Well it's been a while since my last report. Things have been hectic with scouting for Tuna and a few Striper charters. Not many Tuna off the southern Maine coast - my trips have been mostly just cruising and looking, only put the lines in the water twice.
Mixed results on striped bass: Just yesterday I fished with a party of 4 (2 locals and 2 from Arizona). We departed the dock at 6:30 AM, headed out to the 2KR Buoy at the mouth of the Piscataqua and jigged up several large (too large) live Mackerel. We then proceeded to fish the shoreline between Kittery, ME and York, ME. The first bait in the water got an immediate hit and we thought we were off to a flying start, however, it did not result in a hook up - this continued to happen most of the morning. The party did end up with 2 fish around 25" from that spot. They failed to hook up with about 5 other hits (my feeling is that the bait was too big for the fish that were hitting). This spot usually yields fish in the 38" to 43" category so the big bait is usually not a problem. Also, this spot is most productive (as are most shoreline locations)during the last two hours of the incoming tide (12'2" tide swing, at dead low (-1.2') I saw rocks that I had never seen before). We did have a little action throughout the incoming tide but the fish were just not hitting hard and the baits were regularly getting pulled.
During the last hour of the trip we moved to the river (the river was still terribly muddy from Friday's torrential rains) where we drifted live bait. We got two hits but again no hookups. All and all it was a frustrating outing.
Earlier in the week I had an afternoon charter with 2 men from Germany. The tide was great, fished the latter half of the incoming tide. We followed the typical process of getting live bait and fishing the shoreline. We fished for Stripers for about 3 hours. The sports caught and released 7 fish, none of which was over 30" - where have all the big fish gone.
Last week, July 15, I had a late afternoon/evening charter with a father/son combo from Texas. We got several mackerel, anchored offshore and a stiff offshore breeze made casting into the shore on the outgoing tide difficult (nearly impossible) and we failed to hook up at my favorite spot. We moved into the river where we chunked herring and each of the sports caught Stripers of about 30". It was a slow but enjoyable evening with two great guys - hope to see them again someday.
I left the camera in the boat. I plan to bring it home later this week and download the July pictures to be put on the website....stay tuned.
Charter Boat Fishing along the Maine and New Hampshire coast. Enjoy inshore fishing for Striped Bass, Bluefish and Mackeral. Enjoy deep sea fishing Maine and Newhampshire for Cod, Haddock and Pollock. When in season Tuna fishing is great off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire.
