| July 17, 2009 | |
| Merrimack River Report | |
| Finally the heavy rains have stopped and the river will soon return to normal. Despite the runoff, Capt Al had some excellent success tossing flies on the Salisbury flat last Sunday and Monday. Most of his fish were in the 30 inch range with a couple pushing 40 inches. The good bite subsided by mid week on the flats. The fishing out front and at the river mouth was just OK, with some good days and some slow ones. The surf guys are still hitting some nice stripers at the 40th street sandbar on the dropping tide. Joe W. fished a few nights out on the flats during the week and reported mostly slow action with only a few fish for a lot of hours. There continues to be an abundance of sandeels from Plum Island to the Parker and Essex River estuaries. The bait should hold some striper action in place for awhile. However, the better fishing was had on the northwest side of Cape Ann, from Lanesville to the Annisquam entrance and along the beaches at Wingaersheek and Coffin. We had some super topwater action on blues one day and stripers the next. The bone Jumpin Minnow was hot! The fish were feasting on an abundance of sandeels that had been up in the Essex estuary earlier in the week. Inside the Essex backwater you will find the hordes of No-Seeums and those nasty Green Heads; got more bites from them than anything else up there! I got a chance (VERY) early Wednesday morning to go on a kayak adventure with Brian O’C as my guide to help him with his fishing project, you know the fly vs. the Jumpin Minnow one. Well on this day,and only on this day, we came up even in numbers but Brian got breakfast on me for first fish. Thanks Brian for sharing your time and skill! Checkout the video clip below. Let’s hope the bait (sandeels and mackerel) stay close by and hold the stripers and blues here for awhile.
 Steve and Mike each with two of several stripers they landed off Coffin Beach | |
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