The Midcoast Maine Running Stripah Report

Roccus7 said:
Fishing has been tough the last few days as the water temps are still very low for this time of year, the low 50s., and fishing a late flood/early ebb tide, the worst for the hood. To make matters worse, seems that the alewife run has petered out, and there is no small bait fish in the river.

Regardless, I continue to drag my sorry azz out of bed before dawn and take my lumps. Yesterday I ended up with a single, 22" bass, the smallest of the season, fishing two locations. Fish were fond of following my lure, but not hitting it hard.

This morning, I reversed yesterday's locations, starting at the spot yesterday that had some fish, but I made a subtle switch. I know my LI friends love yellow plugs, something I didn't have until I got a RASkinner Reconditioned, Modified and painted Yellow, Creek Chub that I sent to LI for his personal, sacrificial, bluefish cache and he sent back to me with the note, "Try this you idiot!!" The morning's first cast settled that debate as I don't think it got to the 3 "Pop" before it was engulfed, and I had a nice 27" fish aboard.
View attachment 80593

Stuck with it there for another hour and landed a 25 & 26, during a nice, slow pick of action. Didn't want to head home just yet so I went to the Head of Tide to see if there were any alewives around, with large fish following, but there was bupkis.

As I got to my last cast of my "Time to go home Sequence", I noticed some V wakes of a small pod of bass disturbing the glassine surface of the water. Couldn't quite make out where they were headed, and my first attempt was just wrong, and I went behind them. I quickly recovered and the next cast was perfect. As it got within 2' of the oncoming wakes, BAM, I was on to the slot fish pictured below.
View attachment 80594

Wasn't going to keep him, but I noticed that he was an "Andre" escapee so I figured if it was good enough for a seal to eat, must be good enough for me. Now debating about Ceviche or Sashimi for dinner tonight...
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You do know the guys on LI catch a few fish every once in a while, correct?! :ROFLMAO:

Also, when it comes down to who deserves the dinner more, Roccus, I would always come down on the higher order side of the evolutionary chain!! I suspect you and the Admiral will get far more enjoyment than the one big gulp of a seal.
 
Catching, but it's a difficult pattern, with fish unwilling to commit and really slam the plug. Many follows, and new today, light touches of the lure. Needless to say, I'm pretty vocal in my disgust at the fish. The catharsis is refreshing!

l landed #50 for the the season yesterday. This morning was 2/3 of a Goldilocks Morning, the "Too Small" fish missed it by an inch @ 27" and the "Too Big" was the pretty 33" fish below. No joy on a "Just Right" fish for our dinner...

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24 Hours of Shear Hell, but I guess that's striper fishing...

I just got back in from the most frustrating 24 hours of fishing between yesterday morning and this morning. I elected not to go out at 03:00 yesterday, the latest I could leave my dock with a comfortable amount of water, and did it at 09:00 because I was bored. Soon I was frantically casting into pods of stripers feeding on something, but certainly not any of the different artificial offerings I presented. I did get one 22" participation trophy, but after 2 hours of abuse at the fins of Morone saxatilis, I accepted that it just wasn't my day. I had heart palpitations I was so enraged with the situation.

Was going to take the late shift again this AM with the drizzly and cool conditions, but when I awoke at 03:37 there was NFW I was going to be able to sleep so I did my morning "business" and casted off at 04:00. At least my heart was back on a normal rhythm and the forecast said the rain had stopped

Of course I had a firm game plan in mind, heading over to a "NO MISS" spot across the river that usually guarantees fish for the last 2 hours of ebb during an extreme low tide. Since today's low was 1' below MLLW, I knew that I would be in for a Lock and Load morning.

WRONG!!!!! For 2 hours of constant casting all I could "show" was a half a dozen disinterested follows and a single hit with no hookup. And it goes without saying that the weathermen and radar was wrong, as it started to rain. Yup, there were those heart palpitations again...

