| June 4, 2007 |
| Cape Ann Report |
The Cape Ann beaches provided plenty of action throughout last week. Steve P. and son Mike, hooked and landed many school sized stripers (and at least one keeper) on practically every beach on the Cape. Steve fished mostly the late afternoon dropping tides, wading and casting top waters from the shore. I got to join them for an hour Friday afternoon on Back Beach. We all landed some nice stripers in the 20+ inch range. Look for the Cape Ann fishing to continually improve going forward….so far the striper fishing has been better than expected for this early in the season. I have no report for Candy House flat this week since the best action has been along the ocean side and in Gloucester harbor. Chuck McCarthy reports that very large stripers are plentiful (chasing sand eels) in the “no catch” areas of Stellwagon. He also reports that the bluefish have also shown up.
 It seemed where ever I chose to fish, I caught fish! I fished the back shore today (Sunday, in front of the elks ) at low tide 5-7 in the morning and took about 18 fish one of which was closing in on keeper size. No blitzing - no birds - no bait crashing, just blind fishing and blind hook-ups, just the way I like to fish! Most of the fish were high teens low 20’s, though I had 2 fish come up on the popper, one of which made a swirl about as big as a trash can lid, I hooked up mostly on a chartreuse and olive 1 1/4oz Saltys Poppers. I also fished Braces Cove hooked a few smaller fish there as well. I am going to be hitting the low tide again on Monday morning on the back shore. |
| Merrimack River |
| As was the case last week, the Merrimack estuary continues to fish fantastic! And it’s getting better with many more keeper sized fish up to 34 inches. Throughout most of last week, the North Coast Angler gang estimated landing and releasing several hundred stripers including upwards of 10 keepers. Most of the fish were fly taken, but I did change up to soft plastics and a Jumpin’ Minnow for a few nice stripers. Other anglers we observed were also enjoying the action. I fished with Dave B and Gerry Crete on separate days and thoroughly enjoyed myself. We all caught and released many stripers. Last weeks tides ran incoming in the morning and dropping in the afternoon. The rising tides on most days were a bit slow until about an hour before top. We saw many stripers swirling just under the surface (footprints) and had many large fish track our offerings right up to the boat without taking. When the tide turned out, the bite turned on and remained predictable through to tide bottom. Al M. and his son Geoff, reported having an outstanding day on Saturday landing 7 or 8 keeper sized fish. Al also reported that a friend of his hooked and landed a 20+ pound striper on a live mackerel. This week with the tide pattern returning to early morning highs, I expect the action to improve throughout the week. Some of the larger fish have made their way well up river in search of river herring and fresher ocean fish are arriving every day. I expect this early season striper action to continue strong with more and larger fish entering the estuary.  
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