Grieg McCully and his brother-in-law Dan joined me for a Saturday morning of striped bass fishing on the Kennebec River. Most of the action was spin fishing with Carolina rigged live eels.

Along with some great fishing we shared many fond memories of family outings on the Kennebec with Grieg’s dad Jim who passed on recently. Jim was a longtime client, friend, a true sportsman and gentleman. He will be greatly missed by fly fishing and light tackle guides in Maine and many other fishing destinations. I have been truly blessed through knowing him. God’s speed my friend.

Conditions: Water temps upriver are in the mid to low 70s and high 50s on the beaches. The river has lots of bait throughout the 11 miles from Bath to Popham Beach. Water flow is average as is the clarity.

Bait the fish are feeding on: Juvenile Atlantic herring, sand eel, river herring, eel

Species to fish for this week: Striped Bass, Atlantic Mackerel

Fishing Tactics: We’re closing in on August so the striped bass are hanging on the ledges in deeper water my mid morning. Sight fishing with surface lures and flies is productive early then switch to flies and sinking lines and bucktail jigs while spin fishing as the sun gets higher in the sky.

My fly fishing tip of the week: go early and look for tails, dorsal fins and nervous water on the flats.

My spin fishing tip of the week: Carolina rigged eels and cut bait is doing the trick mid day. Bucktails and shad bodies are working great too.

7 day outlook: great tides and fishing conditions all week. Some hot weather coming in late in the week on southerly winds. The wind shifts westerly during the weekend. 

I’ve been getting behind on video editing so here is a short compilation showing some of this week’s action. We’ve been having good success early mornings with lures and fly fishing. When the sun gets overhead we’re swapping to spin fishing live eels in the rips and along the ledges.   

Long time clients the Pecars, joined me for a morning of Kennebec River striped bass fishing while on vacation at their Popham Beach cottage. We had some good action spin fishing with live eels.