North Coast Angler2006 Fishing Reports

August 21, 2006

Cape Ann report

The striped bass fishing off the Cape Ann shoreline has blown wide open due to the start of the peanut-bunker blitz. These juvenile bunker are producing the best surface action for fly fishing and light-tackle anglers of this season. The Peanut Bunker are staging in the coves around Pebble and Good harbor beach, along the beach fronts and out along Milk Island and up to the north at Straitsmouth. I have also seen huge schools east and south of the Salvages. There were large, actively feeding schools of stripers and bluefish pursuing the feast. Most of last weeks action took place along Pebble beach, Lands End point, Milk island spit and the south face of Straitsmouth. We had great action on the fly and the Jumpin Minnow top water hard bait. The striper schools contained fish of different year classes. One large pod contained fish in the 18-22 inch range while another was made up of 22-28 inch fish. Larger fish, 28 inch plus could be seen mixed in with both populations. The bluefish were mostly 7-10 pounders and were for the most part found away from the beaches a ½ mile or so offshore. On Saturday, I had the good fortune of guiding a super fly angler, Foster Hetherington from Vermont. You may remember Foster as one of the prize winners in the recent ESPN and OLN fly fishing tournaments (WWW.streamandbrook.com). Foster came out with me Saturday morning and landed the first of several dozen stripers on his second cast! Foster got to experience the very best striper action that Cape Ann had to offer. He got to witness first hand the excitement of casting to top water busting stripers spraying peanut bunker right up onto the beach and casting flies into tight rocky pocket water along the shore. I quickly found out why Foster did well in the tournaments. He is an amazing fly-caster as well as a knowledgeable angler, possessing that 6th sense that allowed him to quickly adapt to saltwater fly fishing tactics. He totally enjoyed the experience and I’m sure he is looking forward to a future trip to Cape Ann waters. Reports from south and north of Cape Ann are describing similar peanut bunker invasions. Great for the striper and angler alike! Captain Al Montello reported finding huge schools of stripers and bluefish feeding on the peanuts both in the Merrimack River and out on the Plum Island beach. I have been told that hordes of peanuts have been seen all the way down to Boston harbor. On the tuna front, Captain Allan Smith continues to hook a few smaller fish on trolling gear. He is not finding large numbers of tuna busting bait at the surface thus far. The large schools of footballs that we had this time last summer have yet to arrive close in to our immediate offshore areas. We are optimistic though, that the large peanut bunker schools will draw the tuna northward from Stellwagon to the Cape Ann waters. We hope to get offshore again this week and scout it out.

Captain Skip Montello

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