Figured I'd try some incoming spots now that the tide had turned. My best early flood spot was as bad as my late ebb spot this AM, when I noticed small groups of fish, like 1 or 2 slurping down what I believed to be tiny mackerel. I debated about playing the striped bass fishing version of "Whack a Mole", and figured why not, there was no chance of me being able to to get to my dock. Needless to say I spent an hour and only had a single missed hit to show.

What to do, what to do??? Hey Num Nutz, your line could really use being untwisted!! So I dutifully removed the lure, started the engine, played out about 200' of line and started "trolling" when I see a real blitz developing up ahead. The fish were acting the same as yesterday when virtually every cast into the middle of the melee was ignore so I was a bit anxious, but still continued my slow troll to the feeding fish.

I finally arrived in the boiling fish, calmed myself and clipped on my popper, only to have yesterday's hell relived, fish would not touch the lure. After drifting away from the blitz I repositioned and had a nice solid hookup that lasted for a full 5 seconds!! I totally lost it, screaming every obscenity I could think of at the fish which I was convinced were laughing at me. Crap, still can't get to the dock so I guess I have to continue to be abused...

Soon after another boat repositioning I was on tight to a good fish. The cynical side of me wondered if I would be hooked solid for a full minute before losing the fish. Well a minute came and passed, as an additional 5 minutes too, this was a very nice fish and wasn't giving up easily!! Soon, I had a net under a 30.5" beautiful fish, see below. At least I had a few shreds of my dignity restored...

Fish were still feeding and there wasn't enough water to get back to the barn, so let's cast again. Hooked up with another fish, smaller than the one I just landed, but it was acting a bit weird, coming right toward the boat? As soon could see the fish, I noticed the seal chasing it, so I grabbed the line, flipping the fish aboard, rescuing the bass from becoming breakfast for Andre. Once I unhooked him, I noticed that the rest of the bass had disappeared, probably because of the seal, and I though "WTH, I probably have enough water for a Kamikaze, low-water suicide approach in."

Got the boat in, took a warm shower and now I'm wondering if the past 24 hours were really worth it, or was it the epitome of a Pyrrhic Victory? No matter what, I'll probably be out there again tomorrow...
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Haven't posted in a while, but throughout June I've been fishing just about every morning I can. The catching is terribly close to Dog Days of Summer fishing, with no resemblance to a "normal" June's double digit catches in 2-3 hour sorties, and not even a hint of a skunk in the air. Turns out June, 2024 has been disappointing, at least for me, with a visit from Pepe LePew every few trips and even catching 2 or more fish a memorable event.

This morning was a rare memorable event. I didn't want to move my boat to the HOA dock last night for fear of the horrendous thunderstorms that the meteorologists were predicting. We did get rain, I think I counted 15 drops falling, but that's for another rant...

Regardless, I dragged my sorry azz out of bed at 03:10 so I would have enough water to comfortably get the boat off the dock with cleaning the boat's bottom. I spent the next hour anchored up in the "Can't Miss" Late Ebb spot practicing my cast, with the exception of hearing and seeing fish breaking about 100 yds up on the very shallow flats. I finally ran out of patience and disobeyed one of my cardinal rules and set out on the flats on an ebbing tide!! I figured I'd go as far as I could with the engine down, and I could then trim the engine up and let the falling tide get me back to safety.

The gamble paid off as I quickly caught and released a very feisty 25" striper. Since I had cleansed myself from any skunk odor, I figured I'd play it safe and get off the flats. I headed down river to another set of safer flats, and other late ebb "Can't Miss" spots. Needless to say all of the "Can't Miss" spots were epic fails this AM, and I was regretting having left the house without any coffee, since there's no waterfront place within 20 nmi where that problem could be rectified. I was committed to staying to at least 07:00 to get back on the home dock, although the HOA dock was looking more and more inviting.

