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The fall season is just beginning. There are lots of large sand eels in the estuary area. So far we have been getting mid-size schoolies but the bigger fish should begin to show as other bait like baby bunker move about. The best flies are sand eel imitations. Try different sizes. Some of the sand eels are bout 4-inches long. They were so densely packed in the water that we snagged them when doing fast strips of our flies.

Last Sunday we caught and released many stripers that were feeding on the prolific sand eels. There was good steady action in spite of heavy Labor Weekend boat traffic. This week has been quiet but I have had some other priorities so didn’t get out on the water. I did get some reports of mackerel off shore.

One of my clients brought in the strangest catch of the season -- it was a scup. It hit a clouser fished close to the bottom.

From last week –

Inshore fishing has been rather slow on the morning tides over this past week. The large stripers seem to have moved out chasing some offshore bait. The schoolies have been the mainstay, providing some good lively action on light fly and spin tackle. There have been reports of some good bluefish fishing off of Plum Island if you trolled deep 30 to 40 feet.

Joppa Flats has been slow on the high tides although some smaller fish are being caught.

The seal herd is building up, indicating lower ocean water temperatures. I think we can expect some good fishing as the stripers sense the season change. Tuesday morning on the late incoming tide the water temperature at the surface was 53 degrees. I have heard that baby bunkers are around and they always draw in good striper feeding action. This week the river has been swarming with sand eels.

My clients on Tuesday did pretty well, catching schoolies in the American Yacht Club mooring area. The fish fought hard enough to make the anglers think they were bigger than the average fish they were catching, which was about twenty inches. They were lots of fun on the light fishing tackle.

There was good surface action off of Buoy #11 at first light this morning. Stripers were gorging sand eels that they trapped near the sand bar. My clients caught some nice fish on clousers and Sluggos.

There has been some good sweet water action on the local ponds -- check this photo of my grandson with his "trophy largemouth" that hit a live minnow on light spinning gear ( grandpa had to help get it in). It had a hook in its mouth that we removed before releasing it.

On (a) local note, the fishing inshore is excellent this week. Bait is still small, but fish are feeding voraciously all over Cape Ann from Ipswich to Boston. Small surf candies with the tail cut off work great. We finally caught some baitfish in a net. They look like juvenile hatchet fish. They are about.5 inches long and have a dominant eye shape. See the attached photos and compare them to a bonefish clouser.

On Friday, Aug 31st, I took 3 clients out shark fishing. Seas were ugly, 2-4 all the way as we left Manchester and traveled about 38 miles offshore.

After a decent morning where the clients landed about 10 nice size blue sharks, on both fly gear and light tackle, a shark picked up a bait on a balloon. The initial run after the hookset lasted for about 90 seconds, the fish dumps about half of the spool on a 50 tw(which eguals about 300 yards) when suddenly, with the line still going straight down the fish comes clear out of the water.

The clients, George and Liam Boesel, and Ralph and I are now quite clear that we are hooked to a large and quite angry mako. Her next run is also significant and we continue to lose line at an alarming rate. Finally, after about 40 minutes, George begins to gain line back. The fish is on the surface and clearly tired, as Ralph readies the harppon, we come close. Given that there were 4' - 5' seas, this is no easy task.

Ralph finally gets a shot and the fish pulls the harpoon. The mako, enraged, sounds again and dumps a third of the spool. 10 minutes later, she is on the surface, Ralph sticks her again and she yanks out another harpoon. Once more, she surfaces, at this point the anglers switch due to exhaustion, Liam takes over the rod. He puts the wood to the fish and we approach for our third harpoon shot. I stick the fish hard and the fish comes tight to the harpoon line, and snap, she breaks 3/8" dacron. Fortunately she is still hooked.

Liam does an admirable job of getting the fish back on the surface. Ralph positions the boat for another try, and I prepare the last harpoon. I stick the fish as hard as I can and this time, the mako snaps her head and breaks the fishing line. Liam looks down in alarm, or maybe relief, he is finally free from the fish. Fortunately, the harpoon holds. Seemingly, the fish is ours.

As a final measure I put a 1/4 inch stainless cable tail line around her. She does not take kindly to this and begins to thrash. Almost immediately, she breaks the tail rope and is held, once again, only by the harpoon. I grab a 1" docking line and pull her tail out of the water. As I tighten the noose, she flails, but this time unsuccessfully. The last step is to secure the head with another line. As I gaff her head to lift her higher in the water, Ralph readies the noose. However, she does not appreciate the gaff, an 8' stainless gaff which cost about $200. She effortlessly turns the gaff into a pretzel. Note to self, next time employ the flying gaff. Abandoning the head gaffing, I slide another line around her tail and slowly ease it around the dorsal and pectoral fins and cinch it tight around her gills. High fives all around and the fish is ours.

The quote " well, it seemed like a good idea at the time..." comes to mind. The fish dies quickly after I incapacitate her gills with a harpoon needle.

We try once to pull her into the boat but abandon that idea quickly. We try to tow her home but at 6 knots that will take 7 hours. Not a viable option.

As a last resort I decide to gut her and cut her into three pieces of a "manageable size". Holding my 8" fillet/bait knife, with Ralph holding me by the feet, I hang over the side and try to saw the head off. I put a line through the gills and out the mouth so we would not lose the head. The base of the gills on this fish has a diameter of about 3'. The spine is almost 3" across. Sawing the head off in big seas with a little knife was almost comical,.....almost.

Ralph takes his turn and the head breaks free. With four guys pulling and lifting, we finally mange to get the head on deck. Ralph severs another section and we are unable to lift the central trunk since it weighs so much. We trim off the belly flaps and get the trunk into the boat. The girth on this fish was between 6 and 7' feet.

Finally the trunk comes in and we are left with the tail. A valiant last effort and we can relax on deck, the fish is ours. As we inspect the head we notice what we suspected all along. The fish was improbably hooked in the exact corner of the mouth. An inexpensive 10/0 blue shark hook and 475 lb. cable are all that held the fish for 1.5 hours of solid battle. Had she gotten her teeth on the cable or the hook, this fight would have ended quickly and in her favor. Given the number of events conspiring against us(seas, fish size and attitude, hook and wire rig, light tackle, broken harpoon and tail ropes) we clearly had some good fortune smiling on us. We all left the day with an incredible memory, some great steaks, and an almost unbelievable story.

The fish was a little over 10 feet long. Each section weighed a little less than three hundred pounds. Given that we gutted her and cut the belly flaps off, this fish was clearly in the 900 pound range. A lifetime fish for any angler.

We do have prime dates available so please call to book for the fall fun run. 978-468-1314

or email to jpirie@olfc.com.