Angler: Lanier Woodrum with a nice bass caught on a Casco Bay mud flat in the endless northest winds and rain of June and early July 2009!!
If you where on the water today you know how outstanding the fishing and weather was,
every where we went we found lot's fish and tons of bait to keep them happy for a while.With all the bait the bass where not just jumping at the first thing you throw at them, we did well fishing a hollow pattern with a tiny droper of a craft-fur type baitfish pattern size 4-6 with 95% of fish eating the droper as well laid up tarpon bunnys striped slow on a floating line or any popper wakeing the water. Looking forward we have some bumpy weather for a day or two but otherwise it's looking good, with tons of fish and bait it really looking to be and outstanding July, the water is cleaning up quickly and we took advantage of the sun by running to some of the outer island beaches for some sight fishing, after a great incoming tide on the mud flats. The fish are spread out, mixed in are some big schools of small and big bluefish, so have some bite guard with you.
Open AM days for July is the 19 and 29 th PM call about tides.
Capt Eric Wallace
207-671-4330
Flats fishing report for Striped Bass: Capt Eric Wallace
From Maine to Cape Cod Bay there are both big flats and small shoreline pockets that offer good skinny water fishing, and big tides that average 8 to 10 feet. The coast from Chatham, Massachusetts to Long Island, New York offers the same type of water but smaller tides, only 2 to 4 feet or so. Only Long Island has tide ranges up to 7 feet.
The bigger the tides the faster fishing conditions will change. In locations with a 2-foot tide a flat might be fishable for the entire day; a flat with a 10-foot tide will be most stable around low tide, sometimes for several hours. Once the strong flow begins be prepared to move with the flow so as not to get trapped by the rising water when wading.
An early incoming tide will be the most productive in many locations. Stripers feel more at ease and as the flats cover there is food like dead sand eels, clams and crabs that are easy targets for stripers. This is especially true where tides are biggest. However, a falling tide in places that trap baitfish along edges and inside basins and drainage gullies can be excellent, too. Small creekmouths attract fish on a falling tide and they move upstream into the creek in search of food as the tide rises. Some small creeks are crystal clear and will remind the trout angler of Western spring creeks. Generally, big-tides mean a short fishing window.
Sand eels are the best baitfish for northern flats because they burrow and remain in the sand on dry flats through low tide. As water returns, some baitfish die and lay on the bottom. A flat where you see dead sand eels at low tide could be a hotspot, so stick around. Crabs are numerous on all flats and both crabs and shrimp are abundant inside creeks and estuaries. I do very well with a sparse, white Deceiver, and an epoxy sand eel fly made with purple Fluorofibre over cream Fluorofibre with some flash. Tie these flies 3 to 5 inches long. The lady crab, or calico, is a very important food source in the shallows; a reddish Del Brown Crab Fly is a good match for these. Any light tan bonefish fly 1 1/2 to 2 inches long will match both the common shore and sand shrimp that live on the flats inside most estuaries. And lightly weighted 3- to 4-inch Clouser Minnows in tan-and-white or olive-and-white are also very popular.
Top times for sight fishing are from mid May through early July. Then you can depend on good sunlight and the lower water temperature brings hungry fish onto the flats and into the creeks to feed. Some of the colder water locations from northern Massachusetts to Maine can have good sight fishing into August. In September and early October big flats might hold fish at times but the light is not as good as in summer. The key to good daytime fishing is cool water and abundant food sources.
In the spring there are places when you can sight cast and catch large numbers of smaller stripers, but the real fun begins when casting to big stripers. You will earn each fish, and you will remember each one long after the memory of a 20-fish day has faded.
Copyright Coastal Fly Angler Maine Saltwater Fly fishing Guides and Reports With Capt Eric Wallace.
1 comments:
Hello People, I was on a holiday for a month just passing by read this interesting post its great to see that every thing here is getting more lively...thanks a lot for these keep them coming....
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