As opposed to previous days, when the flood had to be over an hour old, this morning the fish turned on maybe 20 minutes into the flood and pods of bass were feeding on small bait with terns clouding the skies over them. Prior to this morning, these feeding fish were a major source of agita, as dragging any lure through these actively feeding fish had about a 1 in 10 chance to even have a fish notice it. When they did notice my offering, I only had about a 1 in 5 chance of actually getting a hit, with a 1 in 3 chance of a hit resulting in a hooked fish. I figured it was time to mix things up so I added a teaser a fried found on the beach of LI, NY and had sent me (below).

I can't say for sure that the teaser with the magic turn on for the fish, or the 64°F water did, but I finally started to get hits when casting into the feeding fish, ending up with 3 more fish including a slot fish to answer the question of "What's For Dinner" to the morning tally, bringing my season total to 73 fish YTD. Yes, It was worth the early wakeup for sure!!

So does anyone know what this thing is? I'm assuming it's a fly for False Albacore, but not sure...

1718974979171.png
 
Roccus7 said:
Haven't posted in a while, but throughout June I've been fishing just about every morning I can. The catching is terribly close to Dog Days of Summer fishing, with no resemblance to a "normal" June's double digit catches in 2-3 hour sorties, and not even a hint of a skunk in the air. Turns out June, 2024 has been disappointing, at least for me, with a visit from Pepe LePew every few trips and even catching 2 or more fish a memorable event.

This morning was a rare memorable event. I didn't want to move my boat to the HOA dock last night for fear of the horrendous thunderstorms that the meteorologists were predicting. We did get rain, I think I counted 15 drops falling, but that's for another rant...

Regardless, I dragged my sorry azz out of bed at 03:10 so I would have enough water to comfortably get the boat off the dock with cleaning the boat's bottom. I spent the next hour anchored up in the "Can't Miss" Late Ebb spot practicing my cast, with the exception of hearing and seeing fish breaking about 100 yds up on the very shallow flats. I finally ran out of patience and disobeyed one of my cardinal rules and set out on the flats on an ebbing tide!! I figured I'd go as far as I could with the engine down, and I could then trim the engine up and let the falling tide get me back to safety.

The gamble paid off as I quickly caught and released a very feisty 25" striper. Since I had cleansed myself from any skunk odor, I figured I'd play it safe and get off the flats. I headed down river to another set of safer flats, and other late ebb "Can't Miss" spots. Needless to say all of the "Can't Miss" spots were epic fails this AM, and I was regretting having left the house without any coffee, since there's no waterfront place within 20 nmi where that problem could be rectified. I was committed to staying to at least 07:00 to get back on the home dock, although the HOA dock was looking more and more inviting.

As opposed to previous days, when the flood had to be over an hour old, this morning the fish turned on maybe 20 minutes into the flood and pods of bass were feeding on small bait with terns clouding the skies over them. Prior to this morning, these feeding fish were a major source of agita, as dragging any lure through these actively feeding fish had about a 1 in 10 chance to even have a fish notice it. When they did notice my offering, I only had about a 1 in 5 chance of actually getting a hit, with a 1 in 3 chance of a hit resulting in a hooked fish. I figured it was time to mix things up so I added a teaser a fried found on the beach of LI, NY and had sent me (below).

I can't say for sure that the teaser with the magic turn on for the fish, or the 64°F water did, but I finally started to get hits when casting into the feeding fish, ending up with 3 more fish including a slot fish to answer the question of "What's For Dinner" to the morning tally, bringing my season total to 73 fish YTD. Yes, It was worth the early wakeup for sure!!

So does anyone know what this thing is? I'm assuming it's a fly for False Albacore, but not sure...

View attachment 81433
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A fly for bass, blues and false albacore. For the hard core fly guys, fluke will grab it too. I was always told that it promotes competition when fished in front of a plug. Used to put one in front of a bomber on summer nights in the back of inlets. Bomber was bigger than the bait in the water but they hit it. The bomber, not necessarily the teaser!
 
