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Merrimack River Report >
Where has the summer gone??
Where has the summer gone??
Aug 22, 2016
It is hard to believe that we are into the 3rd week of August!! "Kids" are going back to college soon & school starts in 1-2 weeks for everyone else! It has been a good summer on Summer Job but once again I've lagged in my reports. Fishing has been solid but not necessarily easy. By that I mean you need to be in the right place at the right time of the tide to find stripers. You also have to be willing to travel to catch them. They are not "everywhere" as in years past. A quick check of the fishing log shows I'm up over 250 stripers over last year and that is with fewer charters! I'm also up in "keepers" though as many know, legal sized dose not mean a kept fish. My personal best this season is 42 1/2"s which I promptly released.
Bait for the most part has been consistent but again you may need to travel for it. This has been a very good year for tinker mackerel. They have been in numbers just outside the river and then they scatter because a pod of harbor porpoise came through. Those are the days you are grateful for the old numbers in the depth finder and you trek out 5-7 miles to find them. Also it is a good time to have a network of very good fishermen to compare notes with so you can all take good care of your clients!
Bluefish have been a nonstarter for 2016. I've only had one in the boat and it ate a tinker in the mouth of the river intended for a striper. I know of 2 caught yesterday and 9 the day before. Yesterdays fish were seen on the surface. Two poppers went out and two fish came back into the boat but that was it. They went down, not to be seen again. The friends who found 9 were fishing Halibut Point. They are very dedicated bluefishermen and spent the entire day hunting. Good for them but not practical for a charter.
The fall migration has started whether we want it to or not but that will mean we will see surface feeds and start to see fish running the beach fronts. There is a lot of good fishing left. So get out there and enjoy it.
Good fishing
Capt. Scott
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