Maine Striper Fishing 2013

Please Check out Coastal Fly Angler for more updates and links for 2013 Striper and Saltwater fishing reports and Guided Saltwater fishing trips.

Striper season has begun up here in Maine and the reports I was receiving this past week had me looking forward to some good early season action. Well after a long drive back from the FL Keys with a flats skiff in tow I arrived to cold raining condition that all but shut down the fishing coast wide here in Maine. Heavy NE winds, surf, and 4 inches of rain Saturday had the rivers that are holding the the mixer of bait, brown and blown out. The reports pre the big weekend rains had fish being caught from  Casco Bay- south.

The weather is forcast to be pretty stable this week and I am looking forward to full week of trips starting  and will be reporting on our finding.

Maine Striper Fishing 2013

Check out the new website for Coastal fly angler, more to be added soon!!

I am in the FL Keys until Late May and look again to make back just intime for early Striper season. Photo??

email your best discription to win a Hat and T-shrit..

Capt Eric Wallace 207-671-4330

New Website March 2013- Coastal Fly Angler

Coastal Fly Angler has new website for 2013!! with Maine's Striper fishing season still a few months out, check for updates and reports from the Fl Keys Tarpon season, here on the blog. We look forward to giving you the most up to date honest saltwater fishing reports for Maine's coastal waters look for bios on the new guides to join Coastal Fly Angler and there trips and reports. Launching Mid March!!!!! with updates to follow throughtout the spring...

Over the past several year I was able to fish with one of the best Permit anglers in the world,with his passion for Permit fishing came his Passion for protecting the fishery!!Jon Ain started the March Merkin Permit tournament in the FL keys with hopes to raise money and awarness for the issues that threaten the fishery and its value to the anglers and guides. Jon Passing this past november came way to early,but his feverish passion to protec the fishery lives on. I have donated guide trips over the years to the March Merkin and will continue to do so in Jon's name, also I encourge all anglers to join Bonefish,Tarpon Trust. 

Some fun stuff still to be had here in Maine, windows can be short or you might find snappy fish on both sides of the tide, here on Casco Bay we have been seeing some good surface  feeds on the flats near the rivers and bigger bays around the 2-7 ft range on the incoming tide.

This past weekend was pretty crappy and windy but we did give it a go and found some fish and the water temps are still holding well,  the bait is poring out of the rivers and on the the move. Now as I write this the big full moon is out and I always suspect of fall full moons and fish moving out of here on them, we will see? doing trips the next three days and this upcoming weekend and will try to post or  drop a line or give a call for quicker  updates, if the fishing remains as strong as it did this past week this upcoming week, I will continue to offer trips the following week if the water temps/weather and fishing in general holds up. So give a call and either Capt Mike or I can get you out,



Capt.Eric Wallace
207-671-4330
www.coastalflyangler.com

Maine striper fishing

First off need to apologize for a lack of reports on the blog, I have been  guiding one to two trips day all summer and add in a filming for Howard Films who brought you ( Chasing Silver) new project, simply I have have been on the water to much to get anything else done.. A quick view looking back on August just gives me smiles!! the sight fishing held up really strong and we just boated a good amount of f nice fish on crab patterns in the shallows. For the most part my entire summer has been in the skinny stuff and when I look back at how few hrs that went on the outboard versus how many pairs of sun/poling gloves I went through, I would be more than happy to see a season like again... Looking forward things will change small bait is starting to drop out of the rivers as well few schools of adult pogies are in the Casco Bay and  a few areas  the peanuts have made a showing and offered a few good surface feeds. In the shallows we are really starting to see the fish school up more and more. you can still get them to eat your crab or shrimpy pattern pretty good but the tight groups and starting to play follow the leader and looking for the few fish that wonder off and presenting to them seem to get the good look and often eats. I had an angler from london out this past week who spends a ton of time in Cuba chasing permit a very good skinny water angler he went 8 fish boated on 12 cast on the sand flats fishing a small crab on the sight~ thats fun stuff!!!!  The good sun angle is shorting with the days but with in the schooled up fish are slowly starting to show themselves with group feeds we should see some very good fishing along Maine's coast i would think the best we have had for some years, but you wont know if your not on the water...            

Capt.Eric Wallace
207-671-4330
www.coastalflyangler.com

Maine Striper Fishing Reports

Crab Size that has been working for us, 12 ft leader down to 10 lb!!

