Surfland Fishing Report

David Moulton

Newbury, MA

Boat-Merrimac River

52 lbs, 3oz

Live eels

Son of Kay Moulton, but don’t come looking for kay to give you any secrets. Her husband and boys learned long ago not to tell kay their “fishing secrets”. Let’s just say it was in the river.

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Those pesky little “snapper” blues were in the mouth of the river this morning.  The fisherman that was in the store said his sluggos kept coming in bitten in half.  Time to start carrying some bluefish lures around. You know the ones. The usually have one single hook which makes it easy to get the fish off, they can be shiny, fluorescent, or a piece of your old broom handle (haha) painted some wacky color, and they usually cast a mile!

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We also had a fast run along the beach the other night consisting of stripers. They were moving along the beach at a good speed so my report from some of the fishermen said. They did manage to hook onto a few before they couldn’t keep up with them. Here are some highlight fish from the weekend:

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7/18/10, Ed Kelly, Rindge NH, Surf, 33 lbs, 45 inches, Bait: worms

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7/18/10

Alyse Ferreiria

Plum Island

Boat

12 lbs, 7oz.

Tube-n-worm

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Hunter Currier

Solon, Maine

Boat, Joppa

9 lbs, 2oz

Tube-n-worm

Recognize the name, yes Hunter is grandson of the infamous, Russ Currier

This morning your author and some comrades hit the water of the mouth at 4:45am to catch false dawn. Our boat spent 90 minutes hitting all the regular spots; North side of the North jetty, 3 to 5 can drift, up and down the beach to the reservation, the toilet bowl, etc. Nothing but one schoolie to show on our boat, and one by our friend Tom S. There were many boats turning North to find some mackerel at breaking rocks, which must have been a parking lot.

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Bored by the slack action Tom S. bailed and headed East a few miles out. When we raised him on the radio a while later and asked what he was doing he replied quietly, “Watching the mammals.” That sounded fun, so our boat headed out there too to see the show. On our way we saw a small whale or two, and some splashing we first assumed was from dolphin. As rookies out on the ocean proper, we were informed by Tom that we were actually watching a tuna feed. Wow! Never seen one before.

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Over the next hour or so we witnessed a number of topwater blitzes of tuna ranging from a few splashes to a full on dozen fish frenzy. These usually lasted no more than 15 seconds or so, and then they were gone leaving only some dark disturbed water on top of the holes they left in the sea.

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Tom had much better eyes than us for spotting the action, so when he moved, we moved. On one speedy blast to the South the tuna blasted up right next to the boat. In a flash we stopped the motor, and Dave R. casted a Ocean Lures mackerel popper about 25 yards towards the blitz. Lo and behold, there was a follow, and about 10 yards from the boat, rising up to the surface like a submarine, was Charlie. The fish latched onto the popper and off he went!

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Now all types of things can go through your mind when you hook into a big one. You could think about the tide, about obstacles, about your position on the boat, or, if you’re a rookie like the guys on our boat, you could decide that the drag was set wrong and decide, in the 20 seconds you’ve been on the fish, to crank it down. That is panic working it’s magic. So first Dave realized he was on the fish, then his knees began to shake, then his butt began to sink to the floor, and then he tightened the drag. Ping! The sound of parting line.

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So ended our first attempt of landing a tuna on topwater lures. The process was most likely moot, as the gear we had with us was set for Bass, not Bluefin. It’s fairly certain the fish would have spooled Dave anyway, but it sure would have been fun to hear that drag spinning out for a minute more.

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We did get one more kind of close shot just off our bow a little later on, but all our casts were too late to bring the tuna back up. As a bonus, we did spot and trail a big Mola Mola for a while. Here’s a pic we took along with one that shows what a Mola looks like from the side.

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In other news of the area, there have still been some stripers running the beach at night, and some at the Hampton Harbor runout. We saw lots of guys jigging mackerel off Salisbury, and some guys with the macks on balloon rigs. Didn’t see anyone with a striper or blue though. We’ll keep our ears open for you.

