Fall Striper Fishing Turns On!!

09-16-2014

Well, the reports for striper fishing over the last week have really started to improve!! On the north side I have been getting very consistent reports of good surface feeds in Plum Island sound down to around Pavillion Beach and Little Neck. A bunch of guys have also been in to report that the evenings have been fishing well along the front side of Crane’s beach and up towards Steep Hill with some nice mid-30″ fish in the mix. If you feel like making the walk the Castle Neck has also had decent action but mostly smaller fish. Over on the south side the peanut bunker have arrived in good numbers and the fishing at times has been outstanding. Magnolia harbor down towards Black and White beaches have had some down right epic feeds much like years ago. The last couple of mornings have had great action in these areas. In the evening down off of Manchester and West Beach there has also been some pretty solid feeds on peanut bunker. The bait is pretty small, around 2″, but thankfully the fish do seem to be eating slightly bigger soft plastics and poppers. With the small bait the fly rod fishing has been excellent. I did also hear of some feeds up around the mouth and into Manchester harbor. Anyways, hopefully it continues for a couple more weeks but if you can find some time it’s about as good as I have seen it in quite some time. Good luck, Derek

Tuna Bite

08-08-2014

Well it was great to see some fish caught last weekend for the Bluefin Blowout, some real slobs! Just as it seems to get going the fish don’t seem to settle in and stick around. Every day a few fish seem to be coming in off Jeffries but no one place seems very consistent. Another problem is the slime is bad on most of Jeffries so you are constantly checking and cleaning lines. It looked like the bank was going to start to show signs of life but the dogfish have moved in pretty thick over the last couple of days. Still hearing rumors of some small fish around and I just had a guy in the shop who got spooled in Ipswich Bay while jigging for cod. Good news is the bait is still thick with good amounts of mackerel and whiting around. I have also had reports of a few smaller fish seen out around Tillies and Wildcat. Sounds like south of Martha’s Vineyard there are piles of 35-40″ bluefin around, which makes me incredibly jealous!! Good luck out there! Weather looks awesome for this weekend!

Early August striper fishing has some highlights!

Although the fishing overall has remained relatively slow there have been some good surface feeds over the last 4 or 5 days. I got a handful of reports of fish up in Plum Island sound feeding on the surface first thing in the morning. It sounded like the best actiion was from the mouth of the Rowley river up into the Parker. All the fish have been in the 18-25″ range but they are eating poppers, plastics and flies readily. I did also hear there was a good surface feed in the Castle Neck river a few mornings as well so that may be worth a look. It sounds like the mackerel are still out by the bell buoys off of Ipswich and Essex and there are plenty down off of Halibut Point, Thachers and the groaner off of Gloucester. Salem sound has also had some pretty decent surface feeds from the mouths of the harbors and then down towards West beach off of Endicott college. Again mostly schoolies but great to see the surface feeds in early August. The rock fishing has been slow for the most part. You can pick away at them with mackerel or lures around the high tide, but you do need bounce around a bunch until you find some fish. The best fishing of the week lasted 3 or 4 days out off of Nahant and Swampscott. It sounds like it has quieted down but there were some great surface feeds on mackerel and herring and pretty much all of the fish were 30-40+”s. You could chase the birds around but it seemed almost as good to just find the feeds and then drift and jig with lures as you would mark big schools passing under the boat. Just really nice to see some bigger schools of nice fish.

Cool bluefin report

07-19-2014

Nat brought in the first rod and reel tuna into Gloucester and a tag was recaptured. Read more by clicking below.
http://firstlightanglers.com/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4494

Striper fishing a bit slow with some highlights

Overall the bass fishing has been pretty slow all week long. The mackerel have become more difficult to find although they have still been off Rockport harbor, Straitsmouth and the Londoner. Fishing in the rocks was pretty tough most of the week with a few highlights of some bigger bass around. I did get three different reports that there was a good surface feed along the Beverly to Beverly Farms shoreline this morning with the bass feeding on small herring. Little soft plastics, poppers and especially flies worked best. Didn’t sound like many big fish, but I’ll take the surface action. There have been some schools of blues out off of Halfway rock which may be why the mackerel have scattered. The Ipswich bay side has gone pretty quiet as well with guys picking away at them but nothing crazy. There have been some decent schools of pogies up in Plum Island Sound and on Joppa so that has to keep a few big fish around. The water has been oddly cool all week, hopefully it and the fishing heat up!! Good luck, Derek

Harpoon boats getting a few but rod and reel remains slow!

