Yeah, I know…tuna, tuna, tuna… Adult pogies are still holding in Salem, and they’ve got their friends the bluefish with them. Some decent striper catches coming from the Cape Ann rocks and beaches. Peanut bunker showing pretty well, which shapes up for a great fall run.
Capt. Charlie Crue of Channel Edge Charters reports:
Merrimack River Report #12 August 11, 2005
The inshore fishing was very slow over the weekend. I had a report that even the quasi commercial striper fishermen did poorly. (that doesn’t hurt my feelings since I support game fish status for striped bass). The weather has been OK but bright and mostly hot so the river water at the surface is generally in the low seventies. Blues continue to invade the river.
I had my first good action day in a while Tuesday morning on the late outgoing tide. It began with schools of small stripers thrashing bait on the surface between Newburyport and buoy #11. They provided good action on soft bait jig head spinning lures and my McVay Special Fly on the long rod. Later I got some larger stripers and a couple of bluefish off of Plum Island Point.
On Wednesday and Thursday mornings the river continued hold lots feeding stripers on the outgoing tide. They have been slurping sand eels at the surface. The fish are very selective and won’t hit just any fly or lure. Most stripes are on flies or lures about 4 inches long. Most of the stripers were small schoolies but early Thursday morning there were large schoolies mixed in. They were 20 to about 26 inches long. There were also some bluefish as my clients found out after donating a soft bait jig to one. Over all the action has been great this week.
From First Light Anglers:
North Shore Report- Tuna and more!!
August 11th- Well the tuna fishing has been a bit of an on again off again affair. Over the weekend we spent a long time on Saturday trying to find the fish and finally found them really well in the afternoon south of Tillies Bank. We did not hook any on the fly but Nat hooked two and landed one on the spin on Sunday. Since then the fishing has been spotty and I was beginning to think that the fish had moved offshore or out of striking distance for us, however, the reports from the water today have been spectacular. I have received good reports from as far north as the Isle of Shoals all the way to south of Tillies. Some very good groups have been seen up on Jeffries as well in most of the usual haunts. I heard that the bait was relatively small but they all ate small metals readily. Nat got one fish on a Yo-Zuri L-Jack jig and a buddy of mine got one on a Megabait jig. If the weather holds I would definitely suggest getting out there. I have also heard scattered reports from the BF to the BE buoy as well as the H Buoy and the SW corner. I have not personally talked to anyone who has seen good numbers recently, but I know the fish have been showing at all those spots from time to time over the last couple of weeks. Just great to see them stay around like this, and I cannot wait to get back out on the water again tomorrow!
As for the bass, the fishing has been OK from what I hear. I have not run a bass trip since Sunday evening when we chunked and picked away at the fish around Manchester and Magnolia. Pete who works for us got a couple of nice fish on the high tide on the fly off of Marblehead two nights ago which was great to hear since generally the fly rodding is a bit slow this time of year. The Essex and Ipswich rivers have still been fishing relatively well, but not many big fish. The mouth of the Essex has had an occasional surface feed with some bluefish mixed in. The commercial bass fleet has been out of Halibut Point for the last couple of weeks so there must be a body of nice fish in there. I just have not had the time to go check it out. Manchester and Marblehead harbors have had a fair number of 3-6” herring that can be caught using a Sabiki then fished live in the rocks. Peter and Randy Sigler have been doing that most days for the Kid’s Fishing Camp and catching lots and lots of fish with them. As always, please call the shop or send me an email for more information. Thanks, Capt. Derek (978-948-7004 derek@firstlightanglers.com
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Mark N. Cahill has been writing and editing for Reel-Time.com since 1995. He started fishing in the mid-1960's and caught his first striper off World's End in Hingham in 1966. From there on in it was an obsession. He loves fishing for tuna, and fly fishing for striped bass. In a pinch, anything with fins will do...
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