Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
NONE 09-14-2007 20:52
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
Well I have have not been fishing since my last report, but instead have been working on my freaking house. Will it ever end? along with neglecting all the fish that I should have caught this summer I have also neglected my 2 four legged friends. The “Murph Dog” is showing rust and my little guy Kirby just hasn’t had much training except for obedience which he should have down pat by wintah. I hate to neglect them but the house just takes so much time out of the things I’d like to do. Will be changing that soon! October 1st marks the opener for sea and puddle ducks and I am off the 1st and 2nd. I will pick up 60′ of sched 40 pvc pipe for my duck blind on the Lund. Will post pics. Also owe pics of my last shark and cod trip…sooooon. Just started getting the hunting itch tonight. It usually takes time to set in. It is a differant itch than fishing but just as itchy. The results of this years doe permit drawings are out and I have one for WMD 21…4 yrs running.
Later.
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Cape Cod Bay 09-05-2007 21:01
Sunny & Clear, High Winds – Over 70 Degrees
My wife and I recently took a weeks vacation down in Eastham Mass. We rented a small “Cottage” for a week. I brought the boat with me. We went out Monday from Rock Harbor, a small very tidal harbor. The wind was strong out of the North and there was a 3-4′ chop. I fished a little as my wife chummed for me. We called it an early day and headed in. We went out again on Tuesday and it was flat calm. Found large schools of sand eels but caught no fish for some reason even after trolling with down riggers. There were schools everywhere and they were certantly very nervous. On Tuesday we wnet to “P” Town for a whale watch and had a great time. Had whales right up against the boat. We left for home Sat morning. On labor Day my bro-inlaw and I went off shore for sharks and bottom fish. We stopped short of our waypoint by 5 miles and were about 4-5 miles out due to the building seas. I deployed the drift sock to keep us in the right direction and also set out a shark rod with a mackerell and a tuna rod with a squid. The dogfish found us quickly and began eating up our baits so I reeled them up. Next we sent down our cod jigs and produced a small cod of 18″. We also were cathcing dogs along with cod. In all we landed 9 cod between us as large as 23″ just shy of the 24″ limit. They were all nice fat ones. I hadn’t expected to run into them where we were, since we were not at our intended spot but after looking at the chart the bottom was rather lumpy with a 230′ average depth and small humps coming up to 158′. These spots were quickly put into the GPS. After the cod bite droped off along with the dogsfish we put out one shark rod, deep and pulled in a 5-6′ blue shark that went about 75 lbs or so. I will post some pictures soon. Was a great day despite the wheather. Hope to get out again soon.
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
OFFSHORE, CASCO BAY 08-12-2007 10:09
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
When I saw that Sat and Today were going to be great boating days I planned an offshore sharking trip For this past Sat. I scrounged two coworkers that wanted to go very badly. The wheather was great! Winds were 5kts SW and died out twoards afternoon and then picked up around 2 or so about 8kts. The seas were 1-2′. We left the launch at 0600. The mouth of Casco Bay (near Egle Island was a bit bumpy until we cleared Halfway Rock and then it was a nice slow swell. I followed a trackline out to Pollock Hub, about 12nm out, 19nm from the launch. It took about 40 min or so. We were the only fishing boat on this spot. Other tuna fisherman could be seen 2-3nm away. We were all eager to put the lines out and wait. About a mile before our destination I put a block of chum in a mesh bag and trolled it behind the boat to get a slick going. The first bait in the water was put out, a short and shallow. While the bait was sinking I felt a tug and quickly picked up the rod and reeled in a dogfish. These would be the only “sharks” we would catch today. every biat fell to these toothy critters. We moved 3 times before heading in around noon. They were so agressive that I had one latched onto the chum bag doing a death roll and ripping the bag open. Talk on the radio indicated that we weren’t the only ones with a dog problem. While out there we saw a few whales as close as 50′ from the boat and tuna all over the place. On the way back we tried for some stripers with no luck except for a few pollock. Hope to do this again a few more times.
All for now.
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
BOOTHBAY 08-05-2007 22:22
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Went shark fishing out of Boothbay Harbor this AM. Left at 0935. Headed not to far out, within decent site of land. Passed some tuna fisherman. There were about 6 overall scattered here and there. The wind was up a bit about 10 kts or so with a 1’chop but died out all together with about zero wind and a 1’slow roll. We had a good chum slick going and ended the day with a 2 mile drift. Had the smallest mackerell around the boat all day and I caught a few. They were about 3-4″ long. There were also 50-100lb tuna crashing bait on the surface all around the boat most of the day. We had 5 hours to fish and on the 4th hour when my crew was doubting my abilities and know how on shark fishing the short and shallow rod went off. This was a spankin new set up..Penn Mariner stand up 5’6″ 50lb class with a Penn Sennator 133H spooled with 500+ yds of braided line. Well I let what ever was down there munch the bait, the float popped free and then the beast started taking line. I put the lever to strike and the rod bowed and the drag stopped. Know seconds later everyone on the boat started to hoot and hauler and shout out explatives so as I looked up to see what was going on I saw a 250lb Thresher shark completely jump out of the water. Seconds later I figured out that my braided line had dug itselt into the spool and had jammed. The line parted above my top shot of mono. The Thresher showed itlesf again 100 yards off our Port Beam several more times, most likely tring to clear the 10/0 circle hook with a grn & white hooch, and 10′ of 175lb 49 strand SS Leader and 50 yards of mono top shot. I believe my bimini twist that I used to connect the wind on swivel with was the weak link along with the snarl. I have nver had a knot fail but this may not have been the knot to use for braid. Tomarrow I will be putting on 50lb mono. Even though we didn’t land a shark it was a day no one on the boat will ever forget. It would have been a long fight!
