| June 19, 2009 | ||
| The striper fishing on the Merrimack flats was even slower last week than previous weeks, especially toward the end of the week. However, anglers fishing the flats at night found good numbers of bigger stripers feeding just about every night all week. Most of these bigger fish were taken on eels, either drifting or slow trolling them along the inside current seam, near the old dike, or along the channel edge at different tide times. (Catch my July column in “On The Water” for more details on eel fishing the Joppa Flat). We got out on the river several times during the week and had our best day Monday. We managed 8 to 10 stripers on the Joppa using flies, soft plastics and top water plugs. Later on the dropping tide we made our way down river to the mouth and found a good number of stripers feeding on the south side sandbars. We also had 6 to 9 pound bluefish mixed in with the stripers.
The action was good throughout the remainder of the tide. Later in the week the blues moved away from the mouth and down the beach. Surfcaster along the new northend sandbar (near the south jetty) also did well with pencil plugs casting to the beach side of the bar at the ebb.
 | ||
| The shad and striper fishing upriver at Lawrence was affected by a significant rise in water level due to rain runoff from the recent damp weather. The high water pulled most of the stripers from the Haverhill area all the way up to the dam. Early morning anglers had their best success tossing plugs and cut bait from shore or anchored up in the seams from small boats. The shad were definitely there, but more difficult to hook up in the high and stronger running water. With more heavy rain on the way, the water levels will be even higher and could very well blowout the upper river and drive remaining stripers back downriver to the flats. But the downside may be soured and stained water on the flats, so the flats fishing may not improve for several days after the rains clear out. If you haven’t noticed, there are far fewer (but larger stripers) available this season than any of the recent past seasons. This may be attributable to a decline in spawning numbers in the Chesapeake (last 6 or 7 years) and the overall combined commercial (and by-catch) & recreational catch. This is, for sure, something we all had better be concerned about because this is the way the down-turn in striper populations began back in the late 70’s and early 80’s. That episode took a combined east coast conservation effort for more than a decade to recover striper stocks to what we all have enjoyed since the mid 90’s. So, please practice more catch and release than kill.
|
The striper fishing in and around Cape Ann was fair at best with the best action inside the harbors or back waters of the Annisquam and over behind Crane Beach in the Essex and Castle Neck Rivers. Steve P. had a few good mornings at Niles Beach and Porter B. also hit a few surface feeds at the west end of the Annisquam at Wingaersheek. Steve and I fished the Candy House on Thursdays falling tide and between us landed about a dozen mixed sized stripers, a few as small as 10 inches! It’s not too late to fish the backwaters and I would suggest giving it a try this weekend. | Capt. Allan smith reported some fair action inshore with good sized stripers taking live macks and Pollock. He also got into a fair number of bluefish just off the Salvages. Other anglers report suggests lots of stripers moving off Stellwagon Bank and feasting on abundant sandeels in the deeper water. Those offshore stripers should be moving our way over the next few weeks.
 |
