Over the weekend of September 15th, Dan Shiells landed a 40 inch beauty which was caught at night, using bait and fishing the surf at Popham.

Note the life jacket… When fishing locations with serious rip-tides or large waves, wearing a life jacket, is a reasonable precaution.

Nice going Dan! You should be proud of your accomplishment… That fish is a once in a life time catch.

In September, striper fishing can be really hot, but it’s very dependent on fishing where the fish are. I’ve experienced some incredible action during September, but at times I’ve also felt as thought the waters were totally devoid of fish, and in some instances that was the truth.

Since fall striper fishing represents fishing for schooling fish, it’s often necessary to work hard at finding the fish. Often, fall stripers will bunch up and key in on a particular bait. These behaviors can result in some highly localized action.

Last fall offers a good illustration of such action… In late September the fishing action towards the mouth of the Kennebec River slowed then shut off. I tried fishing several historical hot spots with minimal success and was about to give up for the season. On one particularly nice Sunday afternoon, I decided to take the family boating and explore Merrymeeting Bay. Out of habit, I pitched a spinning road in the boat so the kids could fish. I honestly didn’t expect to find any fish!

When we got up around the “Chops”, I started noticing bird activity and saw a few other boats fishing. When I paid attention to what they were doing, I noticed they were boating stripers. So I set up for a drift and soon the kids were hooking fish. The action was steady and we boated a bunch of nice schoolies before moving on to do the leaf peeping thing. Overall, It was one of the finest fall days of the year and adding some quality striper fishing, really capped off the season.

The point here,… when your not finding fish where they ought to be, move on and try a different spot. Remain flexible and work hard at locating fish. Once you’ve found the fish, with persistence you’ll land some nice ones.

Janet Gertz, of South Portland landed a 34 inch striper over the weekend. 

Janet apparently had a few hours down time and decided to go out and brave the wet weather. This “get her done” attitude paid dividends when the fish smashed a rubber shad Janet was fishing. She said, “I retrieved the lure right to my feet, when out of no where, this huge fish grabbed my lure. The water flew and my rod doubled over… Wow what an awesome experience”!

Congratulations! A very nice fish.

Over the summer, I took some of my ex-colleagues striper fishing on the Kennebec River. It was hot and bright when we launched at 4:00 PM, but the promise of cooler evening air was close at hand and the breeze was quickly diminishing. It looked like a perfect night to go out around Seguin Island. These guys were from NY and Denver, so the scenery and setting would be memorable. It turned out to be a bit more memorable than I had planned.

We left the landing and motored down river. We were rewarded with much cooler air as we got off Georgetown and promptly spotted a school of stripers busting it up. When lures hit the water, rods doubled up and fish after fish were welcomed on-board for a visit.

The school shifted and came up in a different location. Time to reposition the boat. Turning the helm, I felt the steering cable let go… %$^#*&%@! Typical.

So, an opportunity to bond presented itself and I took this opportunity to mess with the guy from Denver. He’d only been on the ocean a few times. I suggested one of us should swim to shore. “It would be tough swimming against the current, with water in 50 degree range and so many sharks”. I let that one sink in, then mentioned “how cold it would get at night”. I noted, “we had no anchor and no marine radio”. Also, ”the mosquitoes would be pretty bad without bug spray”.

We had some good laughs, but in the end, they were the ones laughing. It was a long twelve miles back to the landing having to manually steer the boat without the benefit of a tiller arm. As a result, my right arm is a couple inches longer.

Did you know, in the US more people fish than play golf? According to the Association of Sports Apparel Manufactures that is a fact! And why wouldn’t that be true? We have an abundance of fishing habitat in the US and the cost of entry is relatively cheap, especially so when compared to the expense of eighteen holes of golf, a cart and lunch.

Fishing represents a great recreational resource that puts people in touch with nature, it’s good exercise and offers the opportunity for individuals to share meaningful experiences with friends and family.

Getting out for an afternoons fishing with some of your colleagues from work can be a great opportunity to form close friendships outside the office environment. And it’s always fun to share the adventure.

Getting the kid’s out fishing is another opportunity for family fun. With younger children, the experience can be a trial and exercise in personal control. Some things that really help engage the kids are to give them responsibilities and teach them things like how to tie off the boat, change lures, pull the anchor, and once engaged, the kid’s typically have a great time. These activities are very meaningful and represent good clean fun.

Their’s also the opportunity for dad to show the boys how it’s done. Nice fish!

A few years ago we were in Boston on a business trip and as a team building activity a bunch of the boys went striper fishing. The 32 foot lobster boat picked us up in Boston Harbor and we steamed over an hour to get to the outer islands.

The Captain jockeyed the boat into a very specific position, which to me looked like the middle of the ocean. I was skeptical, knowing what I thought I knew… “Way out here, in the middle of the bay”? But, I kept my mouth shut and went along for the ride.

The tide was starting to drop and their was clearly good water movement. The crew started cutting herring and pitching chunks over the side. The chunks drifted away off the stern and sunk from site. We were handed rods with 40 lb mono, trebble hooks and a large piece of herring. We were told to “let the herring drift from the stern and allow the line to free spool until a fish picks up the bait. Give the fish a chance to swallow it, then set the hook”. The Captain and crew stated this with absolute certainty, and we wanted to believe.

