Seldom is mid-August a time of plenty for striped bass, but those fishing the New Hampshire coast are having an especially tough go of it. An awareness of drop-offs, humps and rips will improve your odds in the Piscataqua River watershed with jigs working well by day and the trusty eel at night. The meandering and fertile Jeffreys Ledge is loaded with haddock along with the occasional tuna big enough to swallow one in a single bite. Southern Maine continues to have a relatively successful striper season and there was even a 50-inch striper encounter recently.
New Hampshire Fishing Report
Chad from Dover Marine experienced one of the most gut-wrenching, harrowing lost-fish stories I had ever heard. But in it, there’s promise for you if you aspire to catch that tuna of a lifetime. He hooked what in all probability was a grander bluefin that he grappled with for over 6 hours and even managed to harpoon, but the giant never lost steam. Until, as if a switch had been thrown, all motion stopped and the tuna began a free fall into the depths while Chad and his brother scrambled to restrain the drop. Chad surmises that the fish succumbed to the long battle and may have had a heart attack. After painstakingly wrenching it up about 80 feet, the inertia of the great fish changed as if it became tangled in netting or some other smothering obstacle. Progress completely ceased; they were at a stalemate and could not do a thing with the tuna and eventually broke it off. Chad hooked it on a 20-inch cod and just prior pulled off a nice fish on a 21-inch haddock! While most would need therapy after such a loss, Chad can’t wait to get out there again since he’s still hearing of a lot of bluefin buzz all across Jeffreys Ledge.
If bluefin are not your bag, than haddock just might be! While looking for a tuna treat, Chad found no shortage of 21- to 27-inch haddock; they had to poke around Jeffreys but they found them at Pigeon Hill and Old Scantum. There are occasional cusk and cod cooperating as well. The best bait for these big haddock is half of a mackerel fillet. Mackerel along with harbor pollock are easy pickings by the Isle of Shoals. Mum is the word on the striper fishing but eels are nearly flying out the door so somebody must be catching. Chad’s gut says the mouth of the Piscataqua River as well as rockpiles off Rye Beach.
Tim from Suds ‘N Soda said that schoolie stripers are not a problem for most in Little Bay and in parts of Great Bay but most are struggling to catch a bass with size. Lately Tim has been taken to vertical jigging from his Old Town Predator Kayak and he has been catching much better fish than on average. The key is to tap into your electronics and find structure. Rather than a stationary/bulky permit unit he employs a Vexilar SonarPhone kit which when coupled with an app turns his smart phone into a fish finder! The Daddy Mac Elite series tipped with Tim’s signature Whisperer has been a winner at extracting fish from structure and rips throughout Little Bay, Great Bay along with the Piscataqua River. A surfcasters best bet is to spike it and chunk it with mackerel along Hampton, Wallis and Rye beaches. If you don’t know where the structure is do a drive by now during low tide while they are still fairly extreme.
Southern Maine Fishing Report
Brandy from Webhanet River in Maine said that there has been an unexpected windfall from a dredging operation they are conducting in the river – the stirred up mud is like a striper buffet. The roiled bottom is leading to all kinds of action especially by the jetties. The tube and worm is working well for boaters and kayakers while shore casters are catching fish up to 38” off the jetties with eels. I know that a stirred up bottom in Boston Harbor is like ringing the dinner bell for flounder so I just had to ask. While there has been no news regarding adult flounder, kids netting minnows have been finding juvenile flounder in their traps! There has to be big flounder to make those babies! Eels are the ticket at the mouth of the Mousam as are mackerel for some boaters. Mothers Beach in Kennebunk is a pretty little fishy beach where some have been catching with clams. A patron of the shop had an enormous striper estimated at 50” follow their plug in at the Kennebunk River only to turn away at the last minute leaving a massive swirl in its wake. There are no shortage of mackerel inshore and they are big fish!
Ben from Saco Bay boasted that the beaches are best for bass at the moment. Higgins especially is hot on an outgoing tide with mackerel chunks a bait best bet. Lure launchers are lighting it up with Lonely Anglers top water plugs, especially yellow or mustard versions. The fish are good sized specimens with plenty in that fun mid-thirty inch bracket. Mackerel can be found out by the islands and as usual those who chum will catch the quickest and most. There’s even news of an occasional black sea bass being taken, in fact they are baffling anglers in Portland who haven’t the slightest idea what they are.
Fishing Forecast
Find the structure throughout the Piscataqua River and Little Bay and pound the area with jigs by day or maybe eels at night and your chances of catching that special striper increase. For fast action jig up mackerel and harbor pollock by the Isle of Shoals. Those same mackerel are awesome haddock bait when filleted and dropped to the bottom of Pigeon Hill. Don’t dally; reel up that haddock quickly lest a tuna make a meal out of it. The Webhanet River dredging has resulted in better bass fishing thanks to the stirred up buffet it has caused and Higgins Beach on an outgoing tide has been the place for a productive topwater plug bite.