North Of Portland - 2021 Edition

[Roccus7]

Participated in North of Portland Dawn Whack A Mole Tournament the last 2 days.  Yesterday I started too early, hitting the water at 04:00, only to discover that the game didn't start until 05:15.  Today I hit the boat at 05:10 just as the sun was coming up and was greeted with multiple feeding striper pods as soon as I turned the corner into the harbor.  Got bored after an hour and 7 fish and headed back to the barn.  

 

Good Morning, North of Portland Edition

 

Also did my bi-monthly inshore cod C&R scouting run yesterday afternoon as the water was totally flat.  Back in May I discovered two new humps just outside the bay and wanted to see if there were cod on it.  Got out there and I was delighted to see the sounder light up with cod ready to jump on our jigs.  They were eating well as I unhooked them they were tossing up macks, cunners, squid and herring.  My distinguished colleague and I caught around a dozen, with 4 of them > 21", potential keepers come mid-September. 

 

Small macks were thick on these humps, too bad I'm not a bait drowner, they were real striper candy-sized.  Ocean fauna very plentiful.  Besides the usual suspects like seals and harbor porpoises, we saw a Minke Whale at a distance, some Wilson's Storm Petrels, and the season's first Mola Mola.  Lovely to get out on the briny...

[Roccus7]

Lottsa Keepahs this AM, but only 1 had fins...

 

"Commuted" this morning, heading a bucolic cove in a close-by river.  It's the only place I've ever fished and besides the normal cacophony of gulls, terns, sea gulls, eagles, geese, turkeys, roosters and ospreys, you hear cow bells from cows grazing nearby.  Many times I add to the soundtrack by pulling out the Bluetooth speaker and listening to Beethoven's 6 Symphony...

 

It was a morning of "First Drifts".  As soon as I had a hit or hooked up it was time to leave that spot because further casting was futile.  I kept going on a circuit of "the" spots in that cove.  I had been casting towards the shore all morning, but when I decided last cast, I tossed my plug out away from the boat into the middle of the cove just for chit and giggles.  BAM, a 28" keepah violently crashed my popper, so she's been invited for dinner tonight...

 

As far as the 4 other "Keepahs", I hit the river at slack tide and found a huge flotsam patch that had 4 beautiful lobstah buoys to decorate the trees leading down to my dock.  Ironically, just yesterday I was listening to lobstahmen complaining about all the gear they had been losing recently because of pleasure boats cutting off their buoys.  I laughed out loud when one said, "You know those crazy people from away now have 2 outboards on their boats!!  Why do they need two."  He was exactly echoing my thoughts in that unless you're running 100 miles to the Hudson Canyon, why incur the expenses of more than 1 motor if you really don't need them except to compensate for other "shortcomings" in you life...

 

 

Edited July 17, 2021 by Roccus7

[TGIF Harpswell]

Nice pickups, our cottage is decorated with the relics of tidal free floating buoys. 

[Topside2]

I have been going out just before sunrise the past few mornings and have been handsomely rewarded.   Today, for example, I boated 15 fish all between 22-28." That's pretty good for me. I have had success with both live bait and artificials.  I am trying a new plastic called Albie Snacks.  They cast like a bullet and the stripers really seem to like them.   Mackerel are becoming a bit more challenging to find, but they are out there.   I think I'll go out tonight to see if I can find some bigger fish after dark.

[Roccus7]

The Beat Goes On, and another First:

 

Been fishing with my neighbor the past couple of days and each trip has been a nice pick of 1/2 dozen stripers between 24 - 27' each day, along with 1/2 dozen of smaller fish.

 

Today I had a first, I caught myself!!  Had a 18" fish that violently thrashed while unhooking it, embedding one of the hook past the barb in my thumb.  I had to make a decision, quit fishing and head to the ER or just yank the hook out.  I decided it was time to Man Up and find out what a striper experiences when it's released.  Wasn't too bad, and I slathered on some Neosporin and stuck a Bugs Bunny Bandaid on it.  I wasn't too concerned in that I got my most recent Tetanus Booster in July of 2020, a vaccine that's good for 10 years.  I guess I'll be able to get out again tomorrow...

Edited July 24, 2021 by Roccus7

[TGIF Harpswell]

This is the #1 reason that I, kids and guests have to wear sunglasses on the boat, and why I use a net vs trying to tail them. Lots of GESi on on a rod which would happily spring a hook into an unsuspecting guest. 
 

I have had to pull out trout flies, which isn’t a big deal, but a 8/0 hook is a different ball game. 

[mikez2]

17 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

The Beat Goes On, and another First:

 

Been fishing with my neighbor the past couple of days and each trip has been a nice pick of 1/2 dozen stripers between 24 - 27' each day, along with 1/2 dozen of smaller fish.

