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| FishWire Coordinator: | Mark Cahill |
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| The Gear Makes the Man
One thing I've noticed over the past few years is that the sport of Fly Fishing has a lot in common with high fashion. The only difference of late is that High Fashion has better looking models. Much better looking, in fact. Case in point: fly rods. Every year there's a new, must have rod. The way I hear things told, you simply can't fish without the latest and greatest. Sometimes it's the latest high tech-composite materials, other times, it's two-handed rods (not to be confused with spey rods, thank you very much). Personally, I am thinking about entering the fray next season to introduce the world's first three-handed rod. I expect it to be a big hit with conjoined siamese twins, fly fishermen from Three Mile Island and extremely close tribes of fly fishing African pygmies. To illustrate my point, I will mention that I have seen Mel Kreiger cast a full fly line using nothing but the top section of his rod. No tricks, just an excellent understanding of the mechanics of fly fishing, something we should all strive for. So what can you do? The single best way to improve your cast is in casting lessons from a top notch casting instructor. To that end, we've schedule a casting clinic with Mark Sedotti, one of the top instructors in the world, to take place in Hingham on June 21. This is an event not to miss. Here's more information. Oh, and for the record, I still use fiberglass rods from time to time. But then I have also been know to wear polka dots and stripes at the same time, so what would I know? Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Rods do make a difference. In the hands of an expert caster, a great rod will give him increased control and distance. In the hands of an inexperienced caster, it will result in the same pile of tangled fly line on the floor as would the most inexpensive rod available. Great casters using poor rods are still great casters, while poor casters using great rods remain poor casters.Boston Metropolitan Regions
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We should probably take up a collection to put Mother Nature on Prozac with the schizophrenic weather we've been having. Still, the guys that have been out are finding more and bigger fish. The macks are in heavy the whole way along the coast, which has brought the stripers out to the rocky beach fronts. The rivers are now fishing very well, with excellent reports coming in from the Essex, Danvers and North Rivers. Typical early season action, with guys taking 30-40 fish on some outings. Of course the black cat with the white stripe continues to lurk... |
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Boston Harbor
Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters reports: Saturday, May 31, 2003: Very light wind and no rain this morning. Flat calm...Some early morning action in the channel entrance to the inner harbor and up in the Reserve Channel. However, Ed and Suzanne Constantini definitely had to work for the fish today. I took Alex Persson from Sweden out for an afternoon trip as he was leaving the states and wanted to catch his first striper on the fly. The wind had shifted SE in the afternoon which made for tough going. We didn't see any top water action but did mark fish on the outgoing tide on the backside of Logan. Alex was happy to get a handful of small schoolies but lost a good one as it was swimming to the boat. Too much slack in the line and not enough time to keep it tight. That would have been the picture fish! Wednesday, June 4, 2002: The reports from yesterday and today are a bit more encouraging with anglers getting into some surface action near the airport. Outside the harbor, guys are still finding schools of macks which they are livelining deep to catch large bass. With water temps. warming up, it's only a matter of time before a big push of bass show up in Boston. Any day now... Until next week, we'll see you out there... Capt. Wayne Sean Ruge had this: Dryfly also noted a pick up in the Harbor: AM Harbor Report 6/3
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Boston 6/3 pm
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South Shore
Congratulations to Punchshot, who landed his first fly rod keeper this week: Plymouth Harbor Report Now I need to catch one that size in my yak Bassbuster has seen some fish out on Duxbury Beach. Things could be getting ready to take off there. 6/3 Duxbury Beach Jetty Jockey notes that the parking lot at the Plymouth Harbor Jetty is closed to all but those with trailers attached to their trucks. Good news for the boaters, but a real pain for those of us that just want to fish the Jetty. First off, not being able to park in the main lot anymore without a trailer is a big PITA... Anyway, on saturday we had some limited action fishing the outgoing with knuckleheads (the popper, not the people i was with )...maybe half dozen fish in the low 20 inch range (some of the skinniest fish i've ever seen)... action ended when the sun came out... Went back this morning but it seems to be an unwritten law in plymouth that the same weather can not be had two mornings in a row...toughed out the rain and stiff east wind for 1 fish apiece before crying uncle and heading to DD's... Nice to be back in my old stomping grounds, even if the fishing is a tiny fraction as good as what it used to be...
