Just when I was beginning to think the fall run was going to be a less than great, here come the big stripers and blues! Beginning last weekend, a large school of mature menhaden showed up in Cape Ann waters (something I haven’t seen in many years). It all started with a huge blitz of bluefish on Long Beach. Everybody called everybody and all had a great time catching XL sized blues. The blues pushed the pogies right up on to the sand and got beached themselves. Folks were scooping up the blues and pogies for the lobsterman who welcomed the bonanza of trap bait. Click here to view a photo slide show of the bluefish blitz from Tom Hale (follow the directions to view)

Steve P started hitting some real nice stripers along the shoreline later last weekend. The stripers showed up in real good numbers. The fish were plump and appeared very healthy….good for next season. I finally got out and fished the surf with Steve Thursday afternoon. We landed and released several good fish by days end. Steve said, “You better get here Friday morning” the fishing is going to be great. Well the master was not wrong! I had the best morning of surf casting to stripers that I hadn’t experienced in many years (always in the boat with my fly rod). I hooked, landed and released five stripers that were from 37” to a brute of 45”, all on top water plugs. The fish were still bashing the pogies when I left to write up the last report of the season.

Steve and I expect the fishing to continue to be good right into November. Our sources to the north of Cape Ann report that the striper fishing is still going strong. So if the bait and weather hold, we should have great action for a few more weeks. So get out the long rods and hit the beaches around Cape Ann. Don’t make the mistake of passing up an area if you don’t see birds working bait, the stripers may be there anyway.

Read the report from Porter B from last weekend…..we all can relate------- "I ran into Steve P at the super market and he said there where big blues in the 15 to 18 pound range driving up pogies onto the beach, so I went there this evening to check it out, I didn’t see anything so I headed over to the cove that’s to the north of Pebble Beach which I think is Lob-Lolly cove??? and saw bait fish milling at the far end of the cove, so we went out and found out that it was a huge bass pushing these probably 30 pogies up onto the beach, so took one cast into about 12 inches of water popped the plug twice and the bass smashed it, peeled about 100 yards of line in about 1 min....then spit the plug! I hooked it in about 12 inches of water maybe 8 feet from where I was standing, my brother and I saw it come right up on its side and just suck the plug down, I think it was in the high thirty pound range maybe 37, 38, 39 pounds, but my brother said he thought it was well over 40 pounds. Anyway I got the plug back and it was awesome to see so close, it was the only bass there. I didn’t see any other bass or those big blues around. I’ll be heading back in the morning to try to find those pogies, sorry I couldn’t have landed it, would have been a nice pic!"
Thanks Porter…..

If you have any questions or want info on how the fishing is going call Steve or me. The numbers are on the home page.