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Fishing Reports for Local Area - Location |
    
Capt. John Pirie
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, July 05, 2000 - 7:59 pm: | |
Well the fishing on Cape Ann has taken a bit of a turn for the worse. The fish are in and around the rocky structures but one has to work hard to pull them out. There has been a recent influx of some herring into the harbors which may help but there remains relatively little bait in the area. There has not been any huge schools of silversides as we enjoyed last summer. No birds working in Salem Sound. The best bet right now would be early mornings in the river mouths such as Danvers and Essex. Last week on the early low tides fish were schooled up in the mouth of the Essex and along the beachfront of Cranes. Water was pretty dirty for sightfishing on the flats. On the South side of Cape Ann try Magnolia shoreline, Norman’s Woe and out towards Thatchers and the Dry Salvages. THere were some small pods of large bluefish working off Halibut Point three days ago. THese fish were eating small schools of herring which accounted for their brief appearances on the surface. Blind casting in situations like this is often productive since the fish go back down looking for more bait. If the blues seem to be heading in one particular direction, get in front of them and start casting. Takes will be vicious pulls followed by a good luck at some backing.
The offshore scene has stayed quiet. Blues have vanished, likely pushed out by the influx of tuna. THe sand launce population remains healthy and the whales are everywhere. Tuna quota for stick boats was supposedly filled on the 1st of July. Water temperature was over 60 last week so sharks are clearly going to be coming in soon. Good sharking does not really get going until August. Our boats have a few days left for sharks so be sure to email us at jpirie@olfc.com or call (978) 468-1314 if you are interested in having some serious fun sightcasting to 6-8 foot range.
On a last note, those of you that remember the uproar about the swim buoys installed off Graves Beach ion Manchester willbe happy to hear that a peaceful resolution has been reached. I attended a meeting with Senator Bruce Tarr, Lt. John Tulik (mass environmental Police) , Peter Mains (manchester harbormaster), various selectman, Jim Sprague of the Department of Environmental Protection. This meeting was held at the request of Bob Reid who has spearheaded the charge to get the buoys removed. The long and short of it is that we are legally allowed to fish and recreate in the swim area as long as we are not within 150 feet of any swimmer. Headway speed only is allowed. THe homeowners in the area were extremely cooperative and made it clear that fisherman were never the target of the buoys, instead they were trying to control the jet skis(go figure). So, as long as you enter the area slowly, respect the 150 foot rule, you will not get any flack from law enforcement officials.
Have a great week and pray for the arrival of the sand eel schools of
last year. The fishing should improve soon. JTP
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Capt. John Pirie
Unregistered guest
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, July 03, 2000 - 6:04 pm: | |
Fishing has been excellent except for today, Wednesday when none of the boats seemed able to find fish. The blues were mysteriously absent, the rocks were empty and the rivers seemed devoid of life. Hopefully this will turn out to be a one day phenomenon. There have been some decent schools of bait in the Salem Sound area. If you are going out, look for birds at first light. There have also been some schools of bait at Lobster Cove in Manchester. Gloucester has been slow in the rocks with a few fish on the Dry Salvages. Reports of blues inshore persist but we have not seen any yet. The mackerel are still here in good numbers and the lobsters are shedding. Why eat flies when you can snack on macks and lobsters? We have been fishing the red/white whistler with some success in the rocks. Marblehead has been excellent for the most part. Nahant islands and rocky shoreline remains solid probably due to very low pressure from anglers. Offshore is starting to change as the tuna move in and push out the big bluefish. We got into a pod of feeding tuna in the 200-300 pound range the other night. They had corralled up a nice group of tinker mackerel and were feeding madly. We were able to get two shots into the school with a fly before they sounded. Since the largest stick we had was a 10 wt this would have been a short but amusing battle. Have not seen any sharks yet but there have been some porbeagles caught in the deep water to the east of the bank. Water temperatures are in the 60’s so look for the first mako’s of the season to start to follow the tuna onto the banks. These first makos are the really big ones because they are the only ones who can withstand the cold water. Blue sharks and smaller makos will begin to move in in another few weeks. We will start shark charters soon and there are a few openings left for prime time shark fishing. If you have never done it, this is truly the adventure of a lifetime. |
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