| June 9, 2008 |
| In last weeks report I mentioned that I was concerned about the sparse number of small stripers, well we saw plenty of them last week both on Cape Ann and as well up at the Merrimack. Not only did we find small ones, there were many large fish as well. Steve P. and I (mostly Steve) had several good mornings walking the Annisquam marsh areas, taking advantage of the minus tides to find and catch dozens of backwater stripers. We caught stripers on flies and on a variety of top water hardware. Toward weeks end, Steve and others were able to find stripers including a 34 inch striper at ocean side beach areas. My son Steve M. also landed a large 36 inch brute at Candy House Friday afternoon on a small homemade wooden popper. So all in all a great week of striper action on Cape Ann and we expect fishing to get better as more fish continue move up the coast.
 With the great fishing on Cape Ann, I had two great outings on the Merrimack Thursday and Friday landing many quality stripers including a monster 39 inch brute. I wasn’t the only successful angler last week as Dave B, Tom K. and Gerry C. enjoyed the awesome striper action as well. We saw and caught a mixed bag of stripers sizes, from as small as 12 inches to as large as 40 inches. Most all of the stripers we hooked were on flies, jigs and plugs with the larger fish eating flies. We saw other anglers taking fish on “you name it” variety of tackle offerings including large white slugos, trolling tubes and all sorts of plugs; top water and swimmers. The best action was out on Joppa and especially late in the tide as water temps rose from the 50’s into the 60’s.
 The action is still going strong well up river at Lawrence. The shad run continues with some large hens being caught more frequently. Stripers are also on the menu there as well with reports of some monster 44 inch fish being taken on large plugs. The best time for the large fish is early morning or after dark. A few boat anglers are finding big stripers down river from the dam right under the 495 bridge and island.
 Expect the hot June fishing to just get better with the warm weather heating up the ocean side water. Don’t be surprised if you hook up a bluefish real soon. |