 

Today I had a first, I caught myself!!  Had a 18" fish that violently thrashed while unhooking it, embedding one of the hook past the barb in my thumb.  I had to make a decision, quit fishing and head to the ER or just yank the hook out.  I decided it was time to Man Up and find out what a striper experiences when it's released.  Wasn't too bad, and I slathered on some Neosporin and stuck a Bugs Bunny Bandaid on it.  I wasn't too concerned in that I got my most recent Tetanus Booster in July of 2020, a vaccine that's good for 10 years.  I guess I'll be able to get out again tomorrow...

I've yanked two saltwater hooks out of my own meat and a few more flies or freshwater lures out of various kids, friends and strangers.

 

The one I had in the meaty part of the palm of my hand yanked out with pliers. Hurt like he'll and pulled a chunk of meat behind the barb, but came right out.

 

The one I got in the flabby part of my bare tummy was a much bigger PIA.

The soft flexible meat was a bitch to yank the hook out of. I couldn't get a good angle with the pliers and my kid flat out refused to help. No way I was making the 45 minute hike to the car and hour drive to the ER with a lure in my belly. It took me five minutes of fighting with it to finally get it. Brought tears to my eyes.

[7 Rivers]

I watched my buddy get hung up in some weeds with a hula popper once, yanked so hard, looked like 3-D coming at him, and had it bury in the top of his skull. I had to pull it out as he could not see it. It was the one day that he did not have his hat on, go figure. 

[Roccus7]

Well I recovered nicely, 5 fish this AM 21 - 27", and then 5 rats in the home harbor while waiting to be able to dock the boat.  Beautiful view of the full moon setting...

 

 

[7 Rivers]

2 mins ago, Roccus7 said:

Well I recovered nicely, 5 fish this AM 21 - 27", and then 5 rats in the home harbor while waiting to be able to dock the boat.  Beautiful view of the full moon setting...

 

 

Nice pic, what do you see for pressure from others fishing up your way?

[bdowning]

I got stuck at the base of the thumb one time, but luckily the barb didn't penetrate much past the epidermis. I did some amateur surgery with a swiss army knife to cut the skin enough to get the barb past it. That was fun. 

[Roccus7]

2 mins ago, 7 Rivers said:

Nice pic, what do you see for pressure from others fishing up your way?

Today at 0:500, the only pressure was from eagles and seals.  Occasionally I'll see a fellow SOL member who's as crazy as I am, and my "across the water", backyard neighbor when I can rouse him...

 

Not many folks "above the toothline" have learned that "Stripers" and "Sleep" are mutually exclusive words that start with "S"...

[7 Rivers]

4 mins ago, Roccus7 said:

Today at 0:500, the only pressure was from eagles and seals.  Occasionally I'll see a fellow SOL member who's as crazy as I am, and my "across the water", backyard neighbor when I can rouse him...

 

Not many folks "above the toothline" have learned that "Stripers" and "Sleep" are mutually exclusive words that start with "S"...

Got ya, sounds like it is quiet most of the time then...Portland south, is much more of a rat race, around the clock...

[Roccus7]

6 mins ago, 7 Rivers said:

Got ya, sounds like it is quiet most of the time then...Portland south, is much more of a rat race, around the clock...

Mazel Tov, I'll stick to the boonies...

[Crozzbow]

On 7/13/2021 at 7:08 AM, Roccus7 said:

Participated in North of Portland Dawn Whack A Mole Tournament the last 2 days.  Yesterday I started too early, hitting the water at 04:00, only to discover that the game didn't start until 05:15.  Today I hit the boat at 05:10 just as the sun was coming up and was greeted with multiple feeding striper pods as soon as I turned the corner into the harbor.  Got bored after an hour and 7 fish and headed back to the barn.  

Hey Roccus 7

Just dropping some quick info just to let you know that I'm still with the living.  However, I don't know how long this tired old body of mine is going to last.

I managed to talk my activity coordinator into letting me spend a few hours on the water yesterday (Thursday) I stuck with my usual Modus Operandi of launching my favored vessel into the water just as soon as the tide floated it.

I was somewhat amazed with the days outcome this time around.as it was all deja vu and then some. I fished two rods with one of them outfitted with a J-hook tube and worm setup and the second rod outfitted with a circle hook set up. As with last time both rods caught fish with hooks in their jaws. However, the circle hook set up caught more of those fish.

The only negative I have between the two worm and tube outfits is that the circle hooks takes a little more effort to remove from the jaws of the fish. 

BTW : I caught and released 30 fish between 14 to 27 inches long

 

Edited July 24, 2021 by Crozzbow