Maine Deep Sea Fishing Reports With Super Fly Charters & Capt George Harris

Deep Sea Fishing Trips In Maine: Part I of III...We'll cover Groundfish, Tuna & Sharks In This Three Part Series

(Part I: Bottom Fishing)
Growing up on the Maine coast I have been extremely fortunate in the amount of fishing that I have been able to do...Saltwater fishing, freshwater fishing, surf fishing, tidal river fishing...for a huge variety of species...using everything from traditional tarred hand lines to the lightest fly & light tackle to the heaviest of offshore trolling gear...
Many, many years ago there were several party boats operating in & near the town I grew up in...boats like the famed "Shamrock" captained by local legend Bill Gargan, The "Henrietta" captained by John Earl and the "Dolphin" skippered by Ernie Rackliff...As a kid I was able to spend considerable time on all three of these boats...We always came in with a great catch...usually a mixed bag of bottom fish like Cod, Haddock, Flounder, Pollack...on occasion a fattie Halibut came over the rail. Mackerel & Bluefish provide great action too... Back in the day we mostly fished heavy norwegian style jigs and surgical tube teaser rigs with Penn "Long Beach" No. 65 conventional reels filled with thick 50-60# test monofilament line mounted on stout, solid fiberglass rods...workhorse gear that has earned it's salt on charter boats all over the world...gear that many anglers still use to this day

...fast forward 25 years...those rickety old party boats of my childhood are long gone and I now find myself more than a decade into my own career as a busy charter captain...part of that career has been spent on the offshore waters of midcoast Maine fishing for Cod, Haddock, Tuna, Shark & more...fishing many of the same grounds as the captains that guided me in my youth....Over the years advances in the tackle that we use have been huge...the heavy gear has been replaced by lightweight ultra modern equipment ...super thin braided fishing lines, compact high speed spinning & conventional reels and an array of "speed jigs" get the nod nowadays...The species remain the same but are now much more highly regulated due to decades of overfishing by commercial draggers & trawlers...the regulations are paying off and we are able to find consistent action....If you're looking for a way to get youngsters involved in fishing this is a great way to do it...lot's of action will keep their interest level high...
...lets go back to late October of 2010 to revisit one of my offshore Cod fishing adventures
....this will give you a great idea as to what to expect on one of these trips...
October 24th, 2010 trip report. After a long, productive and very fun season, the Striped Bass have all but left Maine waters...But hey...that doesn't have to mean that our saltwater fishing season has to end...Case in point was our groundfishing trip yesterday. Chris Oliver & John Coppola met me at the dock at 6:30 am...the air temp was chilly, in the low 30's, but we were dressed for the conditions....After going through my safety check list, We cast off our lines, left the dock and blasted down the St. George river at a brisk 30knot clip...we soon cleared the mouth of the river and left the Georges islands behind us as we headed across Muscongus Bay on flat ass calm seas, bound for some ledges ESE of Monhegan island. After a 40 minute run from the dock we arrived on the numbers and got set to drop our jigs into the depths below us...Chris was armed with a Shimano Stella 10000, Trevala butterfly jigging combo as well as an Avet lever drag reel on a butterfly jigging rod...attached to his leaders were 10 oz. Williamson vortex jig and teaser rig...John was set up with a Shimano Stradic 8000, Trevala butterfly jigging combo...John was using the standard 8-12 oz diamond jig with teaser rig...My rig was a Daiwa Saltiga 30 conventional reel mounted to a nomad travel rod with a diamond jig teaser rig...All the tackle that we used is not the traditional broomstick gear commonly associated with bottom fishing, rather we use very sensitive & lightweight yet extremely powerful graphite rods that are a joy to use for hours on end...the ultrathin braided superlines loaded on our high speed reels allow us to feel the lightest of bites even in depths of several hundred feet!!!...Our first drop was in about 90 feet of water...As soon as our jigs hit bottom they are hammered immediately and all three of our rods are thumping with the weight of nice fat 8-10 pound keeper sized cod...This action would continue for several hours as we methodically worked the structure below...often our jigs would get nailed on the drop so it was important to keep a watchful eye on the line as the jigs rocketed toward the bottom...if the line stopped moving, it was because a cod had slammed the jig on the fall...when this happened, we quickly engage the drag and set the hook on the fish...most of our strikes came on the jig itself but many hits were on the teaser, we even had some doubles where we caught cod on both the jig and teaser. Along with the dozens of cod that we caught we also caught Pollock, Acadian Redfish and a few other rockfish species...At the end of the day everyone went home with some nice filet's and some sore arms to show for it

Maine Saltwater Fishing Guide
Capt. George Harris
207-691-0745
www.superfly-charters.com