Light Tackle and Fly Fishing in Mid Coast Maine - The rugged beauty of the rocky coast, the miles of pristine beaches and the wooded shores of the mighty Kennebec River all set the tone for a world class fishing trip. During the months of May & June the Kennebec is catch and release, fly and artificial lures only fishing. This provides for some of the very best striped bass fishing on the East Coast. July through September Striped Bass light tackle or fly fishing is very consistent. In July the Bluefish show up along the coastal islands and beaches along with school sized (footballs)bluefin tuna offshore. August and September is the time to try your luck at offshore fishing for shark. Blue Shark, with the occasional Mako mixed in, cruise the cool waters of the Gulf of Maine. Obsession Charters currently holds the State of Maine Blue Shark Fly rod Record.
Conditions: We are seeing some of the very best early June striped bass fishing in years. Lots of surface blitzes on both the incoming and outgoing tides. Water temp is between 60* and 67* and water clarity is good.
Bait the fish are feeding on: River Herring, Alewives, Mackerel, Sea Herring and Sand Eels
20kt Northwest winds gusting to 35 and a sky rocketing barometer made for an interesting day on the Obsession. Got to the boat an hour before my clients to find a school of striped bass feeding like piranha around the docks (check out the sounder screenshot of the fish stacked up under my slip.
So what was I to do? Break out the 9wt fly rod and a folded foam popper! Went 9 hook ups for 10 casts and then decided I better get the boat ready. My three clients showed up and I did something I rarely do - I suggested they make some casts right there in the Marina. I assured them we were going to cast off and fish elsewhere on the Kennebec. After they caught and released several stripers we did just that.
Dr. Matt Budd (81) a long time client catching schoolie striped bass in the rips of the Kennebec River using a 9wt Helios2 and a 350gr Depthcharge line. The fish were holding on a ledge in 15' of water and feeding on 2" alewives.
Thursday morning proved to be the best kickoff to the striped bass season in many years. I was part of a four boat outing for folks from Sunday River Ski Resort. We had fish busting on the surface for two solid hours. Mostly schoolies but we managed to get two nice 8-10 pounders too. There's tons of small and medium sized river herring around for the bass right now. We caught them on light tackle using MirroLure twitch baits, sluggos, and bucktails. Video coming soon. I've got June dates available - lets go get em!
Thursday morning proved to be the best kickoff to the striped bass season in many years. I was part of a four boat outing for folks from Sunday River Ski Resort. We had fish busting on the surface for two solid hours. Mostly schoolies but we managed to get two nice 8-10 pounders too. There's tons of small and medium sized river herring around for the bass right now. We caught them on light tackle using MirroLure twitch baits, sluggos, and bucktails. Video coming soon. I've got June dates available - lets go get em!
The Dept. of Commerce just released its 2014 Socio - Economic Report on Saltwater Fishing. NOAA's press release stated: "Saltwater angling sales increased 4 percent from 2013, generating $61 billion in 2014 and supporting 439,000 jobs. This year's report includes improvements in data collection and analysis methods for the recreational sector, which helped NOAA scientists gain a more accurate view of the industry's economic landscape."
Saltwater angling is big business across America. 68 million fishing trips took place in 2014. With this, goes a huge responsibility to utilize our marine resources wisely. Those of us who make our living from these resources must do all we can to protect our oceans and the fish along with advocating for our businesses. Great organizations like the National Assn. of Charterboat Operators, the Maine Assn. of Charterboat Captains and the Florida Guides Assn. provide strong voices on fisheries issues. I'm proud to be a member of all three. Read the entire report
Incredible 30 seconds of slow motion highlights of catching a 150 - 200 pound Gulf of Maine Mako caught on 30 pound stand up gear.
HOT weather this 2nd week of September is continuing to keep the striped bass deep. Good light tackle action is taking place on the ledges of the Kennebec River. The bite is not continuous but there there are lots of stripers to be found if you are persistent. fish deep and slow with worms or eels. I'm still confident that as the days cool off the fly fishing will be great.
