As long as the weather is clear, fishing remains excellent. The micro bass are still here doing their thing, more numbers of the 2011 year class fish have moved in (26 - 28 inches), some smaller keepers, and hordes of tinker mackerel!
Keeper stripers have been showing up in the Merrimack! This is the first charter keeper of the season!
Ellie with one of her 91 striped bass caught on Manolin Charters
Last Wednesday, 7 year old Elle put on a clinic and landed 91 stripers, according to her! I don't how exact that is but it was darn close! Thursday I gave a seminar on Striper Fishing for the Newburyport Harbor Marina guests, but was able to sneak out for in hour to find the season first mackerel. With the wind blowing hard east it was pretty snotty, but before I even put chum in the water I got the seasons first dozen mackerel! Friday, my client Bob and his son-in-law came out and I watched obvious seasoned vet Bob put on a clinic with the fly rod and Dan using super light tackle on the schoolies. The stiff north wind slowed the bite down from the previous days, but we still managed around 40 or so micros and had a lot of fun. Saturday, my buddy Jeff and I went out to on a mackerel freezer fill mission and it was mission accomplished. Once we had close to 250, I went on the hunt for the season's first keeper. In 90 minutes of fishing we had 15 fish up to 32 inches including Manolin's first keeper of 2016! Today, the weather man really did us in with a much stronger NE blow and raw, gross conditions. Plenty of fish around, but I think not being able to get out of the mouth to get mackerel hurt us today as we only picked up a couple 26 inch fish on dead bait. I had to cancel my Monday morning trip due to weather but will be back out with a another trip later in the afternoon.
Bob with a striper on the fly while fishing in Newburyport
Holy Mackerel! Our silvery friends have invaded the Newburyport area.
I will be in Washington, DC this week for a field trip and hopefully when I return you guys will have saved some keeper stripers for me!