May 1, 1999

Partial 1999 Fishing Journal

Frank G. Dwyer
May 1, 1999

The season began early this year. May 1st brought the first fresh schoolie striped bass to the Plum Island region. My friend Don reeled in a fresh, lice covered and bright 16" striper. I was not far behind him, with a 14" schoolie of my own. Both fish came out of one of the back rivers of Plum Island. Spinning gear with plastics/rubber worked well as well as small flies. (Ray's fly)
We took a few casts down at Plum Island Point, but caught nothing. A few other anglers were lining the river, some casting bait, others fishing spinning or fly gear. Of interest here is that the sand bar area has changed dramatically. No longer does the bar extend far out into the Merrimack for easy access wading. It appears the bar has shrunk in size and depth. Be careful!
I hope to christen the New Boat (High Tide) Sunday Morning. Stay tuned and Tight Lines!!
May 2, 1999
First things first. No fish were caught today. I observed many fishermen, both on the shore and in boats, and did not see any fish landed. Those I spoke to directly had no luck. I believe we're a solid week away from good fishing here. I'll be in the back rivers tomorrow hunting those fresh fish lurking in the warm shallows.
More importantly, my Boat was launched for the first time ever this morning at approximately 8:15 am. My friend Andy was kind enough to come up and share some of his 30 years of boating expertise. (My days as "Launch Boy" at the NYAC Travers Island were long ago.) In any event, we trailered the "High Tide" to the public boat ramp at Cashman's Park. We launched after a small christening and spent the next 5 hours breaking in the engine and cruising the Merrimack and the ocean. We fished a bit, but primarily broke the engine in (if you do it by the book, it is fairly tedious) and got used to the boat. The boat handled very well but the weather was very cooperative with 1' to 3' seas and very little wind. Air temperature was over 70 by the time we came in at 12:30. Tami was kind enough to meet us at the dock at 11am with some lunch and was treated to a gentle river cruise. (Gentle because she is almost 7 months pregnant!)
All in all a wonderful first day on the water.
May 4, 1999
Froze my butt off after work this evening and fished for an hour around Plum Island. It was about 1/2 tide with steady rain and wind. I did not hook up with any fish, but I did see something break about 20 yards off shore. In addition, I pulled up a tiny shrimp on the end of my hook, I guess there is something to eat in there!
Tight lines.
May 6, 1999
Tried my luck on the ocean front this evening on the dropping tide. Walked from the church to the jetty and back. No bait in the water as far as I could tell, and no fish--not even a bump. Next week should be the week, although we need a few nice warm days to help.
May 7, 1999
Took a legitimate day off work today to do some things around the house, AND fish. Since my boat is not yet in the water permanently, I again fished from shore. I decided I would try the Merrimack/Sandbar area. When I pulled in the lot was full for a rainy/foggy Friday morning in early May. The river was being fished by a bunch of people, but by no means elbow to elbow. I was a bit late, arriving about 1 hour before low tide. As I walked up several guys were on fish, both fly and spin. I found a spot and cast into the outgoing flow. Third cast and I was on as well. I was using a sinking line and a fairly small Ray's fly. I caught 3 more fish over the next hour and a half for a total of 4. No size to them, but plenty of sport. (14-16" tops) So, the fishing was not furious, but it felt good to get more than one. In talking with a few folks, it was a bit more consistent prior to my arrival. Things appear to be getting better!
May 11, 1999
Finally got the Boat in for the season last night, however I did not get a chance to fish at that time.
I was able to make it back to the dock by 6:45pm tonight for a couple of hour’s enjoyment. This was my first solo run in the boat and I had yet to land a fish from the boat.
I headed out towards the mouth of the Merrimack--more for the ride than to fish. Saw lot's of terns as well as many seals. I saw seals all the way up on Joppa, off Badgers and pretty much all over the river. Lots of guys fishing off the beach but I did not really see anybody into anything. (High tide was approx 9pm) After a few casts up by the mouth, I headed back up river. I fished Joppa and the vicinity for 15 minutes or so. Lots of birds working the water, but I could not get a bite. Headed further up river and found a spot where the river split and ended up catching over 20 schoolies in 45 minutes. The fish ranged from 12", up to one that was 18". I caught the first 7 or 8 on an intermediate line with a chartreuse/white clouser. The fly action seemed to slow, so I switched to a light-spinning rig with a sluggo and caught a bunch more. Slow retrieve, with a twitch every now and again seemed to work best. There were two other boats fishing the same area and they were also having some luck. The fish were busting on top once the sun went down. It was a very pleasant evening to say the least.
I know where I'll be the rest of the week. Tight Lines!
May 12, 1999
