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| FishWire Coordinator: | Mark Cahill |
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| A Little Look Back
It''s hard to imagine we've been doing these Fishwire reports at Reel-Time since 1995. Actually, I think the Boston report started in 1996, but it's still a long time. Last weekend I was able to resurrect the archives for Boston, Cape Cod and New York, which gives us access to over 160 Fishwires from the past. For a little fun, let's have a look at the Boston Fishwire reports for Labor Day weekend. 2003 http://www.reel-time.com/fishwire/boston/archive/archive.php?uid=107 For those of you that don't have the experience that stretches back that far, let me synopsize what you'll read in those older reports: we are entering what is traditionally our best time of the season. Bozo has left the beach! It's now our time. The darned jetskis have all been put away (unwinterized) and now it is the season of the fisherman. We're starting to see the signs. Plymouth is getting hot, which is generally a precursor to what I call the Big Skedaddle. The fishing will definitely hold up through the end of the month, but anything after that north of the cape is uncertain, So what's the real point here? Get out there. Go out now. Soon enough you will have way too much time to handle the Honey-Do list, for the season of Smashed Pumpkins approacheth...and on it's heels the Season of Dried Bird & Football. After all, you can sleep in November. Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...
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especially given what appears to be an early season this year.Boston Metropolitan Regions
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| Fall is upon us and some of the slower areas, such as to our north, have started to shake off the doldrums. To the south, signs of a migration in it's early stages. In Boston, some of the better fishing of the season is upon us. |
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Boston Harbor
Capt. Wayne Frieden from Reel Dream Charters reports: On Sunday, John Dise, his son and John's friend Deiter from Germany fished with me. Again, the fishing on top was very slow but we managed a number of bass and one blue on light tackle trolling rods. Deiter was hoping to catch a big fish and talked about how he's watched many fishing shows about tuna and striped bass. So, it was only fitting that he caught the biggest fish of his 35+ years of fishing! Deiter's fish was taken on a tube & worm rig and weighed in at 22# on the Boga. Slappy reports from the harbor... Haba bite still strong... Met up with Leonr early sat am in the haba with kayaks. We covered all the bases: leonr had the flyrods, SOT, and down parka, I had the baitcaster/sluggos, SINK and shorts and t-shirt. We both saw the requisite skunks on the way so we figured we were in for some good fishing. Got off to a slow start, just a few taps in the first 30 minutes. The fish gradually became more aggressive and the bite picked up. There was a little lull around the low tide, but when it switched over we were into some slightly larger fish (35"-37"). I had a couple big fish pull me away from the rip at one point, I looked back at leon and it looked like he was paddling away--but he wasn't using the paddle! Overall the fish were a bit bigger than usual--mostly 30-34 and very few shorts. Lots of fish 20+ legal sized fish. Fish bit everything--flies and assorted plastic. There were a few fish breaking here and there, but no pods of fish boiling. All in all a good morning!
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August 30, 2004: The good news is that there are plenty of bait fish in the rivers and bays, mainly herring and silversides. There also have been some very large bass taken on live bait and trolling the tube & worm. However, the action on top with fly or light spin tackle hasn't yet gotten going in a consistent fashion. But don't tell that to one of Bill Rodrigues' friends who fished with me on Friday, August 27. The group of postal mail handlers from Wisconsin and Illinois were in town for a week long convention and decided to do a little fishing for bass and blues. We found a nice school of bass in short water close to the bottom of the tide and Bill's colleague tied into a nice 30" bass on a bucktail jig. Unfortunately, the picture didn't come out. Most of the fish caught later in the afternoon were taken on the tube & worm. Not as much fun as casting, but still exciting and productive as I fish with light bait casting rods and 15# test Yo-Zuri hybrid line.
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South ShoreBlues have been happening off the beaches in deeper water. Reports from Plymouth have the fishing slowing down somewhat. Look for the bait, and expect areas like Powder Point, the Mary Ann Rocks, etc. to start to take off in the next week or two.
