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

[Roccus7]

1 hour ago, Jim McFeeley said:

Got this off the rocks looks like a tautog? 

 

Nope, big azz cunner (bergall).  Same genus as Togs, and tastes the same, delicious.  I catch some big ones too while jigging for groundfish inshore and they come home with me for fish sandwiches.

[Jim McFeeley]

3 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

 

Nope, big azz cunner (bergall).  Same genus as Togs, and tastes the same, delicious.  I catch some big ones too while jigging for groundfish inshore and they come home with me for fish sandwiches.

Man I guess the size of it fooled me. Iv seen them in jersey but  nothing like this

[Roccus7]

A Very Pleasant Morning

 

After getting skunked yesterday and seriously thinking about buying golf clubs, I decided it was time to switch venues so I went off on a 18 nmi round trip journey to a place I got skunked earlier this year, and all of last year.  Why there?  The innervoice told me it was time, as when I got skunked last time there were active fish, just couldn't get past swirling and slapping at my popper.

 

Got to "the spot" at 05:30 and was greeting to the sound of cowbells and squawking geese from the bordering farm.  Where else but rural Maine can you catch stripers by a farm's "lower forty"?   My first cast had me extremely paranoid, as it got crashed and I hooked up only to drop the fish after a few moments.  "Oh great, I'm betting that's it for the rest of the morning!" was the thought that immediately came to mind.  Well the next cast was also crashed, but I was able to put a 23" fish on the deck.  After a few more ignored casts, I went to Spot B which was right across the cove, and after a few cast, I had some interest in the popper, but no hits.  The next cast hit paydirt with a 27" fish.  After that spot cooled, back to Spot A for another 23" fish.  I alternated A to B for 5 drifts, and a total of 5 fish, one at each spot.

 

At this point the tide had dropped, rendering the spots worthless, but I had one more spot to test on the way out, which was up against the farm.  My initial drift had some interested fish, but no hookups.  The second drift produced another 23" fish and then all hell broke loose when a very large, and upset, bass grabbed the plug and took off on a good 50 yd run.  Shortly after that ended, and I was starting to feel in control, I felt the heartbreak of the hook pulling out on what was most definitely an "over".  That took some of the sting in knowing this fish swam away strongly.  One more 23" fish was added to the day's count, before I had to head back to the barn.

 

No golf clubs for me, yet...

[MichiMainah]

On 8/19/2023 at 8:51 AM, Roccus7 said:

 

Nope, big azz cunner (bergall).  Same genus as Togs, and tastes the same, delicious.  I catch some big ones too while jigging for groundfish inshore and they come home with me for fish sandwiches.

What @Roccus7 said, never kept them until this summer.  Pleasantly surprised, when the striper bite dies down on the day I turn to these lil bulldogs.  Fun catching and surprisingly excellent for sandwiches, even better fish tacos

[Roccus7]

Break out the Proton Pump Inhibitors, Heartburn Fishing...

 

After 2 straight skunks, and a horrible storm yesterday, I was reticent to even go out this AM.  However, I woke up at 03:37, and after watching some boring TV, I realized the rain had stopped, there was zero wind, and my intentions of fishing this evening was up against a thunderstorm forecast.  Figured might as well log the third skunk in a row early today, but vowed only to stay in the backyard river.

 

Went upriver to a cove by the head of tide and tossed a popper for a while with absolutely no signs of fish, so time for Plan B, a nearby cove that usually produces in late August at high tide.  Decided to work my way out of the cove, and went up to a narrow place, a good fish ambush place.  Casted for 10 minutes with no action, and went to another ambush sport.  As I was about to say "screw it" to this spot, I noticed a minor disturbance in the wake of my popper.  Rated that one had a 50% chance of being a fish, so casted again and had another wake disturbance, but a definite one at that.  Next few casts had interest, but no hits.  Decided to try a jointed Redfin, which also got interest, but no hit.  Then that action abated so I went closer to the mouth of the cove.

 

Decided to go back to the popper and tossed out a cast.  Popped the plug 3 times and mid twenty inch bass skyrocketed out of the water and cartwheeled with my plug in its mouth.  The fish was not alone; 8 fish broke the glass like surface of the water around him, as his strike disturbed their tranquility.  The fight didn't last long,  when the plug pulled out.  At that point I felt I would not have the shame of a 3rd consecutive skunking the morning little did I know that this fish would be the only one to violently grab my lure with no extreme  intervention.

