View Full Version : Striper Fishing Maine/New Hampshire


dragnfly14
07-23-2002, 07:40 PM
Hi,

I'm new to this Website. Love to fish and talk about striper fishing. I fish from my boat "The Dragnfly" and mostly on the Piscataqua River Maine/New Hampshire boarder waters. I monitor chanel 69 on VHF marine - give me a yell if you come my way. A little background on me - Male 50 yrs old - Disabled from work, Tie Saltwater flys, fish & computers. Started fishing for stripers with my father on the Napa River, Nape Calif in the early 60's. Fished for stripers on the Colorado River (Arizonia side) a few years back. My wife and I usually fish together and I think she likes it more than I do. Mostly use a 12" tube rig baited with sand worm when fishing for stripers but do flyfish from my boat whenever I can get on the water alone. My biggest fish was caught 5 yrs ago - 49" 42 1/2 lbs (that was a verified size), won the the Sud's & Soda striper contest with that one. That same year my wife took 1st & 3rd place in the Royal River tourment in Falmouth, ME. What a great year. We mostly practice and support catch and release but do take a fish every once in a while to eat or gill hook and bleeding badly (if legal keeper size). The problem with fishing the Piscataqua River Maine/New Hampshire boarder waters is the different size limits in ME & NH. In Maine we have a slot size - 20" to 26" or 40 inches and up - 1 fish per day per person. New Hampshire is 28 inches and up. So if we want to keep a fish we have to remember which side of the river wer'e on and in which state we launched the boat. The two states can't get along long enough to agree on boarder water size limits (another reason for catch & release - keeps us out of jail).

Striper fishing here in the Northeast is a little slow this year. Introduced a new family to striper fishing last week and they are definitely hooked on the sport. Took them out fishing today and and 8 yr old Josh hooked himself a 32" (actually 31 3/4") fish and had his hands full but did a great job getting it in the boat (photo taken, fish revived and released in good shape). Josh also hooked a snapper bluefish and a pollack and other smaller stripers.

Well I've rambeled on long enough. Now that I've found this site I will keep you up to date on Striper fishing in my area and would love to hear about fishing in your are.

JohnR
07-23-2002, 08:02 PM
Dragnfly, welcome to Striped-Bass.com. Wells, eh? Good fishing up there too. I personally like it because you can still get live mackeral jigged up & live lined :D ... I do a little fishing on the Saco but I haven't been up in 2 years (a toddler will do that).

I enjoyed fishing from the pier and up river to Nun's Beach and Goosefair but I really like live macs off Wood Island as the fog lifts :D ...

Have yet to fish Wells but know a few that try and do from time to time.... Again, welcome aboard..

dragnfly14
07-23-2002, 08:40 PM
Hi John R,

Thank you for the relpy. Have fished the Saco River a few times but found much better fishing on the Piscataqua River. Wells Harbor (recently dregged) is now producing fair to good stripper fishing. Mostly schoolys. Surf fishing off Drakes Is here is Wells does produce some good night fishing. If you ever get to the Piscataqua River and need mackerl or pollice for live bait go just out of the river to the 2KR bouy and you will find plenty of bait. I should say usually - The bluefish are here now and mackerl are a little hard to find right now. Again thanks for the reply and happy fishing.:D