I fished the rising tide last night from about 7pm - 9pm. Much like last night, I found lots of fish up river. All micro bass, but I did have one 24" fish mixed in. (That fish was lots of fun) I took a ride out onto Joppa, and there were fish on top there as well, but the fishing was very inconsistent. I tried several flies (clouser, deceiver, and ray’s and mylar sand eel) and only ended up with one fish. That’s when I headed back up river and caught my hearts content, all on a Ray's Fly. I also took several fish on an albino sluggo.
May 14, 1999
Time: 5pm - 6:30pm Tide: 5:02pm Low
Took the boat out for a small run this evening and managed 4 schoolies. Took the fish directly across from BoatWorks, just beyond the red buoy where the river splits. Not a very serious fishing trip, just nice to be out on the Boat .
May 15, 1999
Time: 4:45am - 10:00am Tide: 6am Low
Don arrived at the house at 4:30am sharp and when loaded up my truck and headed to the marina. We were leaving Boatworks by 4:45. Motored directly towards the mouth and set up shop in a drift from the toothpick, down towards badgers. Hugging the Salisbury side and starting by the old boat ramp seemed to work very well. We had a solid hour and a half of fish swirling, rising, and slapping on the surface. A variety of lures worked for us and we switched from spinning to fly gear and back again. On spinning, we had luck with albino sluggos/blue and white leadheads, as well as pencil poppers and striper swiper atom plugs. On the fly, both Ray's fly and Chartreuse/White flies worked, with the clouser the hands down winner. Sinking line was the best bet as I started on an intermediate line but quickly switched as Don had many more hook ups on his sinking line. As mentioned, the drift worked well for 1 1/2 hours but when slack hit, the bite was off. During the "toothpick drift" we landed around 100 fish between us. The largest was one I had around 30" on a sluggo and Don had a very nice 27" fish on the fly.
We moved down towards Joppa and plucked a mooring and landed a bunch more as the tide turned and began to move again. Flies worked far better on Joppa and we managed another 30-40 fish between us. These fish were smaller, with the largest around 24".
All in all a Great morning. Two hours before low at the mouth is still the rule!
May 16, 1999
Time: 5:30am - 11:00am Tide: 7:05am Low
Well, in attempting a repeat of Saturday, Don and I were back at the marina at 5:30am. One thing we did not factor in was Mother Nature. A thick fog surrounded BoatWorks, and it was difficult to see a couple of fingers over. We waited it out until it lifted a bit at about 6:45am. (We've both been lost in the fog and did not long for a repeat.) In any event, we missed the tide for the "toothpick" drift, but did manage a few fish off Joppa. We drifted for a while over Joppa and landed a few fish. (4 for Don, 1 for me) We then tied to an AYC mooring and hit fish a bit more consistently, landing 20 or so between us. Once again sinking lines with White/Chartreuse flies worked best. Definitely not a repeat of Saturday, bet well worth the effort.
May 18, 1999
Time: 6:30pm - 7:45pm Tide: 9:12pm Low
Fished the outgoing tide this evening and found many aggressive schoolies. This has been the case for sometime now up here. Stopped by Joppa, landed 7 schoolies, all in the 14-22" range. (Tied up to one of the AYC moorings)Headed back up river and drifted below Deer Island and picked up several more fish. No big fish in the mix this evening.
Certainly getting better at handling the boat, easing in and out of the slip like the days of "launch boy" at the NYAC Yacht Club.
Storm rolling in tonight, but not a big one. Should not affect fishing too much. Got the hatches battened down and the auto bilge on!
May 21, 1999
Time: 6:00am-8:30am Tide: 4:42am High
Fished from 6am until 8:30 am this morning.The river was alive with fish on top. Fished just below the route 1 bridge and landed many fish as they swirled, slurped and slapped all around me. Moved out towards Joppa and the festivities continued, only this time had the added fun of birds working over large pods of fish. Just drifted and caught lots of schoolies, all on char/white clouser, sluggos and a few on an Atom Plug.. Fair amount of boats out there today and everybody seemed to be getting their share of fish. Largest this a.m. was 24". This morning I had more tangles, snags and knots than who knows what. Good old Murphy's Law.
May 22, 1999
Time: 5:00am-10:00am Tide: 5:40am High
Fished with Don this morning from 5am to 10am. What a magnificent morning. As soon as we left BoatWorks we had fish rising and breaking all around us. Don's second fish was a 29" brute which took a while to boat on the fly rod, a quick picture and he was swimming again. Fished next to Tom Sheehey for some time and for the first two hours we never went beyond the Route 1 bridge. Sinking lines with Chart/White Clousers was once again the order of the day. Once the tide turned and started flowing out quickly, we headed up towards Joppa, tied up to a mooring and were into fish on almost every cast. The tide was ripping through and there were swirls of fish as far as the eye could see. This was one of those mornings for which you have no idea how many you got, you just know it was a lot! (I've got two "Striper Thumbs" to show for it) I'm talking hundreds of fish this morning! My back and arms are quite tired and I just finished painting the nursery, so now I'm really in pain!The majority of the fish today were on the fly, however to rest the arm I occasionally used a lightweight spinning rod with a sluggo with just as much success. Round 2 Sunday Morning!