 

My casts continued to generate interest, but no hits.  Decided to try a small Krocodile since the fish were feeding on rain bait.  Once again, the lure generated interest, but no strikes.  A needlefish was the same with fish interest shown by wake follows, but nothing more.  At this point I realized the popper with the only lure getting anything more than a "disturbance in the wake" so I decided to focus on that.  I got a couple of hits, but realized that this fish were "slurping" their breakfast, so if the plug wasn't going back from a pause in the retrieve, the fish wouldn't get hooked.

 

I never suffer silently, and I was pretty vocal in expression my displeasure with the fish this AM, but finally I did hook and land a fiesty 26" striper, only after I went through extreme gyrations and convulsions to get it from stop following the plug and slurp the plug into its mouth.  This was shallow water fishing, ~6' deep and this bass put on quite an airshow, sky rocketing out of the water 3 times.  OK, skunk avoided, should I go home and grab the bottle of Brioschi to calm down my stomach???  A normal person might do that, but I'm far from normal when it comes to striped bass fishing.

 

When the action in the cove died down, I ventured to another small cove and casted fruitlessly for 20 min, only to return to the site of my only fish.  Then I got lucky, some fish actually started feeding within casting range.  Multiple casts were tossed into these fish with a swirl here, a missed hit there, and the lure being totally ignored.  I could feel my stomach starting to really burn, but no, I was going for #2, come hell or low water chased me out of the cove.  Eventually another following fish slurped at my lure as I paused it, and the resulting hookup was signaled by yet another cartwheeling 26" fish.  I decided to go for the hat trick, but the fish disappeared so I headed back to the barn, a bit ambivalent about the morning.  I was relieved that I had avoided the stench of a third straight skunking, but furious that the fish had so much fun abusing me.

[Roccus7]

Thought I was sentenced to another morning with Pepe LePew and piscatorial abuse...

Started the morning at 05:15, the earliest I could get off my dock with the extreme low tide.  Crawled to my favorite early incoming "Money" spot and on the 3rd drift, I had the boat lined up perfectly, and threw a perfect cast into the perfect spot, with the perfect amount of low light...

 

What happened?  Well a fish went straight for my lure and violently smashed it, and, as expected, there was no hookup.  I was so disgusted I was ready to fire up the engine and go home, but I can only get off my dock in such low water conditions, getting tied up needed another 30 min of tide.  Figured, WTF, if the fish were going to have their way with me, I might as well grin and bear it, and bear it I did.  For the next 30 min I subjected myself of all sorts of piscatorial abuse including V-wake follows and tepid swirls, but the final insult was when a fish flew out behind a rock, making a large V-wake and bee line to my plug, only to get in the popper's wake and slowly disappear...

 

That was the last straw and I headed back to the barn BUT....

 

There were occasional breaks up on the flats upriver from the dock, couldn't hurt to try that, right???  Well it was more V-wakes and an occasional tepid swirl for the next 30 min.  Made some nice drifts over normally lucrative spots, with nothing but heartache.  Decided to switch my attention to the other shore of the drift I was on and the abuse was back in its full glory, as one cast yielded 3 violent strikes, but no hookup!!

 

I was furious and started telling the fish how I really felt about them.  The fish immediately responded as the next cast actually had a quick hookup, probably purposeful just to really piss me off, like I could actually be more upset than I was.

 

A smart man would have admitted defeat and given up, but when it comes to Striped Bass, no one ever said I was a smart man...  Somehow, I decided that more abuse was appropriate so I elected to make another drift.  Then the miracle happened, I actually caught a 25" fish, skunk averted!!! Up popped the angel on the right soldier, "OK, you've caught a fish, GO HOME!" while the Devil quickly materialized on my left shoulder, suggesting, "This might be the start of a decent bite."

 

Well for once the Devil making me do it was the correct response as I plugged up another 3 fish, including one slot fish, in 20 min, when the bite truly died, Disaster Avoided, although I'm sure there's a bunch of stripers sitting at a bar recounting how they drove me nuts today...

