| August 4, 2008 |
| With the summer striper pattern well in place and ocean side water temperatures near 70 who would expect the striper action to all of a sudden turn hot? Well that is exactly what took place. Early last week, a fresh school of stripers moved in along the Cape Ann shoreline with action picking up in the harbors and out along the shore. Steve P had a super morning last Tuesday hammering stripers at Niles Beach on topwater plugs. He landed in excess of a dozen nice stripers including two fish over 34 inches. The new arrivals were in the 22 to 29 inch class, slim and eager to eat. That has been the best it has been since June along the shore.
Steve’s success was not limited to just the shore; we had excellent results fishing the rock piles and reefs from Straitsmouth on down to Salt Island. On Monday morning Harry and Reid came out with me and enjoyed non-stop action tossing large white Slug-Go’s and assorted topwater stick baits and poppers. The action was best during the early, low light part of the day. On Wednesday, Reid did some rock scrambling near Coast Guard cove and was rewarded with a good sized striper on a white Slug-Go. 
By mid week I decided to break out the live bait tank and round up some fresh striper food and see if I could get some bigger fish to elevate the catching excitement. On Wednesday morning I quickly found schools of spike macks and filled the baitwell with a few dozen. I had good results (super slow) trolling the lively macks tight to structure.
And I was able to find feeding stripers just about anyplace I tried from Sandy Bay on down to Good Harbor. I also hooked and landed (my) first bluefish of the season just off Straitsmouth, but just one, so I don't think they are in our area in any significant numbers.  On Thursday morning Harry, Reid and daughter Miriam joined me for a morning of fishing. With the baitwell still aboard, we headed out in search of spike macks and luckily found them just about in the same area as the day before. Reid and Miriam quickly caught 3 dozen fine mackerel and with the baitwell filled, we headed down to Pebble Beach. After a brief lesson on live bait fishing, we started slow trolling two rods tight to structure along the beach area. It wasn’t long before all three of them got the hang of it and were landing one nice striper after another. We enjoyed several double headers, a few keeper sized fish, including the days best 36 inch cow hooked and landed (well played I might add) by Miriam. We quickly went through the all the macks and called a day….a great day of fishing!
 The striper fishing up to the north at Newburyport remains in summer pattern with the best success at night or during the day at the rivers mouth with live bait. Capt. Al reported some good early morning action on the flats tossing large topwater plugs or tube-and-worm trolling near the river channel.
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