Slooooow Fishing in the Merrimack River

[therockfishchef]

WoW the fishin is slow. I don't remember it ever being this slow even in August. I have been out 3 times this week. I went out Wed 25th and Thurs 26 at night. Drifted live eels over joppa flats. Only two fish total both small and both on Wednesday. Not even a bite on Thursday. I passed a few boats on the drift both nights and the guys said the same thing "not even a bite" Hope things pick up soon. Anyone else having any luck?

[diggyNH]

well i am happy to report that things have been just the opposite for me fri. took some guys from work out that wanted to fish for blues headed south of the mack and kicked ass on the blues for 2-3 hrs headed back north and to a striper spot where we fished till we ran out of bait.the result was a keeper for all of us and countless BIG schoolies great action the whole outgoing, did pretty much the same trip on sat with with the exception being we caught some much larger stripers in 30+ range in about 26-40 ft water on some structure a spot i found by accident,now marked on the gps. seemed like quite a few boats were doing well from what i observed. also be careful around the mouth seems like some extremely (strong) more than normal currents and standing waves.

[Merrillizer™]

The marsh / river fishing has been slow for me this season. In general, just not the numbers I am used. After the first week of July, I stopped fishing so frequently. This years Spring Herring Run was the worst one I can remember. Lots of bait out front equaled less quality bass in the Hampton Marsh and other NH rivers. Numbers are definitely down for me in 2008. I have yet to surfcast though!............

[therockfishchef]

Glad to hear!!!
Sounds like the good fishing is outside right now. However my fishfinder is down (water got in the screen) so finding structure or fish outside is difficult lately. I know a few of my old diving spots, some good rock piles but even those are hard to find with the finder. Wish I had my gps back when I was compiling dive spots so I could have marked them. I've been sticking to inside the river or in the moputh cause I can go straight to a few proven spots by eye. Its a little harder to do in the ocean.
Just wondering what you used to get all the blues and bass, floating chunks, trolling, jigs? I've noticed lots a boats trolling on the weekdays when theres plenty of room out there. if its working for them. I used to do a lot of trolling for blues back when I was a kid and there were no stripers around. A deep diving rebel (any color) back and forth across the coast of PI and Salisbury all day long killed em

[captcal]

Diggy. glad to hear on the success. The river again was DEAD. Also
fished out front... Haven't found them yet out front. Will do this week.

Weather goes from good - bad- absolute crapola. Freaking wind is miserable.