May 23, 1999
Time: 5:00am-10:00am Tide: 6:44am High
On the water at sunrise this AM in the boat with Don. We fished above the Rte 1 bridge for the first part of the morning, with fish everywhere. Not as good as yesterday but we caught and released more fish than we could count. The second fish of the day was a 2-3 pound shad for Don.We moved down to Joppa after a while and were still taking fish at 10AM, before deciding to head in. The fish were taken on chartreuse and white clousers, top water plugs and sluggo's. One fish that we picked up proceeded to spit up a golf ball size glob of worms. The biggest fish this morning on a fly was a healthy 27" fish with plenty of power. Don ended up hooking into a 29" fish directly in the current that felt and looked like a whale. We could have sworn that fish was bigger!
May 25, 1999
Time: 5:30am-9:00am Tide: 8:44am HighLeft the dock this a.m. at 5:30am and headed out towards Joppa. As I passed the Ice Breaker I saw three sets of birds working different locations on the flats. Gunned the boat to the closest birds and sure enough they were working a pod of fish under sand eels. As soon as the fly hit the water I was on and for the next hour I chased the birds around the flats and hooked consistently with boiling fish. No real big fish today--largest about 24". The wind was picking up and the water was getting choppy as I left, but fish were still present. What a great morning....no other boats in sight!
May 26, 1999
Time: 5:30am-8:00am Tide: 9:37am High
Fished for a few hours today and only got a handful of fish. It was a bit overcast, and fish were not apparent on the top like the morning before. Still, it's nice to get a few days when the fishing is tough to remind me how good things are with the striper fishery these days.
May 27, 1999
Time: 5:30am-9:00am Tide: 10:25am High
I got a late start this morning but took Stephen out in the boat. We fished from the toothpick into Joppa and picked up only 1 fish. It was a healthy 27" fish that was peeling drag off my 6' light spinning rod. Other than that, I learned how to mark waypoints and routes with my new GPS since Stephen enjoyed showing me how to do it! We also headed halfway down to Hampton Harbor, basically right out from the Seabrook Nuke Plant. It was a very calm day in the ocean. If we had the time, we could have made it to Hampton no problem. Maybe this weekend if the weather in nice.
July 4, 1999
Well, I've fished quite a bit over the last month and a few days. With work and an expectant wife(less than 30 days now) time to write after every fishing trip has proven tough. Don and I have fished at night twice with some success, however just one keeper to our name from the night trips. W trying again on 7/18. In addition, we've had several nice morning with fish into the hundreds. Nice healthy schoolies. Don has gotten one keeper off the Jetty this year and is gracing the walls of Surfland.
Most recently, we fished yesterday from 5am - 10am. (9am Low tide) We tried bait in several areas and had a rough morning to begin with. Sluggos, Poppers, Swimming Plugs and numerous flies all seemed of no interest to the fish. We finally anchored up at and undisclosed AYC mooring and ended up catching numerous schoolies and snapper blues. We caught them on clams, herring and mackerel. All in all, what started as a slow morning ended up pretty good.
July 31, 1999
Things have changed. Four days after the last journal entry, our daughter Caitlin Sierra was born. Since July 7th, I've fished 4 times. Not bad for a new father getting used to sleeping in 3 hour intervals! Last Saturday (7/24) Don and I fished the flats as well as Plum Island point from aboard the High Tide. We did not have much luck from 5:30 until 9am at which time we ended up landing a bunch of schoolies in front of the AYC at the top of the tide.(incoming)
We fished out by Woodbridge Island and saw numerous fish swimming and frolicking. These fished seemed to be swimming on their sides at times. This is best explained in a thread by my fishing partner Don via the Reel Time Northern New England Bulletin Board:
Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (1 of 9), Read 142 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Don Osmer (pisurf1@aol.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 10:56 AM
Fished the flats this morning with fellow reel-timer Frank Dwyer in his boat. From 5AM until 830AM we managed only three small fish. Although in the flats the fish were literally cruising along in large schools and would not touch anything!! It was extremely frustrating to say the least!! Casting flies that landed in the middle of schools would spook the fish and there would be 15-20 large swirls, but nothing!! The fish did not look small either!Moved into the AYC and after the turning tide we picked up alot of schoolies on sluggo's. One of those was my first tagged fish. Tagged from the Littoral SOC in NJ.Saw fellow reel-timer Tom Sheehy and he seemed to be having the same luck. Anyone have any suggestions when the fish are lying in the sun??Don

