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| FishWire Coordinator: | Mark Cahill |
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| Getting the Story Straight
Last week it seemed as though virtually anyone in any manner of craft that could manage to get a few miles off the coast had a pretty good chance to put a tuna in the boat. This week, there are a lot of guys bemoaning the "missing tuna." To all of you, I will remind you that they don't call them a "highly migratory" species without good cause. Even still, there are still fish around, so don't give up. The appearance of tuna has pretty much stifled the reports for local striper fishermen. It seems that the kayak flotilla is the only group fishing (or more accurately reporting) from the area. So I thought today would be a good day to give you a few tips on how to write a report for the FishWire or the Forums that won't put you in jeopardy of getting your tires slashed the next time you visit your fishing hole. In the past, we've had some serious attempts by people to have forum reports deleted, and I've been asked to remove the names of places from my reports. It's kind of funny how words like "Cranes" or "Blacks" or "Deer Island" can inspire so many folks to type out a nastygram to their fellow fisherman. 1. Don't be too specific - we really don't need to know which rock you were standing on. I know I won't be fishing there any time soon. So remember to put in something like "Boston: Got the skunk out" or "North River: Loaded with schoolies." For good examples of how to write a report, look at how Bill Downing and BobG write reports for the canal. There's enough for the regulars to discern trends, and narrow down the techniques they'd want to employ on their next trip, but I can't remember them actually ever mentioning a pole number, which is the canal equivelant of a gps location. I think about the pre-9/11 days, when we used to be able to fish the Pilgrim Nuclear Plant in Plymouth. I've been called out on more than one occassion for mentioning the name, but frankly, I think it was one of the best known publically accessible spots on the South Shore. We need to remember to inject a little sanity into our reports. Obviously, some public areas are just fine to mention. Places like Newburyport Beach can handle the traffic, as can Duxbury Beach, the Powder Point Bridge, etc. Employ these techniques and you'll keep the fish nazis off your back and out of your email basket. Share your tips on writing decent fishing reports in this thread on the RT Forum. Note: just in case you hadn't noticed the normal signs, ie. dark clouds forming, dire rumors of hurricanes, tropical storms, pestilence, etc., I will be vacationing for the next two weeks. The reports will be published, but it's a good bet that I won't be writing too much. Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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Boston Metropolitan Regions
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| Expect the weather to have a huge impact in the next week. If the remains of Charley push through, she'll surely stir the pot. For now, the tuna hunting this week has been just that, hunting. They've been out there, but they are moving around a lot, which is more standard than the pattern we'd seen last week. On the striper and bluefish front, things are holding up. PP Bridge, Minot, the normal harbor spots and Cape Ann/Merrimack are seeing decent action. Blues are hitting all along the coast, so be sure to keep a rod rigged and ready with some wire tippet. |
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Boston Harbor
Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters reports: August 4, 2004: Jeff Robarge, Ben Holden and Jeff's business associate Tom joined me for a morning of fly and light tackle fishing for blues. The morning was off to a slow start but before too long picked up when we located bluefish that have been hanging around offshore for the past week or so. These fish were feeding on 5" sperling or adult silversides and would take any kind of popper we could through at them. It was a beautiful day on the water... Happy anglers with sore arms. Not too tough to take! LeonR reports: Deer island 08/08AM Comedy of errors - thats the only way to describe today. Hook a nice fish on Clouser and get him in, check against the mark on the first eye of rod, just to short. (Apologies to idiots everywhere). That guy has no regard for anyone but himself, I asked him if he thought they could get closer.... Did not want to see what worse could be...
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August 12, 2004: There are plenty of bluefish and stripers in the Harbor but fishing varies from day to day depending on the weather (and probably the alignment of the earth, moon and stars!). One day the fishing will be decent and the next day...slow. On Monday and Tuesday, we went looking for school BFT and spotted tuna breaking within 6 miles of Boston on both days. These fish were only up briefly and not within casting range. Elusive! I'll e out again this weekend and will file another report soon.
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South Shore
ScottNE had this... 8/12 Ccb * 1st off it was windy, I was on weather duty giving them hourly checks on any rain. The entire day was loaded with bluefish, some nice ones. They worked into a spot that produced two weeks ago that we hadn't tried the last week or so and viola, they whacked them pretty good. 2 fish in the 30 pound class, 2 in the 20 pound class in under an hour before the winds pushed them back to the marina. So, the fish are still around but are vastly outnumbered by marauding blues.
