Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont Fishing Report – August 1, 2019

Call it they dog days, the summertime blues or whatever you choose but striped bass catching has run inverse of rising water temperatures – yup, it has dropped. Bass are still being caught it’s just that live bait and low light matter much more than a few weeks ago! The haddock haul, however, is still good, just be wary of the dreaded dogfish.

New Hampshire Fishing Report

From Captain Jon Tregea of Sea Run Charters came news that the New Hampshire striped bass scene is a simple case of being at the right place at the right time. There have been some very large bass taken on local beaches on live mackerel and pogies and reports of football tuna a few short miles out. The Piscatagua River has been slow however with the exception being squid which are providing entertainment as well as a tasty treat for friends and family of those who are doing the catching. Craving calamari is not limited to anglers either as fresh or live squid drifted along in the river at night near structure can often be the ticket to turn on picky August stripers. While numbers of fish are not high there are enough big ones to keep angler’s attention up! The recent dip in water temperatures have some excited that it will be a trigger to an uptick in the feeding schedule of resident striped bass.

Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for New Hampshire or Maine!

Southern Maine Fishng Report

If you’ve been at this thing awhile you know that come August the striped bass catching takes a dip and according to Captain Luis Tirado of Diamond Pass Charters this year is no exception. One of the problems is that the summer winds have pushed in clingy, disgusting red mung (monkey hair) which definitely complicates things. This is nothing new and the dogged are still catching off ledges surrounded by white water as well as flats. Metal lips, Hogy’s, Slug-Go’s and Magic Swimmers are all catching. Of course, when the heat is up it’s hard to top live bait with pogies and mackerel accounting for a lot of fish. The venerable tube-and-worm as close to the bottom as possible is working also. Captain Lou’s tip of the week is to focus on cooler, moving water and keep on the move until you find feeding fish.

Brandy from Webhannet Bait and Tackle/Boatyard said that with upper 60 degree water temperatures striped bass fisherman who are consistently catching are fishing “creatively” in that they are steering clear of the daytime and logging the majority of their time on the water between dusk and dawn. She suggests that sharpies steer clear of rivers and put in their time off beaches/rocky shorelines, especially during the incoming tide when cooler water will arrive. Live pogies matter so do mackerel with the tube-and-worm an attractive alternative. While she hasn’t heard of bluefish, she did say that mackerel are “behaving” as if there are blues around in that schools are smaller and more scattered than they tend to ordinarily be which is often a signal that they are under attack. Haddock limits have been a cinch on Jeffrey’s Ledge between 150 and 200 feet but if you use bait, use it judiciously since the dog pound is out in force. Regarding “bait”, squid are swarming among night time lit piers from Portsmouth to Portland with York getting a special nod.

Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont Fishing Forecast

The dogs are posing a problem. The ones infamously maligned in the Dog Days of Summer mantra and the other “dogs” which are a nuisance are the dogfish which are plaguing ground fishermen who are using bait. Those pests can be neutralized by striped bass anglers who are sticking to the night shift for the time being and haddock chasers who skip out on bait and opt for jigs and teasers.

Want to get in on the bite? Find an OTW-approved Charter Fishing Captain for New Hampshire or Maine!