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| Cape Ann Report |
What an interesting week! Let me begin first with the inshore fishing. Things are starting to really heat up. Monday's charter began with a nice bluefish blitz off of Straitsmouth. The blues were hammering a large school of peanut bunker in the rip on the east side of the island. After releasing six bluefish and a small bass, all caught on poppers, we decided to check out the striper action in the rocks. We soon got into a good bite, and had contact action for about an hour and a half. The fish were average in size, with a few twenty eight-thirty one inch fish mixed in. On Friday, after searching in vain for bluefish to catch on the fly, I discovered a large school of big bass that had pinned a school of peanutbunker against the beach. The fish were just milling about, and would not take a fly. It was clear they had been feeding all night on the fullmoon, and were now just resting. With it now dead low tide, we decided to try a little baitfishing in the rocks. Finally, we got into some action. The fish were better in size than those I had seen on Monday, and kept us busy, for the next two hours. Saturday, things finally came together. We found lots of big stripers in the rocks. It was the best action I had seen since early July. The bites came fast, and all the fish were twenty eight inches or better. Off the beaches we saw large bluesfish schools pounding the peanutbunker, and against the beach the bass were feeding at will on the bait pinned against the beach. The fish were bigger than I had seen in weeks, and were very aggressive. Right now is some of the best action of the entire summer, and should only get better as the stripers begin to migrate. Tuna! Well Wednesday, was a day I will not soon forget. I set out for a dawn patrol with Captain Skip, and we soon found fish. But, as the northwest wind began to blow, and the white caps came up, we soon lost contact with them. We trolled around for a while searching, and not feeling very optimistic. But as the wind began to die out, we could see a few fish up here and there, but nothing too close. We decided to move north, and I soon noticed a boat that appeared to be "hooked up". As I looked beyond the boat with my binoculars, I could see the birds and splashes from a school of feeding tuna. We cranked in our trolling lines, picked up our spinning rods and set out to "run and gun". After several tries, and several boils on my popper I finally came tight with a 20 pounder. It was a short fight, especially compared with the 90 pounder I caught a few weeks ago, (but like marlin fishing), a tuna is a tuna. We continued to chase the schools as they worked the spike mackerel, and had many good shots. Twice more I had fish hit the popper, but missed the hook, and Skip had several fish hit and boil on his popper. It was exciting and frustrating, all at the same time. But fortunately for yours truly, "lady tuna luck" smiled on me again! I hooked another fish, this one about 25 pounds, and after a short fight, and we released the fish. Though, we were unable to catch any more, it was a very exciting day. We saw lots of fish close, and had many good shots. Unfortunately, since that day, the tuna action has been slow. However, the bait is still offshore, and now there are big schools peanutbunker near shore. The fish will be back, and when they do return, I can only hope for another day like Wednesday. "Charlie tuna" may have left the room, but he hasn't yet let the building. Last week was an exciting week, chasing tuna and coming soooooo close to hooking my first tuna on spinning gear; next time out for sure! “Chasing Tuna is like chasing a beautiful woman, lots of time and money for that one BIG Kiss”. Captain Al Montello reports the stripers are beginning to return to the flats on the Merrimack. The fish are running in the 20-28” range. The chumin’ and chuckn’ anglers are also hooking up on some larger fish; along the channel edges in the flats, at the river mouth and even well up river near Carr Island. Looks like the early fall pattern may be starting a bit early. A final note; the commercial striper season ended last week.
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