The weekend finally brought some relief for the beach fishermen. The stripers were cruising the shallows out front and were pretty active. It was better at night, but the daylight hours worked too. Some of the guys and gals with a spread of rods along parking lot 1 in the reserve were reporting that one rod would go off, bring it in, and another would start to go too. There were plenty of small fish, but big ones too. We weighed in a 33 pounder and a few 20′s from the beach.

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Joppa Flats was on Friday, off Saturday, and on again Sunday. Friday saw one local grabbing 30 fish, almost all shorts, on the tube and worm. Six to 7 fish for another, and a few keepers along the way. Saturday, however, the fish just would not bite. I had calls from two very frustrated anglers. Then Sunday morning the fish got active again, and even the rookies came home with some fillets for the grill.

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Here are some pics of kids getting the Striper fever. Picture number one is of Charlie with his first striper on his dad’s new boat, and also the first striper of the season for him. Second picture is of twins Ben and Max with their first stripers ever. Two 30 inch keepers. They also grabbed a few smaller fish all the way down to 18″.

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All around the island yesterday and today were large schools of stubborn fish. Stubborn, and tormenting. On Joppa Flats for the past few days there have been hordes of fish schooling, sunning, and spooking. They are pretty much refusing all forms of lures, bait, and flies thrown at them. Of the dozen or so boats on the flats this morning I only saw a few fish boated, even though there were hundreds of fish in each school, and they were sometimes cruising the topwater. Nothing kept their attention for long. They’d pup up feasting on little bait and then disappear just as fast.

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Thee were big clouds of sand eel fry in the river. Maybe the bass are all full from gorging the eels and don’t feel the need to chase artificials. At any rate, they are really frustrating the regular flotilla.

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The only bright spot for Joppa guys seems to be the steady results from the Tube and Worm. Red tubes with whole worms seem to work the best. Even with the picky fish this method seems to be working.

Last night was fogged in around the river and beach. Of course it only gets foggy 20 minutes after you leave the dock. But foolishly relying on the GPS can navigate you to Joppa Flats in most any weather. So we did. And only three times found ourselves driving in circles. But no matter, the fish watching was great.

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Yes, fish-watching. Joppa Flats, and the north side of the river, were simply packed with bass and a few bluefish. Just like a busy cocktail party. Almost anywhere you went there were spooked fish, lots and lots of them. Loud ones, quiet ones, ones that sounded like buckets being dropped from the sky. There was lots of bioluminescence in the water, so you could see the fish moving in the black water. The glowing trails of the fish criss-crossed the water around our boat. It was quite spectacular.

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We were out from 11-4am when the tide started to move out a little (high was at 2). On the North side the fish turned on a little and we were able to finally bring in a couple of bass, one 40″ and one 30″, oh, and a 9″ monster bluefish. It’s likely that the flats turned on as well, but our boat landing runs out of water three hours beyond high tide. Anyone out there stay longer?

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Hayden and his 30″ fish for the grill.

The last week or so has been pretty slow according to the reports we’ve been getting. The flounder seem to have moved out, and the bluefish haven’t shoed up in good numbers yet.

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Last night the commercial striped bass season opened up, and there were plenty of boats cruising Joppa Flats looking for cows. It didn’t seem that there were many fish being taken though, and very few spooked fish, at least on the incoming tide.

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The outgoing tide got what few fish were around a little more excited. Some of the regular hard-core night fishermen reported some 20 and 25 pounders, but they were few and far between, requiring a whole night for a few fish. There are some bluefish mixed in the river, at least according to the eels I had chopped in half last night.

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The beach guys aren’t reporting much happening. In fact, we didn’t even weigh in a bass all weekend. In July that’s pretty surprising.

The last day or two the action has slowed down some. Lots of fish around, but not very hungry. This morning some of the guys went out front in the mouth of the river. There were many schools of bass on the surface milling about. They were easily spooked, and lots of fish per school. It was very hard to make them eat. Some tepid strikes on topwater plugs, and a couple of fish on sluggos, but minimal fun for the amount of fish seen. It’s possible that they are just too full form the swarms and swarms of Sand Eels and Sand Lances both inside and outside the river. Some of this bait is quite large, attracting squads of divebombing gannets. Here’s a pic of the food the bass are most likely eating. It was snagged while trying out a jig in 14 feet of water.

