Striped Bass Anywhere?

[striper97]

Fishing the merrimack up river and not a single large fish taken yet. Very few schoolies taken either, no herring, very few shad. This time of year we're usually getting big fish plenty of schoolies and lots of shad. Don't know whats happening but it doesn't look good. It's like a ghost town up here nobody even bothering to fish other than us diehards and we're coming up empty--never seen it like this.

[plankton]

I fished down at the mouth of the Merrimac for the first three hours of the drop yesterday and got nothing as well. Saw some big splashes up by the red teepee and thought I'd hit paydirt, looked to be big bass hitting bait on the surface, it was a bit of a ways out but figured I could get there with a 4oz tin. Then I saw about half a dozen shiny little heads pop up, damn seals! They were feeding on something like crazy, though, maybe herring, maybe schoolies, couldn't tell. At least there's signs of life there.