| August 11, 2008 |
The hot action of a week ago has abruptly slowed significantly over this past week. Last Monday we experienced some good action with a mix of blues and bass taking plugs, slug-go’s and live Pollack. We could not locate any macks; no doubt the blues scattered them off their usual haunts. On our first trolling pass at Milk Is., we had both rods go off only to retrieve a half-bait each. We put the trolling gear away and broke out the plugging rods and hooked up several chunky 8 pound blues. Later that morning we found a good number of stripers feeding at Straitsmouth and landed several before calling it a day. By mid-week the blues vanished and the striper action cooled to just a few fish for several hours of hard fishing. By weeks end, the action literally shut down to nothing. The good news is that the stripers are here, but are not actively feeding during the daytime. Most likely the stripers are active and feeding at night. Steve P. fished most everyday last week (including one day out with me on the boat) with similar results; good at the beginning of the week and terrible by weeks end. Porter B tells a similar story; good action early last week at the Castle Neck area with mixed blues and bass, but nothing from mid-week on.  Steve P spoke with Kay at Surfland and her report cites slow action on the Merrimack flats as well as the beachfront. The flats fishing has been slow even at night. There have been some reports of good night fishing with live eels along the beachfront at Crane if you’re willing to walk and stalk the entire beach. What we are experiencing is a summer lull that will most likely continue through August with action picking up from time to time. You’re best bet is fish early or late. I do expect the action to improve as soon as we get a break in the current weather pattern….we need a good easterly blow to freshen things up and maybe bring in some peanut bunker from offshore. The hunt for “Charlie” offshore around Cape Ann has also been slow. We did get out for a few hours and spotted a few pods but were unable to get a good shot at them. All indications are, judging by the quantity of bait near shore, the tuna action could “go off “ around Cape Ann in big way real soon.
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