The flushing of “brown water” from the rivers such as the Piscatagua River and Saco has been a tonic to striped bass, bringing the bite back. While not unheard of, black sea bass have been a unique surprise for anglers drifting the Piscatagua. The first wave of bluefish have shown up as well and with numbers up significantly just south of the border, expect many more to come!
New Hampshire Fishing Report
After a brief sojourn to the Green Mountain State, Tim Moore of Tim Moore Outdoors returned to his home court in Lake Winnipesaukee to find lakers and rainbows stacked in 40’ depths and willing to hit spoons. Color seems to vary with the most important factor marking fish and putting your presentation right in front of their noses. Depth edges and warmer water pockets are where you’ll find the fish. Now that the freshwater has largely flushed out of the Piscatagua River, striper fishing has improved. Great Bay has micros while the river has larger. Current matters as does structure of any sort where a bass can lie in ambush of unsuspecting prey. There are squid now throughout the watershed as are black sea bass! It’s been a few years since there was a black sea bass presence with the historically warm June being the trigger for these fish to move northward from their established haunts down south. While these fish will hit bait, vertical jigging is effective and a lot more fun.
Captain Andy of Adventure and Catch Charters continues to bask in a smorgasbord of species such as cusk up to 34”, pollock up to 35”, 24-27” haddock and all kinds of catch-and-release cod! Hot spots have been The Fingers, Platts Bank and Three Dory Island. Expect a dog attack so bait conservatively.
Southern Maine Fishing Report
Ordinarily Brandy from Webhannet Bait and Tackle leads of with linesider action but her bringing up groundfishing first speaks highly of how hot the haddock fishing et al is! Because there are dogs, anglers are putting sparse pieces clam on pink/green and pink/white cod flies. 250’ of water has been the sweet spot. That’s not to suggest that the striper fishing is not good, quiet the contrary with 48” fish falling for clams in the Wells area, 40” fish being taken on chunk mackerel from Ogunquit and Kennebunk and 25-26” fish falling for the tube-and-worm in the Saco River. Brandy also heard of the black sea bass bite in the Piscatagua River! Regarding unusual bites, the sea run brown attacking tinker mackerel thing continues with reports coming in from the mouths of the Kennebunk River and Ogunquit River. A few blues have been taken off Parsons Beach.
Regarding blues, Captain Lou of Diamond Pass Outfitters told me that a few small snapper blues that were caught in the Kennebec last week which I bet is a harbinger of a lot more to come! With the North Shore of Massachusetts swarming with big blues, I expect them to head northward very soon, so get ready! The bass fishing is still going strong with school bass on artificial lures and flies with some nice ones mixed in. Most of the big fish are being caught on live mackerel. There hasn’t been much for surface activity as of late with reading the fish finder and looking for bird activity the key to Lou’s catching. Wells Beach has been a winner as has the catching in Casco Bay!
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New Hampshire And Southern Maine Fishing Forecast
Striper fishing in the Piscatagua River has improved now that the floods are in the rearview mirror. Eels at night are working as are paddletail shads by day, Should you speed jig or vertical jig as your drifting you just might luck into black sea bass. Groundfishing remains great on The Finger and Platt’s Bank just be weary of dogfish! Sea run brown trout continue to be a Downeast surprise but they had better watch their backs since it’s looking like the arrival of bluefish is imminent!
Wtf? The height of fishing season and we can’t muster a report???