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Cumberland 07-29-2007 17:07
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Fished a lake near the house for the first time in almost 3 years. I have fished through the ice every winter and done well on 3-4 lb bass and monster pickerell. My sea duck hunting buddy came over with his canoe and trolling motor and we fished from about 1730 to 1930. We both used “walleye” jigs, with spinners, tiped with worm and had great luck with white bass and a nice 3-4 lb largemouth. Twoards the end I picked up my 4 wt fly rod and tossed a small yellow chug bug. I caught the smallest bass in the pond, about 5 of them.
Today July 29 after a busy Fri and Sat working on the house I took the wife and two dogs to Sebago Lake. We motored away from all the chaos and anchored up. The dogs had a blast. Our new pup Kirby has lost all shyness for the water and taken after his big brother. The water was very warm. Headed in about 1430. I spoke with a fisherman coming in and he reported catching small salmon and some decent lake trout. I did not fish this weekend. My life is being consumed by working on the house. The bigest project (fencing) is almost done. Just need to cement in 21 more 4×4 post and put up the panels. Still plenty of time to fish this summer!
All for now
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Casco Bay 07-21-2007 19:40
Mostly Cloudy, No Precipitation – Over 70 Degrees
This past Thursday I took a coworker out into Casco Bay. Went way out to the edge of the bay to try to fill up the livewell but found no mackerell. Went to plan b and thawed out some frozen mackerell. Put 2 chunk baits out and caught nothing. The olny bait that worked for the day was the good old Storm chartuese Shad. Landed 3 of 5 in our first area. After that I had to unfortunately buy fuel. I usually fill it up at the gas station. Went in and bought a whopping $15. We next headed over to the power plant as I have heard of good luck in this spot. Ran into some small schoolies but they quickly dissapeared despite chuming.
Put 4 fish in the boat. Headed in around 11 due to darkening skies. According to the Trina Lynn (charter boat) Saco is having some good catches of slot and bigger stripers. Hope to get out this coming week.
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Mid Coast 07-02-2007 21:37
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
Fished out of Boothbay this past Friday AM. Went out to Cuckolds Light to fill up the livewell with Mackerell and managed to do so very quickly. Lots of bait there. Kept finding the pollock in the shallower spots and I finally have faith in my fish finder as it produced, marking large concentrations of bait. I took off the generic “Fish Symbol” and replaced it with the arches. Preference I guess. This particular area is not a sacred spot. One can see many boats out in the morning getting bait here. So we ended up fishing between the light house and another island with live bait and caught zipo. Our baits did get nervous a few times but no takers. I was limited to where I could fish with “Marine Bait”. Until 1 July it is artificial only from Cape Small to Salter Island to Cape Newagen-inland. This is new ground for me fishing wise so It is always fun finding where the fish are holding. Friday evening and Saturday were spent putting a new roof on the house. Words can’t explian how fun roofing is nor can the large scab on my right shin from missing a rung on the ladder not once but twice. It did come out looking “good from afar” Now I just need to finish 200′ of fencing. Can’t wait till winter when the only outside work will be shoveling!
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Casco Bay 06-27-2007 16:50
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – Over 70 Degrees
After a day of roof work on my garage I went out into Casco Bay via Royal River Launch. We only had a few hours to fish and managed to catch 4 “Tinker” mackerel to go along with our dead bait. Fished around Pound Of Tea Island (the Frecnch bought the island from the Indians for 1lb of tea) along with everyone else. Ended up catching 3 keeper stripers, 2 went into the cooler. We also saw many pirs of eider hens flying about. It was very cool on the water which made it all worth it.
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Mid Coast to Southern Me. 06-24-2007 15:10
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 60-65 Degrees
I failed to mention on my earlier reports that I have been seeing many large groups of eiders and “ducklings” close to shore. About 2 hens to 10 chicks.
Posted By:
Andrew-White
Field Editor
Casco Bay & kenebeck River 06-22-2007 15:36
Sunny & Clear, Winds Calm – 45-50 Degrees
My head has been spinning with the amount of crap going on between work and working on my house. I have only been out striper fishing twice but at least I have gone. Went out Tues June 12th from the Royal River and headed all the way out of the bay, about a 5 mile run, looking for mackerell to start stocking up on. Went to a usual producing spot and it was dry. So I cruised North twoards Portland passing Well Island and Tower Island (has a bunker on it). I found some nice fishing spots along the way and saw about a hundred eiders all told just sitting on small sandy areas on the islands. They taunted me by flying low and slow right by me. Game on Oct 1st. Did more cruising than fishing. Needed to burn the carbon out of the engine. The boat ran fine and it was a well deserved break from constant stress. Once I got back in the river I fished around some of the islands that had muddy grassy banks but found nothing. The water was real warm at 60 or so. Just before the ramp I spotted some surface action and got the spinning rod out. Nothing connected so I went home. This past Wednesday I tokk some coworkers (that I can stand being around after hours) to fish the Kennebeck. Have never had the boat in the Kennebeck but new of some good spots to try. Fished fairly close to the ramp and BIW and picked up 2 fish out of 5. Small schoolies. One measured out to 18″. It’s a start. Also this past Monday night around 2230 I went down to our boat house and the water was completely full of Tinker Mackerell and squid. I have never seen so many mackerell around the boat house ever. Ended up catching about 12 mackerell and one squid. The macks were brined and frozen for later use this summer. My freezer is filled with squid from last year I hope to use up shark and tuna fishing.
All for now.