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North Shore
LeftUs reports: Glou. Harbor 8/11 Put the yak in at Pavillion Beach.Southerly chop kept me inside. Stared at Paint Factory for a nice drift along the shore.Picked up a couple nice shoolies 24 to 26 in.on deceivers deep.Marked alot of bait the whole time.Worked my way around to state pier and started marking fish.Started catching 6lb. blues on every third cast ducking bombs from baitcasters on shore.After losing all my clousers and deceivers(no wire )switched to poppers.Left the pier to the shore guys and headed for the fish auction.Found fish bustin all around piers and had steady pick of fish on top.Left around 930 pm minus a dozen flies and 4 gurglers,2 crease flies and 1 popper and 1 spool of flouro. Still 2 decent bass and all the blues I wanted 3 minutes from my house on the flyrod in the kayak was well worth it. I'll be getting some wire tomorrow. Back to the bench!! Dianett reports: Ipswitch / Crane 8/11 Schoolies and couple blues Hi All, Saw another boat fishing along Steep Hill and we saw them hook up a few times. Nothing too crazy, but always nice to get a few fish, and be in a work by 8:30. -Dave Essex/Ispwich 8/10 AM Fished out of the Essex this AM with a buddy on a boat using fly rods (a novelty in August when the SBFT are in). Left at 6, no clouds, FAC. Nothing going on at the mouth of the Essex. Steep Hill was reliable as usual and produced small stripers consistently. No keepers but a good number of fish in a short time on a beautiful morning made everyone happy to have made the trip. Caught on EPs. 8 Wt. Update On higher ends of the tide drift from Farm Creek towards the granite pier, fan cast the entire area as you go. There are usually a few fish in there willing to smack a fly or popper. (Like last evening - ) Watch out for that rockpile. Once the tide starts to drop, move out to the drop off in front of the spit just inside the mouth and run a sinking line. Look for the 10' line on your fish-o-meter and try to hug that edge. Water temps are critical; over 66F or so and it seems nothing is there; temps have been favorable for the last few days though in the low 60's. When you are at Steep Hill, try the area in front of crescent beach just beyond (SW) where the Ipswich River empties into PI Sound. There is a nasty rockpile there that used to be marked so be careful but that is (or can be) a great spot on the turn. Wade fisherman often hit that area from the N section of shore via Little Neck. Whoever is parking ON the ramp at Clammer's Beach (Joe's) oughta have their genitals mutilated. Goddamned RUDE! |
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The Merrimack River
Capt. Charlie Crue reports Merrimack River Report #11 August 12, 2004 Monday morning I had some time on my own and did a little fishing around the back side of Plum Island off of the Parker River. I found some breaking fish that turned out to be medium stripers, 22 to 27-inches. It was a run and gun game as the fish chased schools of bait. White sluggos worked on the spin gear and olive /white deceivers worked with the long rod. Also on Monday morning on the early incoming tide (before first light) there was a very nice striper caught. Eric, an ardent young fisherman who works at Hudson’s Bait and Tackle (also a boat dealership) caught a 47-inch, 46 pound striper using a Tuff Core Jig. I expect to get a photo but it may be included in next week’s report. The fish was caught on light spinning gear on 12# test line. On the weekend some football tuna were caught around the Isle of Shoals. One guy had two strikes on fly gear (14 WT rod and lots of backing) he lost one but brought one in to the boat before releasing it. There were reports of footballs being spotted just off of Salisbury Beach.There have been occasional catches of blue fish inshore and lots of blues off of Plum Island beaches. The commercial striper fishing has been shut down because the even higher quota than last year has been exceeded (in my opinion, it should be shut down permanently). Thursday morning I fished with Eric (47-inch striper catch mentioned above). We didn’t get any big stripers but hit a few nice mid-twenty inchers and lots of little guys. There were wide water temperature variations on the morning incoming tide that we fished. Incoming ocean water was in the low to mid fifties while the river water was in the mid sixties. Lots of bait around, sand eels and grill shrimp. Around the slack high tide we enjoyed some lively schoolie action on the long rods in the AYC mooring area. |
Last Friday, my clients Rich and his 15 year old son Kevin enjoyed some lively schoolie fishing. Kevin caught and released his first and many other schoolies up to 20-inches. His dad did not do quite as well using the fly rod but had a respectable showing. They enjoyed steady action during the half day morning trip. The fish were not big but they were aggressive!