Fishing is really pitiful in my river this year. My 2024 YTD results are 74 fish total, of which 17 are 28" or better. At this time last year I had 156 fish, of which 21 were 28" or better. Truly pathetic! Only big difference is water temps, as the water is much cooler this year, at least 5°F lower than last year in the river, and some much bigger difference out in the Gulf as a boat ride the other day showed temps just below 50°F in spots!!

Blissfully, family events have forced me to sit things out since Monday AM's skunk, but my experienced colleagues are reporting almost continued skunks, and I have no reason to believe I would be doing any better than my peers
 
Roccus7 said:
Fishing is really pitiful in my river this year. My 2024 YTD results are 74 fish total, of which 17 are 28" or better. At this time last year I had 156 fish, of which 21 were 28" or better. Truly pathetic! Only big difference is water temps, as the water is much cooler this year, at least 5°F lower than last year in the river, and some much bigger difference out in the Gulf as a boat ride the other day showed temps just below 50°F in spots!!

Blissfully, family events have forced me to sit things out since Monday AM's skunk, but my experienced colleagues are reporting almost continued skunks, and I have no reason to believe I would be doing any better than my peers
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I hear the same hear regarding temps.
 
captmike28 said:
I say that at least qualifies you for an assist!
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Absolutely, especially when I slowly motor the boat into a tiny cove that nobody should be taking a 22' boat into and say, "Cast there", and he hooks up with no visible signs of fish...

We went up there yesterday AM and after my son had 2 consecutive casts with follows I said, "Let me catch that fish" and proceeded to get a 27" fish on my first cast. Always a rush when the old man still has it...
 
Roccus7 said:
Absolutely, especially when I slowly motor the boat into a tiny cove that nobody should be taking a 22' boat into and say, "Cast there", and he hooks up with no visible signs of fish...

We went up there yesterday AM and after my son had 2 consecutive casts with follows I said, "Let me catch that fish" and proceeded to get a 27" fish on my first cast. Always a rush when the old man still has it...
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'You're not old, you're just way more experienced"!

That's showing the next generation how it's done!!:D
 
Yesterday's Fish Tail From Maine - Sinking poppers: they're not for just surface fishing anymore...

Headed out at 05:30 with son and two granddaughters. Immediately spotted terns over feeding bass, BUT this year's Whack-A-Mole in the river has gone beyond Jedi Master. After exhausting 4 flurries with only one hit that ended with a lost fish, and a few swirls at our poppers, we tried one of my secluded coves than only yielded with a single follow.

The girls were getting restless so I decided to look for seals feeding on pogies (New Englandese for Bunker) to entertain them. It didn't take long to spot some action so we started watching. After a bit my son asked if we could snag some and let the girls crank them in. Of course I didn't have any snags or tins on board, so I told my son to give the Striper Strike, a sinking popper, time to sink and then start a retrieve with hard yanks. It didn't take long for him get the hang of it and the girls were having a blast reeling in snagged pogies.

I was busy positioning the boat and working on a wind knot from hell on a newly spooled reel. I stopped paying much attention to things as my son refined his technique, learning to cast past the pods of pogies to let the lure sink to the proper depth. As soon as he completed his sink wait on one cast and upon his first yank, I hear his drag start singing. We both initially thought he must have snagged a pogy and one of the feeding seals picked it up, but the "run" wasn't the steady one characteristic of seals, but an erratic one with definite tail throbs.

The granddaughter who was tagged to retrieve that snagged pogy was scared to take the rod so my son deftly handled the fish. After a bit, a nice slot fish was shown to the net much the girls' delight!! Got to love poppers that sink, I once caught a keeper fluke on one in Mt. Sinai harbor when I it sank to the bottom while dealing with a wind knot. Hmmm, wind knots can be beneficial??

Then it was back to pogy snagging for the crew, and wind knot cursing for me, when I suddenly hear my son scream, PULL IT IN!! PULL IT IN!!!!! Oh, crap I thought, There's a seal chasing the snagged pogy!, just what I didn't to have to deal with, when the scream changed to, PUT IT BACK IN!! PUT IT BACK IN!!!!!

