Newburyport Charter Fishing is About to Begin!

 

Getting Closer!

Despite today’s snow, the upcoming weather will have us uncovering the boat this weekend!

 

 

I know it’s the first day of spring and there is 3 inches of snow on the ground as I type this, but the good news is just two hours ago there was 6 inches! With a warm week ahead, the boat will be uncovered and we will get to work getting her ready for 2016!

I’m chomping at the bit to get back out catching stripers, sharks, and tuna with all of you this upcoming season! This warm winter is great sign for a big push of stripers and early stripers at that. Looking back at logs, the warmest winters have produced quality seasons up here on the Merrimack River. I have been passing time by attending fishing shows both as a spectator and a participant. I have worked the New England Fishing Show, the Boston Boat Show, Cabela's in Berlin and recently spoke about Shark Fishing for the Northeast Charterboat Captain’s Association.

I have a few upcoming events on the calendar that may interest you and I would love it if you could swing by and talk fishing!

  • April 2nd and 3rd - Captain’s Weekend at Cabela’s in Scarborough, ME

  • April 16th and 17th - Spring Fishing Classic at Cabela’s in Scarborough, ME

  • May 13th - Why Knot 3rd Annual Fishing Season Launch Party (TBD)

  • May 14th - Fishing Demo and Take a Kid Fishing (TBD)

  • May 18th - 7:00 PM - “North Shore Fishing Night” Starboard Galley in Newburyport, MA

  • May 26th or June 16th TBD - Newburyport Marinas Fishing Kick Off Seminars

 

 

 

THIS WEEK’S

TOP STORIES

 

Shark Fishing Prices Drop

Manolin Boated over 100 Sharks Last Season!

Manolin Boated over 100 Sharks Last Season!

 

I enjoy taking people sharking so much! I have dropped my prices $100 from $900 to $800 to make it more manageable for people to come out and experience all shark fishing has to offer! Whole different ball game than stripers. A trip you most certainly remember forever.

 

Giant Tuna? Yup...Full Go Now

Another thing I am doing this year is more Giant Tuna trips. The truth is I get a lot of interest for giant tuna fishing but I find it hard to stomach charging people $1000+ or more for the type of fishing it is. Also, federal law requires that any tuna over 73” are property of the boat and must be sold. Therefore, unless you bring home bottom fish you aren’t taking home any meat. So new this year here’s the deal, I am charging just $400 for an entire day of Giant Tuna fishing! If this is on your bucket list to be like “Wicked Tuna” you will NOT find a better price anywhere!

Start Booking Now to Reserve Your Date…

The thing about being teacher in the Northeast is snow days. A blessing and a curse. I get a day off from work, but I have to make it up in the summer. As of now my last day of school is June 23rd. So if you want a June weekend or afternoon I still have some available. With the warm water already outside the beach, things should be in full swing very early this year. If you are thinking of a trip, please call and reserve the date you want to get the best time and tides.

T-Shirts and Hats!!!!

It’s FINALLY happening. Tomorrow I am going to design and put an order for some Manolin T shirts and hats and should have them early next week. They will be on sale at all the upcoming shows and if you want one just shoot me an email. I’m not 100% of the cost but they will be very reasonable.

Instagram, Facebook, and Social Media

If you are a part of any of these social media outlets please share your pictures, stories, and reviews. It will be greatly appreciated as we continue to build our brand! Let everyone see that fat striper or electric blue shark you caught with us! I tend to update fish reports and pictures much more frequently through these avenues rather than the website.

That’s all for now! We are almost there!

Capt. Chris Valaskatgis

 

Manolin Charters

978 314 9397

manolincharters@gmail.com

Manolin Charters Website

Manolin Facebook

Manolin Instagram

 

6/8 - Mackerel Are Finally In and Bigger Stripers Are Showing Up!

