| July 7, 2008 |
| The summer striper pattern appears to be underway both at the Merrimack and around the Cape Ann waters. Water temps on Joppa last week were in the mid to upper 70’s with stripers moving up on the flat with the rising tide, then moving off and into deeper, cooler water soon after the tide change. Capt Al reported excellent fishing mid week, with good numbers of 20 to 28” fish on the flats at high tide and then at the rivers mouth on the ebb. He also found numerous small pods of large stripers ½ mile down the beach, landing several fish between 34 and 43 inches on flies. The live mack anglers are still hammering big stripers at the mouth and reports are coming in of a few 40 and 50 pound stripers taken last week on the flats during the dark hours using live eels. The striper action up the coast in S. Maine is very slow with few stripers being taken despite the huge quantity of macks and pogies. My guess is the coastal stripers are staying put around the Merrimack because the quantity of striper food is still phenomenal. They will hang in the area as long as the food supply remains abundant.
The Cape Ann area fishing over the last two weeks had been a bit slow but with increasing water temps of late, the fishing improved heading into the past holiday weekend. I was only out for a few hours this week but had some good action along the rocks from Good Harbor to Straitsmouth. Steve P reported action slow as well, working hard for ½ dozen stripers per outing of the 20 to 28 inch variety and a couple of 30 to 36 inch fish mixed in. Porter B. reported slower than normal action until this past weekend. Porter got into a bunch of quality fish early Sunday morning at Wingaersheek. He also had surprisingly good action at the Candy house Saturday morning with a few 24 inch fish.
The weekend of July 4th saw some great fishing in Sandy Bay. For somebody who rarely has the time to get out and fish on a consistent basis, it was a real treat to get out two days in a row. Mackerel were easy to come by all over the bay, making for some great live-lining action. Bridgit and I fished around Straitsmouth Island on Saturday with consistent action and good size fish. The biggest fish I caught (shown in the picture) wrapped itself around a lobster buoy but with some good team work we were able to easily land the fish and untangle the line. Bridgit had a good sized fish get off her line but didn't let the next one get away. On Sunday, with a fog bank not too far offshore, we fished around Gull Island. The action again was consistent with smaller fish.
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