 

 

 

[Roccus7]

Good start to the Endgame...

 

Spent the early part of the week, fishing my river well after dawn because of the 1st light extreme low tides.  It was 1 or 2 fish mornings with few complaints by me because the local fish had finally overcome their cases of lockjaw and were hitting the popper.

 

Today's bright morning moonlight allowed me to make an easy Zero Dark Thirty Run out of the river to another location up the bay.  Dodging trees and lobster traps at 15 kts was easy because of the the extra light.  My run was rewarded with 3 fish to 27".  Once again there was no meow meowfooting around as those 3 fish were the only fish that slapped at my lure.  I did have to play "dance the popper around the weeds", for a good chunk of the morning, but taking heart in knowing that tomorrow should be better for that problem based on a closer to mid-ebb fishing start time.

 

Season's total now up to 284, and there is hope that I'll reach my 300 fish goal, something that I was seriously doubting a week ago...

[Roccus7]

An Agent 86 kind of morning...

 

The Admiral said she'd like to have some Suzuki Sashimi tomorrow night, so I made a long run to a good mid-ebb spot with a good chance of landing a slot fish.  Had a horrible scare when my popper on the first cast was crashed, but no hookup.  "Here we go, a 1st Cast Curse".  Fished that drift for 2 additional drifts with nothing, so I was really starting to panic that Monsieur LePew was going to make an appearance.

 

Went over to Drift 2 and after a few more missed hits, I did hookup and boated a "close, but no cigar" 27.5" fish.  Action slowed so I went to Drift 3 and quickly boated a 23" fish.  Went back up on the drift and hooked what I was sure was dinner, but was surprised when I netted a 27" fish, who fought way above her pay grade.   Will have to up my game tomorrow morning...

 

Oh well:

 

[Roccus7]

First Drift Doom & My 115 HP Fish Finder...

 

Over the past 4 days I've been fishing one of my favorite local haunts, a tiny dead end cove.  Over these days I noticed that I always caught a fish in the pre-dawn gloom at one particular spot, and after that 1st drift, fishing just died until around 07:00 when the fish would start feeding for a brief moment and it was important to anticipate where that blitz would occur.

 

After 2 days with a fish using a popper on the first drift, I decided to go a little earlier and drag out my Dark Money Plug and relive my Sleepless Striper Skills.  Got to the spot just after 05:00 and on the second cast, it was fish on.  Boy did I feel smart, figuring I would be catching a few before things slowed down, yeah right.  Next drift, one tail slap and that was it until the fish popped up when I got a second fish.

 

Today, more of the same, except the first drift only yielded a few follows and one tail slap, but no fish.  Second drift, one follow and no hits, I was afraid I was smalling skunk.  Drifted out past the point I was working and kept casting with no results.  Once I was convinced there was nothing around, I decided to break out the secret weapon when fishing in shallow, protected coves, starting the engine.  As soon as I turned the key, I noticed 5 swirls close to the boat.  Immediately killed the switch and tossed out the popper, for an immediate hit and hookup.  Soon I had exorcised the skunk from the morning by boating a 23" fish.  

 

Everything seem to be dead, so I figured I'd be taking a few more casts and then move somewhere else.  My thoughts were interrupted with a massive surface strike from an extremely pissed off 29" fish discovering that she had a hook in her mouth and only 4' of water under her.  After thrashing around on the surface for enough time to get my heart pounding, she took off on a long run, and even a bit of a Nantucket Sleighride for me.  After a bit of a tug of war, I slipped a net under a beautiful fish, perfect for the Suzuki Sashimi that The Admiral has been asking for.  

 

Stuck things out for the anticipated surface feeding Whack-A-Mole event and scored twice out of 5, 10 second blitzes with a 27 & 25" fish, completing my 23-29" odd number run for the morning.

 

[Roccus7]

An Eric Clapton, "Let It Rain" kind of morning

 

After a total skunking yesterday, a morning where I watched fish swim by, and cursorily look at my lures, I was bound and determined to catch at least 2 stripers this morning to get the season total to 300. Since today's tide was even lower than yesterday, when I couldn't get to my very dark starting spot, I had to change my plan of attack, decided to use a Redfin along a productive early flood shoreline. Threw out my first cast and did the classic pre-light Redfin retrieve of SLLOOOWWW, and immediately started to notice something lightly bumping the plug, "Was it a bass??" Took a quick half turn on the reel handle and BAM, fish on!! That didn't last long as within a second or two, the fish was gone. I immediately panicked, FIRST CAST CURSE!!

