Yesterday

I fished yesterday with my friend Adam Harkins. The Macs were a bit slow out by the tip of Southport but eventually we got plenty of them. The weather was brisk to say the least. We had a hard frost the night before and cruising was tough. Wind chill had to be well below freezing. Long after getting off the water both Adam and I still felt the chill.

We fished from the mouth of the Sasonoa to Morse Cove on the Kennebec. No luck at all. Checked in with several other charter boats and they all had the same lame report. Hopefully, it was just one of those days. But, I am afraid that this year's bite might be over. We shall see... I was scheduled today to take a couple of students out but it rained. Hopefully, we will go out tomorrow after school. If we do go, we will be fishing the incoming tide. Tomorrow might be the day I admit my season is all over.

A few weeks ago I had the chance to fish with my friend and fellow guide, Peter Fallon. Check out his blog entry of the trip. Getting experiences fishing with my fellow guides are priceless. Peter is a super hard working guide. He must be in much better shape from polling his new boat around. You can see his sweet ride below. Someday I want to own a flats boat too. My boat could be poled around but conditions would have to be perfect for it to work with my T-Top heavy boat.



One last piece of information. Ben Polk of Jabez Charters just texted. Evidently the bite is on big time off the coast of South Carolina. Polk boated 13 White Marlin while other boats reported catching in the 20s and one boat took 41 White Marlin. I can not imagine that bite. But, if you have time and the opportunity SC sounds really hot right now.

Fishing Deep

The fish above were caught in between 25' and 40' of water on the Kennebec River over this past weekend. The weather was real nice but breezy. The lower temps make cruising along in my open boat a bit chilly. The Macs have been ok but not nearly as abundant as I would like. We have been getting some real nice tinkers mixed in with larger Macs. Most of the bait has been caught around the Cucholds Lighthouse.

Got some custom made Rods from OC Polk. They proved to be perfect for the fishing we did. I am hoping that I can order some more of these rods for next season. I am hoping to buy all new gear for next year. If anyone has any suggestions feel free to let me know.

The picture below was taken yesterday from Damariscove Island. Mark Piccerelli is the guy you can see clearly. Later that day Mark grilled up some Striped Bass that was absolutely terrific. One of the finest fish eating experiences I have ever had.

So Sorry

So sorry for not posting last weekend. The fishing was ok but not great. I have heard through my fishing grapevine that things have improved substantially so I can not wait to get back out there tomorrow. Allegedly, the fish are pretty concentrated in the Kennebec River. I am going to try to muster a crew to leave after work tomorrow. My wife and family are headed to Falmouth for an overnight so Gayle's parents can take care of the kids while she takes the Praxis Exam. This means I am free to fish both Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

Anyway, one of these days I will post some more. I want to sum up the year in one of these posts and give my overall impressions of the fishing and the charter business. Below is a video many of you have seen before. I am reposting it here in a different format so my students at school can see it if they want to. Unfortunately, YouTube is blocked here at school among other sites that might help.

Lobstering on Friday Afternoon

Hey, check the weather in the video. Wow! My daughter, who is 6, did a bunch of the filming. Ben Polk has the gear on and you can also see his wife Marci, and Murt Marci's cousin-in-law. Gayle, Iz and Evan are also there. Juju was on the boat too and you can see Evan giving her a hug.

I have 6 fishing trips in the next 3 days. One of them is with my cousin, Matt Henry, up from Washington DC for only a day before he has to get back to basketball practice.

I have heard good things upriver and at the beach. I am looking forward to giving everything a try. I think tomorrow we will try upriver. Can't wait.

I will post again one of these days.

Getting the Traps Going Again

It is amazing and sad to me how quickly my hands repair themselves now that I am not fishing everyday. On Sunday, before starting school, I noticed I had two real good cases of Striper Thumb. Seemed like my hands were pretty boy hands by Monday afternoon with no signs of the summer's abuse. Striper Thumb, by the way, is what happens to your thumb when you grab many a Striper with your thumb to bring into the boat.

Anyway, last night I mustered a crew to get the lobster traps going again. We have been slack in fishing them for about a month. On board was Tim Harkins an his friend Carl and Ben Polk. Polk you might remember from last post captains the Jabez down in South Carolina, a 56 Core Sound/Jarret Bay. You can see a picture of that baby above. While its a pretty shi shi looking boat don't let that fool you about Ben. His father was a long time commercial fisherman and Ben has spent plenty of time working on the water in less fancy rigs both commercial fishing and charter fishing.

Anyway, before heading out I checked in with a Boothbay captain who has been fishing all week and he gave me the heads up that the Macs were still thick. So, we decided to catch our own bait for all ten traps. The seas were flat as the wind had only recently turned around to the Southwest. We caught near 125 Macs and it took us about 60 minutes. Ben got his gear on and stuffed the bait bags while I cruised us back to the traps. We caught 3 keeper lobsters, a Sculpin, an egged female which we notched and tossed, and a keeper Flounder. You can see Captain Ben cutting up the Flounder below.

I love the Flounder we get around here for eating. I was way more excited about the Flounder then the lobsters. As a kid I used catch Flounder all the time. Now, it is almost impossible to catch them. At least I have not been able to find any reliable holes. I am not sure what happened to the Flounder population here but one thing I know is back when the Flounder were thick people were still dumping their waste over the side. Since dumping your waste has become illegal the Flounder population seems to have dried up. This may be unrelated but maybe not.

Anyway, last night was a fun trip. One of the very best parts of my job is meeting new people like Ben who love to fish. I seriously have met some terrific people doing this job. This October I will be in a wedding for a terrific guy whom I met while taking him fishing. How cool is that?