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North Shore
Capt. Randy Sigler of Sigler Guide Service sees things improving around Marblehead. With the arrival of the macks, they've had the most success fishing live bait (if you haven't tried it, it's a blast). They have been having some success with the long wand, but not as much as one would expect at this time in the season. At First Light Anglers, things are picking up. Here's their report: North Shore Report - First Light Anglers As far as the rocks are concerned, we have not seen or heard of any great number of fish sliding into the rocks as of yet. Almost all of the action has concentrated around the rivers and harbors. The Danvers River has been decent for a couple of weeks now, with some sporadic surface feeds in Beverly and Salem harbors. Manchester harbor has had lots of fish on top feeding in the evenings and a group of customers has had great fun playing around with them just after dark. Most of Rockport and Gloucester has been slow due to the cool water, but the Annisquam and Little Rivers, as is often the case in May, have proven to be steady producers. I have gotten some decent reports from the Swampscott, Nahant and Revere areas regarding decent numbers of fish on top in the evenings; however, Boston harbor has not had its typical late spring blitzes. I am hopeful these will start soon as this is often when we get good numbers of nice fish chasing big herring and mackerel. After all of the rain this weekend, we have moved the boat back to Manchester in hopes of the action picking up over here. We have today and Tuesday off from charters but are back into them on Wednesday, so if you need any up to the minute reports please give the shop a call. As always, we will certainly be getting out on the water daily, regardless of charters and are happy to help you find the fish. Good luck! Capt.'s Derek & Nat (978)526-4477 ThomSmith reports from the Essex: Essex River Found a bunch of fish at the harbor entrance at slack tide. They were gathering at the sandbar next to the red nun off the tip of Crane beach. Not the usual time and place for them and thought it was interesting. Good flies were half & halfs and flatwings fished on 300 grain sinking line. Best fly turned out to be this silly little thing that Jeremiah tied using Gartside's Secret Stuff. Nothing exotic, just a bunch of Secret Stuff tied to a #1 hook and combed out. Go figure. AlecS had this: As posted by Thom, they were hitting right at the confluences of the tributary creeks and the main channels. They were mostly hitting a larger size wild-eye in the "bunker" color. Those schoolies are ambitious, two of 'em practically swallowed the whole damn thing, but they were released none the worse for wear. Also hitting 6" white sluggos. Beautiful morning to be on the river. Soundking had this from the Danvers: Salem Sound 6/4 pm- Danvers Continues to Impress GCWilk notes that the stripers are showing up in the rocks off the North Shore. 6/2, Rockport Before heading in, noticed birds diving just outside Rockport harbor - right near the red nun. It was getting dark, but it appeared they were on eels. A friend of mine got a few fish from shore on cut bait - all in the mid-20" range. GCW |
Things are starting to show signs of life in the Marblehead area. The fly fishing has been OK, with some fish in the rocks, but not up to par for this time of year. It may still be a couple of weeks before our classic early summer flyfishing. Lots of fish holding in the frothy pockets around almost every island ad shoreline.  |
The Merrimack River
Capt. Charlie Crue notes that all the small stripers bodes well for the fishery in years to come. It's definitely a heartening sign. Merrimack River Report #3 June 4, 2003 Sometimes we do well in areas further up the river from Newburyport. This has been a blessing when the weather is rough in the area around Plum Island. On May 22 my clients Paul and Jack enjoyed some good striper fishing. They came down from southern Maine to get some fishing in prior to the stripers getting up to their area. Paul caught a nice 26-inch fish. (Photo) They both enjoyed catching and releasing many striped bass. On an off day, May 30, I enjoyed catching lots of stripers, including a 30-inch fighter. In fact I lost a couple big fish that morning near the mouth of the river. (Photo) Saturday, May 31, my clients enjoyed catching and releasing some big stripers as well as many small ones. (photos) Local reports are that there are lots of small stripers. I like to hear that because such fish are the future (if we don't kill them off before they turn into mature fish). Personally, I support making these magnificent fish sport fish only. That would mean no commercialization. It is my personal view. After some years of less killing of minimum legal size fish the situation could be re-evaluated. My goal is to preserve the fishery for those anglers who will follow us old timers. Tuesday I had an afternoon charter with a couple of guys who had a business meeting in Boston in the morning and wanted to try our Merrimack striper fishing in the afternoon. They were rewarded with the Merrimack Spectacular! Many, many, stripers ranging from the mid-size schoolies to hard fighting 30 plus inch fish were caught on flies. They had a very pleasurable experience as they were able to prevail with the fly rods in a stiff south west breeze. It was a great late afternoon, early evening fishing trip. My custom flies worked very well and that gives me personal gratification in that my years of experience are paying off. (photos NormM reports: 6/4 Merrimack |
Although the weather has not been that good, our migrating stripers have been making up for it. My charter clients and I have been having a great time. Stripers continue to feed in our estuary area of the Merrimack River.
Sunday, June 1, was a nor'easter, so no fishing. I postponed my charter. Monday I was at Hudson's Outboards helping out with tackle sales.