| May 19, 2008 |
The shad fishing at Rocks Village has dropped off significantly in numbers, especially for the shoreline anglers. The overall water conditions returned to more normal and as such the
shad have moved away from the shoreline and out to the deeper water. I spent 3 hours last Wednesday fishing from the boat, some 80 yards from shore and landed only 5 shad for my efforts. I did not see even 1 fish landed from shore. Later that morning, I headed up river and stopped at the dance studio in N. Andover for a look see. A few anglers were there and reported a few hook ups. From there I headed up to the Lawrence Dam to check the action. There were probably 30 guys at various strategic shore locations and all were hooking up shad. I talked with a few guys and they said pretty much the same thing; plenty of shad have moved up and are stacked up below the fish ladder. The dam area may not be picturesque, but if you want to get into the action, it is the place to be. Most anglers are using egg sinker rigs with a gold willow leaf dropped 24 inches. Standard shad darts are also doing the trick. If you fish at Rocks Village your going to need a boat. Move out from shore 80 to 100 yards by 200 yards upstream of the bridge and anchor up in 9 to 10 feet of depth. The best bet for success will be upriver at the dance studio or at the dam. The dance studio (Chippendale) is located on Sutton Street close to the 495 interstate ramps at exit 44. Park in the rear end of the lot.
As for the shad run itself, I believe the run is now in peak and should remain good through the end of the month.
 Alex and George each with a nice shad Both Steve P. and I fished Candy House several times last week and found the striper action improving throughout the week. Overall, the quality of fish is remarkable; we caught stripers as small as 10 inches to nearly 30 inches. The stripers are all healthy, plump and eager to strike flies or light tackle tools including soft plastics and top water twitch baits. We caught stripers on the rising and falling tides throughout most of the week. The weekend fishing slowed up considerably as the stripers that were present during the week, most likely moved on to the north. This is typical for Little River and I do expect new stripers to arrive. The estuary contians considerable striper food with good numbers of mature pogies present in large numbers. And don't be suprised if the tug on your line is not a striper, but a fierce striking fluke! The water temperature in the area is running in the low 50’s and with the abundance of striper food, migrating stripers should be drawn into the Annisquam river system for several more weeks. Expect the good fishing to get even better as we go through the month. As for the Merrimack, several reports have conditions improving there as well with a 14 pound fish taken upstream of the Whittier Bridge. All in all, the striper season is off to a very good start.
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