Roccus7

My letter to my rep... Dear Representative Pingree: I'm writing to alert you to a very disturbing letter a colleague, Representative Nicholas LaLote (R-NY1), is circulating to members of the US House of Representatives. The Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission has taken emergency action to protect the future of Atlantic Striped Bass, the premier inshore salt water gamefish from North Carolina to Maine. New data have suggested that the future of "stripers" is in jeopardy and emergency measures are necessary to ensure that a planned population recovery does occur by 2029. Rep LaLote's letter is asking for House support for requesting Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to intervene and halt the July 2 implementation of striped bass emergency measures. This is totally unacceptable and may doom the future of striped bass, the primary game fish of Maine's inshore salt water anglers. This fishery has a major economic impact on all marine businesses in your constituency. This emergency action asks ASMFC members to narrow the current 28-<35 inch slot for fish retention by recreational anglers to 28-31 inches. The member states have until July 2 to implement this new slot. Our state, under DMR Director Pat Keliher and our ASMFC representative, Megan Ware, took this emergency action to heart and implemented it effective May 18! This should have been the goal of all ASMFC states, but some are dragging their feet and have yet to implement this. To make matters worse now we're seeing NY, a major state, trying to circumvent this emergency action through Representative LaLote's letter. Please refuse to sign Representative LaLote's letter, and feel free to discuss this important issue with your colleagues, especially Representative Jared Golden, who has many constituents that would also be negatively impacted by a future collapse in the striped bass fishery. Thank you for you attention in this matter. Respectfully, Xxxxx X. Xxxxxx, PhD. Bristol, Maine

Charles, you have the patience of a Saint. No matter how eloquently and accurately you state things, there will always be folks that know better, at least in their own minds...

A man after my own heart!!

Yes, it definitely struck me as unusual...

Want to find big bass feeding in 'day Hood? Look for Diving Eagles!! And why do I feel like a 1962 NY Met?? As I've often said, fishing should be considered a learning experience and boy was I edumacated today... First, the Honey Hole must have been raided by Winnie the Pooh last night, as there was NOTHING there at 04:30 today. No problem so I thought, the fish will be on the flats just outside so onto Plan B. Well Plan B's "B" stood for BUST, nothing going on there. OK, time to use Plan C and go to the mid-Ebb hot spot, which turned out to be absolutely dead to, "C" standing for CRAP!! Well Plan D was my last resort and had to work, so I motored on over there and dropped the hook. Things started off like all my other efforts this AM, Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah, but I was bound and determined to avoid the stench of a skunk. While I was waiting for some action I noticed something never seen before, Eagles diving for their own fish instead of stealing them from Ospreys. Everyone here as noticed that we have many more eagles around here this year. It's not unusual now to see 5 flying around at any given time, but I've never seen eagles diving down to fish on their own until this year. And then the epiphany, these eagles are only diving down when large bass are chasing alewives, and they're trying to get an alewife for a snack. So there I was, anchored downtide from a big mudflat that had scattered action where 1-3 fish pods were going after alewives with eagles swooping down trying to grab the airborne alewives. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before I started catching, because the fish had to pass by me because I had dropped the hook in the channel that drains those flats. Low and behold soon I was onto a very nice fish, which I proceeded to lose after and extended fight of 6 or 7 minutes. No worries, there will be more, but for a good 20 minutes I was getting short hits, and when a fish connected, I'd turn around and lose it. I dropped at least 4 slot or bigger bas and I was spitting bullets, especially when an "over the slot" fish grabbed my plug boatside, violently shook his head and then sent the plug back at me. With all the fish I was dropping, I started to feel like the 1962 Mets infield. Well persistence finally paid off and after I got a 24" fish, I had a massive strike and after a long tussle that sent me around the boat 2 times, there was a beautiful 30.5" fish in the boat that was quickly released. Suddenly the 03:15 alarm didn't feel so bad...

Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures It's day three of a Nor'easter here that may last until next Saturday, June 11!!! Blissfully, the Big Girls have been sitting in a pool at the base of the falls at the head of tide, the site of my 37" the other day. Can't get to the very well sheltered Honey Hole until the tide is a good 3' above MLW, and with the early morning moon tides, the chance of fishing there at first light is the impossible dream. To add to the degree of difficulty, it's tough to get them to strike anything as they're still slurping alewives, but I'm usually good for one decent hit a session with 20 or so V wakes following my popper. Got skunked yesterday and tried fishing this AM in the "lovely weather", but bagged it because even for me, sideways rain and >15 kts winds with 20+ kt winds isn't fun even when protected. This evening the wind dropped to about 10 kts from high teens and the rain was more of a schmutz than rain so it was Game On. I saddled up and started the boat up into the pool as soon as I dared to. On the way I saw some breaking fish and found myself bound to a 23" fish, yeah, when I hoisted him into the boat he ended up hooking my hand with the front hook, while he was hooked on the popper's back hook. That was an interesting and bloody event, but I manned up and yanked the hook out of my hand, unhooked and released him and proceeded to the intended target. As soon as I dropped the hook, there were V wakes and surface disturbances a plenty, so I knew I was going to score big. After a dozen or so V waked popper retrieves it was time for Plan B. I started to toss a rubber imitation eel, a Big Occhi, at em. Big bass can't resist eels, right? After a dozen or so casts I decided to go to Plan C and try a different colored popper, but realized I had dug out one of my few remaining X-rap Surface spooks and put it on the spare popper rod. WTF, can't catch any less than I'm catching now so let's go with Plan D!! On my first cast, a 28" fish crashed it. Thought I was going annihilate them, but no such luck, after a while I pulled in a 25", but that was it, except for lots of V wakes following the spook.. Anyway, I guess I'll be working the X-Rap, a former favorite of my brother in RI, into the rotation when the fish are abusing me, but it will be with great trepidation in that they no longer make the surface version of this lures and my inventory is quite low...

