April 14, 2008

I've decided to try and do a fishing report on an inconsistent basis.  Writing is not what I'm good at so please bear with me and we'll see how it goes.  This first report is an easy one because the fish haven't shown up yet.  They're still down in the Chesapeake.  I'll be heading down there in the next couple weeks to do some fishing.  I'll let everyone know how I do.

April 21, 2008

We just got back from out trip.  My wife Vicki, a good friend of mine and I fished the famous Susquehanna flats which is at the northern end of the Chesapeake Bay. The fishing was real slow but Vicki wasn't complaining since it was 80+ degrees out and there wasn't a breath of air all day which made from some extremely flat and glass like sea conditions.  Vicki boated the only Striper of the first day on a live lined herring which was around 25lbs.  On the second day I caught one about the same size, also on a live lined herring.  As for my buddy (O.J.).... lets just say he got out fished.  He probably won't hear the end of that for a long time. J We had a great time.

May 04, 2008

The American Shad should be showing up soon.  I uncovered F/V Rippin' Lips the other day and will be installing new taco outriggers for trolling up the tuna with and an anchor windlass to pull my lobster pots and anchor with.  I'm not as young as I use to be and this will be a welcomed addition to her.

May 12, 2008

Within the last few days some schoolie stripers have made their way up into the Saco river.  Reports from the local lobstermen is the bait in the bay is thicker then they have ever seen it this time of year.  It's looking like it might be a banner year.

May 31, 2008

The Alewives have made there annual run up the Saco river along with the  American Shad.  The Shad are here in numbers that I have never seen before.  We caught six the other day while fishing for the Alewives.  There are a good number of school Stripers that have shown up but only a few of the big cows have made the migration north.  I'm expecting that by the end of this coming week the big fish will have moved in and the fishing will be top notch!

June 1, 2008

We hammered the fish today.  We started the day by putting about 35 alewives in the live well.  The Stripers were so cooperative that some time around 10:30 or so the live well was empty except for 4 fat slot fish (Stripers) between 22" and 25".  I don't even know how many fish we released.  So we caught about 20 more alewives and used all but 2 of them.  We had a great day on the water.  The biggest fish of the day was 32".  We did see another boat land one that was 39".  It sure is nice to see that some bigger fish have moved in.

June 3, 2008

Today we had another great day.  Paul Golder and his crew showed up at the dock at 6:30 am. We put 50-70 alewives in the live well in about an hour and with this bait they caught between 25-30 Striped Bass from 22" up to a whooping 41.5" 25lb Striper caught by Phil Hussey.  This is our first Striper over 40" this season.  Congratulations to Phil!!

June 5, 2008

Today we did our first kids trip of the year.  We decided to spend the entire time fishing and what a good decision that was.  The alewives and the Stripers we both very cooperative and we must of finished the trip with around 20 stripers all between 23" and 33".

June 7 and 8, 2008

Well I knew it was bound to happen.  If you fish enough days I guess you've got have a few slow days here and there.  On the 7th we loaded up the live well with alewives then spent the rest of the morning trying to make the Stripers eat them.  We did finish the day with two keepers both 22.5 ".  The next morning we still had plenty of bait from the day before so we headed straight for the Bass.  After a couple hours of not so much as a sniff, I decided to head for the Ocean.  I gave the guys a choice of doing some trolling which would almost always yield a few bass but usually on the small side or continue to seek out the bigger fish.  The decision was unanimous  which made me happy because I'm not a big fan of trolling for Stripers.  Well we found the bay full of Silversides.  There were also Mackerel everywhere feeding on them.  We loaded up the live well with Mackerel and headed for some Striper hot spots.  With Live Alewives and Mackerel as bait I thought for sure we would strike it rich.  How wrong I was!  Once again not a sniff from a Striper.  Well as much as I hate saying it, I just logged my first skunk of the year.  It's been many years since I've done that so early in the season.

June 16, 2008

The fishing has picked up over the last couple days!!  We've been seeing lots of surface activity, which gets any fisherman excited.  There's nothing like throwing a top water popper and watching several fish fight over it.  This morning I saw several large fish ( getting close to 40" if not over) on the surface feeding on alewives.  We tied on just about every lure in my arsenal (which is quite large) to entice one but it wasn't happening.  We did catch several Stripers up to 24" but the big girls were feeding on alewives and we didn't have any to offer them. Once again I feel this is going to shape up to be a banner year for big fish!