| Our North Coast Angler Team offers a variety of angling services including: saltwater fly fishing for Striped bass, American Shad, Bluefish, Bluefin Tuna and a variety of local ground-fish. We are skilled in all areas of tackle and presentation including fly, light tackle and offshore.
Our season usually begins in early May with American Shad running the Merrimac River to their spawning area well up river. American Shad are truly an excellent game fish on the fly or with light tackle. The early settlers referred to them as "poor man's salmon". They are strong and acrobatic and run in size from 4-6 lbs average. Some larger fish in the 10lb range are mixed in.
Shortly thereafter, hordes of Stripers enter the Merrimac River on their northward migration from the Chesapeake Bay area. The Merrimac river estuary comes alive with thousands of voracious Stripers, ready and willing to take a fly or other baits. The fishing remains excellent throughout the summer with night-time flats fishing the highlight.
As the ocean waters warm up, the beautiful coastal water off Cape Ann becomes a summer long haunt of Stripers and Bluefish. The Cape Ann fishing is very exciting, cruising in close to the rocky shoreline, casting flies, artificial baits, trolling tub-n-worm rigs or offering up live mackerel into the breaking surf can generate shear excitement when large Stripers or Blues rip line off the reel! July and August bring warmer ocean waters and an abundance of bait fish and schools of Bluefin Tuna begin to populate the waters off Cape Ann. The tuna fishing is very exciting and our captains have had considerable success finding and catching these elusive game fish. The tuna fishing continues well into October with large numbers of fish close in to shore.
Cape Ann offers some the best shoreline fishing to be found anywhere in Massachusetts. We can take you to some of the areas best locations and provide you with the “know-how and where-all” of surf-fishing on our Cape. Guide/Instructor Steve Papows is an accomplished angler, guide and surf-casting instructor with a lifetime of experience and knowledge.
The season runs well into October with some of the season’s best fishing happening during the fall migration. |
