(Photos Capt. George Harris)
April has arrived in mid coast Maine...That means that next month we'll have the boat in the water and we'll be doing what we do best...putting on a slayfest!!!
Early in the season when the stripers begin migrating into our waters the first thing they typically do is head into the numerous estuaries that dot our coastline....These could be huge shallow bay areas featuring vast mud & sand flats, large tidal rivers or smaller river systems that drain amazingly fertile tide marshes. Because these early arriving Striped Bass haven't yet gotten into a regular feeding pattern...Getting dialed in on the fish requires putting in lots of time...Thats where we come into the picture...It's our job to sniff them out...We could chase birds around all day like everyone else...and sure, you can get lucky and catch some exciting pop up blitz action but that is normally short lived...Don't get me wrong...We definitely take advantage of every blitz we can and when they do happen...it's incredibly exciting...but we find it better to focus the search on areas that, #1: harbor a decent herring run or #2: has decent tidal flush that will wash small baits like crabs, shrimp, worms and small minnows through choke points to stripers that are waiting for an easy meal. Small creeks are prime examples of a good area to focus your search...
A dropping tide flowing out of a tiny creek will often yield big results....Finding the right creeks that hold stripers is the tough part...a lot of creek mouths might look like they'll hold fish but if they don't have the correct features, we wont waste more than a few prospecting casts around them. Over the course of a lifetime spent fishing in saltwater...I have found that certain creeks types produce better...It's usually the deeper creeks that feature steep undercut sod banks that produce best...most of the really fishy creek mouths will have some sort of shallow water at it's mouth in the form of sand, mud or shell bars that are formed by the constant depositing of sediments being dumped by the currents...many times there will be a deeper pool on the inside or upriver side of such a bar...These bars are like buffet lines...stripers can tuck in behind them out of the current and lay in wait for an easy meal to drift out with the tide...As luck would have it I have a tidal creek thats located behind my house...it dumps into a larger river just a 100 yards or so from by back door...
early in the season we often anchor up just outside the large oyster bar that lays just off the mouth of this creek and we wait for the stripers to come cruising by...most of the action takes place in 1-3 feet of water so you can imagine that the strikes can be pretty explosive....because of the hard running current coupled with the shallow water in this spot we have found it necessary to anchor instead of drift....it's also in this spot that I developed an amazing , yet unorthodox light tackle technique that I guarantee that no other angler in Maine uses..I won't get into the details here but we call it "water buggin"..."water buggin" has paid off huge in many other areas too and is a valuable technique when fishing tight creeks and skinny water currents!!! I only share this mind blowing technique with the anglers who fish with me...so if you're interested give us a jingle!!!We also focus on creeks that flow onto expansive flats....these creeks often have a well defined mouth but often continue to wind there way for 100's of yards to deeper water...these flats drains are like super highways for Striped bass. Being stealthy is critical when transiting these flats as noise is amplified and Stripers become as skittish as a long tailed cat in room full of rocking chairs...I often have to pole the heavy Parker across these flats to get set up on a creek....we also concentrate on the small creek channels that drain the flats of water and usually find some of our biggest fish of the year in these deeper depressions...It drives me crazy when I go through the effort to pole the boat across 100's of yards of shallow water, being ultra careful to be quiet, when some googan anglers go racing across a flat at warp speed blowing out any fish in that zip code...what's worse is that some of these guys are lazy @ssed veteran guides...so if you see a boat being poled on a flat...PLEASE slow down and give them a wide, wide berth...we're not doing it for the excersise!!!
Some of the best creeks don't really look like much at a casual glance...some are just a small opening in a wall of thick spartina grass......Like I said at the the beginning of this post...don't overlook these areas..
Check out this old post of one of the many outstanding early season creek mouth trip that I have done over the years with Chris Oliver...
Maine Striper fishing...Game On!!!
Last evening I had the chance to fish with Chris Oliver from Knight Marine Service, a full service boat yard located in Rockland, Maine. Chris lives & breathes saltwater fly & light tackle fishing and over the course of the last 5 or 6 years he has caught his first Stripers of the year while fishing with me. Last nights fishing did not dissapoint us. We launched the "Super Fly" at a local midcoast Maine river and ran to a spot that was just a little off the beaten track, an area that had been holding some nice numbers fish. After getting set up it didn't take long before the fish began to feed and feed heavily they did!!! As the tide receded the water became extremely shallow and we could see slot sized Bass swirling aggresively in as little as a foot of water. The fish were mostly keyed in on 6" river herring but they were also munching smaller baits...brit herring perhaps. What a fun night of fishing!!! With beautiful weather in the forecast for this weekend we should see even better fishing in the very near future.That night we had to thread our way back downstream in the dark through incredibly shallow water...across miles of mudflats, over numerous mussel bars and though a 100 yard class 2 whitewater drop...But it was all worth it...when you go the extra mile off the beaten track the results speak for themselves
If you're looking to fish with us season...please call us soon for available dates!!! We are taking reservations daily. Don't forget to ask about our evening blitz trip...It's becoming a guest favorite!!!Capt. George Harris
207-691-0745
www.superfly-charters.com
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