It took a while. Definitely the longest I have ever gone without catching a mackerel, but they are finally here! After the horrendous wind at the beginning of last week, my buddies fishing offshore 25 miles on Jeffrey's were telling me the place was loaded with mackerel. After a few days of a hard easterly wind to start the week, it all came into fruition on Sunday morning. The water temps out front rose from 46 degree earlier in the week to 54 on Sunday. Also out there were big balls of herring and bigger sand eels in the 5 - 6 inch range. Up until yesterday, the only sand eels I have seen have barely been 2 inches long! 

Striper fishing was tough on Thursday and Friday. With no big bait and mostly small fish around, afternoon trips, and ridiculous winds we had to do a lot of searching to find fish during certain tide stages. We managed to catch some decent fish on light tackle despite the mis-forecasted 20 knot winds on Thursday and Friday afternoon. Saturday was a scouting mission and equally tough, but the weather was great. We found some fish in some new places including fish just above and below keeper size. We also tried some new areas and techniques that didn't plan out as hoped, but it could have been a tide thing at that time. We also found some 36 - 40" stripers that just weren't eating but we could see them cruising and spooking on top in the afternoon. We found schoolies of what seemed like thousands of bass, but they were keyed on 1 - 2 inch sand eels. We nailed a few, but they were super picky with the high sun and small bait.

Sunday started off tough and I went to look for greener pastures after a long run then come back for the last of the outgoing in the Merrimack. We managed to get 2 fish immediately on clams. Then, I got word from the fleet the mackerel were back! Our bite slowed down as the tide was running out where I was.  Ran all the way back and grabbed a bunch of bait, then headed to mouth to get the last hour of the outgoing and caught some decent fish immediately upon entry that were just shy of the limit. But boy, it feels good to have the bait back!

I'll update some pictures later as soon as my clients send them over to me! This weekend should be great with the bigger bass moving in and getting acclimated to the mackerel. It usually takes a few days for the bass to start really chewing on them. 

As of now, I have Saturday afternoon and Sunday open for anyone who wants to charter and experience one of the best times of the year...the week after mackerel arrive is historically great fishing!

Tight Lines, 

Capt. Chris Valaskatgis

5/16 - They're Here! OMG They're Here!! Stripers in Newburyport!

That's a thread title I have been waiting to write for a while now! We have an awesome spring weather wise and I already forgot about that lousy winter. Enough of that. Lets talk about fishing in the Merrimack River!

Went out Tuesday afternoon for a quick pass with my buddy Capt. Pete before a storm rolled in. We had heard of a few schoolies caught out on the beach front from a day or two before and wanted to explore a bit. Pete was the lucky one that day as he picked up the first striper of the year on Manolin. A decent sized schoolie around 18 - 20 inches. Bigger than the mirco bass we were catching last year. 

After running some errands Friday afternoon, I was able to get out for an hour at the turn of the incoming tide and was rewarded with EPIC topwater striper fishing. Took out my brother and buddy Pat and we nailed about 40 stripers between the three of us and we were the only boat around! All on topwater! It looked like a scene out of National Geographic with all the birds, bait, and busting stripers everywhere. These fish were a little bigger ranging from 23 - 27 inches with the FIRST TWO KEEPERS of the year in the mix! From what I know, these were the first 2 keepers from a boat in 2015! One for Pat and one for me! May 15th is now the earliest date I have caught a keeper! I caught some great video on the V.360 Camera which I will be editing tonight for you all to enjoy!

I poked around this morning as well on the opposite tide (turn of the outgoing) and got into some nice feeds of smaller 18 - 22 inch fish. I caught 6 fish on my first 7 casts before I started experimenting with some new lures trying to lure a keeper out of the mix. They were getting popped, but were a little too big for the fish to handle. I was in this feed for about 30 minutes before it died down and then had a few smaller feeds pop off. All in all I ended up with roughly 15 stripers for the day, with topwater spooks being the winning ticket.

It was a relief to see the numbers and different sizes of stripers. I didn't see many feeds like this early in the season last year and felt more like the past few years. 

So here we are 2015 Striper season! I have a couple Newburyport charters in the afternoon this upcoming week vying for more light tackle stripers and I will also take some time to get square with mackerel! 

Video and Pics to come. 

Tight Lines,

Capt. Chris