Well down here on the island the crowds are gathering for what promises to be a steamy weekend full of sunburns, grilled food, and too much beer. Oh, and the fishing is great! One of our most devout fishermen, Don, spent last night from 10-2am around Joppa and reports he and his boatmate Roger ended up with nearly 70 fish, including 20 keepers, mostly around 10-15 pounds. Rogers was the biggest at 43″ and estimated around 28 pounds. It was immediately released after the photo. Nice fishin boys!

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We haven’t heard of any one method working better than others this wee, so the popular standards like sluggos, chunk herring, clams and worms are all producing. In fact, this is a really good start to the season, we like seeing the large number of small fish this year. Hopefully that means a good class of juvinile fish will grow to be large fish in a few years.

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You all know I will post your Catch and Release photos if I get them. Sometimes that pesky work thing gets in the way, but I eventually try to get all of them up. It was a busy week for the photo takers, and here are most of the ones I’ve gotten. Stickman@surflandbt.com

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Ted Purcell writes: Two schoolies caught and released on Joppa Flats 5/26. Ted’s the guy in the wheelchair, and his flyfishing pal is Scot Wiinikka. Ted’s dad bought some of our Nate Bibaud shirts and thinks they’re cool and for a good cause.

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Ben Yuse, caught on poppers up river on the incoming at 6 pm. Also a 39″ on clams, 6 pm Seabrook beach high tide.

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Pat McNamara writes: Fished slack low and a little of the incoming Saturday night. Caught a 24″ on my first cast at the sandbar on clams. Tried jigs and what not but no luck after the first fish. Sunday, I went to the Concord River in Billerica and caught 3 nice carp. A 15 and a 13lb Common and a 10pm Mirror.

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Tell Kay that I caught my first striper of the year on my first cast with the new 9′ Stellar rod she sold me on Friday!

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Brandon Kelly grabbed this nice one on May 24. We got this one ~30 inches along with a few schoolies this morning on Joppa at the turn of the tide. White Sluggos baby!

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Chris Battis sent another one by Jack Golini: Joppa, Squid colored 9″ sluggo, 32″ Bass Take around 7:30 pm 5.23.11

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JimECow sent these flyrod bass shots in yesterday. He’s out with Steve K. Olive and white clousers and mine was olive over white w/grizzly hackle and a hint of safron. Very Artful.

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Henry writes: Stickman