Running 2023 Small Point to Port Clyde, ME VAL Area 4, Fishing Reports

[Roccus7]

6 hours ago, TGIF Harpswell said:

Very rare to see eagles do their own dirty work… I only see the. Fish when I dump dead bait overboard, and they instantly swoop when I don’t have my camera, as if they were waiting for me to throw a pogey away. 

Yes, it definitely struck me as unusual...

[petespeak]

I've been surfcasting for the last month seeing skittish fish everyday: open beach, flats and rocks, also some river bank casting at various top of tide locations: 1)26 total bass landed between 18 and 32 inches. 2)location:3 bass open beach, 4 bass flats, 7 bass boulderfields and ledge, 12 river bass. Baits: Open beach-ghost darter mod with inline copper spinner in place of tail hook.  Flats-casting egg and yellow teaser, Hopkins with red feathers. Rocks-all fish caught at sunset with 7" ghost Doc. River-9" ghost Sebile Magic Swimmer. ( Everybody tossing three inch paddle tails caught skunk. Makes no sense to go small right now: stripers are eating 12 inch baitfish). All fish over slot were caught right after sunset on incoming tide. Biggest fish hit Magic Swimmer in shallow water bordering drop off. Bait not allowed areas I fish yet. Bloodworms or fresh mackerel chunks are the usual go to.(skip frozen Macks if possible: freezer burned bait turns into fish butter when it melts) Live eels will be the only bait I'll use this year. Tips: suspend an eel from a bobber over "snag-city" boulder fields. Be ready for the flats exploding during spring cinder worm hatches around new June moon when water temp and sun-baked mudflats wake up for the summer. After the herring and shad runs, the bait fish shrink: Always use a teaser or a casting egg when sand eels and smaller forage is present. But regulations are all over the place fishing midcoast until July. Make sure you know where you can use more than one hook and bait. When and if they show up, Maine rangers are serious guys and have zero tolerance for infractions.

Fish are on the move and after this storm clears we will know if the main body of migrating bass have arrived yet or are sitting on the 50 degree thermocline just south of Portland. I've seen years when the fish stay put offshore. Other seasons the main body of bass never move north of the Higgins Beach. But not this year I'l bet...I'm looking forward to a great season. The most active fish so far are fat 27-28 inchers. Soon the fish will arrive and spread out across the bays, estuaries and flats. That's when I switch over to Sluggos after dark and big topwater plugs at sunset. So what to do today? Hang out on the beach, near the mouth of a river, or find a soggy sedge bank at the first bend of a tidal creek, stick some bloodworms on a hook, then it's "bait and wait" until dark. When you get bored, cast every lure in your box...whatever it takes to get you to stick around until after the sun goes down. Then grit your teeth, pull on your wetsuit and get to work. 3am, perched on a semi-submerged rock, shivering solo in the moonlight, 50 degree air and water temps, windy, rain bullets stinging your face, slippery rocks, ripping currents, crashing waves tossing froth sky high: Why, you ask? If you need to ask that question, you won't understand the answer. I can't put it into words...it's just a feeling I get that makes me go there.

Edited June 7 by petespeak

[Roccus7]

Two, new, "Never seen that before" Events in 'da Hood...

Been catching a few here and there the past few days, but we're onto "Smith Barney" fish, you earn them the hard way.  However there have been 2 unique events that deserve some mention.

The first is Nat Geo worthy, seals cooperatively feeding on alewives!!!  I know we've all seen it with whales and dolphins on video, but I don't ever remember seeing this on TV, or in my backyard.  A group of 4 or 5 seals would actually heard the alewives and then crash through, dining on them.  This one really draws in the eagles for breakfast!

The second is more germane to dragging my butt out of bed early every morning in search of the noble striped bass; today there were feeding on tiny sand eels.  This is the first time I've ever seen sand eels in our river and the bass were gorging on tiny ones.  Of course this meant there were a real PITA to entice with anything.  I eventually did OK with a Rapala X-Rap Surface spook, but even that was usually met with total indifference.  At one point I was totally surrounded by feeding fish and could see nothing but feeding stripers right under the boat, with absolutely no response to my offerings.  A bit frustrating to say the least, but I did manage 5 fish to 30".  

 

Tomorrow I'll be tossing some soft, plastic sand eels that are impregnated with actual sand eel oil in hopes that will be the ticket, but I wouldn't be betting the 401(k) on it...

[tbone390]

Anybody on em north of popham? I just got up for the summer two days ago, and the water has been dirty, muddy, full of everything. I’ve been marking a tonnnn of fish, but they’re not eating what I’m serving. And I’ve served everything. Every color sluggo, paddle tails, really every soft plastic.. Buck tails, flutter spoons, spooks small and large, a few flavors of poppers, slow retrieve, fast retrieve. Every honey hole I’ve hit for the last ten years. Aside from that, got a lot of terns diving on something tiny, eels? Alewives? Saw a few in a back river swimming injured in circles at the surface while I was casting to nothing. But damn was it beautiful, eagles everywhere.

