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Merrimack River Report >
May 1st, come on fishies!
May 1st, come on fishies!
May 1, 2014
For those who have been on Summer Job, some days you just have to call out "Here Fishy Fishy"! Not very professional or scientific but it can break a slow spell and at least bring out a smile.
It is May 1st, do you know where your stripers are??? Not really but there are starting to be reports of random fish being caught. Most are south of Cape Ann and are probably hold over fish. These are just beginning to be active as the water warms. The herring runs are seeing lots of fish this year. The Merrimack has started to give up shad at Rocks Village and there are a few hundred sea gulls up there too. I'm thinking they are after herring, shad might be to big for them to eat.
It has been a cold nasty spring and we all want to catch fish. I've been back in my fishing logs and (once again, I am NOT the guy to freeze my butt off for the absolute first fish in my area!) we have a couple of weeks to go in a "normal" year. 2012 was exceptionally warm and I caught my first schoolie on May 7. Last year was what we might call a "normal" winter and the first fish was on May 15, 2013. Going back a few years we have 5-15-08, 5-19-09 (first fish & it was a keeper!), 5-17-10 & 5-19-11. These are all fish caught in the Merrimack River and fish were being caught prior to my catches. This gives us a realistic date to aim for as the beginning of striper season. It might be a week later but the bait is here & the fish will follow. The weather forecast is showing high 50's & low 60's with a 70 a week from Saturday!! It is time to get out of the "I want to go fishing funk", put on your woolies and get those last projects done on the boat. The fish will come and it would be awful not to be ready when they do arrive!
Good fishing
Capt Scott
PS. Check out the new calendar page on the web site. People tend to fish the same dates each year and it shows the quality fish that can be caught on those days.
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