Fished the Merrimack River,Ma.

[chiefpanfish]

Had a good week over in Mass. fishing for stripers in the Merrimack River, we fished near the mouth of the river just before and during the out going tides. We managed 25 stripers all schoolies and managed one keeper of 30". Our bait was cut herring but our best fish came on cut clam. We switched over to clams because we were running low on herring. We should have switched earlier and might have had a larger fish take????
The weather was very hot 90's with heat index of 106 river water temp was around 71 deg. It was also the time for their yearly hatch of the green headed flies. You have to keep deet's on you or they will bite you to death.
Took a deep sea trip out as well on the all day boat off the Eastman's dock. I managed 7 keepers of cod haddock pollack and cusk. Boated about 15 fish during the day. There wasn't a dog fish caught the whole day so the tangles were not bad for almost a full boat. Great trip for whale watching and we also saw a 14' shark crusing the surface.Looking forward to getting out on the sea again. Chief
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[davetclown]

Impressive, not much chance of getting board on that adventure..

Last week was a pretty good fishing week over here in michigan as well. Lots of bass all wanting to come up and pose for a picture.....

did by any chance you get a shot for the contest? since all I caught was bass I only got one entry.

thanks for the striper tips, I will need them on cumberland lake....

how are you rigging them? do you have a pic of a rig I can down load for future refferance?
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[chiefpanfish]

Hey Dave, No I didn't get any pictures for the contest, I had planned on it when I was out on the party boat I had four different fish in the box and was still fishing when the mate asked if I wanted them filleted because of the hot temp. I quickly said yes forgetting about pics. So I missed out this trip but will be returning again in the fall.
The rig is simple a number 5 circle hook with 3' of 50lb. leader three red beads and a silver teardrop spinner. I was using 17 lb. line with a slide sinker rig above a saftey clip. The weight can be changed according to amount of current of the tide. Between a 3 ounce and 6 ounce.
I rigging the boat now for king fishing at ontario in two weeks. It's amazing how fast this summer has flown by.
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[davetclown]

thanks for the lead..

with dozens of calls on the house per week I am hoping to put them tips to work real soon...
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