Pictured above: This father and son team of Greg and Mike Blow combined their efforts to catch this fine striper while fishing with Sea Run Charters.
The most successful striper chasers are employing a hybrid method of sorts which is equal parts fishing as it is hunting. With a the coastline dotted with school after school of pogies, it’s a case of poking around until you find just the right school!
New Hampshire Fishing Report
Jason of Suds ‘N Soda said that this is one year when bait acquisition is child’s play. The volume of pogies is higher than in a long time and as is usually the case with this premier big bass bait, there are some slab stripers being taken nearby. The bass-on-bunker bedlam is taking place off of the beaches. If you have a trained eye on spotting pogies you should have no problem spotting locating them off of most every beach around. The quandary is that simply finding the bait does not guarantee a tight line. Spend no more than fifteen minutes on a school, that’s plenty of time to find out if the predator is with the prey. And should you find rushed baitfish, once you hook onto a pogy, keep one eye out for the pogy school and if they depart than you should chase the school.
Chunkers are doing well off Rye on the Rocks! Chad from Dover Marine said that there are a lot of squid throughout the Piscatagua River as well as the harbors. Squid are most active and night and tend to congregate near lit piers, docks and bridges. Nighttime is also the time when bass will be feeding on the squid, making the period between sundown and sunup prime time for anglers to fish for both species. Some sharpies of the shop use pink Slug-Gos to fool the stripers into believing they are chasing squid. The bass will also hit pink, amber or white jerk baits and even pencil poppers when actively pursuing squid. As for looking for bass on the pogies, Chad likened the ratio to 1:15! Meaning for every 15 schools of pogies, you’re most likely going to find one school with bass. I hope you have time, patience and a full tank of gas!
Captain Jon Tregea of Sea Run Charters has been putting a hurt on mixed classes of stripers throughout the Piscatagua River on pollock, mackerel and the ubiquitous pogy. He’s really excited about a new killer combo from Hogy that he just got in, including a big spook they are marketing as well as a big paddletail. Ironically a Massachusetts charter captain friend of mine cleaned up Thursday morning with just this dynamic duo! When it was still dark, he was clobbering big bass with the spook but once it got light the fish would come up but not hit the topwater. He began a bait-and-switch method, where he would tease the fish up with the spook and then let them have it with the Hogy paddletail and it worked like a charm! Captain Tregea may have a new crush however after a recent trip where he saw Charlie and the gang exploding on bait just a few feet away.
Southern Maine Fishing Report
Webhannet Bait
All Points Fly Shop and Outfitters
Brandy echoed what most everyone else is saying: “there are all kinds of pogies out there!” Skip out on the rivers, the pogies and bass are holding up by open water off Wells, Parsons Beach, Higgins Beach and off Drake’s Island and most any open water you can find. The same drill applies most everywhere, you have to keep searching before you find a bait school that is getting belted. Some kids have been having a blast with bait right off the Wells Harbor dock as they catch schoolies up to keeper size bass on mackerel they are jigging up on site!
Eerily, cod have come in within sight of the shore! Bib Rock has plenty of cod and some have been catching and (of course) releasing this prized groundfish. Randy from Saco Bay Tackle told me that the fishing for big bass is awesome thanks to all the pogies. Anglers are “snagging and dropping” the pogies among big schools off Camp Ellis, Pine Point and Ferry Beach and they are finding big bass! The shop is moving a lot of weighted treble hooks! All that bait has attracted tuna in close but as is usually the case when they this close, the fish are very weary and not many hookups are being reported.
New Hampshire and Maine Fishing Forecast
The most “valuable fish in the sea” right now seems to be the most plentiful, with beachfronts and stretches of inshore open water stuffed with pogies. Off Salisbury, Hampton and Rye, have your snag hook at the ready and keep searching until you find a tightly balled mass of pogies which is usually a sign there are bass preying on them. In Wells Maine, mackerel can be found right off the docks and odds are that a live one will not last long with all the schoolies to small keeper fish around. But bigger bass remain off beaches such as Higgins, Pine Point and Ferry. Find a harassed school, snag up a pogy and hold on!