North of Portland 2022

[Roccus7]

Boat sitting on the bottom, and wind have kept me beached the past few days, but did get out this AM with @ill_postinowho schooled me royally, 7 fish to my 1.  Of course, the sting was lessened by the fact that at 31" my fish was 3.5" larger than his best.

 

It was a beautiful morning out there.  Hope many of you had the opportunity to also fish!!

 

[ill_postino]

1 hour ago, Roccus7 said:

Boat sitting on the bottom, and wind have kept me beached the past few days, but did get out this AM with @ill_postinowho schooled me royally, 7 fish to my 1.

Always a pleasure to venture out with @Roccus7, who put me on the fish!  Of course he spoiled a perfect morning by catching the big one. Rude.

 

Haven't posted this summer but like others I've been pleasantly surprised by a nice supply of good sized fish here in the decidedly-north-of-portland. I caught my first striper in Maine in June 2020 and spent the rest of that summer wondering if I'd ever catch a keeper, eventually landing 1 if I recall. Last summer I did a lot of exploring, learning some spots, and had maybe 7 or 8 28"-31" fish across the summer.  On my best day this summer so far I had 5 slot fish in about 90 minutes of fishing.  Pretty much all topwater, all very early a.m., all from my kayak.  (Love the thrill of a 'yak sleigh ride but my back was grateful for this morning's session with cap'n Roccus. Quite the luxury to skip the unload/load routine, skip the ol' drag-through-the-mud launch or land, skip the multi-mile pedal/paddle, *and* get to stand and cast the whole time!)   

 

A feisty fish from a previous outing:

[Roccus7]

Shades of First Cast Curse!!

 

Been beached for 10 days now, as engine's tilt/trim motor is shot, along with some houseguests that would have also disrupted my fishing.  DTs got the best of me today, and even though it was high noon, I grabbed a rod and my kayak gear to paddle over to my favorite mid-ebb island. 

 

Way too clumsy to fish out of the kayak so I beached her and tossed a cast into "the" rip, which immediately had interest by a fish swirling around the popper 4 times, but no hit.  I started to panic in fear of that dreaded "First Cast Curse" where I swear one striper says to his schoolmates, "Let's yank this guy's crank!!  I'll swirl at his plug and then we can laugh for the next hour watching him keep trying to catch one of us."

 

After a good 20 minutes of fruitless casting I was becoming resigned to a visit from Pepe LePew, but I was bound and determined NOT to take the skunk.  15 min later I  unhooked and released a feisty 22" fish.  

 

Didn't stay much longer, another fruitless couple of dozen casts convinced me it was Miller time.  Hopefully the boat will be ready tomorrow so I can get back to some serious striper fishing...

[Roccus7]

Back in the saddle...

 

Finally got the boat back yesterday after my replacement tilt/trim motor arrived, probably via slow boat from China, but I digress...

 

Went out bright and early this AM at first light with a "Keepah Virgin", someone I taught how to catch bass 3 years ago, but had yet to catch a nice striper dinner.  Today's Mission - get him onto a keeper.

 

Hit a few places and there were keepers around, but difficult to hook.  I dropped one definite and one probably, but both got away, he kept catching smaller fish.  As the sun got high in the east, but more importantly, the tide had risen enough for me to comfortably get up on some mud flats, we headed to the flats in a last gasp effort.  

 

Upon arrival we were greeted with sporadic tailing fish.  My hypothesis is that the larger fish, tired of dining on pogies (bunker), come to the mud to change things up with worms, clams and crabs, and things looked up for us.  The "Virgin" hooked up with a feisty and non too happy bass, and proceeded to do everything in his power to lose the fish: stopping to reel when the fish charged the boat saying "I lost it", cranking while the fish was running, and not preventing the fish to swim under the boat and get the line under the motor.  If there was a list of "Rookie Mistakes", he would have checked them all off.  I actually started laughing over things.

 

In spite of these faux pas, luck prevailed and we boated the fish, making for a very excited and proud fisherman, along with a relieved captain.  Relief came on 2 fronts, accomplishing the mission objective and the Admiral's dinner request for Striped Bass Ceviche; I dropped an additional keeper on the flats so getting a filet off of this fish was my last hope...

[Shorefisher]

On 7/12/2022 at 9:18 AM, 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. 

