By Steve Zelck
Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it’s winding down fellas. Unfortunately, winter is coming. It’s almost time to put away the rods and dust off the hunting gear… but not so quickly. There are still a few minutes left in the game. The air temperature has dropped and so has the water temperature – which turned everything on, but also flipped the switch to start the migration.
As far as the migration, I wish there was more to talk about. There have been some good feeds in Beverly and Salem Harbor, with stripers on bunker producing schoolie fish – fun to fish on light tackle and very exciting should you hook a gorilla. Gloucester Harbor has been consistent during the day, but unfortunately we are in the midst of a fishery rebuild.
Speaking of rebuilding, there was good news for rod and reel anglers after the herring fleets were shut down after just four days in local waters. Apparently the herring are spawning.
Captain Bill Monte of the F/V Bounty Hunter with his impressive catch late in the season.
That being said, it drew in a decent number of tuna into nearby Jeffreys Ledge, but not nearly the numbers or concentration that we saw last year. On the flipside of that, the fish seem to be spread out from Maine to the Cape, with mostly everyone getting bites. The mackerel were a bit scarce, but those that put the time in were rewarded with a visit from Charlie. There were also a bunch of small guys running around at times, in the 60-70 inch range that provided some nice top water casting if you could in get close enough. We are going to hang in there on the F/V Bounty Hunter for as long as there are still fish around. We’ve had a good month and have only been beaten by Charlie a few times lately. The fish are fat and sluggish, and easier to deal with these days. For those wondering, there has been no sign of “El Diablo” since last month.
Haddock opened up again on November 1st and it was nice to sneak out and grab some for the freezer. Fingers are crossed that we might actually be able to ground fish next year – there is talk of two cod fish and 10 haddock – which would be great and hopefully put some guys back to work.
On a side note, my son Erik discovered what was left of a pretty large trigger fish on the bank of the Annisquam River… talk about a lost fish.
That’s all I have to report for the end of the fishing season. I’m off to scout the woods and check the tree stand during my day off.
FORECAST BY: Steve Zelck was born and raised in Gloucester. Steve’s love of the sea lured him back to pursue his fishing passion and not a day goes by without him checking the pulse of the harbor for action. If you don’t find Steve at Three Lantern Marine & Fishing, you can bet he’s out working on his lobster boat, F/V Erik and Devin, named after his kids. He also tuna fishes aboard the F/V Bounty Hunter with Captain Bill Monte from Wicked Tuna.