The fall blitzes never really happened during October, not like it has the past few seasons. Steve and I are still scratching our heads trying to make sense out this fall season. The striper season started out super back in May on Cape Ann and that led to a super June at the Merrimack. The fishing stayed strong around Cape Ann well into July because of the abundant spike macks that we had. However, the first push of bluefish in the third week of July chased out the macks and in turn, most of the big stripers followed the macks (somewhere?). The shore fishing was slow at the end of July and into August on Cape Ann, but the inshore boat fishing remained good and consistent. The blues came in and went out pretty quickly primarily because we had very little in the way of baitfish to hold them. After July, the fishing to the north at Plum Island and further north to S. Maine was the worst in recent years. September arrived and the fishing picked up pretty good with a mix of stripers and blues around Cape Ann, and to the north at Crane Beach the shore fishing was darn good. The start of October brought in some good shore and boat action, but without a good supply of baitfish, the stripers simply moved through and the fall season has ended abruptly.

I got to tell you all that I’m sure worried about the ecological damage the mid-water trawlers are doing to the herring and menhaden and the devastating impact of the “By-Catch” on stripers (and other important recreational species). And with less forage food available and the current low spawn cycle of stripers, we could be at the beginning of a serious decline in stripers. Remember that both Virginia and North Carolina still allow commercial netting of stripers.

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Let’s hope for a better season next year. And thanks to everyone out there for fishing with us this past season and also for visiting the website.

Please continue visiting the website throughout the winter for a super list of great
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Capt Skip Montello