Maine Striper Fishing



Well the skinny water fishing in Casco Bay has remained strong all season long!!! even through the hottest  weather we had fish in the shallows eating flies!!! we also boated a few large fish in the shallows on sluggos, Fishing the tide has trumped  chasing the low light and has turned some bright sunny days into darn right outstanding sight fishing!!!!! with that said there are times the fish are much snappier than than others and experienced flats anglers have been able to just make them eat, while others struggle, olive colored hollow style patterns with very little flash crabs,crabs,crabs have be working for us very well for awhile now, even with a ton of fin bait around a quite boat and a well fished crab get eats!!! some small sand eel patterns and for the spin caster in the shallows soft plastics white  sluggos and olive over gray seemed to be working well match it up to low light to bright light..Water temps are pretty warm for maine but compared to 76 down on the Cape Cod you understand why we contuine to see more and more fresh fish in Casco Bay area or could it be something we have not seen for years??? Penut bunker !!! yes a little early but we will take it they are spread out in a particular area in the bay and came in after a few days of hard southwest winds last week. Hope like hell more come and bring more and more fish setting us up for some great fall fishing, August should continue to fish pretty good everyone for the most part is finding fish and enjoying one of the better striper fishing season in Maine in years!! I have 2 or 3 open dates for august as of today so if you are interested in getting on the flats for stripers here in Maine either Casco Bay or the sand flats south of Portland give a call also remember the tidal carp fishing is still holding up well again tides and weather patterns are key to get them in the shallows...

I want to say congratulation to my buddy Capt Justin Rea for winning his second Del Brown Permit Tournament, for all you who have taken on the ultimate challenge of lower keys permit fishing on the flats with a fly you understand the angling and guiding level involved!!! Justin has a video out called Black Tail Devils I have copies for sale so let me know and we can get you set up..

Other cool stuff is the new book by Tosh Brown and Pete McDonald call the Blitz over two hundred pages of arguably the best photos to bring to life our passion for these fish. The blitz start here in Casco Bay and works it way to Cape lookout with essay on guides and just plane fishy people, I gave my wife a copy she thumb threw it and said WOW now I understand!!
Buy a copy leave it on the coffee table I am sure it will buy you some water time with a new understanding for your passion...   




at 12:39 PM

1 comments:

Port City Music Hall said...

thanks for your reports .. i look for them every week keep it up. Been good fishing this year ....

August 9, 2011 1:24 PM

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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.