On Friday we decided to catch some bait (Pollock) and slow troll tight to shore and at reef structure in an effort to coax out some bigger stripers. And Dan had an amazing time hooking up more than his fair share of keeper sized bass including his personal best 40 incher.

Last week we had a solid push of the largest stripers of the season in and around many shoreline locations in Rockport and Gloucester, but they moved on with the bait as the school tuna departed for offshore locations. We also know that large numbers of bass were taken by the comm guys trolling live bait by day along the Crane beachfront and by night, with eels at the Parker River. Also in that mix of big stripers was an amazing 60+ pounder caught by the veteran angler Bill Kendrick, congrats Bill!

The Merrimack flats certainly had stripers on them, but they would not eat during the daylight. Joe W. managed one really hard fighting 20+ pounder while slow trolling an eel at tide top on the flats.

Marty and Andrew with their best ever stripers

Matt and Andrew with two nice blues

Kevin and Jon with their great big Miracle blues(only they know why) !

Dan with his best ever stripers and blue

I expect more the same for the next few weeks (at least) as we begin to approach the beginning of the fall run in September.

Capt Skip Montello