Well, if you judge a fishery on opportunities this is nuts how many nice fish are in Casco Bay or all Maine's striper waters right now!!!! But getting the eat has been a little bit of chasing an early start, tides and reading the fish. The later being the most difficult if you are fishing from shore or a noisy boat, simply the fish don't need to eat our flies they really don't need to waste energy chasing our flies, they have all they need and can eat when ever they want. But they are stripers and there are always a few who are a little more snappy, one thing that has been consistent for us is not to throw a the big groups, I know it hard to reframe from doing so, but those fish are social and read off any nervous energy from the group, Read my last post on the Green merkin crab it has been our best producer for the last 2 weeks followed by a small olive sand eel pattern I tie with Finish Racoon. WE are targeting tides and sun angles for sight fishing and missed a few of the early starts exchanging them for the sand on the incoming tides,and it paid off!. flats..../> Capt Eric Wallace 207-671-4330

Maine Striper Fishing Reports

Even if the bite slows down the sight fishing continues to be excellent when the tides and sun angles come together, the amount of fish in Maines waters is impressive but also the amount of food these fish have combined with warmer water temps and last weeks bright moon had the fly anglers thinking a little bit out of the box to get some eats. The next few days tides on Casco Bay are not my favorite, going into a slack high tide just after sunrise, try all black flies fished a little deeper or banging a popper of the banks might turn on the right fish. Looking forward we have fun tides ahead plenty of fish should contuine being a fun summer here in Maine. Here is a few photos of fish that ate our crab pattern sight fishing the sand flats..    

Maine Striper Fishing Reports

When my angler casted to this fish on sand flats, we thought it would be a spunky battle on a 8 wt 10 lb floro and and a small crab pattern in the skinny water. The Bass ate the crab and turn for a quick run then just stalled out, we where just waiting for another burst and a chance to see backing wich often happens on the sand flats by far the best fight you can get out of a striper!!! as we got closer we knew something was not right and by the looks of it the fish has signs of Mycobacteriosis an emerging infectious disease that affects well over 75% of the resident striped bass in Chesapeake, we often don't see the signs here in Maine as the cooler water is said to help temporality clear it up a bit. There are many groups working on the study of Mycro and funding Seems to be a issue,Groups like Striper Forever, CCA and many more have help supported getting the word out, and a consistant eye is needed to kept a watch on the health Of the Chesapeke watershed.. MAINE SALTWATER FISHING REPORTS, overall we are off to a very good start the amount of fish in the Casco Bay system is the best seen in years!!! But the amount of food is also very high add in water temps that are up a bit from last weeks heat wave making the fish very lazy and the bite a very short window, low light AM or on the tide incoming change. fish size wise is all over the place from 14 inch micros to 40 lb cows are being landed. There are going to days that the fish are snappy and hold up well thru the tide and days you will need to work your ass of to feed them, the tide will be key and thinking out of the box on the slower days might just get a few fish. Capt Eric Wallace 207-671-4330

Maine Striper Fishing Reports

< Some great opportunity to sight fish to large fish this  past week was the highlight with a nice stretch of good weather.Bait wise and available fish seem to continue to stay strong in the Portland area, there was a little slow down on the bite this past weekend but really turned on again yesterday and today where we found plenty of snappy little fish and some very solid surface feed in the shallows during the first few hours of the tide change. --- Although not the largest fish we got off the sand flats this past week on the sunny days the photoed fish here held by fly angler from Boulder CO resident, Karen. was one of the most entertaining fish in some time, good size fish on  skinny water are always fun, but add into it a contagious  giggle and you get the picture.       Capt.Eric Wallace 207-671-4330 www.coastalflyangler.com

Maine Striper Fishing call 207-671-4330

This week we got to spend some time focusing on sight fishing on the sand flats and on one of few days I take off is fathers day, and where do we head for dads day off? to sand flats- I get to cast a few and this year spent my casting time on a stand up paddle board with my kids and wife who also enjoy this great sport. Report and photos from this week coming soon..

Maine Striper Fishing

After a few post storm scouting days, I decided to hold off on doing trips for one more day and draged out my buddy Matt who ski coaches for Gould Academy in the winters, also has a flat skiff down at his place in the 10'000 islands area of FL. With a pesty NE wind and blown out brown water leaving out of the Royal River you become suspect of your decision. Well within 15 minutes we where into fish and started with a double hookup, the fish bounced around in mini blitz for a while on the incoming tide change, fish size where all over the place from Micros to 30ish. We decided we needed to check out a few flats in hope for a little cleaner water with the sun starting to give us a little hope that we might get in a hour of sight fishing. The sight thing never happen but we did find fish and water temps where much better the farther we got from all the fresh water rain runoff coming out of the rivers. Flies and sluggos works well for us and many of the eats came on the pause..Capt Eric Wallace 207-671-4330