|
Fishing Report: MAINE: One of the most exciting fisheries that is relatively new to the northern coast is the school-sized bluefin tuna, which for many years, didn't stray much past Cape Cod. Dave Ganter, at Kittery Trading Post's fishing department, has some advice for those that want to try for them.
"These are very powerful and fast fish. Your regular striper or bluefish gear just isn't enough to do the job right. If you're trolling, you probably want at least 50-pound set-ups and some good, stand-up rigging. A lot of these fish are caught from fighting chairs. Good choices of lures include the small squid bars and fast trolling hoochie style lures such as the Green Machine."
"What's a bit unique about this fishery is that you can actually drift and cast to a school of schoolies that are in a surface blitz. But many make the mistake of trying to motor in too close to the school, which will usually put the fish down. These schools are always on the move, so if you put them down they may not surface again within your sight range. Cut your motor well off the schools and try to drift into casting range. The most popular casting rigs are big game spinning rods rigged with at least 50-pound test mono or braided line. You'll need a heavier shock leader, probably of 100-pound test. Casting lures preferred are jigs heavy enough to be tossed many yards from the boat. Surface poppers also will bring strikes, but casting distances are a bit more limited."
"Once you hook up, the key is patience. You'll want to start your motor and chase the fish, as that first sizzling run will often come close to emptying your spool. After that first run it's just a matter of pump and pull. As the runs get shorter, the fish will often start to circle the boat near the surface, then you've got a chance at landing the fish."
Dave noted that the fish are usually well outside the Isles of Shoals and often as far out as Jeffrey's Ledge, so you need an offshore type of boat and to keep a keen eye out for bad weather. Two parties of fishermen this weekend found several schools of tuna between the Isles of Shoals and Jeffrey's Ledge.
"The Santini Tube-n-Worm rig and umbrella rigs have been working well in the lower Piscataqua River for stripers," Dave added. He said that live bait was scarce so the tubes and umbrella rigs allow for a day's fishing without having to try to chase live bait. The area around the old Naval Prison seemed to be a hot spot this week.
For information on the upcoming Downeast Maine Shark Tourney scheduled for August 25-27, email Dr. David Johnson at Djohnson@une.edu.
Craig Bergeron at Saco Bay Tackle had some great news about giant bluefins--"They've been landing a lot of giants, fish in the 90-100 inch class. The fish are both inside, within sight of land, and offshore. There's been fish caught at Platts Ledge, the inside of Tantas Ledge, Cape Porpoise Peaks, out on Jeffrey's at the Elbow, The Curl and Pigeon Hill. Inside, there's been schoolie bluefins around Boone Island but some giants have also been caught at the Mud Hole and Scantum."
"The shark fishing has really started to pick up, with blue sharks, poorbeagles and makos in the mix. The blue sharks have mostly been at the back side of Tantas Ledge and Trinidad Ledge, with one big mako hooked and lost at the Cape Porpoise Peaks while fishing for giant bluefins. One four-foot poorbeagle was boated by Dave Dube about the Hy Tech on Platts Ledge."
"Our stripers are still doing well, with mostly small fish in the Saco River and the larger fish out around the Islands. There's a ton of bluefish out around the islands, also. This year, for the first time in memory, the bluefish have been so thick that you can't catch mackerel in Portland Harbor, a place that for all our memory you could always count on for enough macs for bait," he lamented.
Dave Garcia at Naples Bait fished a bass tourney at Big Kezar Lake yesterday, coming in with a total catch of largemouths that weighed 14 pounds, 10 ounces. He was fishing pig-n-jig rigs over the rocks in 15 to 20 feet of water. He was beat by a fisherman that had a seven and six pounder in his catch that totaled 22 pounds!
"We saw several nice smallmouths taken, fish to over three pounds. We also had reports of some good largemouths caught at Moose Pond in Bridgeton."
"Here at Long Lake, people trolling for brown trout are getting some real quality white perch as a bonus. Small lures, such as the DB Smelt, the small-sized Harry Lure and Pin's Minnow have all been good for both the browns (up to 7 pounds!) and perch. Most are fishing down 15 to 20 feet."
"We saw a beautiful brookie of two and a half pounds that came out of Coffee Pond in Casco by a young girl, fishing with her father. We regret we didn't get her name. She hooked the fish using a night crawler behind a silver/copper spinner 30 feet down."
"Over on Sebago, the togue (lake trout) are hitting well on the west shore. Larry Lewis always manages to limit-out (five fish) on every trip. He fishes a big Murray single spoon on 18 colors of leadcore line with sewed on live bait three feet behind the spinner."
"The fishing pressure is light but the fish are there," noted Rusty Harvey who guides out of River's Edge Sports Shop in Oquossoc in the Rangeley area. "We guided anglers for six days last week, all but one day spent on Mooselookmeguntic. I like to fish there, especially when kids are in the party, as there's always a lot of action. We averaged 10-14 fish per trip. Most of the fish are under the size limits, but we always manage to pick up some keeper-sized salmon and brookies."
"We weighed a big salmon from Rangeley, 5 lbs., 13 ozs. and a nice fat salmon from Mooselook that was 22 inches. DB Smelt in blue/silver with an eye and pink and gold were hot lures. On both lakes, most of the fish are in the fifty foot range."
Danny Legere at Maine Guide Fly Shop had just returned from a trip into the wilds of Northern Quebec. "We caught big brook trout to over five pounds, lakers over ten pounds and northern pike over 40 inches long! It was the best trip, in size of fish caught, and it's tough to get back to the real world!"
Wife Penny gave us the news of the past week in the Moosehead Lake area, saying that fishing pressure was light and slowing a bit. "The East Outlet is running 1580 cfs and this is a good flow for wading but the water temperature is up. There are fish but they are challenging. Nymphing has been the best."
"At West Branch (Penobscot River), there's a good flow for boating but hard for wading. Some big salmon have been caught, especially at Big Eddy." |
Welcome fellow anglers to Fintalk's Maine Fishing Reports and other sport fishing reports for fresh and saltwater regions of the USA and world. We have a long list of up to date fishing reports for various USA hot spots along with some select international hotspots. If you don't see the fishing report you are looking for then feel free to post your own report about any type of fishing you do. You are more than welcome to become one of the Fintalk.com fishing report authors. These reports are for everybody from the surf and pier angler to the angler on an offshore charterboat. From Alaska fishing reports to Maine fishing reports to Maine Fishing Reports.
Send to friend
Email the author
