There has been some awesome fishing at the mouth of the rivers!!! The Ipswich, Essex and the Annisquam are producing some big fish in the early evening And i'm sure the the Merrimack must be good also!!! The bait of choice is the eel, trolled!!!
The Merrimack is a nice place to fish and depending on the area of the river depends on the species and at what time of the year!!! you can catch shad;stripers and atlantic salmon!!!<br />The best fishery is striped bass!!! The fishery has made a 100% come back over the last 10 years!!! You can fish from the mouth of the river up to the dam!!!!<br /><br />The mouth of the river is very, very dangeous to boaters and those that like to wade!!!! It gobbles up fishermen every year!!! The worst waders that you can ever wear are them wide open rubber waders with rubber boots attached!!! Tight neoprenes are best and difinitly wear a tight wading belt, it may save your life!!!<br /><br />Good size stripers are there the 1st part of June<br />Your best bet is to get a striped bass charter and the mackeral should be running and get into about 140' of water and you should be able to catch fish over 38" on a regular bases!!!! Baits used are lures; flies; clams; sea worms; pogies when they have them and herring!!! <br /><br />You do not need a salt water license!!!!<br /><br /> As of this writing you are allowed 2 striped bass per person per day over 28" in Massachusetts state waters!!! <br /><br />There is also deep sea fishing for cod and haddock!!!! <br /><br />I have a Seaswirl 1851 DC 115 HP with dual downrigger and fish finder, do you think I'll be ok with this rig to fish there?<br /><br />My reels have 15 lb test line,is that enough?<br /><br />Regards
Knotiboy<br /><br />Don't really know where "Black Rock Creek" is, asked my partner and he has never heard of it either!!! We may have fished that area and didn't know the name!!! There are the Joppa Flats, which are around Woodbriidge Island!!!! If you fish in the Merrimack River try fishing at low tide so you will see where the piles of rocks are!!!! once the rocks are covered you may have some good striper fishing!!!<br /><br />You are difinitly coming at a great time (july) to fish!!! There will be stripers, bluefish and some football size 60-100lb. giant bluefin tuna, bottom fishing for cod and flounder if you prefer!!!! There is no better place to fish on the whole east coast for quanity of fish!!!<br /><br />Since you have an 18' boat you basically will have no problem fishing "Ipswich Bay" SW winds and the bay will be like glass or small ripples!! Nw wind if you come out of the merrimack you should be able to fish some of the bay in close!!! Easterly winds you want to fish in the river!!!! On strong Easterlies you can't fish anyplace on the ocean!!!<br /><br />When you come out of the merrimack you can fish N, E, S, on a good day!!!<br />Since you are coming from Canada you must be going to fish mostly the week days, which is good, people will be working,so means less people on the water!!!! The mouth of the merrimack could be like a zoo on saturday or sunday!!!! <br /><br />Sorry I didn't answer sooner, we were away!!!!
The hot spot from shore will be the marsh behind Nichols Candies the 1st of May, coming tide only, works there!!! "Do not park in Nichols parking lot" Park across the street, there is parking for 3-4 cars!! And you can park at the stone pier just before Nichols and walk over to the marsh,it's a sharp right turn and you may miss it the 1st time!!!<br /><br />If coming by boat from the ocean the fishing does not start till the arrival of the Mackeral about the last week of May!!! Fish in the outer harbor for macs and then get into about 140' of water out side of breakwater and troll your live macs 1-2knots at the most!!! Blues won't be in till the middle of June!!! Once the stripers are here they won't leave till October!!! "Excellent fishing"!!! <br /><br />When the macs leave after 1or2weeks we switch to chunk herring!!! Your best bet is to buy a 5gal. bucket for about 10 bucks, a tote(120lbs.) 20 bucks at the State Fish Pier!!! If you are rich Ralph you can go to bait shop and pay 7 bucks for 3-4 herring which is not enough for chunking!!!There will be "BIG STRIPERS!!!! out side the breakwater if you know how to fish for them!!!<br />And yes there will be plenty of dogfish!! bring plenty of hooks becuse you will get either stripers or dogs!!!!
click on the school house on my post or replies or go to www.capeannfishingcharters.com
Hope you mean Newburyport!!! Newport is in Rode Island!!!<br /><br />If they told you that you are in fresh water then you are way up inside, which would be the Lawrance Dam!!! From the dam it starts out as brackish water and becomes salt water to the mouth of the Merrimack!!!! I'll put a call into the bait and tackle in Salisbury!!!!<br /><br />One other thing, if you catch an atlantic salmon in the Merrick below the dam it's best to release it or you will be fined if caught in posession!!! Above the dam you will need a fresh water license!!!<br /><br />Joppa flats is at the mouth of the Merrimack!!!! Low tide a lot of mud flats till tide comes in!!!<br /><br />The Merrimack basically separates Newburyport and Salisbury!!!
Black rock creek is across from Joppa flats!!!<br />I don't know if you will be able to launch there at low tide,let's hope so!!!! you will be just up from the mouth of the merrimack!!!! You want to fish the bay and the river mouth!!! As far as fresh water to wash boat,there must be water in the park that you are staying at!!! Take a 5gal. bucket, fill it with water and bring along a brush!!! <br /><br />Here is the best bait and tackle shop in the area!!! They know what's going on around that area!! Surfland Bait & Tackle 1-978-462-4202<br />They are located on Plum Island in Newbury, talk to Kay or Martha!!! It's worth a call a couple weeks before leaving Canada!!!!!<br /><br />I put that number in secret cript so that Rolmops would not figure it out!!!!!!
Could be some giant bluefin around the bay, especially the footballers!!! It is possible to hook one when trolling for bluefish, which also is the favorite food of the tuna!!! The tuna seem to like that orange & mustard Rapala cd-18 mag!!!<br />If you don't catch fish in July in the Bay, you will never catch fish!!!!!<br /><br />Do you have a phone radio in your boat???<br />Emergency station is channel 16<br />Do you have Sea-tow or Boat US for emergency towing????
At least you have a cell phone,which is not considered a safety device because of dead areas!!! Coast Guard gloucester # 1-978-283-0704!!<br />Merrimack River 1-978-465-0731!!! One of these 2 numbers would be good to have in your cell phone!!!<br /><br />If your motor breaks down and you need a tow, it cost approx. $140.00 an hour from the time they leave the dock, to where they tow you to!!!! Up your way you probably do not need it!!! Around our way, either one of them two towing companies, is like having Triple A for a car!!!! I pay about $114.00 a year for unlimited coverage and they will tow you from 20 miles out to sea and 20 miles from up or down the sea coast!!!!! 