 

so, is it the storm? The crazy tides? Or am I alone in my two day skunk? Here’s to hoping it’s just me. Been absolutely on fire in mass and ct, biggg mamas since April 

 

thanks y’all
 

 

[Roccus7]

3 hours ago, tbone390 said:

Aside from that, got a lot of terns diving on something tiny, eels?

 

Baby sand eels, and when they're on these, tough to get them interested, having the same problem here.  Flies might be better, I've had some luck with spooks, but mostly when I happen to hit a breaking fish over the head with it.  I was over a feeding school yesterday and all I could see was flashes of feeding stripers with only an occasional surface disturbance.

 

One hint if you're fishing in shallow water, <15', turn off the depth finder.  It does make a difference as the fish can certainly sense it.  If you don't believe it, turn it on and dive under the transducer.  The Click-Click-Click will be very "enlightening".  

[akon]

On 6/6/2023 at 6:37 PM, Roccus7 said:

 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.

In my neighborhood, diving eagles has been a pretty common occurrence through the years. I'll probably see it a couple times a week where a dozen seals are dolphining around and then a bunch of birds and usually 2-3 eagles come swooping in. They don't seem to have a high success rate, but the effort is there. Over the winter, I saw one swoop down 3 or 4 times trying to get a duck that just submerged in the nick of time each time.

[Roccus7]

Striper Swirl & Slurp Feeding - Why floating poppers are NFG sometimes...

 

 

The fish have entered their yearly "Swirl & Slurp" feeding period.  That means they'll violently swirl around their intended dinner, and then sit back to slurp it in while under water.  This is a reason I STOP my retrieve when a striper swirls at it without hitting or making contact.  When they're in this mode, as you stop the retrieve you need to be  ready for the hit, but ONLY IF you are using a NON-FLOATING topwater lure.  If you're using floating topwaters, you're SOoL, they won't touch it.  They expect their dinner to float down to them so they can slurp it up.  If it doesn't they wise to your tricks.

 

Today was a case in point.  I got myself into a feeding pod of fish and tossed my X-Rap, a floating Rapala "Spook-like" lure at them.  Multiple fish swirled at it with no hits on 2 consecutive casts.  Thought "F this!" and grabbed a rod armed with an old school, Creek Chub Striper Strike sinking popper and tossed it out into the feeding frenzy.  After the second pop there was a violent swirl.  I immediately stopped my retrieve and BAM!!!, fish on.  The 27" fish took some time to get in, but on the next cast I still managed to pull a 24" one out of the blitz before it died, another Swirl, Stop, BAM!!  Event.

 

Added another 24 and a 28" Swirl and Slurp Feeding fish on the Creek Chub before packing it in for the morning.  Couldn't find a fish which would have been #100 for the season, year to date, but there's always tomorrow...

[tbone390]

topwater spooks worked finally, but man oh man, the seals are out in force. I've never seen so many in all my years. Literally hundreds at the beachy mouth of a dirty river, sand eels too, water is thick with em

[Roccus7]

Caught a 31" fish in The Bayou today...

 

The Admiral named a tiny creek that feeds into the main body of our tidal river "The Bayou" and up until today it was the only part of my river that I hadn't caught a striped bass in.  While I was anchored just outside the bayou, being abused by stripers that amused themselves by following my lure, only to turn at the boat and flip a fin at me, I noticed a very large fish occasionally crash bait just inside the bayou.  

 

After I couldn't take any more I snuck my boat (22') into the Bayou where it is only about 120' across with a water depth of 3'.  I tossed a cast up further into the bayou and after a swirl at my plug and some significant Joe Cockeresque seizures, my popper was inhaled by a very upset, large fish.  Pretty soon I slipped a net under her, and after unhooking and measuring her, there was time for a quick photo op and then a successful release.  Caught another 8 fish from 18-27" on a very successful morning.  Season total is now 120, with 16 fish 28" and better, 2 of which were greater than 31".

 

 

 

[tbone390]

The swirl and slurp is NO JOKE. I've been out last 3 days. Hundreds of hits on sinking poppers, spooks, even an albie resin Hogy jig. I only caught one!

 

Might have to break out the fly rod, those were the only guys hooking up around me. 

[KennebecJake]

Had a similar lockjaw problem Tuesday at the beach but a different reason. These fish were spooked and running thec

[Roccus7]

9 hours ago, KennebecJake said:

thec

???  You have me at a disadvantage sir...

[KennebecJake]

11 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

???  You have me at a disadvantage sir...

A rare thing I’m sure…

[Roccus7]

37 mins ago, KennebecJake said:

A rare thing I’m sure…

No, but what do you mean by thec?  "The sea" per chance, as in "running to the sea" which makes some sense? 

 

Regardless, lockjaw is a real PITA...

[tbone390]

IT'S HOT HOT HOT, but poppers and flies rly are the only thing working right now. All in around 1-2 feet of water. Lots of swirls, slaps, slurps. Striper strike has been the go-to, followed by doc. 

 

Sand eels everywhere, more seals than i've ever seen, so deeper water has been dead for bites. Menhaden just got here in huge numbers, the seals have been livin large.