Could not shake Pepe myself this AM. Dropped a few fish so I had my chances...

Quick update, I've caught 21 over the past 2 days up to 27", including only my second fish below 20", a 19" fish. That is truly scary, only reinforcing the wisdom of narrowing the slot. On both days I've had very large fish grab my plug and crash about the surface, only to spit it out, back at me. Oh well, waiting for some more water so I can head out and get abused again this AM, the glory of fishing in a protected estuary, "Noreaster? We can fish in a stinking Noreaster!!"

7th Generation 8" Amazon Fire, nice little tablet, but way underpowered in this day and age. I "splurged" and bought the 2020 version new so this one is surplus. Can do minor computer, stream video, but it's best used as a Kindle Reader. Additionally there's a Samsung Galaxy S Tab SM-T700 for consideration. I just hate throwing old hardware out. Yes, these are dated tablets, but they are more than adequate for use as eBook readers, and the price of NOTHING, is great. PM if you're interested. Obviously if you live in Maine and are willing to come to the Damariscotta area to pick it up, all the better.

Goldilocks Fishing, nothing "Just Right"... Nice morning, with 7 fish. Thank goodness The Admiralty didn't have a dinner order in, because the high end of the fish had two 27' fish and a fat, feisty 32" fish bracketing the new 28-31" slot.

Jim - Scroll up for my post for the Excel file version: it's what this retired scientist uses, along with a small dry erase board on the boat. Record all data on the board, bring that into the house, and sit down with a coffee, beverage, etc. to enter the data, just like work, although it's far more fun...

Beautiful Morning, from both scenic and piscatorial perspectives... Casted off at 04:00 to make sure I beat the sunrise at "the spot". When old Sol decided to wake up, I was greeted by this beautiful sunrise: And yes, that is smoke on the water because of the 57°F water hitting the air temp of 45°F... Shortly after that I was greeted by a new Maine PB of 37", ~20 lbs, a true pig of a fish for these parts who fought like a Banshee. She eclipsed my previous best of 35". Was concerned when I saw that she had inhaled the plug, but fortunately, the hooks were around the gill arches with no punctures so it was a quick and bloodless unhooking. She revived very quickly and swam away strong. Ended the AM session with "Big Bertha, a 28" slot fish, and 3 schoolies. Back at the barn at 06:00 for AM coffee...

If it's any consolation, she died in battle so went the Valkyries escorted her right to Valhalla, but so sorry for you loss. Good news for me is that the Brit are down by you, hope to see them soon up here!!

Poseidon, what a capricious SOB... After yesterday's skunking, I was seriously considering sleeping in, but when I woke up at 03:45 and realizing there was zero wind, I figured WTF, Poseidon be damned since I certainly can't catch anything lying in bed... Hopped on the boat and headed to the site of yesterday's debacle. Found a flock of gulls sitting on the water and as they took off at my arrival, figured WTH, maybe the fish are hanging under the gull and tossed out an "unusual" popper, my normal Creek Chub 2500 Striper Strike, but instead of Blue Flas, it was a Menhaden color. Don't even think I popped it 2 times before there was a bass on it, a feisty 22" fish. After I landed it I was concerned, could that SOB Poseidon be f-ing with me and evoke the "First Cast Curse"?? Well turns out he wasn't ended the morning when the bite ended just as the flood ended. Thank goodness for the dead calm water, as this was a "cast to the V wake", sight fishing morning. Ended with a pair of 25" fish, along with two slot fish, 29 & 31". Didn't spend too much time measuring, as both fish were destined to be released, but I think if I did the "tail pinch" on the 31 it would have gone over the new slot limit of 31... Let's hear from the rest of you!! I can't be the only fishing in this area, am I??

Another Hypothesis Down The Crapper & Unwelcome Visitor After all my hits on Thursday were very close to dawn and then things died, I reasoned that the fish were feeding in the dark, so yesterday, I left the dock at 03:45. Then I proceeded to beat the water for 2 hours until I finally got a beautiful 30" fish to crash my plug in <3' of water, one of only 3 hits all morning. Well that lost 2 hours of sleep and my bright idea was shot to hell. The frustrating thing was multiple pods of large fish cruising just under the surface making distinctive V wakes across the surface of the water, only to scatter and ignore your offerings when you'd cast to them. So for today I decided on a normal 05:00 start time. Might as well stayed in bed, because the fish had lock jaw. The "Highlight" of the morning, that had me spitting bullets, was drifting through multiple pods of large fish scattering every time I casted at them, with only a couple of fish deciding to follow my plug, only to turn away at the boat. I threw the entire tackle box at them and nothing besides the normal popper drew any interest. Had at least 8 cast with "fishterest", but not a single one touched the lure. Hadn't seen bass do this since the late 60s on LI, just infuriating. It was like July when the bluefish are more intent on spawning that hitting your offerings. Not a happy face, but I decided to accept the skunking, albeit with very bad feelings... So time for another hypothesis... Based on the observation that the 30" fish on Friday spit up 4 well-digested alewives boatside, maybe the fish are stuffing themselves early at night, and like to bask in the sun in the early morning light. Damned if I know and damned to figure out what to do tomorrow, but I will be out there casting and cursing...