Turns out it looked like I was correct, as while it was dark, my Redfin was continually getting bumped, but none of my gyrations would elicit another hit. I was getting madder by the moment. Finally got light enough to throw out the Creek Chub and I got an answer to the mystery bumps, along with many other questions that have been bothering me; I snagged a peanut bunker, something I had yet to have seen here this year. So that was my bumping and with the scattered bass feeding on those, the fish's constantly ignoring lures suddenly started to make sense.

Well it was time to hit the primary target, to anchor in the narrow mouth of my favorite cove to ambush any bass as they try to enter the cove, which still did not enough water for me to enter. As the water was dead calm flat, the torture continued as I watched fish swimming around, and only occasionally getting one to turn towards my lures. All of those V-wakes dissipated with no strikes. Damn that First Cast Curse!!

Then the rain started, gently at first, but quickly building into a steady torrent which turned the glass like surface of the water into a pretty noisy place. I was hoping that this would be to my advantage, strong enough for me to shake the curse. My optimism suffered an extreme blow, when I hooked up with a decent fish, played it for a good minute or two only for it to spit the hook. OK, let's back off on the drag so this doesn't repeat. Pretty soon I was on again, only to lose a fish for the 3rd time this morning. There I was standing out in the pouring rain with my rain gear on, wondering WTH I was allowing Poseidon and the fish screw with me when I should be home having a nice hot up of coffee. However, the fact that the hard rain had turned the fish into hitting my plug instead of thumbing their noses at it, kept me at task.

Started to whistle "Let It Rain" and BAM, fish on again. I really babied this fish in, didn't want to have a fourth fish dropped this AM, and wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I landed 2023 Striped Bass #299. Should I just head back to the barn, it really is raining hard??? Nope, Slowhand had decreed that I should continue, and soon I was glad that he did, as 2023 Striper #300 was on the deck, a 23" fish matching the first one caught. Time to go home??? HELL NO!!! Time for #301!!, which showed up a few casts later, another 23" fish.

At that point the rain stopped, along with the reemergence of the disinterested V-wakes. At least my thought that rain can be good, providing enough noise and surface disturbances to drop the fish's guard. Regardless, mission accomplished and it was time for that cup of coffee.

Picture below is #300, highlighting the "Well Aged & Modified Chrome Creek Chub Striper Strike 2500" that I've been using since mid-August. When the factory hooks start to show wear, I replace the front hook with a Berkely Fusion 3X treble, and the tail treble bucktail replaced by a R. A. Skinner Chartreuse Caboose Siwash.

 

 

 

Edited September 11 by Roccus7

[Roccus7]

Still picking away, getting 1-4 fish per outing including the occasional slot fish.  This morning that real sign of fall was upon me, Sea Smoke...

 

 

[Roccus7]

The Endgame Commences...

 

Unlike LI & the Cape, we've been blessed with wonderful weather for the past week, which is forecasted to last for at least another week. Fishing should be great, right? Well not so fast. Seems that most of my striped friends have hit the Southern Migration route, and those few that have stayed need lower water conditions to concentrate them, adding to the difficulty of catching one. Last night was a classic example. The afternoon low tide, a -0.8' tide @ 16:41, presented a quandary for me. I knew I couldn't get off the dock until well after sunset, and the last 2 fishing trips in similar tidal conditions were total busts so I decided not to even consider fishing.

As the flood was gaining steam, I looked out the window to the river and saw small groups of fish breaking out on the flats, which at that point barely had enough water for a vane-driven Hobie pedal kayak to work with, but there was enough. I noticed my neighbor out there on his Hobie unhooking a very nice fish. Poseidon, you're one SOB!! After I watched him have another massive hit, I grabbed the boat keys figuring I might was well just drift up on the flats with the engine up.

