The Landing

Date:  7-2-15

Body of Water:  Casco Bay, Maine

Boat:  None, floating dock

With:  Alone

Target:  Striped Bass

Time: 7:30 PM - 8:30 PM

Conditions: Quick scouting trip upon arrival; unfavorable climbing tide

Southern New England has been producing some monster cow strikers to at least 65 pounds, and the July full moon is noted for producing the largest bass of the season.  Now, not too many truly big bass make it to Maine, but virtually any of them are big enough for me.  My stay in Maine would be short; I'd fish simply from my access spot and either catch fish or not.  All indications were that I likely would.

Once again, this was a Food Chain Effort.   I'd start with casting a simple Kastmaster spoon.  I was at the mercy of the bait's presence; and while I got skunked this evening, I was somewhat buoyed by the presence of a hunting harbor seal nearby; his presence meant there must be bait-fish (most likely mackerel!) in the bay.

***

Date:  7-3-15

Body of Water:  Casco Bay, Maine

Boat:  None, floating dock

With:  Alone

Target:  Striped Bass

Time:  4:15 AM - 8 AM

Conditions:  Clear and bright; full moon all night; 61 - 63 F water; and possibly the perfect tide for this spot.  

I still had no bait after the previous night's skunk, so I really had no choice but to continue slinging the Kastmaster.  About 10 minutes in to the session, I felt the familiar thunk (tink?) of a mackerel.  This was a good development, but to my surprise and helplessness, a pack of stripers appeared at my feet and chased down my mack.  I free-lined it and felt the heavy take of the striper; I gave it a short leash and then closed the bait and came tight.  After a brief, uncontrolled tussle, the mackerel slipped from the striper's gullet (the hooks on the Kastmaster, already in the mackerel's face, are pretty darned small after all), and the fish went free.  But at least I now had some bait (a fresh mackerel head) that I could soak while I tried to get some more mackerel.  

As mentioned above, this might have been the best tide situation for this spot.  I seem to do best on stripers at the lower half of tides here; and I think the best fishing for bass often corresponds to 3/4 down the falling tide or 1/4 up the rising tide.  With the low tide about 1.5 hours after sunrise, this perfect tide corresponded to the low light levels conducive to bass fishing here.  And the water was notably clear, so I think fishing was currently improved during low light periods.  The stripers were certainly aggressive early on!  I encountered several packs at my feet, and multiple fish followed each hooked fish in to the float.

True to form, this turned out to be the most productive session of the trip.  It progressed with a steady stream of mackerel and bass possibilities.  Many of the mackerel were just a bit too big for the bass at hand and so got harassed to death as opposed to eaten; but whether as a livie or a chunk, each mackerel produced some sort of bass encounter.  I ended this session 3 for 5, with two on heads (the two biggest fish landed during the trip at 30-31 inches or so) and the one that I spoon-fed (virtually Figure-8'ed) at my feet.  I'm not counting all the other encounters (follows, unsuccessful surface hits on live macks, etc.) from this session, just the actual chances for a hook-up.

The first striper of this portion of the trip ate a spoon-hooked mackerel at my feet and provided an awesome fight on light bait-making tackle.  Before 5 AM!

This was the best fish of the morning.  It fell to a mackerel head freelined to the bottom.  Heads seem to produce bigger fish, on average, than chunks.

Another fine heading-eating striper from this first morning session.

***

This was a long holiday weekend, and so there was a lot going on.  I fished during mid-day when others weren't using the water and nothing else was scheduled.  Mackerel fishing was decent during these higher tides, but the bass were noncommittal during these periods.  Quite often a live mackerel would get chased, but not eaten, and quite often the mackerel were just too large for live-lining.  But here my niece's daughter, W, gives me a hand with collecting mid-day bait.  She enjoyed seeing the fish, and I enjoyed spending this time with her.

***

Date:  7-3-15

Body of Water:  Casco Bay, Maine

Boat:  None, floating dock

With:  Alone

Target:  Striped Bass

Time:  5 PM - 8:15 PM

Conditions:  Clear and bright; 67 - 69 F water; splitting the bottom half of the tide and so seemingly favorable.  

