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To the best of our knowledge, the fall run has not materialized around the Cape Ann area.
The terrible weather and heavy rains of the past week has not helped either and has limited our ability to get out and about on the water or along the rocks and beaches.
However we did get out here and there along the rocks and have absolutely nothing to show for our efforts; no bass or blues.
Many of the regulars who have fished the historic fall patterns are now believing that what stripers there are in the migration have probably moved offshore and away from the near coast pathways.
Hopefully that's the situation and not diminished population. Either way it's not a good thing. The weekend weather is looking good, so just maybe the striper action may heat up too!And again the best bet for local waters are; Crane Beach, Annisquam backwater, Gloucester harbor beaches and coastwise rocks and beaches, Good Luck! | This is going to be the last regular Friday report of the season and I want to thank all of you for visiting the site and for coming out fishing with us. We are looking forward to next season already and if for any reason the action picks up around here, I'll post it up. However, please continue to visit the site as Al and I have several trips planned for Western NY (starting next weekend) for the salmon and steelhead season and I'll post up a trip report and some pic's. I also have a bunch of stuff planned for my "Special Features" including photos from Pat Ford.
Slow...Slow...and Slow is the only way to describe the fall fishing thus far.
Not much sign of a migration in and around Plum Island and Cape Ann. Water temps are still in the low 60's and the bait, and lot's of it, is still not leaving. Gloucester Harbor continues to have abundant macks and Crane Beach has sandeels present.
Everyone that I have talked with hasn't seen anything that resembles a sustained blitz or seen any schooling behavior whatsoever.
That's not to say that there are no fish, because there are. I fished at Crane this week on Tuesday and had a blast catching a bunch of 22-27 inch schoolies on flies and soft plastics.
I also tried all the fall hot spots around Rockport and the islands throughout the week with just a striper or two and a couple of blues. Joe W. and a buddy had some big fish on live macks in and around Hampton Harbor last w/e so it just might be the "slack before the attack" time. | The typical fall migration pattern has not taken shape as yet so we may be seeing a fast, late run when and if it happens at all. Keep your fingers crossed that what we are seeing is not simply a lack of remaining stripers in the overall population but a late fall run. Anyway, next week will bring much cooler temps so that should get the bait and stripers moving and stirred up. Best bets again this w/e are the rock and beachfronts.  Joe W with a nice cow that he landed and released
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Al and I returned Sunday morning from a week in the Alaskan Wilderness having spent 5 days fishing for silver salmon at the Tsiu River in S/E Alaska along the Gulf of Alaska.
We had a fantastic time fly fishing for one of the best salmon that swims.
Much is said about the King Salmon's size, but the Alaskan Silver is for my money the best for shear catch-ability and fight. These amazing gamefish come readily to an artificial offering whether a fly,
spoon or spinner, just put it anywhere near them and hang on! We also had a few days with favorable light winds and were able to take them tossing small topwater fly tied poppers, simply amazing watching these salmon crash a topwater bug!
The Tsiu River area is truly a wilderness; no roads, cell phones or TV...just eat, fish, sleep, drink (a little) and do it again and bears, eagles, fox and coyotes every day. Checkout the video slideshow;
and for more details about the outfitter, email me.
|  After talking with the guy's back here it sounded like I didn't miss too much striper or bluefish action back along the north coast; a few fish here and there. But that didn't stop me from getting out with one of my regular customers from the Baltimore area. You have seen Todd in many of my reports always holding up a big striper or two and this past Wednesday was no different. After spending an hour or two chasing around Rockport and Gloucester and landing a few schoolies we made a run for Crane Beach. We didn't have to search long before we found birds working over some nervous flat calm water about 1/2 mile off mid-beach in 15 to 20 feet of water. All the commotion was due to a rather large school of big blues (10-14 pounds) gorging on sandeels. One cast with Jumping Minnows and we were tight to bluefish. This continued for 10 minutes or so until the blues went down. We then switched off baits to large white soft plastics and allowed the baits to drop deep before slowly retrieving and we again were tight to blues , except for Todd who was holding on as braid was peeling off his reel rather quickly. At first I thought that he might have fouled hooked a blue but since the fish continued to peel line I decided to start the engine and pursue the fish before anymore line was taken. Todd finally slowed the run and brought the fish close to the bow and looking down through the clear green water it quickly became apparent that this was not a blue but a large striper. We finally hoisted the striper aboard, measured her up at 44 inches and 30 pounds , took a few photos and released her. We continued to fish the school of blues landing several more before calling it a day, a real good day at that. 
