Maine Striper Fishing Reports


Sharing flies and ideas is one of the better parts of fishing, and i cant tell you how lucky I feel to have had some great minds on my skiff over the years!! This past fall a random box came in the mail from Lefty Kreh there was a bunch of flies in it and one particular pattern that had me very excited, We fished it for the first time for stripers here in Maine the season before and while one my boat this past summer I explained I tried to duplicate it from memory but was not getting to sit in the water column like his,Well lefty having a memory like a trapped door sent a few of the pattern this past fall and after a few bath tube test I think I got it close, of course I am not using the flies he tied they are in a box with the hand wrote address on my desk and will remain there!!! 

What really got me in the mindset to share this story was another Angler who I fish quite a bit over the last few years and really has become a good tier in his own right, with all the trade shows going on this year and the latest greatest tackle there was one thing that really stuck out was the quality of buck and tail and the colors that are out there. Joe Herbert the angler mentioned above based out of Rhode Island, sent some really cool Hollow patterns this week tied with two tone buck tail, fun stuff and you are getting the feeling by the emails and ph calls anglers are getting ready for the 2012 fishing season.

I have a talk and Fly Tying Demo at LL Beans here in Freeport on FEB 17 
Focus is Skinny Water Striped Bass Fly Fishing in Maine, hope to see a few of you there and come with some flies and ideas great to work off of each other..                
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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.