Capt. Jay Shields is back for round 2 with Mouths of the Merrimack! In this episode, Capt. Jay goes deep into the world of soft plastics. He begins with the evolution of soft plastics with a small company in Ohio in the 1940's and their influence on the largemouth bass community, particularly with savvy angles in Texas looking for a better mousetrap for situational fishing. Over the last 60 years, nearly every fishery in the world has embraced, enhanced, and evolved soft plastics into their everyday tackle boxes. We discuss common, and uncommon rigging methods, different styles, and comparisons between plastics and hard bodied lures. Our discussion focuses northeast striper fishing, but the lessons certainly pertain to any species around the world. By the end of the episode, we might as well send you a Ph.D. in artificial lure presentations for the amount of knowledge Capt. Jay drops on the podcast in an entertaining way!

Capt. Dan Smith is a passionate, knowledgeable, and hard-working charter captain out of Buzzards Bay, MA, and Tiverton, RI. A great guy with a true love of the ocean, Capt. Dan broke off his prior charter company to start his own business in 2021, Ultimate Gamble Charters specializing in black sea bass and tautog fishing. In an episode full of laughs and information we discuss his fishery, love of Chik-A-Filet, and funny fishing stories from our days fishing together the past 8 years.

Our friend Kyle Davis is a dedicated rec fisherman who has become obsessed with tuna fishing over the past few seasons. As a newer offshore angler, he has put in the hours fishing from Maine to Cape Cod in search of topwater tuna. He shares incredible stories and things he has learned while relentlessly pursing tuna offshore and big bass inshore.

Capt. Justin Oser joins Chris and Dan for a second time to discuss his tournament win for the Kayak Division in last week's Rhode Island Tog Classic. Out of 700 entries, Justin was able to top the charts on a bad weather day from a kayak. A fantastic bottom fisherman, Justin is also currently leading the Fisherman Magazine's Kayak Tournament again in 2022.

Our good buddy from back in the day, Craig Simes, joins us while on vacation from California to discuss the differences between our NE fishery and the Southern California fishery. Listening to his stories of fishing on multi-day trips to Mexican waters targeting the new wave of bluefin tuna that has invaded the California coast in recent years. He is mostly an avid inshore fisherman targeting "Calico" bass either from shore or kayak, and even tried some west coast tactics on a recent charter with Manolin this past summer.

In this episode, Chris and host Chris's parent John and Mary for a light hearted, funny episode recapping their recent trip to Falmouth, MA in search of their first albies! Join the family fun as we recap the weekend, talk about dream boats, funny fishing stories from back in the day, and numerous wise-cracks from Johnny V!

We welcome M.O.M. 1st Annual Fish Bingo Winner Mali Lees in this episode! Mali caught 4 fish on her bungo card plus the free spot to win a $500 gift certificate to Hudson's Outboard in Salisbury. We get to here here story and dig deep into her quest to be the champion! Fishing-wise, Dan and I recap the fantastic shark fishing, striper fishing remains great for August, and we finally have reached the bluefish invasion!

In this episode, Dan and Capt. Chris recounted the last few weeks of saltwater fishing in northern MA. They discuss the recent bite, the rumor mill, and go deep into their love of shark fishing. Other topics include how to explore new areas using your electronics, trolling for stripers, tuna talk, and for some reason we still have to discuss bait!

In this week's fishing report, Capt. Chris and Dan talk about the excitement of the return of football tuna to our local waters! In addition, striper patterns are starting to change, and there are some nice fish around if you can find them. Watch out for Great White's if you are swimming and head offshore to see some of the amazing humpback whales!

New England Fishing report for the last week. Pogies have sporadically moved in along with more stripers transitioning into their summer feeding patterns, Mackerel have proven to be inconsistent at best, but have been the ticket to catching big stripers. We also discuss live bait trolling, circle hook rigging, a few funny stories, and the outlook for 4th of July Weekend.

Check out www.mouthsofthemerrimack.com for more fishing content!