The weekend weather is not looking promising with heavy rain and fog expected, but if we do get a break, look for blues in Ipswich bay and off Halibut Point. You'll work hard for stripers and your best bet will be to cruise the beaches and rocks with live bait. Also there are numerous reports of large schools of football sized tuna within motoring range just off Halibut to Thatcher Island. The tuna can be coaxed to a hook-up with stout spinning gear and rugged topwater plugs like an Ocean Saltwater poppers or Yo-Zuri hydro pops and remember you need an HMS Angling permit and the following regulations apply; (private recreational) vessels one BFT (measuring 27 to less than 59 inches) per vessel per day/trip. The current recreational BFT retention limit for HMS Charter/headboat vessels (while fishing recreationally) is one school BFT (measuring 27 to less than 47 inches) and one large school BFT (measuring 47 to less than 59 inches) per vessel per day/trip.
With the nasty northeast wind and pouring rain, we were not able to get out with the boats this past week.
However, a few of the shore guys did manage to get a few fish here
and there as they were ducking big waves crashing on them.
What I do know is that there are plenty of bait fish available from Gap Head to Gloucester Harbor (in the way of mackerel and peanut bunker)
so the stage and table are set for an early start to what just might be an excellent fall run.
However, this weekend we are facing yet another offshore storm that will keep giant ocean swells pressing shoreward so if you get out by boat or foot be very careful and keep an eye seaward.
The safest bets will be to stay within confined harbors or back waters like the Annisquam or around Gloucester Harbor locations. There are good reports of big stripers chasing macks at Ten Pound Island and across at the castle.
The inside beaches ought to be holding bait so there should also be some hungry stripers as well. This time of year should bring some big bass to Magnolia Point, along the inside coves, and bit further down at Manchester Harbor,
but again watch out for big surf and rip currents if you fishing oceanside.
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We are fortunate along the north coast that Irene did not cause any serious damage.
I was able to get the boat back in on Monday and did some "prospecting" from Rockport to the back shore of Gloucester.
What I found was a serious 8 degree drop in water temps that probably chased the blues offshore.
Also left behind from the storm were some rather large ocean swells that made for some treacherous fishing close to reefs and beaches.
After moving from one favorite spot to the next, I was able to coax a few bass to a Jumping Minnow and another one to the fly, but that was it.
I spoke with several shore guys who found the swells too large to safely fish along the south facing shore so no report.
However, Brian O'C found a bunch stripers feeding on sand eels along the beachfront at Crane on Tuesday morning and invited me to join him and fishing bud, Bobby, for a long beach walk on Wednesday morning.
This marked the first time I fished Crane in the "waves" instead of from my boat.
And this type of fishing is definitely not for the faint of heart because of the big surf crashing on you or over you!.
However, it did prove to be a super good morning as we each hooked up at least a half dozen 30 inch plus stripers on top waters
with Brian taking top fish with a real chunker that probably weighed better than 30 pounds. We returned on Thursday morning to find a totally different beach in that the sand eels
had disappeared and the normally crystal clear beach water was now totally stained up from all the run-off (from way up stream) that finally made its way down the Merrimack, Essex, Ipswich and Parker rivers
and into the bay. We didn't touch a fish anywhere along the beach. It may take several days for the water quality to improve in the bay and until it does, I would expect the fishing to be slow until at least the w/e with best bets being the shore along Rockport and Gloucester.
The water temps should rise a bit, but an offshore storm may keep the surf up so be careful with an eye to the ocean for those big rollers sweeping in.
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We're into the late summer pattern now and with it, slow fishing at Cape Ann and the Merrimack- Plum Island area. Steve and Brian reported slow action throughout the week with a few stripers and blues in the morning.
However if you are willing to get out early in the morning or put on some miles you should be able to find some blues or striper action from the rocks to the beaches at Crane or Plum Is. But don't expect non-stop action as this past week the bite was done not long after sun-up.
If you want to fish after sunrise you'll need a live bait well full of bait to entice stripers to your hook. The blues were fairly good early in the week but the strong ssw winds turned the water over resulting in a 5-10 degree drop in water temps from Cape Ann to Plum Island.
With the approaching nasty weather you may want to pull your boat till it passes and for sure stay away from the rocks until the better part of next week as huge ocean swells will persist for several days after the storm moves away. Check out the slideshow (click) for a nice read. Hopefully we'll get back in the water and quickly get back to fishing as the fall run should be getting underway soon.
|  sorry about the pic quality, camera malfunction.
 
The good news for striper fishing this weekend is very good. The weather looks to be great and the striper fishing continues consistently good with reasonable numbers just about everywhere from Cape Ann to the Merrimack. |
Cape Ann continues to reward the persistent anglers with a few nice stripers
...but you have to put the time in and be willing to move around the Annisquam backwaters.
Little River is "on again and off again" so you'll need to try your luck on both sides of high tide.
