I've been writing this fishing report over and over again in my head since late November. Apparently, once in December I got so far as to title a blog post but got no further. Hey, I'm on it now right?
After I hung up the guide hat and picked up my teaching hat I still got to fish quite a bit as a weekend warrior. In September when i got the chance I fished the Kennebec River with luke warm results. We caught some fish but nothing of size. All the while I knew that a few captains were doing much better fishing on the outside away from the Kennebec River
I too experienced some good luck in Boothbay Harbor and was intrigued by the idea of fishing some of the outside areas around the mouth of the Kennebec. Finally, on Columbus day weekend, I was able to take a tankful of Macs over to the mouth of the Kennebec. I have a few pics of the fish we caught which you can see below. We ran out of bait as the bite was fierce. I caught the most fish and qucikly and you can see I was rubbing it in.
Right after killing the Stripers we hauled the boat and brought it to Newport Rhode Island. In Weekend Warrior fashion I trudged down to Rhode Island to keep my season going every other weekend or so until December.
However, down in Narraganset Bay we ignored the Stripers, still around there until November, in favor of Tautog fishing. Tuatog love crabs and structure. So, with a bucket of crabs and some heavier rigs we found spots with rock piles and wrecks with the bottom finder in about 15'-50'. Once you get on the spot you only need to wait about 10 seconds and if you don't have a bite you should reel up and check to see if you still have bait. So, its real active fishing.
Now its March, and I am excited to get out there see my people catch fish. Those days are coming. Every few days someone calls, texts, or emails about going fishing this Summer.
My boat is still in Rhode island and I was hoping to start my season early down there but I think house work is going to get in the way. That puts my season starting sometime shortly after Memorial Day. For the past five years or so Memorial day has been just a few days too early for the return of the migrating Striped Bass. However, by the first weekend in June schoolies can be had in the Kennebec River and usually found by just looking for birds. Remember, with June fishing we are somewhat restricted by the special Kennebec Rules. But, fishing in June is still really fun as Stripers are more likely to be up on the water's surface that time of year.
