Maine Striper Fishing Reports by Coastal Fly Angler Guide Service and Capt.Eric Wallace

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The good stable weather of the past few days broke to the coldest high temperature reordered for Portland Maine on a June 22, East- North East Winds filled the bay and pushed some floating eel grass around from this past weeks big tides.With not quite as active of a bite as yesterday the fishing on the moving tides was not to bad at all and a few fish showed them selfs with small surface feeds. Looking forward we have other day of wind and cooler temps, then after the weekend looking  pretty  good for awhile 4-5 days in a row of 80 degree temps and we move into some early AM incoming tides, tons of fun on Casco Bay and later next week if we get a clean sky, great tides for sight fishing the sand flats.

Bait -- we have it, south of Portland there are areas covered with sand eels both Mackerel and a range of  striped bass from small schoolies to some very large targets cruising the sand flats. UP in Casco Bay near the rivers are large schools of Blueback Herring that have staged in the rivers of the Presumpscot,  Royal and Harraseeket, water temps along the coast are ranging from 55- 62 degrees, so the fish have not only plenty of food but also great water temps keeping them pretty happy.

Yesterday at the dock my anglers where sharing notes with another group of  anglers who struggled on what we found to be a pretty active morning, we got into fish at all of our stops and got treated with some great surface feeds in some pretty skinny water,even with a brighter sky by the time water had drained of the flats the fish kept at it.. What these guys where doing was fishing plugs and banging some larger lures around some happy fish - even with the active surface feeds these anglers where also running into, fish can be put down very
quickly! remember that they really don't need to chase down something, they have plenty of food right now and stealth can be key even on the flooded deeper flats.  What was working for us 4-6 inch  olive and chartreuse hollow style patterns on clear intermediate lines, some longer pauses on the strip was working yesterday and  kept us tight and active for about 4 hours of outgoing tide, The flats of Casco Bay will often do this, treat the fly anglers much better than the spin guys.Todays wind and rain was a much different story we where banging black large gurglers that moved a few fish and 5-7 inch hollows in olive and black where a
useful  weapon.

For the Spin guys the river systems have a been a totally different story and there are lots of great catch reports coming from those systems throughout out the bay and state wide from the Saco to the Kennebec River. I have not been fishing them much with the flats holding so many fish already so a first hand report this is not, but some honest anglers have shared some great reports and good catch photos. So if the only days you have open to fish are windy and raining go do it!!! there are lots of fish around if you can trade time this upcoming week is looking to be pretty stable and some fun tides I'm betting we are going to see and here about some very good fishing here in Maine...     
at 6:14 AM

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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.