Shark fishing is very good right now and will continue for the next 3-4 weeks. Check out the mako shark videos I posted on the Maine Fishing Videos Section of the website.
This 3 minute video captures some pretty intense action of a 15 minutes fight with a 150-200 pound mako shark. Several jumps and long runs ending with the shark leadered. We had hoped for a few boatside pictures but the mako wrapped himself in the outboard and broke off. We caught several blue sharks on spinning gear and fly rods during this trip also. Thank you to Erin and Jeremy Libby and Sumner Crawford for the camera work and colorful commentary!
Everyone had fun on this late August morning on the Kennebec. The striped bass were holding deep and a bit fussy until the tide started running but then things turned on. Live bait on light tackle spinning gear is still the key but over the next few weeks we'll be getting them on lures and fly fishing. The young of the year alewives are starting to arrive in the lower river. Going to be a very good fall for stripers! Great getting to know the Woods family, hopefully we can do it again in the future!
Even though the Gulf of Maine Shark Fishing started slow this summer it is now in high gear! We had pretty much non-stop action with fly rods, spinning gear and stand up gear. We ended up the trip with doubles, on on fly and on standup. The stand up gear fight lasted over 20 minutes bring the biggest blue shark (over 10') of the trip boat side weighing between 250 and 275 pounds!
I can't remember a year with this many striped bass staged on the Ledges of the Kennebec River. The action is still on Carolina rigged bait due to high water temps.
Over the next few weeks the alewives will be dropping down river and the waters temps will drop. That will bring the stripers up off the ledges back to the surface for what I expect will be the best fly fishing and light tackle lure fishing of the 2015 season.
Great day sharking yesterday With Jeremy and Eran Libby and Sumner Crawford. 11 Blue sharks (5 on flyrod) up to 140 pounds. One small Porebeagle and a 5'-6' Mako that went airborne 4 times on light tackle stand up gear. Videos and pics coming soon. Water temp offshore has finally reached 67*. We'll have great fishing through September. Get out there!
Conditions: August conditions, High surface temps are causing the striped bass to hold deep. Offshore, the water temps are finally where they should be.
Bait the fish are feeding on: Atlantic herring, sand eel, river herring, eel, pollock
Species to fish for this week: Striped bass, Bluefish, tuna and shark
Fishing Tactics: Fish the shallows during low light and then fish deep structure where the water is cooler mid day.
My fly fishing tip of the week: August is tuff fly fishing but if you go early and work structure near moving water you can prevail... Sinking lines are a must.
My spin fishing tip of the week: Use your fish finder to locate schools of striped bass in deep structure.
7 day outlook: IN shore: Hot and humid with afternoon thunderstorms. Stripers are now into a night feed so fish early and late. Off shore: Tuna are still a no show but it could happen any day now that the cold water has retracted to the east. Shark fishing is heating up and should be very good.
A short video of an early August shark fishing charter in the Gulf of Maine on board the Obsession. It includes pretty cool underwater shots of a 9 foot 150 pound female blue shark chewing on the propeller and of 5 ½ foot mail blue shark boat side prior to release. We caught sharks on 50 pound class spinning gear and 30# class stand up gear on this trip. While fishing we saw porpoise, ocean sunfish, seals, many different seabirds and a 30 foot basking shark.
Will Stobart (7) had a fun morning of Kennebec River striped bass fishing with his dad and granddad.
Longtime clients Larry and Celeste DeMarco from Brightwaters, NY joined me on august 7th for some great Kennebec River striped bass light tackle action. Larry prefers fly fishing (as do I) but whith the stripers holding deep in heavy current we opted for drifting live eels.
Graig White and his Dad Mike joined Capt. Dave for an early August morning of fly and spin fishing for striped bass on the Kennebec River. Fly fishing was a bit slow but the live eels worked just fine.
Nate Rubbo (10), his dad Mike, granddad Dom, and their fishing buddies Marty and Jarred joined me again this year for a great morning of Early August striped bass spin fishing action on the Kennebec River. An early start and cloud cover helped provide nonstop action until the tide went slack.