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (2 of 9), Read 132 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
backman (backman@ultranet.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 11:23 AM
Don:for those picky flats fish try this:* sinking line* crab fly* cast in the schools direction - led them by10-20 yards.* let your cast sink - count to 20,wait, count to 10. * twitch the fly twice; 3" short sharp strips; and wait 3 seconds* twitch, twitch pause again.If you get your crab in the sand or mud in front of a fish and it twitches when the fish is coming you will hook that fish. It has to be on the bottom; it has to act like a fleeing crab; it comes off the bottom forget it. the striper will grub it up from the bottom in an instant if it sees it.

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (3 of 9), Read 131 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Tom_Sheehy (tom_sheehy@hotmail.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 01:05 PM
Larry,Actually, based on your reports and success earlier in the year, I have tried just that on a number of occasions without much success. As Don said, it was very, very frustrating. An additional observation was a large fish swimming up on the surface with its tail and part of the dorsal fin exposed, swimming around in a 3' diameter circle. As far as I could tell, the fish's mouth never broke the surface. It looked similar to the way a fish trying to swim in 4" of water would, very strange. I have tried three types of crab flies, a brown/tan merkin a little smaller than a quarter; a home-made pattern using corsair and sand colored sparkle body and a floating cork pattern.I have tried this with both a 350-grain sinking line and also an intermediate. I always let the fly sink (6' of water) and would try the slow twitch method that you described.The other thing that seems strange is that on the last 3 trips I have made to this flat where this has been happening, I have also had someone with me fishing with clams. Not a single fish..Anyhow, this is the second year now that I have seen this happen, and I have yet to catch anything other than 1 or 2 fish when it is happening.Oh well, if it was easy, it would be boring!-- Tom

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (4 of 9), Read 125 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Don Osmer (pisurf1@aol.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 03:35 PM
Tom,Thanks for substantiating the frustration and wierdness of the situation. I am by far an expert, but have never seen fish, that close, swimming with their sides to the surface. It seemed like they were sunning themselves?! And laughing at me!! Larry, I have seen you post about Cape flats, have you seen this before? Anyother suggestions? As Tom mentioned, some of these fish looked to be on the large side! While Frank and I were out there we tried several fly patterns. We did try bait including clams and chunk along with several surface and swimming plugs. As you can tell we threw everything at them!! The only thing that we did not try, that Kay told us, was floating a sea worm into them?? Has anyone had any success at this or does anyone have any other success when this happens? Tom does this continue to happen in that section of the flats often? Thanks for the advice,Don

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (5 of 9), Read 123 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Bob D (bobd@watersedge-charters.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 04:13 PM
I have witnessed this a couple of times on Joppa flats and had the same results as you. One thing I have noticed is that each time I've seen this it was at high slack tide on a very warm day. My thought as I was leaving was that maybe they had gorged themselves on the incoming tide and where just basking in the sun digesting their feast. Although it is very frustrating it is still an awesome sight to see those large fish lying just under the surface.

