June 24

At about 9 last night the rain, which had been torrential, stopped.  The Dopplar Radar showed yellow and red storm activity moving to my south but it seemed like Boothbay was in the clear for several hours.  I jumped in the boat and headed to East Boothbay. I could see some silly National Geographic lighting strikes in the distance as I scanned the southern night sky.  The strikes lit my way as I rounded Spruce Point and turned north.

There, at the head of Linekin Bay, I met my friend Eli Farnham.  We headed out to his float and turned on my boat's deck lights.  Soon squid, both finger sized and larger, could be seen darting in and out of the light and around our jigs.  We spent about an hour and landed just 3 squid.

Today, was a beautiful sunny day with calm winds.   We caught Mackeral easily in several spots around Boothbay.   Recently, Dan Stevens(The Blackjack) confirmed the dismal Macking I was experiencing.   However, Dan too had good luck with the Macs today, filling his live well quickly. Don't get me wrong, all of my Striper trips that have used bait have had blackened live wells, its just that we have had to work at it.  This time of year I expect easy Macking and its not been so until today.  Yesterday, my friend and cohort George Harris reported two bluefish bite offs and this is always a good reason for scattered Macs.

A week from today, the Kennebec Watershed will end its special regulations.  I hate to wish time away but I am really excited to bring bait into the river. Tomorrow, George Harris and I are going to meet at 4am to scout the river.  I am sure this will include jigging some deep spots in anticipation of next week.

The fishing on the beach this past week has been real good.  I am including a pic of Larry who I took out this past Saturday.  Larry caught this beauty on the beach with a piece of a Mackeral.

June 16

Last day of school tomorrow. I got no problem with that.  Since last week, I've been out fishing twice.

  Here is the fishing situation as I know it right now.  The Kennebec River is fishing very well at certain tides and also in the early morning.  There are lots of fish, mostly schoolies, and they can be had on the surface if the conditions are right. Special Regulations prohibit bait fishing in the river until July 1.

Today, I fished the beach, going around the no bait zone.  You can see a few pics below.  Everybody caught a fish today which is always nice.  The fish ranged in size from 22" to 35".  Prior to Striper catching we killed the Macs in a choppy sea by the Cuckolds Light.

What else is there?  Dan Stevens (The Blackjack) reports consistent action offshore jigging the bottom. Squid have been reported in East Boothbay but I have not seen any myself yet.   I caught Macs this weekend at Spruce Pt and in the harbor as well.  There seemed to be a great amount of herring in the harbor.  You can see the herring dimpling in the early morning before the wind comes up.  You can also see the herring on the finder.
Tomorrow at 2:30, I get to take a break from teaching.

The Season Begins

My fishing season got underway this past weekend. On Saturday morning David Nelson of Akron Ohio called to see if I was crazy enough to take his son,wife, and four business associates from China out that day.  I say crazy because at that time the weather forecast looked bleak with heavy rains and winds.   However, they were really fired up to go so I agreed.   As luck would have it, by the time we started at 2:45 the weather had cleared, the wind had died and we were looking good.  Below is Susan Nelson with her personal best fish.  In total, the boat caught into the double figures that day. 3 out of the 4 non English speakers from China also caught their first fish of their lives.

The next day I took my friend Rob Carbone in the early morning(4:30) and then my uncle Bill at around 8am.  Below is a picture of rob with a typical Kennebec Schoolie.   We seem to be catching these with Gummies, Ronz, and Diamond Jigs.  Good times.  No bait is permitted until July 1 in the Kennebec Watershed.  Everybody caught fish on this day including me!

I am optimistic about this year's season.   We seem to be getting fish of different sizes and at times they are showing themselves under birds.  We got several fish off top water lures this past weekend! If you have any questions just shoot me an email and I will do my best to answer.