stripers arrive in Maine!!!!

[Mal Greene]

Unconfirmed reports of schoolies in Maine will have me out casting my --s off. While I am more than a litle skeptical about stripers being here this early(they usually don't arrive untill May 10th), the sea water has been in the high 40's which is very uncommon for this early this far north. I have seen alewives already so maybe the reports are true. I'll give it the old college try and report my own findings later today. One note of interest is tonights weather forecast for 2-5" of snow (yee-ha that won't be much help). Wish me luck fellow striper addicts, it's been a long miserable winter/spring. Mal

[Mal Greene]

O.K. I fished the Mousam, Saco and Scarborough rivers today. Hit all tides casting mostly herring/alewive patterns. Had to go to a ten wieght because of high sw winds and 6"-9" flies. I did not get a strike or see a striper. Not really surprised, ocean temp 43, average river temp 45. The report of stripers being caught in Maine came from Saco Bay Tackle who are usually very reliable so I believe they 're report . Probabally stripers in the Kennebec river as that is a major breeding area and heav ly fished (catch and realease this time of year). Tonight snow is expected and temps will be in high 20's. That should delay the arrival of any fresh fish a few more days. On the bright side I did see many alewives and smelt in the estuaries, so things are about to happen. Think I'll go to the Cape on saturday and see if I can catch a few fish. Man am I getting anxious for warm weather, this time of year really bites up here in northern New England. Mal

[ragfly]

Mal, save your arm or should I say elbow. to early for stripers of any size in Maine right now. I got a report today that a fw fish are being caught in the Kennebunk river. Wait two or three more weeks. Then the rivers should come alive!

[JohnR]

The earliest I ever got schoolies in the Saco was mid May... ('Course that was the earliest I ever wet a line there )

Hey Rags - howya doing?

[Dan]

Mal Did you have any luck in the snow? I'm in Bangor and have been out. No luck yet. I know it's early. If you did do any good what area are you in.
Dan in Bangor

[JohnR]

Dan - welcome to S-B!

[Mal Greene]

Hi Dan good to meet you. Believe it or not I went to the Piscatiquis river for a couple hours. I flailed about in 20mph winds and caught nothing but the occasional rock. Just killing time till the fish show up in decent numbers(prob. two weeks).Good casting practice and I got to try out my brand new 8 wgt. flyrod.I also talked to the fisheries biologist at Cataract dam on the Saco river. He told me that stripers are being caught in the Saco but not in any numbers. He also said that this should be a banner year for herring in all Maine tidal rivers and he expects to put 500,000 herring over the dam(using a fish elevator). Things do look promising as herring are already at the dam three weeks ahead of schedule. Good luck to you in the coming season. Mal

[Dan]

Hey thanks! I'm going to give it a try on the Penobscot at the Park in Brewer tomorrow. Can't hurt right. That's where alot of people fish for stripers. Once they start running the action is pretty good. Heck last summer I even caught a Sturgeon about 24 inches and 2 1/2 lbs. The only real problem is finding bait. The people in the seafood dept. look at you kind of funny when you tell them your buying bait. Well I'll let you know how I do.
Dan

[Dan]

As they say I gave it the old college try! But the only thing I caught was a cold. Ha ha! Really cold and gale force winds. Well I'm just a die hard fisherman and like one older gentleman told me today "you can't tell if thier running if your not fishing".
Dan

[Mal Greene]

Guess what? I went to Sandy Shores on the Saco yesterday on the last of the dropping tide. Saw some comotion on the surface down by a rocky point. I motored over and cast a large herring pattern to where the disturbance was. Stripped once,twice, three times and wham major league hookup. Fought the fish in the heavy current for a solid 10 minutes. Finally got the beast to the boat and what do you think I had? Well I'll tell you. It wasn't a schoolie, it wasn't a 40" striper, It was a 9.75lb. 29" sea r un Brown Trout!!! This was the first brown I've ever caught on the Saco. I was a little dissapointed that it wasn't a striper but I was pretty darned happy with the brown trout. Unfortunately I didn't have a camera so no pictures but I did release the brown for someone elses enjoyment. Still looking for the years first striper. Ther are reports of fish in the Saco, but I believe these are resident stripers that hold over all winter in the Saco. There aren't many of these around so i guess we'll just have to wait for the runs to begin. Mal

[JohnR]

My early Saco fish usually came around the moorings west of the commercial dock and up river a little bit @ Murder Creek (marsh area 400 yds west of the dock.

[Mal Greene]

John, That is a real good area. I like to hit that on an early morning half tide as a lot of forage drops out of the brook. Another favorite of mine is the flat directly across from the U.N.E. campus. Fishable only at high tide (one hour either way) this flat holds impressive numbers of large 10-30+ lbs. stripers right through the summer months. They travel in pods of up to 15 or so fish in relatively clear water. This provides some awesome sight fishing. Interestingly even with heavy boat traffic in the channel only 500 or so yards away and at full sunlight these big stripers can still be had if you anchor and wait for them to approach. I and several friends have had excellent days flycasting to these brutes. I have not figured out what they are there for as I have never seen much for bait there. But you take good fishing were you get it! Ought to try it some time.

Mal