Maine Saltwater Fishing Reports, Guided Trips & Charters July 23rd, 2011

The Dog Days Of Summer Have Arrived...below is a photo of a a fish that Paul Lombardo caught today (7/23/11)...a nice 33 incher that clobbered a live mack...fish are in their mid summer feeding patterns and they are well fed...The huge amount of bait that is around is keeping them happy...Most of my fishing is taking place on the Kennebec...the fish are spread thoughout most of that system and it's not unusual for us to be fishing an area during a morning tide and then be on fish 10 miles away during the afternoon evening tide...reports from casco bay have been mixed...decent action on the right tides and during low light conditions...pretty typical of striped bass...As the river warms up I will be shifting some of my focus to areas of cooler water along the ocean front and bays...that said....we will still be working the rips heavily during peak tidal flows...fishing deep current is the backbone of the kennebec fishery...The flats have good numbers of striped bass pushing up over them on certain tides and if the conditions are right you can clearly see them sucking crabs off the bottom...if you want to try to catch one of those shallow water stripers on the fly or with light tackle...bring your "A" game and a bottle of aspirin for the headaches that those fish can dish out...feeding them tasty natural morsels makes the game alot easier...but often patience is still required to chum them into range...