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (6 of 9), Read 102 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Tom_Sheehy (tom_sheehy@hotmail.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 07:56 PM
I saw it maybe half a dozen times last year, mostly slack high as Bob mentioned. This was a lot, as I didn't get out there much with the canoe last season.I have also seen it at least that much this year, it happens both in the morning and evenings, and I have very frequently seen 8 or 10 boats out there with a combination of fly, spin and bait guys, with nobody catching anything.The only other time I have seen fish showing their 'sides' as much was last fall on the wildlife refuge beach during a sunny afternoon. The water was clear and you could see the schoolies working the bottom about 20' out, picking up sand eels getting caught in the wave action.As I think I mentioned before, there is no obvious sign of food on Joppa when this happens. It might be a good idea to take out a small mesh net to take a sample of the water and see what is really down there. If you were to read how fish behave during a typical worm hatch (I've never seen this, personally) the description fits this to a 'T'. Except its during daylight hours, and there are no signs of the worms.-- Tom

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (7 of 9), Read 104 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Don Osmer (pisurf1@aol.com)
Date:
Sunday, July 25, 1999 08:09 PM
Tom,I don't know if anyone has tried it? But it sounds like the next time that Frank and I get out there I will have a worm pattern fly and some sea worms to try. I have never landed a fish over 29" on the fly, and this may be the opportunity. Thanks for the help and hope to see you out there as well.Don

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (8 of 9), Read 66 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
Jackie Chan (j_carlton@globe.com)
Date:
Monday, July 26, 1999 07:49 AM
While fishing some tidewater ponds down the Vineyard the past couple years, we've encountered a similar situation, where we found lots of big fish (30-36") holding in clear, shallow, knee deep water. The first day we only managed a couple, with many follows. Finally figured out we had to run smaller, longer tippets (down to 8 lb) in order to increase our catch rate. The other thing we found was that many of the larger fish would turn on their sides and sort of shake and shimmer along the bottom, while refusing everything we tossed at them. It's an awesome sight, with the glare of the sun reflecting off their huge silvery sides giving you an almost tarpon like effect. In actuality these are fresh run from the sea fish that come in to the shallows and use the bottom to rub the sea lice off their sides. Hope it helps.. Good Luck.

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Topic:
7/24 Merrimac River Report/1st tagged fish (9 of 9), Read 50 times
Conf:
Cape Cod to Northern New England
From:
John Lytle (john@ktiboston.com)
Date:
Monday, July 26, 1999 12:54 PM
I have seen the same thing in Maine. High tide, slack, with the same results. A fly (several different patterns tried) either spooks them, or creates no interest.Have gone the longer leader, route, but have not gone the crab fly route. Will be doing that this weekend.-John Lytle
Took the afternoon off yesterday (July 30) and took the boat out on the flats on the rising tide. Fishing off Woodbridge Island, with lots of company, the fish were rolling and slapping in the current. Similar to last Saturday as Don and I saw, these fish were very finicky. I could see numerous fish swimming by, it seemed on their sides, but not many hits. I only managed 2 fish in 2 1/2 hours. The first fish I caught was after I left my line untended for several seconds while dealing with a tangle and upon retrieve I had a fish. I slowed my retrieve considerably after that, but still only managed one more fish. I tried further out in the river however the wind was howling, there was a nice chop and it was fairly crowded, so I poked around the flats a bit more and called it a day. I got the two fish on a olive/white clouser. A gentleman who was anchored up was catching fish much more consistently. Not sure when the next trip will be, but hopefully it will be soon!
Oct. 1 - Oct 4. (MV Derby)
Took Tami and Caitlin out to MV for a weekend trip that happened to coincide with the MV Derby.Haven't missed one in seven years, but this one was the most challenging to find time to fish!Over the three days, I fished each morning out on East Beach/Wasque and enjoyed 5 Albies from shore, with only 3 landed. I also caught one small bluefish. I did not get out at night and never saw a striper the entire weekend. (Except at the weigh station!) All of these little footballs were under the 25" minimum for the derby, but quite fun. This mornings was the most fun with a very turbulent turf and several heart pounding runs. I caught all these fish on light spinning gear. (6' rod/12lb test)I also managed a few casts at Edgartown Harbor,(Chappy side)Tashmoo,and the Big Bridge, but had no luck at these places.All in all, lots of fun.
Oct. 7, 1999
Took a spin in the High Tide for kicks. River seemed quite dead. I tried a variety of baits on both spinning and fly tackle but to no avail. It was quite windy and the spray from the ocean was quite cold from my 16 foot boat! I'll be trying a few more times, then it's time for the boat's first winter and my time to tie flies!
Oct. 10, 1999
Fished the outgoing tide this morning from 9am-12:30pm. There was nothing in the water. No bait, no fish. There were however, lots and lots of seals. (as well as a fair amount of debris) There were a few boats in the mouth, however I did not see anybody catching fish. Looks like it's the end of my fishing season and the beginning of my fly tying season.
Tight lines and here's to an even better Y2K fishing season!