July 19

It's 3:20 am.  Outside, the air is still but every so often there are some heat flashes.  You know what I mean?  Kind of like lightning.

I am awake partly because the wonderful dinner my mom bought me last night does not agree with me.  But also, I am awake in search of easy Macking.  Yesterday, I had aboard some repeat clients.  They persevered with me through a two hour Mackerel Marathon.  What happened?  Why did it take so long to catch Mackerel?  Two Bluefish were caught near the Coast Guard Station in West Harbor and so the local theory goes that the Blues scattered the Macs. I believe it. This basically happened just about over night. The day before we crushed the Mackerel in 15 minutes.

Anyway, once stocked with live ones we headed across the Sheepsquat and into the Kennebec River.  I knew the spot I wanted to fish.  George Harris of Superfly Charters clued me in the day before during a two boat trip.  We had great success having fish interest on just about every drift and catching 6 fish with 4 in the cooler in a short time.

This brief fishing story is a good indication of how its going right now.  Stuff is happening.  I have been fishing mostly on the beach.  The seas have been calm and the bite regular out there.  I have also fished the lower end of the Kennebec with success as well.  We seem to have many fish from 33" and down.  We have caught larger but they are more sporadic.

I anticipate more Bluefish information in the next post.  My friend George said he had one shred a Sabiki rig but that's all I got.

The fishing is good right now.  I'm serious. Stuff is happening.

July 11

Twice this week I came upon birds that showed me to breaking fish.  Stripers.  What year is this? Not only do we have Schoolies in the Kennebec River  but we have larger fish setting up on some ledges  and also holding on the beaches.  We have variety!  So, Striper fishing has been good. Macs have been good. We have had some bluefish bite offs but they are random and unpredictable.

We have had some seriously fishy weather lately.  Foggy, cloudy, drizzle. Today, there was some serious bounce and it messed up my second trip.  Client got seasick and we had to move.  We were fishing on the beach.

Finally, the seal was back again today.  This time we rescued the fish and made sure it would swim away unharmed.  Below is a picture of the clients who rescued the seal.  They teamed up on it.  Then, in the next shot the Seal cozied up to us again and Hannah took a shot with it.

a seal story

I'd like to share with you something that happened yesterday and today at the same part of the Kennebec River and at the same time of the tide.

So yesterday I had a guy from Canada and his two sons.  Real nice guys. We were catching fish and having a great time. Then, we tried drifting a few live Macs on the bottom over structure.   The three anglers dropped their baits to the bottom and felt the bump as they drifted in the fast current. I called out the depths and we came to the top of the hump.  I marked a couple fish and seconds later we had a double hook up.  The father was an experienced angler so I helped the son.  Soon, he had the fish near the boat.  I was ready with the net and as the fish went buy the boat with renewed vigor I could see a seal right behind him.

"Seal!" I told the boat.  To the clients this meant nothing. I had not prepped them for this possibility as we had not seen any seals.  As calmly as I could I explained what was happening while I gave orders.

This went something like,"Everybody listen. Jake's Striper has been taken by a seal.  He needs to keep constant pressure on the seal/fish.  I need to drive the boat as quickly and as sharply as I can to stay near the seal so when you can, hang on. Brad you fight your fish,  Tyler, you net your dad's fish and I will take the hook out and then you guys get a pic.  Jake, you and I are going to try to stay close to the seal so when he lets your fish go for a breath of air we can get it into the boat."
Below is a picture of Brad with his fish and Jake and I are in the background fighting the seal.

What you can't get a sense of in this picture is how the boat is moving around.  My goal, is to stay as close to the seal as possible.  So as he swims around I am driving and turning the boat.  This is known on the Kennebec River as the Pecci Spin named after the captain who figured it out.  When I am not able to keep the boat close to the seal he comes to the surface, and holding on to the Striper, he just looks at us.  

Finally, the Pecci Spin prevails. After many attempts we get close enough and Jake gets his fish alongside the boat and I scoop it up.  I am worried about reviving the fish but don't want to put it back in the water for fear the Seal will attack.  I tell everyone to hang on and we go charging a half mile away.  We quickly posed for the following picture with the saved fish.

At this point were all exhausted but happy.  We won the fight with the seal and had a double hook up. Lost in the melee was the fact that dad had boated a 34" fish.  Jake's rescued fish measured 30" and I put the boat in gear, lowered the fish into the water and held on. Slowly, slowly the fish began to show signs of life.  Jake, Tyler, and Brad leaned over the side of the boat to see if we had indeed saved this fish's life.  We all congratulated each other about the feat we had just accomplished and wondered at the determination of the seal.  Brad held the wheel while I held the fish in the water letting it revive. The fish's fins began to stand up and we hoped.  And then, the seal took the fish right out of my hand. Gone.  

The Story does not end there.  Today I decided to take my clients back to that spot. That's reasonable right?  We did have a double hook up.  We caught a fish or two there and again I saw no sign of the seal.  Then, we lost a Mackeral and our lines got tangled and he was there. And when I mean there, I mean he was literally following my boat around just a few feet behind the motor.  In the picture below the client is actually posing with this seal. The seal stayed in this spot behind the boat for ten or more minutes while I fixed up the gear the seal had just wrecked. Pretty Dang Wild.

July 5

  There is a ton of fresh water in the river. If you watch the video linked here you wil notice how murky the water is.  This video was shot mostly on the beach but still water visibility is pretty low.

Despite the dirty water the Stripers, for the most part, have been biting well.  Bait has been easy too.  I have only been 5 or 6 times since my last post but we have caught fish every trip.  For the most part we have been fishing the south facing beaches around the Kennebec.