orvis Boston Shop for a few hours of early morning striper fishing. Jim caught his first striper of the morning, a strong 24" fish, literally minute from Rowes Wharf. We soon moved into Quincy Bay where we were greeted by a sky filled with working birds and bass chasing herring to the surface. Moved off to a small cove and Jim managed to fool a nice, bright 32" fish using one of David Skok's PC clousers in tan/white. Skip caught a small keeper bass (28") on a white snake fly. However, there were lots of fish and many large bass caught and released by other fly fishing and light tackle guides. Impending thunder storms chased most of us off the water by mid-morning. The fishing this year has been great, so, go fish!

July 12. 2001: The really big fish were no where to be found today...However, George Morrisey, along with sons Chris & Ryan and friend Dan, had a pleasant morning catching schoolie stripers and one small keeper bass (28") on light tackle. Jigs seemed to outfish sluggos but not by much. The fish came up between Rainsford, Peddocks, and Georges I. but they weren't up for long. My guess is the front last night and change in wind direction pushed some of the bait and fish out of the harbor. After the action slowed, we moved off to the long pier and caught more schoolies on the flats and channel edges. Again, jigs fished deep were the ticket.

George Morrisey with a Boston Harbor Striper - Reel Dream charters

We offer convenient pickup at Rowes Warf (see picture at top of page)

The fishing continues to be strong in Boston, so, now is the time to book that trip! I still have a number of very good dates available in July and August. But they won't last long...

For the latest fishing reports, go to:http://people.ne.mediaone.net/reeldream2/comments.html

http://www.reeldreamcharters.com

Until next time, we'll see you out there...

Capt. Wayne Frieden Reel Dream Charters reeldream2@mediaone.net Scituate, MA 781-545-6263

North Shore, Cape Ann & Merrimack River

Captain Charles Crue (978-462-9212) of Channel Edge Charters wrote in with this Merrimack River Report from yesterday:

Merrimack River Report July 5, 2001

Tom Sheehy with a 37" striper

Fishing over the past week has continued to range from good to exceptional. There are many, many stripers in the estuary. Commercial fishermen are at it again. I saw a box of very large stripers being unloaded at the marina (I hate to see it). Channel Edge Charters continues to practice catch and release, with rare exception. We have the barbs crimped down on our flies and lures to minimize injury to the fish and we revive those big ones at the side of the boat -- every striper counts. Think about preserving the stock for our future generations.

Bait fishermen have been getting lots of action. Monday morning they were all getting fish, many of the keeper variety. Earlier a friend of mine, Tom, was out fishing prior to going into work. This young guy is the consummate fly fisherman. From the photo he emailed to me I can tell it was very early in the morning that he latched on to a beautiful 37-inch striper.

Bait fishermen continue to get mackerel off of Breaking Rock.

A Merrimack River striper from 7-11-01

On the last few fishing excursions we have caught and released several nice Shad. They have been hitting the standard striper flies in eddies and drop off’s where stripers hold to snag sand eels and other bait. It doesn’t take long to know you are hooked up with something other than a striper. They take to the air! They are a fun, fighting fish to catch.

Bluefish remain elusive. I hear of one being caught now and then but have not seen one as yet.

Thursday I had a full day charter with three experienced anglers. We started at 6 AM. There was pea soup fog, and we ventured onto Joppa Flats as the tide ebbed. There was no way to see indications of striper activity. We did come across some breaking fish but lost them when they moved off. Later the fog lifted a bit and we did some drifts near the AYC sailboat mooring area. My clients got into some scales that provide some action. Later with better visibility we move down to the jetties. There were big rollers but also breaking fish. We were into "almost keeper" fish for several hours. In the afternoon we got into some good action on Joppa Flats. It was a very good day.

Derek Spangler of First Light Anglers filed this report on their web site

The fishing remains good in the Cape Ann area. The extreme heat has taken its toll on the fishery at times as the water reaches record highs in places. The key has been to fish early or late in the day. Many large fish have been take along the rocks and islands in Salem Sound with no one place producing overwhelming numbers, although a lot of the outer islands and ledges have produced the most large fish. The sound has been relatively quiet as far as surface activity, however, Manchester Harbor has been stuffed with 2-5" herring. Amazingly, the fish have not seemed to have found them in any great numbers, yet it is still great to see.

Rockport and Gloucester have had some remarkable days with huge numbers of big fish being taken on a couple of days this past week. The water temps have been all over the place, and the fishing seems to follow, great one day, slow the next. There have been some large schools of bluefish off of Halibut over the last couple of weeks and many folks have enjoyed some banner days.

The calm still days have produced the best action with large schools up finning along the surface.

Ipswich Bay and the rivers have been fishing well the last week or so with some great morning blitzes at the river mouths. Large mackerel have been in eating the herring and the bass and blues are there devouring both. The dropping tides along the outer bars have been the best. A lot of large fish are being seen and some caught along the front sides of the beaches as well. The incoming tide seems to be the best time especially during the afternoon when the visibility is best. This time of the year is great in the rivers since the morning feed up in the rivers seems to slow up just as the outside beaches start to heat up. It makes for a great morning with a variety of angling situtions. Although challenging, those big fish in shallow water get the heart pounding. Anyway, keep up the efforts and please call with any questions.

Take care, Derek (978)526-4477