Other spots to try are the Jones River landing and Farmers Creek (at the mouth) over at the Essex. Just keep one fact in mind as you head out fishing over the long weekend; the stripers continue in transit mode, so here today, probably gone tomorrow.
The one spot that may have some holding stripers is Gloucester harbor because of the abundant mackerel that came in early in the week. Best bets are; Niles and Pavilion (at low tide) beaches. |
The hot spot right now is the Merrimack River with solid numbers of mixed sized stripers up to 45 inches. The stripers are on Joppa and you will find fish all the way to the dam in Lawrence.
We fished a few tides over the past week and had great success with baitfish flies and weighed smallish white/silver soft plastics. Capt Al and I boated upwards of 20 stripers/each on 3 outings with half the stripers of keeper size and a few nearly 40 inches.
The herring run is still on and the fishing at the dam has been hotter than recent memory. But getting a decent casting perch is difficult at best due to the crowd of fisherman.
Rocks Village is also hot with both shad and stripers and could be a good alternative to the over crowded dam area. Check the Surfland and Crane Beach reports for their info. |
The overall striper/shad fishing has begun to display some improvement, especially at week's end. But still well below what it has been in previous seasons at this point in time. I'm still hoping that the less than stellar numbers are only related to the cold water temps, but we'll find out going forward with warmer weather forecast. | Striper fishing at Little River in Gloucester did provide action for those guy's who braved the cool, damp and windy weather with a few fish in the 22-28 inch range, but I have to admit that there were more guy's fishing than fish caught. Like me for instance; 1 hook-up in 4 hours and I didn't even land it! However here are some photos of the successful anglers; 
These schoolies were taken on spinning gear using a variety of soft plastics; slug-go's, storms and jig heads with plastic swim baits. | If you going to head out to Little River this weekend expect to see a lot of other anglers hoping to land their first stripers of the season, remember catch and release! The shad fishing is also heating up as well with more and bigger fish beginning to show at the usual hot spots from Rocks Village up to the dam in Lawrence. I'll be heading up that way today to see for myself how the fishing is and add it to this report. Good news, stripers are on the way and are probably already making their way into the backwaters of the Annisquam and Essex Rivers, so this weekend should be a good one to hook your first striper of the season. The morning dropping tide Sat. and Sun. should be good at Little River. Best bet baits are flies, weighed soft plastic swim tails, buck-tailed spoons and small swim plugs. There is good possibility that schoolies may also show up this weekend at the Merrimack River mouth and at Plum Island point on the drop. | The shad run up at the Merrimack is underway with more fish showing every day. I spent two hours Tuesday morning at Rocks Village at the bottom of the tide and hooked two small males (none landed) on a gold willow leaf spoon. My friend Walter landed a schoolie striper that I believe may be a hold over since I did not notice any sign of sea lice that should be present on stripers just coming in from the ocean.
 Still no sign of stripers in our area. And to the best of my contacts, no stripers anywhere in the state. But I do expect to see signs of life over the next week or so with the weather improving and water temps rising. The only reliable reports of stripers are at Long Island and the Connecticut coastline. Historically, the first real solid push of stripers in our waters occurs at the end of the first week of May, usually right around Mother's Day. We're still observing tons of bait at Little River so it won't be long until we land of our first stripers! | At mid-week I received a report of the first shad being landed in the Merrimack. The fish were taken just down river from the Lawrence Dam, but be advised that the Merrimack is running several feet above normal and flowing with very strong current and wading anywhere is difficult and dangerous. It will be several days before water levels come down enough to become fish-able and safe.
 The cold and wet April has slowed down the striper and shad migrations into our local waters. Even the Cape has not seen any striper action (other than holdovers) so far. The ocean water remains cold with temps running in the 40's so we're not going to see stripers at Cape Ann until at least the first week of May. Shad are schooling offshore as evidenced by shad roe at local fish markets. The recent rains may work to entice the shad run to begin during the next week or so; I hope! | The state has stocked most all ponds and streams in the northeast district and several local anglers have told me that the fishing has been quite good especially last week before the heavy rain moved in. With drier weather now, the streams ought to settle down and get better. Best bet pond; Sluice in Lynn with the Lynn Fish & Game stocking for their season long tournament. Best bet stream; Nissitissit in Pepperell. But don't overlook the Ipswich and Parker Rivers as they should improve with lower water. We have observed a strong run of Alewife in the local estuaries and in particular, the Little River in Gloucester. For the past week there has been a ton of bird activity on the mud flat and at the fish ladder off rt133. So when the stripers finally arrive they'll have plenty to eat and should hold well. The Castle Neck and Essex River backwaters should also have a good run of Alewife happening now.
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