When I got down to the dock all the surface action had stopped. Considering that there was no wind, and only 1.5' of water on the flats, a blind drift probably wasn't worth it. Of course the Siren's Call was echoing in my brain, and there was a lot of bait around my dock, which in previous years wasn't a bad place to fish on early flood, so the casting commenced while standing in my tied off boat.

Just as I was convincing myself that this was nothing more than a casting practice session, I saw a flash of white, a bass turning on it's side feeding withing 10' of the boat. CRAP, time to keep fishing. Since my popper was being ignored and it was getting dark, I fell back on my old LI faithful technique of a floating, jointed Redfin with a glacially slow retrieve. It took me a while to figure out how to present the lure with the strong current, but as soon as I felt confident with my presentation, there was a bass on my line and I shortly put a 23" fish on the deck. Flushed with excitement I kept at it, but found my floating, jointed Redfin sinking? Turned out in the tussle, the fish had loosened one of the joint eyes and the lure was taking on water. Since the bait around the dock had disappeared, I decided to call it an evening, ending things on a high note.

Almost time to see if this AM is the same...

[Scott Charlton]

On 8/21/2023 at 9:40 AM, Roccus7 said:

A Very Pleasant Morning

 

After getting skunked yesterday and seriously thinking about buying golf clubs, I decided it was time to switch venues so I went off on a 18 nmi round trip journey to a place I got skunked earlier this year, and all of last year.  Why there?  The innervoice told me it was time, as when I got skunked last time there were active fish, just couldn't get past swirling and slapping at my popper.

 

Got to "the spot" at 05:30 and was greeting to the sound of cowbells and squawking geese from the bordering farm.  Where else but rural Maine can you catch stripers by a farm's "lower forty"?   My first cast had me extremely paranoid, as it got crashed and I hooked up only to drop the fish after a few moments.  "Oh great, I'm betting that's it for the rest of the morning!" was the thought that immediately came to mind.  Well the next cast was also crashed, but I was able to put a 23" fish on the deck.  After a few more ignored casts, I went to Spot B which was right across the cove, and after a few cast, I had some interest in the popper, but no hits.  The next cast hit paydirt with a 27" fish.  After that spot cooled, back to Spot A for another 23" fish.  I alternated A to B for 5 drifts, and a total of 5 fish, one at each spot.

 

At this point the tide had dropped, rendering the spots worthless, but I had one more spot to test on the way out, which was up against the farm.  My initial drift had some interested fish, but no hookups.  The second drift produced another 23" fish and then all hell broke loose when a very large, and upset, bass grabbed the plug and took off on a good 50 yd run.  Shortly after that ended, and I was starting to feel in control, I felt the heartbreak of the hook pulling out on what was most definitely an "over".  That took some of the sting in knowing this fish swam away strongly.  One more 23" fish was added to the day's count, before I had to head back to the barn.

 

No golf clubs for me, yet...

You got to a place that was 9 nautical miles away from your house at 5:30AM this late in the year?  You sir, get "it".

 

-Scott

[Roccus7]

5 hours ago, Scott Charlton said:

You got to a place that was 9 nautical miles away from your house at 5:30AM this late in the year

 

Thanks for the compliment, but that was back in late August. 

 

Regardless, my departure times for "far away" places have been about 15 min later this year than normal years because all the GD rain has necessitated dodging floating trees and branches, besides the lobster buoy slalom course.  Don't want to be hitting lumber at 20 kts.  If I were to go back to this spot right now, which I won't since it's been dead, I would leave my dock until 05:45, meaning I wouldn't have the lines in until ~06:30...

[DeepWaters]

3 hours ago, Roccus7 said:

 

Thanks for the compliment, but that was back in late August. 

 

Regardless, my departure times for "far away" places have been about 15 min later this year than normal years because all the GD rain has necessitated dodging floating trees and branches, besides the lobster buoy slalom course.  Don't want to be hitting lumber at 20 kts.  If I were to go back to this spot right now, which I won't since it's been dead, I would leave my dock until 05:45, meaning I wouldn't have the lines in until ~06:30...

You sir, have got it made!  I would love to be able to roll out of bed, and instead of getting in a car to drive an hour, just walk out to the water, hop in a boat and start fishing. That is so amazing man, congrats. It’s very hard for my generation to even afford property, let alone a house on the water. Someday, I hope.