Here the specifics are going to start getting fuzzy, but I recall that I was 1 for 2 this evening.  Both hits came on floated sand worms that I had purchased from The Tackle Shop on India Street in Portland.  The proprietor still recognizes me and K, and still recalls his effort to get us a dipping net for peanut bunker (probably 13 or 15 years ago.)  Strangely enough, these were the only hits on worms ll trip; this was definitely the warmest water encountered.

Heads, chunks and even livies were ignored.  It's good to present them a variety and to be flexible with these fish.

***

Date:  7-4-15

Body of Water:  Casco Bay, Maine

Boat:  None, floating dock

With:  Alone

Target:  Striped Bass

Time: 4:15 AM - 8 AM

Conditions:  Less clear and bright; 63 - 65 F water; bottom half of the falling tide

Conditions were fishy and the action started quickly, but inexplicably faded.  I was 2 for 3, on a free-lined body chunk and on a livie under a float.  I did, however, have a follow on the spoon, and I saw two extremely large (way over 40 inches, each, and certainly the biggest fish I've ever seen in Maine) purposefully swim by the dock, nose-to-tail.  These fish were on the move and showed no interest in feeding.

I casually fished more later in the day, but again only mackerel came to hand.

***

Date:  7-5-15

Body of Water:  Casco Bay, Maine

Boat:  None, floating dock

With:  Alone

Target:  Striped Bass

Time: 4:30 AM -7AM

Conditions:  Cloudy and gray with a little fog and a little breeze; 62 - 63 F water; middle portion of the falling tide

I almost didn't go fishing this morning because I knew I was losing my tide, and I had a lot of work to do before starting our trip to New York and then home the following day.  Sleep would have been wise.  But you never know what might happen, and this would be my last chance (most likely) for the season, and so of course I went.  

I converted a small, live mackerel into a bass almost right away, so this was the proper decision.  But the event of the day took place a bit later when a freight train of a bass confidently took a live mack.  I came tight and fought a very nice bass for several minutes.  I was using my heaviest set-up with 30-lb braid and I was pressuring this fish as much as I dared to keep it away from moorings and such.  While I never completely saw the fish, it came to the surface and displaced impressive amounts of water with each swipe of the tail.  Unfortunately, some combination of pressure and duration wore out my leader; and another Big One got away.

Not a great way to end, but not a bad one, either.  I ended this portion of the trip with 7 bass from about 23 to 31 inches or so; saw a bunch of others, and of course, enjoyed my encounter with the final, big one.  This gave me a total of 10 for the year; not really impressive, but more than I've taken in the last couple/few years combined; not because of anything other than lack of time and access to these fish.  (I do live in Michigan, after all.)

A few random shots, in no particular order:

What do I have to say about this?

Throughout, fishing was pretty good; but it was never flat out awesome.  This was a small sample size, so it could be worthless for conclusions; but it could also be my little indication that striper stocks are indeed down.  But the fish I caught were all beautiful and hard pulling; and most were covered in sea lice; they were newcomers from the ocean into the bay.  I'm pleased to have had the chance to fish for them.

There was no clear pattern, other than the bass preferred live mackerel of a certain size.  Each of these was devoured.  Success among my other offerings (heads, chunks and worms) was about equal.

Standing in the same place, hoping and waiting for the fish to arrive can be frustrating, and I'd certainly love to have a boat available.  I thought it might be Arracuda this year; but with our short stays and tight schedules, it just didn't make sense.  On the other hand, there's a certain simplicity in accepting my land-bound condition and simply doing the best with what I'm given; The Landing has taught me that.  I probably should be fishing at night, but that's too disruptive to my schedule.  Instead, for now I'll do everything else I can to maximize my chances and the probability of executing them successfully.  Even the failures here are beautiful and fun.

I am fortunate to have access to a bountiful, ever-changing spot.  I am always amazed that there are stripers in my neck of the Atlantic Ocean.  I am further amazed that we occasionally find each other.