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All has not been bad this week. One of the locals sent us these, along with this comment: I caught this bass approx 2 miles off Hampton Beach , the school was driving herring to the surface, the gulls were diving and my guests from out of town were wide eyed at the action on the surface. -Spencer.

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sorry about the time between reports. There was just too much going on during the weekend, and yesterday we just got caught up.

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Schoolies have returned to the river in great numbers. It’s been great fun catching them, and nice to see the small fish that will come back a few years from now as big fish. The action has been wonderful early in the morning. You’d be better off in a boat, as the schools are moving pretty fast here and there. You can find them by looking for diving birds, and then pay attention for the fish popping up underneath.

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The hot spots for this action has been right beside the Captains Ladies at the Northern end of Plum Island. The schools a busting the surface chasing small sand eels, maybe 2-3 inches long. The Stripers get into a frenzy and are ready to eat most anything thrown in the mix. We’ve had very good luck with Super Spooks that are worked on the surface. Also the stand bearer Sluggo, this time the smaller 6 inch ones.

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Across the river, above Badger Rocks, a few of the regular guys have been drifting the incoming tide and tossing weighted sluggos for larger schoolies and the occasional keeper.

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Over the weekend the schoolie stripers were there too, but the reported size of the schoolies was 28-30 inches, but in the same places between Plum Island point and Woodbridge island.

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On sunday morning, right at daybreak through about 5:30 am, your author landed 4 fish in 90 minutes. Three 42″, 25 pounders and one 36″. The smaller one came home with me for dinner, but the bigger girls went right back in the river. They were caught using live eels, but it was daylight where usually the eels are less productive. It was a great couple of hours.

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In the flats, tube and worm fishermen were cleaning up, with a number of fellows reporting keepers with regularity. Some basin-based and Rings Island Marina guys got fish up to 42″ in broad daylight.

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Off the beachfront, Parking Lot 1 on the reserve, the casters were having good luck with the flounder all weekend. It’s slowed down since then, but they’re still picking up a few.

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Now for the confusing information from the weekend. Two guys came in a weighed a couple of small stripers. When they too them home and cleaned them they swear they were full of eggs. And when they were fishing a few of the fish started squirting out milk. Kay says that in her 50 years on the island she’s never heard of stripers mating in the river, What do you think? Most of the mating is done in the Hudson and Chesapeake rivers before the stripers migrate, so this report, if true, is very interesting.

At last something to talk about that isn’t flounder. The striper fishing has, at last, picked up this week. Tube and worm guys on Joppa flats have had daytime luck, with lots of 26″ fish taken. Nightime has been good with eels (including a 52 lb striper). Your author grabbed a fat 42″ fish at daybreak on the outgoing tide. This bodes well for the onslaught of fishermen on the beach and in boats this weekend. Today, though, there was no one fishing the beaches. Our guy Billy couldn’t tell what was going on cause there was no one to watch. The weekend is sure to fix that.

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Boat reports from this morning are sketchy, only a two word report, “Epic Day.” 30+ fish with topwater action. Looks like outgoing tide in the mouth was lots of fun this morning, judging from this released fish by Jim Cowhig:

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Captain Barry Clemson sent this report and a few photographs:

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Been fishing the rocks for most of the week with plenty of action with casters capable of casting 60 to 80 feet.  Most of this fishing requires putting your fly within a 1 foot target area in the green water pockets; if your cast is 3 feet short you end up having a very slow day.

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I also worked a couple of days with the U.Mass gang with Dr. Martha Mather personally catching bass between 40 and 60 centimeters for their acoustic tagging program.  It was pretty cool to find out that 33 of the 50 Bass we tagged last year returned to the same exact area.  I’ve been working with them since 1999 on numerous projects.

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