Hopefully along with the dogs, burgers and corn-on-the-cob, there’s a three day holiday weekend in your forecast! With that the weather looks to be perfect and the striped bass fishing is peaking!
New Hampshire Fishing Report
The fireworks began early in New Hampshire according to Jason from Suds ‘N Soda. Anglers have been catching impressive numbers of fish from 40″ to 38 pounds! Hot spots have been Little Harbor, Hampton Harbor and Rye Harbor. Live mackerel, which can be jigged up almost as soon as you clear the harbors, are the surest offering but some have been catching with Daddy Mac DM Minnows and Vipers. The eel casters have most likely been doing as well but these night stalkers tend to keep stiff upper lips. Target bridges throughout the Piscatagua River watershed, especially shadow edges on an outgoing tide. Stripers treat the cover of a shadow as they would any ambush point and will whack that eel as soon as it crosses into the shadow. “Fallback” herring are flushing out of tributaries of Great Bay making the effluence where they enter the bay kill zones! Some have wondered where the black sea bass have disappeared to from the Piscatagua River. Before you press the panic button let’s wait until water temperatures warm up again! These fish are a “southern species” after all and the recent chill has probably reduced their feeding window significantly.
Tim from Tim Moore Outdoors has been finding better bass into the mid-30” range in his Little Bay/Piscatagua River bailiwick. Because of this he has upticked his presentation to 6” swim shads. Look for rips and seams in the current where the bigger, more experienced bass stage. The bays occasionally light up with schoolie, surface displays making this area ideal for kayaks and small boats. The sharp drop in water temperatures put the brakes on the black sea bass bite in the Piscatagua River but with 80 degree temperatures predicted in the foreseeable future expect them to strap that feedbag back on! Flounder are beginning to migrate from inside of the harbors to just outside in slightly deeper water.
Southern Maine Fishing Report
Brandy from Webhannet said that the recent deluges have made non-tidal rivers difficult to fish. The bass bite has been better in tidal rivers which haven’t suffered the same ill effects of their more brackish cousins. There have been a number of fish from keeper size to beyond 40” taken on SP Minnows and Mambo Minnows from the Webhannet, Mousam and Ogunquit Rivers. One of the methods which some of the sharpies are employing in the rivers is to treat the swimmer as if it were more of a top water plug. A twitch and pause retrieve which allows the current to whisk the lure along as if it were a stunned baitfish has been very effective. Another tweak is to dab the plug with BioEdge Sand Eel wand! Side by side comparisons with identical plugs has resulted in lop-sided catches for the anglers using the BioEdge. Boaters are usually having little difficulty topping off the livewell with mackerel but they might not be the best live bait option. Some who are dropping their Sabiki rigs deeper and working rockpiles, patches of bubbleweed and kelp are catching harbor pollock and are finding them to be the superior bait. Pollock cannot be set free to roam as mackerel or they will live up to their billing as groundfish by burying into the nearest structure. Slowly troll pollock close to/over structure or fish them under a float up against a white-washed shoreline.
Curtis of Saco Bay said that finally the beaches are getting some linesider love! The night crew is casting clams and getting some of the better bass in the region. Clams off a beach are striper magnets when the shoreline is roiled from easterly winds; instinct compels those cows to come in close for a clam dinner. Old Orchard, Higgins, Pine Point and Biddeford Pool were a few of the beaches mentioned. Mackerel are still within casting distance of the Camp Ellis jetty. Live liners aren’t doing nearly as well as those tossing out those fresh chunks. Rivers which harbor herring runs are hot as fallback blueback herring hold stripers. Target the downstream side of structure such as spillways, dams, locks, riprap and bridges where bass will lie in ambush to pounce on the spent herring. Sebile Magic Swimmers are a deadly injured herring imitator.
Fishing Forecast
By now hopefully you’re progressing from catching any striper to getting something special. If that’s the case than chunk or liveline mackerel throughout Hampton, Rye and Portsmouth Harbor. Those who have done so recently have caught cows up to 38”. The second solid option is to target the effluence of the Lamprey and Squamscott rivers where they join Great Bay, those fall back herring are attracting a cow crowd! Downeast beaches have finally kicked into gear but you’ll fare better after dark with clams or fresh chunk mackerel. Boaters are finding the extra effort to obtain a few pollock well worth it since stripers are taking to them like revelers to a barbecue on Fourth of July! Have a fish-filled Fourth one and all!