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This week saw decent numbers of Stripers in the surf and around the rocks off of Cape Ann and the outer islands. Not as many big fish as last week, but big numbers of small fish, sufficient for good action. These fish in the 25-27" range, that can be great fun on light spinning tackle and fly rods. My charter on Monday had constant action for six hours of bait fishing. We averaged one “keeper” landed for every ten schoolies. There may have been more big fish around, but with so many schoolies, it was hard to get bait to them, without the little guys taking it first. There also, were large numbers of bluefish around this week. We frequently got “cut off” in the rocks as the blues passed through the surf. On Sunday late in the morning, with flat calm seas, and a slowed striper bite. We ventured offshore and caught several blues that were “fining”. Look for the schools as they sunbath in the warm surface water. Tell tail signs, are rippling water from fish moving against the tide, swirls as they spook from the boat, or exposed dorsal and tail fins. Though, these bluefish are sometimes difficult to see, and not very aggressive, this is a fun way to fish, as you are sight casting. The weather the rest of this week has kept me off the water, but I am looking forward to my first tuna trip of the year as soon as the weather breaks. Details to follow!
The striper fishing along the Cape Ann coast is very good. There are excellent numbers of stripers ranging in size from 16” to 40+ pounds. Last weekend we fished and scouted our favorite rocky shores from Pebble beach to the backside of Thatcher Island to Straitsmouth Island. We caught stripers at all stops! The fish were hooked on flies and an assortment of light tackle options from poppers to soft plastics. We did observe a few anglers trolling live mackerel with excellent results. Live bait trolling is a sure fire way of coaxing the larger stripers to the hook. But for shear excitement, you can’t beat fly or light tackle options. Captains Dave and Al both reported observing and hooking several large stripers each on the Merrimack river flats last weekend. The stripers however are becoming increasingly spooky and this can get most frustrating. Both captains expect good fishing to continue into this weekend and beyond to next week. The easterly winds of the past few days should help the fishing from the Merrimack to Cape Ann. Expect to see lot’s of bluefish close into area beach's and in the bays.
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