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North Of Portland - 2021 Edition

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Cleared 300 fish for the season today and a hunch confirmed...

 

A miracle, only took me 3 times to get this in the appropriate thread, SMFH...

 

My hunch that the latest hot spot was a first light only place was confirmed today.  I made the 3 nmi run to the spot at 04:45 which is the earliest I can navigate safely, as I needed to pass through a harbor and a couple of lobster trap "mine fields."  I panicked a bit when my first cast was unmolested, but felt much better when a fish tail-swiped my second cast right back at me and I reflexively ducked.  I hooked up on the next cast and landed 4 bass between 23 - 27", along with one 17" rat during the next 15 minutes. Then the sun cleared the horizon and just like yesterday, the bite DIED!!  

 

And then the mind starts to wander and the Devil pops up on one shoulder, "You should just anchor up at sunset tonight, fish a while and then sleep onboard until tomorrow morning's Nautical Twilight and start fishing again!!!", but the Angel on the other said, "Screw it!!  Just get a good night's sleep and enjoy the brief flurry."  I'm sticking with my better angels for now, BUT trying to figure out if I could access this stretch of shoreline for surfcasting...

 

These 5 put me over 300 for the season.  Fishing is definitely slower this year, but I'm running a 44 consecutive "No Skunk Streak". Size is much better than any of the previous years, the 4 bruisers I caught today left me quite happy, and how can one not be happy catching stripers while witnessing a dawn sky like this??

60fda64d4b018_july25sunrise.png.91a7f603ddf28cc39aa8ff325f32d55c.png

Edited by Roccus7

Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing? - H. D. Thoreau

 

Veni.  Vidi.  Cepi. - with apologies to Gaius Julius Caesar

 

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Did well in the stormy day today 

 

6 fat and angry 24-27” fish on the boat 

 

tough to find cover and manageable water as we got out late around 0800

 

outside on the mackerel run was “fun”

 

jim 

 

 

[/sIGPIC]"Never let the truth spoil a good story"
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The Midcoast Morning Mayhem Moves on...

 

Banking on my observation of an early bite shutdown, I made sure I was at the site of the crimes at 05:00.  The fact that my 1st 3 casts were untouched, a new record, got me very concerned, but cast #4 got slammed, reassuring me that losing that extra sleep was appropriate.  By 5:45 things had shutdown and I headed back to the barn, earlier enough that I was able to tie right up instead of waiting for the 2nd hour of flood because of today's -0.6' low tide.

 

The other "Hypothesis" that continued to be supported, that somehow there is a "You Can't Be Longer Than 27" To Eat Here" sign on the bottom, as two biggest of my 4 fish caught were exactly 27", making that a total of 7 over the past 4 trips, with no keepers.

 

In the spirit of the Olympics, I participated in 2 Striper Fishing Events, the Work Your Popper Around the Floating Rockweed Slalom event, and the Untangle Your Hooked Fish From Lobster Trap Warp event.  I did OK in the first, probably going 7/10, and was successful on the second event, but lucky it was dead calm with little current.

 

 

Edited by Roccus7

Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing? - H. D. Thoreau

 

Veni.  Vidi.  Cepi. - with apologies to Gaius Julius Caesar

 

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I had a rare Monday off, and was on the water as soon after dawn as I felt prudent with the thick fog.  I had to run the length of the river on my GPS, never seeing land (or another boat) for the next 12-14 miles, to get to my most recent favorite spot, a flat on the last couple of hours of the ebb.  I cut my motor in 2 1/2 feet of water and put down the trolling motor.  The fog was thick, and there wasn't a breath of air; the water was like glass except for the tidal eddies.  I didn't get a hit until I turned my attention directly to the flat.  The schoolies were feeding in water so shallow that I could see their top fins leaving a wake behind, and I found that I could stalk them, laying my lure just where I thought they would be.  I have never been bonefishing, but I am thinking that this would be as close as I will ever get, fishing in Maine.  Most casts, when my lure would hit the water, it would erupt. Usually they would hit the plug multiple more times before hooking up.  They weren't very big, but despite their lack of size and the shallow water, they fought like giants on my light spinning rod, and I had a ball.  I got back to the dock, just as the fog cleared, and the other boats were heading out.  It was a good day.

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Welp, Monday I had my first skunk of the season.  Tired of slower, smaller action in home turf I loaded up the yak and drove south to explore new waters, exhausted myself paddling (pedaling) against tide in the early fog to get up to a promising spot, barely had juice left in the tank to set up good drifts, couldn't stir up so much as a splash. 

 

Today I overslept, raced out the door to a nearby spot to try to beat sunrise, got nothing in the usual spots, and then ended up having a decent run of mostly small fish at the tail end of the outgoing tide, well after my usual spots in this location stop being productive. 

 

And then on "ok, last cast" I met this greedy 28" fish which hit my popper despite being otherwise occupied. A nice way to end the morning and wash the skunk off.

72721.jpg

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21 hours ago, ill_postino said:

Welp, Monday I had my first skunk of the season.  Tired of slower, smaller action in home turf I loaded up the yak and drove south to explore new waters, exhausted myself paddling (pedaling) against tide in the early fog to get up to a promising spot, barely had juice left in the tank to set up good drifts, couldn't stir up so much as a splash. 

 

Today I overslept, raced out the door to a nearby spot to try to beat sunrise, got nothing in the usual spots, and then ended up having a decent run of mostly small fish at the tail end of the outgoing tide, well after my usual spots in this location stop being productive. 

 

And then on "ok, last cast" I met this greedy 28" fish which hit my popper despite being otherwise occupied. A nice way to end the morning and wash the skunk off.

72721.jpg

Guess that fish felt that Trattoria Postino was offering up an after dinner mint!!

 

Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing? - H. D. Thoreau

 

Veni.  Vidi.  Cepi. - with apologies to Gaius Julius Caesar

 

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Another beautiful sunrise, and a fish that didn't get the "You can't swim here if you're over 27 inches" memo

 

Made it out to "the" spot just as the sky was getting color, but it seems I was there before the fish woke up.  As I've observed before, before you can really see your popper well, fish may swirl at it, but not actually hit it.  It took until full visible light for the hits to start, but even then the action was slower than the more recent trips to this spot.  Now I'm wondering if there's also a tidal consideration and this spot is more of a late ebb one.  Tough to gauge in that there is no significant current in this spot.  AAMOF, there's no way you'd choose to fish here unless someone told you, "Read my lips, FISH THERE!!", which a friend did to me.

 

Fishing ended at the 06:00 alarm as usual.  I finished with 4 fish from 20 - 28".  Grilled stripah on the menu tonight!!

 

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Edited by Roccus7

Shall I go to heaven or a-fishing? - H. D. Thoreau

 

Veni.  Vidi.  Cepi. - with apologies to Gaius Julius Caesar

 

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Just now, jimbighead said:

Chunk Mack, dirty water, outgoing

 

hard to believe the fish were where they were in all the dirty water 

 

 

 

 

We had some serious rain the other night for sure, they still have to eat though, never know unless you are in the water, which seems to be the norm now, fish when you usually wouldnt, nice fish..

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