By Frank Miccolis
Stripers are in, along with lots of schoolies in the estuaries. Hitting any of your favorite top water lures, I would recommend the savage gear MP-165-GM as a very reliable lure for striper fishing and we have them in stock at Three Lantern Marine. A couple guys have caught 20-30 schoolie stripers in one day on top water lures. I also have a couple friends who have caught keeper stripers on chunk herring in the estuaries. Steve Zelck saw his first surface feeding frenzy of big stripers on Saturday, just past the groaner outside Gloucester at roughly 4:00pm. There were a lot of nice sized, 20-30 pound fish just pounding the heck out of the mackerel. Speaking of mackerel, they are incredibly thick everywhere especially inside the Gloucester harbor near the paint factory. My best recommendation on tackle for mackerel would be a sabiki rig and a small weight or diamond jig at the bottom of the line. We also have this tackle in stock here at Three Lantern Marine. There are also plenty of flounder around for kids. There seems to be a very abundant age class of little guys around as well. Be sure to measure flounder out to at least 12 inches. Also, be sure to throw any smalls back for next year. All of the younger kids will be out of school for the summer shortly so don’t forget to take them out fishing and poison them at an early age. Sign them up for the Striper/Bluefish tournament at Three Lantern Marine. There are tons of prizes to be won. And don’t forget to have the whole family get licensed for recreational fishing this year. It only costs $10 for a license and the environmental police are out there enforcing the law with a $50 fine for anyone over the age of 16 without one. Also, most charter boats for bottom fish are doing a tremendous job on cod and haddock on the days that the weather allows them to go out for daytime trips.
Schoolie stripers provide great early season fun for Spencer, Joe and Jason.
