North of Portland 2022

[Roccus7]

Bit of a slow morning, only 9, 21-29", but since I had company, I was able to snag the perfect photo, this picture of the 29" with my fugly face blotted out by the sun...

 

[Roccus7]

Another day, another slot fish.  Todays 1/2 dozen went from 22 - 31"...

 

[Jmp74]

Hi All,

 

In about 20 years of fishing a hour or so North of Portland during the summers, I have NEVER seen fishing like this. I summer up here every year for a chunk of time and I never would have thought Maine would produce my PB. Pogies and fish 30-45in have invaded our bay and it is awesome. Can be hard to get a bite but boy are these fish quality. Caught this monster below (40in) trolling a Mac bomber on kayak. I was using a super light setup with 2500 stradic. Needless to say, it was the fight of my life thus far.

 

Cheers! 

[MainelySmallies]

35 mins ago, Jmp74 said:

Hi All,

 

In about 20 years of fishing a hour or so North of Portland during the summers, I have NEVER seen fishing like this. I summer up here every year for a chunk of time and I never would have thought Maine would produce my PB. Pogies and fish 30-45in have invaded our bay and it is awesome. Can be hard to get a bite but boy are these fish quality. Caught this monster below (40in) trolling a Mac bomber on kayak. I was using a super light setup with 2500 stradic. Needless to say, it was the fight of my life thus far.

 

Cheers! 

Great fish! 

[7 Rivers]

1 hour ago, Jmp74 said:

Hi All,

 

In about 20 years of fishing a hour or so North of Portland during the summers, I have NEVER seen fishing like this. I summer up here every year for a chunk of time and I never would have thought Maine would produce my PB. Pogies and fish 30-45in have invaded our bay and it is awesome. Can be hard to get a bite but boy are these fish quality. Caught this monster below (40in) trolling a Mac bomber on kayak. I was using a super light setup with 2500 stradic. Needless to say, it was the fight of my life thus far.

 

Cheers! 

Nice fish bud...

[Pickerel92]

4 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

Another day, another slot fish.  Todays 1/2 dozen went from 22 - 31"...

 

Have you tried a heddon super spook, or a yo zuri hydro pencil yet? Those are by far my best topwater presentations in rivers/back bay. I think you would enjoy them.

 

Also gotta mention the albie snax rigged unweighted when the fish are doing their finicky slurping thing. They can turn a frustrating outing into some solid numbers. Worth a look! 

[Scott Charlton]

23 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

Bit of a slow morning, only 9, 21-29", but since I had company, I was able to snag the perfect photo, this picture of the 29" with my fugly face blotted out by the sun...

 

That's a great pic!!!!

[Roccus7]

7 hours ago, Pickerel92 said:

Have you tried a heddon super spook, or a yo zuri hydro pencil yet? Those are by far my best topwater presentations in rivers/back bay. I think you would enjoy them.

 

Also gotta mention the albie snax rigged unweighted when the fish are doing their finicky slurping thing. They can turn a frustrating outing into some solid numbers. Worth a look! 

Albie snax excellent idea, I will give them a shot, along with the smaller Fin-S.  I've been using the 7.5" one and some days it's hot, some it's not...

 

Floating surface lures are anathemas to me.  Right now most fish hooked are on the Pop, Swirl, STOP sequence and it's critical that the lure sinks on the stop.  The swirl is to stun the bait fish, and if that "fish" doesn't sink, the bass know something's wrong and back off.  Ask my neighbor as he stood next to me while I caught 5 bass in 5 casts to his zero, although every cast had interest.  As soon as he dumped his spook, and grabbed one of my plugs, it was game on...

Edited July 12, 2022 by Roccus7

[Sea Of Atlas]

If you are working the surface for fish sometimes you give up numbers for size. But the fish you get can be worth it, something about the doc/lil doc that will pull fish out of the depths. It’s one of the lures I like to keep in the bag.

[fishoninct]

Global warming is changing the striper migration.  More and more cows will go to Maine.  We saw this last year with the cows coming over the rail almost every day. Combine that with the new protections for the best breeders, it should explode in the next decade. 
I will be there for the first two weeks in August.  I should really just come early. 

[jimbighead]

23 mins ago, fishoninct said:

Global warming is changing the striper migration.  More and more cows will go to Maine.  We saw this last year with the cows coming over the rail almost every day. Combine that with the new protections for the best breeders, it should explode in the next decade. 
I will be there for the first two weeks in August.  I should really just come early. 

Over the last 15 years my biggest fish always at night, august 18 +\- a week.  The beginning of our “fall run”

 

agree that there are “more” bigger fish, but we need little ones to make bigger ones, in my hood there are very few fish under 24”s.  I do hear  that there are pockets of rats here and there but it is concerning.  YOY estimates confirm this suspicion, not that it is the best science but seems to be tracking with what we are seeing.  The 2011 and 2014 big spawn year fish.  Looks grim around those years to support continued bigger fish sustainability 

 

being an optimist, I hope you are right.  Of course…hope is what we cling to when reality has left us nothing else…

 

 

Jim 

 

Edited July 12, 2022 by jimbighead

[7 Rivers]

35 mins ago, jimbighead said:

Over the last 15 years my biggest fish always at night, august 18 +\- a week.  The beginning of our “fall run”

 

agree that there are “more” bigger fish, but we need little ones to make bigger ones, in my hood there are very few fish under 24”s.  I do hear  that there are pockets of rats here and there but it is concerning.  YOY estimates confirm this suspicion, not that it is the best science but seems to be tracking with what we are seeing.  The 2011 and 2014 big spawn year fish.  Looks grim around those years to support continued bigger fish sustainability 

 

being an optimist, I hope you are right.  Of course…hope is what we cling to when reality has left us nothing else…

 

 

Jim 

 

Good points Jim, especially the fall run, that is basically a month away. I have noticed over the last quite a few years, that it starts earlier, and ends earlier. My biggest fish was on Columbus day years ago. I also remember catching blues on that day as well. That being said, just talked ta guy here at work, was saying some blues are being caught offshore a bit, on the Maine/ NH border. Should be a week  or so up your way. 

[jimbighead]

4 mins ago, 7 Rivers said:

Good points Jim, especially the fall run, that is basically a month away. I have noticed over the last quite a few years, that it starts earlier, and ends earlier. My biggest fish was on Columbus day years ago. I also remember catching blues on that day as well. That being said, just talked ta guy here at work, was saying some blues are being caught offshore a bit, on the Maine/ NH border. Should be a week  or so up your way. 

Man how I would love to see some blues!

[Sea Of Atlas]

Good point Jim, the big fish are what’s left, the juveniles aren’t there to backfill. If everyone gets complacent then we are going to end up with same crap. 
 

The waters temps aren’t high enough to push all the big fish north. What you have is a rebound of plentiful bait that is drawing and keeping bass nearshore. Vacuum up the bait and the bass will be gone. They are currently going hog wild on scooping up pogies in Mass. 

[Pickerel92]

18 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

Albie snax excellent idea, I will give them a shot, along with the smaller Fin-S.  I've been using the 7.5" one and some days it's hot, some it's not...

 

Floating surface lures are anathemas to me.  Right now most fish hooked are on the Pop, Swirl, STOP sequence and it's critical that the lure sinks on the stop.  The swirl is to stun the bait fish, and if that "fish" doesn't sink, the bass know something's wrong and back off.  Ask my neighbor as he stood next to me while I caught 5 bass in 5 casts to his zero, although every cast had interest.  As soon as he dumped his spook, and grabbed one of my plugs, it was game on...

Very interesting. I have not encountered that situation myself. Those Maine bass must be smarter!