Yup, the "seal" really was one big azz striper that followed the pogy back to the boat. Regardless, it lost interest in the pogy when it saw the boat. We all had a good laugh and after the crew tussled with a few more snagged pogies it was time to head back home with a great fish story to tell.
 
A Miracle Occurred Today, I caught 5 stripers...
Of course there's a story, the story being spending 90 minutes constantly over feeding fish and only landing 5 fish, a single slot fish and 4, 26' fish. Dropped 3, and had maybe 6 other hits with no hookups.

Yes, some foul language could be heard by folks within 500 yds of me...

Regardless, it's the first time I've caught more than 3 fish in a single outing since May 27!!!
 
Roccus7 said:
Yesterday's Fish Tail From Maine - Sinking poppers: they're not for just surface fishing anymore...

Headed out at 05:30 with son and two granddaughters. Immediately spotted terns over feeding bass, BUT this year's Whack-A-Mole in the river has gone beyond Jedi Master. After exhausting 4 flurries with only one hit that ended with a lost fish, and a few swirls at our poppers, we tried one of my secluded coves than only yielded with a single follow.

The girls were getting restless so I decided to look for seals feeding on pogies (New Englandese for Bunker) to entertain them. It didn't take long to spot some action so we started watching. After a bit my son asked if we could snag some and let the girls crank them in. Of course I didn't have any snags or tins on board, so I told my son to give the Striper Strike, a sinking popper, time to sink and then start a retrieve with hard yanks. It didn't take long for him get the hang of it and the girls were having a blast reeling in snagged pogies.

I was busy positioning the boat and working on a wind knot from hell on a newly spooled reel. I stopped paying much attention to things as my son refined his technique, learning to cast past the pods of pogies to let the lure sink to the proper depth. As soon as he completed his sink wait on one cast and upon his first yank, I hear his drag start singing. We both initially thought he must have snagged a pogy and one of the feeding seals picked it up, but the "run" wasn't the steady one characteristic of seals, but an erratic one with definite tail throbs.

The granddaughter who was tagged to retrieve that snagged pogy was scared to take the rod so my son deftly handled the fish. After a bit, a nice slot fish was shown to the net much the girls' delight!! Got to love poppers that sink, I once caught a keeper fluke on one in Mt. Sinai harbor when I it sank to the bottom while dealing with a wind knot. Hmmm, wind knots can be beneficial??

Then it was back to pogy snagging for the crew, and wind knot cursing for me, when I suddenly hear my son scream, PULL IT IN!! PULL IT IN!!!!! Oh, crap I thought, There's a seal chasing the snagged pogy!, just what I didn't to have to deal with, when the scream changed to, PUT IT BACK IN!! PUT IT BACK IN!!!!!

Yup, the "seal" really was one big azz striper that followed the pogy back to the boat. Regardless, it lost interest in the pogy when it saw the boat. We all had a good laugh and after the crew tussled with a few more snagged pogies it was time to head back home with a great fish story to tell.
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Nothing better than getting the kids involved in fishing, especially with an epic event like that. Congrats Roccus!!!
 
Roccus7 said:
A Miracle Occurred Today, I caught 5 stripers...
Of course there's a story, the story being spending 90 minutes constantly over feeding fish and only landing 5 fish, a single slot fish and 4, 26' fish. Dropped 3, and had maybe 6 other hits with no hookups.

Yes, some foul language could be heard by folks within 500 yds of me...

Regardless, it's the first time I've caught more than 3 fish in a single outing since May 27!!!
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Looks like you got your mojo back!
 
After 3 consecutive successful sorties, albeit mentally stressful ones where I had to resort to convulsions to get strikes, Pepe LePew came to visit yesterday when I didn't see a single fish break anywhere I fished, and it with the clear air and glassine water, I could see a fish even fart.

Damn fish don't believe in patterns this year...

Taking today and tomorrow AM off. Maybe I'll harvest and cut up some parsley??
 
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