| Last week the striper fishing on the Merrimack was not as good as expected for this time in June. The week stared off well on Monday and Tuesday with some nice keeper sized fish up on the flats. We took fish on a variety of tackle options; flies, top waters and soft plastics. Wednesday ushered in a strong cold front with some T-storms and breezy winds from the N/W. The change in weather conditions brought about a significant change in the striper fishing. The good striper bite on the flats all but shutdown from Wednesday through the past weekend. Although, we did see reasonable numbers of stripers on the flats during the rising tide, they definitely had “lock jaw” and getting a few takes demanded many casts and perseverance. The strong breezes made for fast drifts and difficult flycasting and when the tide turned out, getting fish to take was tough. Our charter clients however, did enjoy some fairly good action at the rivers mouth and down the Plum Island beach. Good numbers of 20-27” stripers and solid numbers of 5-10 pound bluefish were available drifting the back sand bars and running down the beach. Reports from other anglers also suggested a drop off in the striper action throughout the same time frame. Anglers up river below the Lawrence Dam also reported slow fishing (and smaller bass) than expected for the time June. I received a report earlier today that a good number of stripers were observed on the flats late Sunday. A few fish that were taken were all banged up, suggesting that these are the stripers that have come back down river from the dam area. We all believe that the striper fishing will again pick up this week and look for more stripers moving into the river from outside. Throughout the week, we observed lots of bird action on the river. The birds were staying over large pods of small sand eels. With this much food in the river, my guess is that the stripers and blues will hang around awhile. Skip will be moving his Maritime back to Rockport this week and will begin fishing the Cape Ann coastal and island areas. Dave and Al will continue fishing the Merrimack.
Steve P. reported mostly slow action over most of week in and around the Cape Ann shoreline. And most of the stripers landed were the smallest he has seen so far this season. From Porter B: Hey Skip, I haven't been plugging too much as the last few times I went out and only got singles and they weren't too big. I have switched over to chunking and chumming have been do very well. I fished the Sunday morning tide and chummed up 5 keepers to about 33 inches, and another 14 or so smaller bass. I let you know how this week goes as I plan to get out to the groaner. |
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