The first of our baits went over the side, slowly they drifted from view and the line spooled off the reels; 30 seconds, 45 seconds… tug, tug… fish on! For a couple hours we caught 32′ - 39″ striper one after another. By the end of the morning, we were some happy sports!

So here’s what was happening. The Captain was familiar with these waters, and on a going tide, he knew the flow across this particular submerged shoal created the perfect conditions for stripers to take up a feeding position. He also knew their were some big fish working these waters. What he did was position the boat up-current from the shoal so the chunked herring would drift down current and across the shoal. The stripers worked up-current, moving from deeper water onto the shoal to feed. All the angler needed to do was put their bait in with the chum and a fish would pick it up.

Two points to make… 1.) Professional guides acquire a knowledge base that can really help their sports get on fish. 2.) Different techniques, althought new and different from what is local tradition or the local standard can be highly effective. So keep your mind open to new and different approaches to fishing as it might provide insight that results in success.

For this angler, fishing has been a big part of my life since I was a tike. At the age of eleven I caught my first Atlantic salmon, which really got me hooked on fly fishing. Around that same time, I took a trip to the Mirimachi with my father. On that trip I experienced camp life and met some fine people.

On one trip to Canada, I even met Ted Williams, who dropped by the camp to say hello and watch the action. For a boy of fourteen, this was quite an experience. We even reciprocated by visiting Ted at his log cabin and his cook was kind enough to make homemade donuts for me. How cool is that.

Here in Maine, I’ve been fishing for stripers for 25 plus years and have made a great number of acquaintances. Often they are hardcore fishermen, some local and some who travel to the area to fish for a week or two every year. It’s great to get a phone call or an e-mail from one of these friends inquiring about the fishing and letting me know when they’ll be up to fish. It’s much like the changing of the seasons, I know it’s coming and I look forward to it!

It’s funny, when you are off the beaten path and run into someone else who has taken the time to explore and find one of those seldom visited spots, an almost instant bond can be formed. Sharing of knowledge and a few good laughs often solidifies a friendship born from mutual experience. And it’s even more funny to see another fisherman from a half mile away and by their casting technique or body language, know exactly who that person is even when it’s someone you haven’t seen in years.

For me, fishing has provided many unique opportunities to meet some really great people and share in those momentary experiences of life. Fishing can be a very personal and solitary experience, but at times it can offer the opportunity for new and great friendship. These are things to value.

Often anglers are told to “fish structure, that’s where you’ll catch fish”, but what does this mean?

Typically structure is often thought of as rocky outcroppings, but it’s important to recognize that structure is highly dependent on the overall habitat found in the area you’re fishing.

As we’ve stated in earlier posts, stripers are lazy and they prefer to take up feeding locations where food will get swept to them and this is important. So, let’s consider a few scenarios.

Beaches are often productive locations where anglers fish for stripers, but not all spots along a beach are productive. When you look at a beach, the level of the tide, the swell and the amount of sun light will certainly influence where you’ll find stripers. Often, a swell exists that creates wash and such wave action and tidal flow will set up rip currents. Look for such wash and rip currents as they often represent water movement and create natural funnels. Stripers move into these flows to feed and targeting such flows, even when the waters only 2-3 ft deep, will produce results. These flows are dynamic too. A rip tide can make up in one location quickly and fish will move in to take up feeding positions in these flows. But things can change quickly and when these flows subside subside the fish will go elsewhere. Anglers need to remain observant and adjust to these changing conditions.

Bottom contours should be thought of as structure too and anglers need to think three dimensionally. Beaches are always changing and at low tide you can clearly see how current and wave action build up sediments in some locations and erods it elsewhere. When anglers consider where fish will take up feeding locations, the bottom contour, visible at low tide, can often provide indicators of potential hot spots as the tide comes in. Often one will note high spots along the sandy flats close to the low water mark, then closer to the shore a deeper pocket. At high tide, such pockets are quite areas, where the waves break over the shallow shoals and food gets deposited. At certain points in the tide, the stripers will move into these deeper pockets to feed and keying in on such spots can be very productive.

Points or sand bars often effect the flow of water too. At different times in a tide, a sand bar can constrict a flow and accelerate the waters movement. Such changes in flow which are tide and structure dependent, create momentary opportunity for the observant angler.

Fishing waters at low tide can help an angler understand the contours which will impact water flow. In rivers, often their is obvious structure, a grassy island, a sandy point, a shallow sand bar, a rocky outcropping or the edge of a channel, where water transitions from shallow to deep; all represent structure that will influence water movement. Keying in on such structure, whether it’s obvious or subtle, will help improve your odds of catching fish.

In bays and along the exposed coast where current is less obvious, weed lines and protruding ledge create natural habitat for bait fish, eels, crabs, etc. Working this type of structure definitely produces results. Waves often wash onto or across such structure and this water movement can create mini-funnels where striper feed too. Fishing the slosh in combination with working a weed line or ledge can be very productive.

Now take all these illustrative concepts about structure and think about it in the aggregate. Suddenly fishing seems a lot more complicated, but don’t make it so, just enjoy it and have fun.