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North Shore
September 2nd- Overall the fishing still remains somewhat slow. The good news, however, is that we are starting to see signs that it should improve over the next couple of days. The fishing around Cape Ann has been mostly a bait affair with both live and fresh herring being the most productive. Flies and plugs have been OK at dawn and dusk, but the size of the fish has been small. Most of the rocks are holding fish just not any huge numbers. Patience and lots of casting seems to be the trick. The most encouraging sight was some sporadic surface feeds along the back shore of Gloucester. In the area from Braces Cove to Milk Island there have been small groups of striper popping up and eating some small bait. This is good for two reason. First, this is the area that we typically first see the peanut bunker push into. Second, the fish have all had sea lice on them which means they are fresh migrating fish! We all know that the arrival of the peanut bunker is critical for getting this fall fishery going for bass, blues and the tuna. The reports for the tuna have been very scattered. A few boats are catching them trolling, but nothing crazy. The best action still seems to be down in Cape Cod Bay, however, the long run makes it challenging on all but the nicest of days. With another hurricane pushing up the coast, this could become even more difficult. I am confident, however, that when we see the peanut bunker push in towards shore we will see some decent tuna action in the Cape Ann area. I know this is a brief report but as things are slow I would highly suggest giving the shop a call for any and all updated info as this is the time of the year where a tide and a day can make all the difference. Take care, Capt. Derek (978)948-7004 derek@firstlightanglers.com |
Here's the report from First Light Anglers:  |
The Merrimack River
Capt. Charlie Crue of Channel Edge Charters report: Merrimack River Report #14 September 2, 2004 I didn’t get out fishing the tail end of last week. I was occupied with finishing my house painting chores. I am thankful for the unusually nice weather that we had as I was doing my paint job. I had a charter booked for Monday so I went out Sunday morning for a couple of hours. Fishing was slow. I managed to pick up some schoolie stripers on the early incoming tide in the “tooth pick” area. That was all. A friend reported getting one bluefish off of the north jetty. My Tuesday morning trip with Larry and Bob, experienced fly fishermen, turned out better than I anticipated. They didn’t get any big stripers but caught an ample number as we fished from the jetties up into the AYC mooring area as we followed the incoming tide. The olive/white patterns and one of my new special flies worked very well. I nailed a few stripers with my light spinning rod and a white jig as I tested each area to determine if we had fish there. The largest striper of the day was about twenty inches. We didn’t see any bluefish although we trolled outside the jetties for a while. After much rain during Monday night the morning looked good for some “captain’s day off” fishing. I went to the marina and found cloud cover and some fog but no wind or rain. It was a go! The tide was just turning to incoming. I marked a few fish in the river near the #15 buoy but did not get a response to a couple jigs so I decide to go down to the jetties and see if anything was happening. Conditions were ideal and there were only a couple of small boats in the area. A couple of guys fly fishing from a small aluminum boat were working the inside of the south jetty. I didn’t see them getting any action as I passed buy to the end of the jetty. There I spotted some sign of fish with fins occasionally breaking the surface. They were moving relatively slowly so I though it might be bait fish of some kind. I trolled through and had a solid hit but didn’t get the fish. I sopped the engine and took out my new Sage Xi2 9wt with one of my special flies (unnamed as yet). I cast out a couple of times and then had a solid hit. The fish gave me a good battle forcing me to use the reel drag, while letting it run, several times. It turned out to be my first keeper of several weeks. It was a nice healthy looking 30-inch fish. I laid it on the deck for a quick photo before releasing it. I lost a couple of other stripers in the area when they threw the hook. One of them rolled near the surface and looked to be a legal fish. After that they disappeared. I fished up river with the tide a caught some mid-twenty inch stripers across from the tooth pick. Later I enjoyed lots of small schoolie action the AYC mooring area. It was good to see some of the bigger fish back into the inshore waters. |