The other night I stayed overnight at Salisbury Beach State Reservation. There is a campground right on the water. I went up on Monday and slept overnight, came home Tuesday evening. If you have never been to Salisbury Beach, I do not know if there is any beach prettier. It is right on the mouth of the Merrimack. The sand is soft and clean. There is a jetty that sticks out into the ocean a few hundred feet. On one side is the open Atlantic and the beach. On the other is the Merrimack River discharging into the open ocean.
The campground is not very private. There are very few trees and the sites are very close together. Since I only spend a little time actually at the tent, I feel the lack of privacy is a small price to pay for the scenery. The cost per night is $ 22.
On Monday morning I went birding at Plum Island before I got a campsite. Plum Island ( in Newburyport) sits on the other side of the Merrimack from Sailsbury. I got up to Plum about 10:30. I birded for 5 hours. I wanted to get to the campground by 5 pm since I had no idea when it closed and didn't actually know how long it would take to get there. Birding on the island was as usual great. I got almost 50 species and 2 more LIFE BIRDS. The island is long and skinny. There is a road that goes down the center to the southern tip. The road gives excellent access to many points on the island. There are trails into the interior going into marsh, fields and woods.
The two life birds were a Wilson's Pharalope and a Sora. I spotted the Sora on the Marsh Trail at "Hellcat" The marsh trail runs through the biggest cattail marsh I have ever seen. I saw a glimpse of it. I also taped with my camera the call. It was definitely a sora The pharalope was spotted by another guy while I was looking at some greater yellowlegs. He pointed it out to me, which I thanked him for it.
For anyone interested I am going to list all the species:
Sora, Wilson's Pharalope, Glossy Ibis, Bobolink, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Cedar Waxwing, Green Wing Teal, Gadwall, Short Billed Dowitcher, Greater Yellowlegs, Osprey, Willet, Grackle, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, Red Wing Blackbird, Turkey Vulture, Song Sparrow, Chipping Sparrow, Yellow Warbler, Goldfinch, Robin, Cormorant, Chickadee, Semi-palimated Sandpiper, Morning Dove, Canada Geese, Towhee, Mockingbird, Kingbird, Catbird, Great Black Back Gull, Ringbilled Gull, Herring Gull, Crow, Baltimore Oriole, Mute Swan, Starling, Black Duck, Mallard, Great Blue Herron, House Sparrow, White Breasted Nuthatch, pigeon ( saw on way up)non birds were grey squirrel, chipmunk, garter snakes.
I also saw another rail fly in but could not identify what kind it was. For a total of 49 species. One more coming later...
On my way to Salisbury Beach, I stopped at a tackle shop asked a few questions and bought some bait. I planned on fishing at the mouth of the Merrimack at dusk. The bait shop owner told me dead low tide was 8:30 pm. When he told me that, I planned on fishing the river from dark until whenever. If I made it fishing late I would try the beach at high tide, after 1 am or so. I never expected to make it that long.
I never fished chunks ( mackerel) on the bottom before. I am more of an active fisherman casting eels or plugs, constantly moving and casting. Sitting on my butt waiting for a fish to hit is usually reserved for carp fishing for me. I set up at 7:30. Within minutes I had my first hit. My rod tipped bobbed up and down a couple times. I thought "man this chunk fishing is EASY!!" I set the hook but the fish was not there. I reeled in but caught on the bottom. I lost my rig and retied. This happened on 4 consecutive casts. I kept moving down the beach but could not find a place where I wouldn't hook the bottom. Finally, after my 5th retie I hooked a small striper of about 24 inches. It was pretty exciting for me for many reasons. I was happy to catch a fish at a place I've never fished. I also caught my first fish on a chunk. No matter what, at least I didn't waste my night getting " skunked".
About an hour later I caught another small striper on a chunk. The night was beautiful .The temp dropped down to the mid 50's. The moon was in so every star in the sky was out. I saw a shooting star, bright orange, that I thought was a meteor. I ended up fishing late enough to try the beach. By that point though, I was pretty exhausted. I made 5-6 casts on the beach with a plug. I gave up pretty quickly and drove to my campsite and went to bed ( after washing my hands)
The next morning after cleaning up and brushing my teeth I packed up my campsite ( 14 minutes, thank you very much) and headed out. My goal this morning was to fish the Merrimack River in Methuen for carp. Dave said he might go up and fish with me. I got to the swim at 9:30. Dave showed up about 11. Despite nice cloudy cool weather conditions the fish were just not around. Dave ended up with two. Both were much smaller then what we expect to find in this area. He beat me as I did get skunked. I still say that time goes by so much faster when you have someone to talk with if the fish aren't biting. I would have stayed till dark but I had to be home at 6:00 to meet Laurie, so I left at 4:30. Dave didn't get anymore after I left, kind of a disappointing day for both of us.
Still, after doing three fun things in two days, I can say I had a 36 hour blast. I want to get back to Salisbury again and try my luck for stripers at high tide. Birding at Plum is always great and I'm sure next time carp fishing will be better. Including my stripers, I ended up seeing 50 species on Monday so it was a good day!!
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