06-14-2014

Over the last couple of weeks the harpoon boats have been getting a few fish but nothing crazy. Everyone who has been offshore says the bait is amazing with piles of herring, mackerel and sand eels. The whale show off of P town and the southern end of the bank has been excellent but I don’t know anyone who has marked any fish. I did hear of a couple of fish hooked down Chatham way, but nothing to the north. The ground fishing has been OK with most of the action on the east side of Stellwagen, on Tillies or up around the Cove and the Curl. Great to see all the bait around, just hope the fish find them soon!!

Schoolie action continues, first signs of bigger fish!!

The fishing for schoolies this week remained very solid and we are finally starting to see some bigger fish, nothing crazy but they are here. Plum Island sound from the Parker down through Sandy Point has had scattered surface feeds throughout the week under the terns. The bait is mainly small sand eels but there were some tinker mackerel out on the front of Plum Island just north of Emerson rocks today. The bigger mackerel have been in Ipswich bay but in a little deeper water. There are some around the bell buoys but most have been on a line between the Ipswich bell buoy and Halibut Point. There have also been a bunch off of Folly Coveand in the tide line off of Halibut. The Essex river, which has been a bit slow fished better this week according to few guys fishing out of kayaks and small skiffs. The south side of Cape Ann has been pretty steady as well with lots of schoolies up in the white water. The Daiwa SP minnow in both black and purple and chicken scratch have worked excellent. We did find some larger fish using live mackerel and bigger unweighted Slug-gos. We found most of the mackerel right around Little Misery but there were also piles of them out off of Newcombs ledge and Halfway rock. The combination of the SE wind and the full moon did push a fair amount of weeds into the rocks but we found plenty of fish around the islands where the weeds were not as bad. Early in the morning there has been some small surface feeds in Salem harbor but nothing outrageous and mostly all smaller fish. Looks nice tomorrow on the weather front so if you get out good luck and happy father’s day!! Derek

Schoolie fishing strong!!

06-01-2014

Well, the schoolie fishing continues to be pretty solid all around Cape Ann, although the cold weather Saturday morning was not much of a help. Today, however, guys coming through the shop have reported decent fishing. On the south side the Danvers river by the Kernwood bridge is still fishing well and there have been some decent surface feeds around the mouths of Beverly and Salem harbors. I have heard of a few nice fish coming out of the rocks around Manchester and Magnolia on live mackerel but nothing crazy. A few guys today reported decent schoolie fishing in the rocks off of Marblehead and Beverly with flies and small Slug-gos. The Little river is still producing good numbers of small fish and the mouth of the Annisquam had a decent surface at the bottom of the tide. The Essex river seems to be a bit on the slow side although the fish are there. The mouth of the Ipswich off of Cranes beach has had some OK surface feeds at the bottom of the tide but it has almost been better up inside Plum Island sound around Middleground and up into the Parker. Guys fishing flies and light tackle today said they caught a pile of schoolies working out the Ipswich river with the tide this morning. We did find some mackerel around the bell buoys this week but not too many. The ones we did take up into Plum Island sound caught fish in the 28-33″ range. The mackerel have also been out by the groaner off Gloucester and over by Little Misery and Bakers islands. Hopefully the weather will hold as we have some good tides this week. Good luck!! Derek

Groundfishing Begins

05-14-2014

The ground fishing for haddock and cod has been OK when the weather is good enough to get out there. The best haddock fishing seems to be up north on Jeffries Ledge around the cove, curl and prong. The best cod fishing has been mainly down east of the bank and north of the islands. Again, nothing crazy but it seems if you can find the herring there have been decent numbers of good sized cod mixed in. The weather looks a bit tough this weekend but as I hear more reports I will keep you posted. Good luck!

Stripers Arrive!

Well, the first stripers of the year have arrived on the North Shore. The numbers are not overwhelming as of yet, but they are here and that is great news after a very long cold winter! The best reports have been coming from most of the usual early season spots. The Danvers, Little, and Essex rivers have all produced schoolie sized bass mainly on the dropping tide. Guys fly fishing have been using small 3-5″ flies mainly in chartreuse and white or olive and white, while guys throwing plugs have been using small bucktails and Fin-s fish on jig heads. There is a full moon tonight so hopefully the big tides will get some more fish headed up the coast. Don’t forget we have out Open House and BBQ this Sunday followed by a trip to the back side of Crane’s beach for an evening of striper fishing!! Good luck!!