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Home › Waters › Massachusetts › Danvers River
Estuary · Northeastern Massachusetts, Essex County, the tidal river and harbour between Beverly, Salem and Danvers on the North Shore · Massachusetts

Danvers River Fishing Guides

A short North Shore tidal river draining into Beverly Harbor and Salem Sound, with a live temperature record, good structure and striped bass through the warm months.

A boardwalk crossing tidal marsh at sunset on the southeastern coast
Gauge location. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Guides on the Danvers River

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About the Danvers River

The Danvers River is the tidal reach formed where the Waters, Crane and Porter rivers come together above Beverly, running a short distance down to Beverly Harbor and out into Salem Sound. The gauge at Beverly Pier is a water-quality station rather than a flow station, and it carries a live water-temperature record along with dissolved oxygen, conductance and pH. Temperature is the genuinely useful number for an angler here, because the arrival and departure of striped bass on the North Shore tracks water temperature closely.

The river is short, narrow and strongly tidal, and the current through the bridges and the harbour narrows is what organises the fishery. Bottom is a mix of mud in the upper reaches and sand, gravel and rock as the river opens into the harbour. The bridges, the marina pilings, the riprap along the causeways and the rocky edges of the harbour islands all hold fish, and the productive spots change with the stage of the tide. The upper river warms faster in spring than the open sound, which gives it an early season.

Striped bass are the principal fish and are present from May into October, with the best fishing on moving water at first and last light. Bluefish push in during summer and can be found working bait in the harbour. Tautog hold on the rock and structure near the harbour mouth, black sea bass have become steadily more common, and American eel and blue crab are abundant throughout. Because the river is short and the tide runs hard, timing a session to the right two hours matters far more than covering distance.

Access is good from Beverly and Salem, with ramps, public landings and a great deal of walkable shoreline.

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Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

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Never published. We use it only if we need to ask about the photo.

Posting to Danvers River.

JPG, PNG or WebP, up to 12 MB. We resize it and strip the location data out of the file.

The name shown under the photo. Leave blank to stay anonymous.

Reader photo license v1.0 — the short version:

  • You grant Guided Floats, LLC a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to publish, resize and crop your photo on guidedfloats.com and in GuidedFloats’ own social posts and apps. You keep the copyright and can use the photo anywhere else.
  • You confirm that you took the photo yourself, that publishing it does not infringe anyone else’s rights, and that anyone recognisable in it (or a parent or guardian, if they are under 18) is happy for it to appear here.
  • Credit is printed beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, using the credit name you give us. Leave it blank and we use your name; write “Anonymous” for no name. Your email address is never published.
  • Withdrawing is one email to hello@guidedfloats.com naming the photo. It comes off the site within 7 days.
Read the full license

Version 1.0, dated 6 September 2026. Applies to every photograph submitted to GuidedFloats through the contact form, a species page, or the community board.

1. What you give us

By ticking the box on the form you grant Guided Floats, LLC (“GuidedFloats”, “we”) a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to store, copy, resize, crop and display your photograph on guidedfloats.com, in GuidedFloats’ own social media accounts and mobile apps, and in material that promotes the site itself, in connection with the fish, water or community feature you sent it in for. The license lasts until you withdraw it (section 4).

You keep the copyright. The license is not exclusive, so you can use the photo anywhere else and license it to anyone else. We will not sell your photo, license it on to anyone else on its own, or use it in paid advertising for a third party.

2. What you confirm

You confirm that you took the photograph yourself (or otherwise own the rights to it), that you have the right to grant this license, and that publishing the photo does not infringe anyone else’s copyright, privacy or other rights.

If any person is recognisable in the photo, you confirm that they have agreed to its being published here, and that a parent or guardian has agreed on behalf of anyone under 18. Please do not send photographs of other people’s catches, screenshots, or pictures copied from other websites or social media.

3. Credit

We print the credit name you give us beside the photo wherever it appears on the site, and record it as the photo’s creator in the page’s structured data. If you leave the credit blank we use the name you gave us on the form. Write “Anonymous” if you prefer no name at all. Your email address, phone number and the exact spot the photo was taken are never published.

4. Withdrawing the license

You can withdraw the license at any time by emailing hello@guidedfloats.com, or by using the contact form, and telling us which photo you mean. We will remove the photo from guidedfloats.com within 7 days of receiving your message and stop using it in anything new. Copies that are already outside our control — search-engine caches, social posts that have already gone out, printed material already produced — may take longer to disappear or may not be recallable, and we are not responsible for those.

5. What we may do

We choose which photos to publish and may decline any submission without giving a reason. We may crop, resize, sharpen or colour-correct a photo for display, and we may remove a photo at any time. We will not alter a photo in a way that misrepresents the fish, the water or you.

6. Your details

We keep your name, email address, the credit name, the water and date you gave us, and the network address the submission came from, with the submission record, as our evidence of this license. We hold that record for as long as the photo is published and for the retention period described in our privacy policy. Location data that your camera or phone embedded in the file is removed before the photo is published.

7. Versions

The version of this license you accepted is stored with your submission and printed with the photo. A later version does not apply to a photo you have already sent unless you agree to it.

Access

Beverly - the city at the river mouth, with ramps, moorings, tackle and food.
Salem - directly across the harbour, with further ramps, charters and lodging.
Danvers - upriver, with landings and access to the warmer early-season water.
Beverly Harbor - the open water below the narrows, with rock, islands and good structure.
Salem Sound - the larger body outside, reached quickly and worth fishing on calm days.
Salem Willows - a public park with shoreline fishing and parking.
Manchester-by-the-Sea - a short drive northeast for further North Shore access.

Seasons

Spring: the upper river warms ahead of the open sound and holds the first striped bass of the season.
Summer: bass fish best at night and on the moving tide, with bluefish and tautog adding variety through the harbour.
Fall: bass feed hard ahead of migration and the outgoing tide through the narrows fishes exceptionally well.
Winter: the fishery shuts down as the bass leave, and only the occasional holdover remains in the upper river.

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Questions

What species can you catch on the Danvers River?

Anglers target American Eel, Black Sea Bass, Blue Crab, Bluefish, Striped Bass, Tautog on the Danvers River in Massachusetts.

Where can you access the Danvers River?

Beverly - the city at the river mouth, with ramps, moorings, tackle and food. Salem - directly across the harbour, with further ramps, charters and lodging. Danvers - upriver, with landings and access to the warmer early-season water. Beverly Harbor - the open water below the narrows, with rock, islands and good structure. Salem Sound - the larger body outside, reached quickly and worth fishing on calm days. Salem Willows - a public park with shoreline fishing and parking. Manchester-by-the-Sea - a short drive northeast for further North Shore access.

When is the best time to fish the Danvers River?

Spring: the upper river warms ahead of the open sound and holds the first striped bass of the season. Summer: bass fish best at night and on the moving tide, with bluefish and tautog adding variety through the harbour. Fall: bass feed hard ahead of migration and the outgoing tide through the narrows fishes exceptionally well. Winter: the fishery shuts down as the bass leave, and only the occasional holdover remains in the upper river.

Where are the fishing regulations for the Danvers River?

Regulations change by season and section. Read the current rules on the Massachusetts agency site: https://www.mass.gov/recreational-saltwater-fishing