Not so sure it's climate change. I have been striper fishing for well over 50 years. The fish were seeing now we're once very common. I believe it's more  fish management over the last few years then anything.

[fishoninct]

4 hours ago, Shorefisher said:

Not so sure it's climate change. I have been striper fishing for well over 50 years. The fish were seeing now we're once very common. I believe it's more  fish management over the last few years then anything.

I disagree. I have been striper fishing the same time in Maine for over 20 years. Last year was the first year we consistently say fish over 30”.  The cows have always been around but didn’t seem to go as far north in such numbers. 
I am by no means an expert, however many posts have anglers saying they are catching their personal best this year.   Also, they seem to be going further north in greater numbers. 
I am heading up on Saturday to camp, fish, eat seafood, and enjoy. The boat is ready. Just need to pack and drive. 

[Pickerel92]

2 hours ago, fishoninct said:

I disagree. I have been striper fishing the same time in Maine for over 20 years. Last year was the first year we consistently say fish over 30”.  The cows have always been around but didn’t seem to go as far north in such numbers. 
I am by no means an expert, however many posts have anglers saying they are catching their personal best this year.   Also, they seem to be going further north in greater numbers. 
I am heading up on Saturday to camp, fish, eat seafood, and enjoy. The boat is ready. Just need to pack and drive. 

Yeah there’s big fish around. But there aren’t many small fish. After we are done with these big fish, there won’t be much left to take their place.

[mikez2]

4 hours ago, fishoninct said:

I disagree. I have been striper fishing the same time in Maine for over 20 years. Last year was the first year we consistently say fish over 30”.  The cows have always been around but didn’t seem to go as far north in such numbers. 
I am by no means an expert, however many posts have anglers saying they are catching their personal best this year.   Also, they seem to be going further north in greater numbers. 
I am heading up on Saturday to camp, fish, eat seafood, and enjoy. The boat is ready. Just need to pack and drive. 

The fish in this picture was caught in the late 80s, I think '89, from shore, well north of Portland. 

The better part of the 90s, 20 - 30 lb fish pretty much spent the summer in Maine. Up to and well beyond the Kennebec. 

We'd have all day blitzes on giant pogy schools and everything was 30 inches or better. Often much better.

I got a bunch of 20+lbs, a couple 30+ and a 40, all from shore in the same general area. 

And I'll tell you right now, we swam in the ocean back then. It was F-n cold! Significant shrinkage cold. 

Edited July 28, 2022 by mikez2
Forgot the pic

[adam42]

Interesting about the water temp, we were all recently talking about how much warmer the ocean water was lately but we weren't sure if it was because as adults we have more blubber and can better tolerate it or the water is indeed a lot warmer.

 

Nice looking fish btw

[Sea Of Atlas]

Douglas Dodge caught his state record in the Sheepscot 9/20/1978 67lbs. State record bluefish Boothbay Harbor 19.66lbs  8/8/1994. I remember bluefish blitzes as a  kid at Pemaquid Beach. When the pogies show so will the fish, a 3 degree shift isn’t going to push all the big fish into Maine again these are decent fish but there are 50/60 pounders being caught In RI, MA etc if people are bailing those in the midcoast now that would be something and don’t tell the guys from New Jersey.   The water is still cold, I challenge anyone to swim in Eastport, I did once and it felt like cold shock as the water is mid 50’s in August. 

[fishoninct]

My daughter is 22. When she was about 10, she started the polar bear club. The only way into the club was to completely submerge in Casco Bay. Used to be a big deal and quite challenging. Now it is easy and WAY s’more comfortable. 
????

[Sea Of Atlas]

It would be cool if you took a surface temp during the challenge over the years then we would have something to consider. The record temp for Casco Bay was 10 years ago in 2012.

[7 Rivers]

Hell, I used to jump in lakes a week after ice out, cold stream pond being one of them...The ocean isnt bad. I have done the polar dip as well. Refreshing, to say the least.

[bdowning]

If you need to wake up, thatll take care of it quick. 

[Roccus7]

Well, back to fishing.  Got out this AM and found some large bass cruising the flats.  Caught and released a 28" fish, and hooked into a very pissed off, larger fish in 3' of water.  She was able to toss the hook after about a minute of fun.  After that, the cruising fish pretty much ignored my offerings...