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Date: July 23 and 24, 2022 Body of Water: Casco Bay - Falmouth, Maine Moon Phase: Waning Crescent Moon, New Moon minus four and five days Boat: amybaby22 With: Dr. C Target: Striped Bass Time: Dawns and dusks, but plus plenty of brutal daylight hours, too Conditions: High tides at 8:15 AM and 8:59 AM. Clear and hot (approaching 90 degrees); southerly afternoon winds in excess of 15 mph. Water temperatures ranging from 57 to 76 degrees depending on tide and location. We met in grad school in 1985, and were good friends and fishing partners for several years. But after we parted ways in the very early 1990s, we kept in minimal touch. We last shared my boat and a fishing experience (Lake Michigan trout and salmon) in 2009. But I was super pleased when Dr. C recently tracked me down at my current employer and let me know he was passing through Maine this month; could we get together? Of course we could! After a quick outfitting session on Friday night for some of my preferred tackle options for Casco Bay stripers, we hit the water at daylight on Saturday. With the conditions for tides (mid-lunar), bait availability (scarce) and weather (bright, clear and hot!) all working against us, I didn't expect great things. Still, our companionship was easy and pleasant, and something just about always happens while out on the water! We made a quick pass with a tube-and-worm along the Falmouth shoreline (por nada) before looking for mackerel. Although we encountered many seals and porpoises, we found no willing macks near Clapboard or College Islands, or elsewhere in Hussey Sound, despite prolonged efforts. With the sun getting higher and a good current flowing over the saddle between College and Long Islands, we got ready to throw some lures. Dr. C selected a half-ounce Al Gag swim-bait in Wonder Bread, and I countered with a white Hogy popper. Almost immediately, we both had swings and misses. And then he got thunked! Directly over a previous waypoint, he connected with a nice, 23 or 24-inch striper. Our day was made! But there were more fish to be caught; and the same combination produced another fat schoolie in this same size range or a bit larger. Unfortunately, that was it for this location, and we tried our luck at gathering some live bait again. We were fortunate to score a couple of bite-sized macks, and we returned to Crow and Cow Islands. We killed a bait at Crow by dragging it through too many weeds, and a bass killed our other bait at Cow (very quickly!) Unfortunately we didn't connect on this aggressive fish. Stuck at just two stripers, we tried the vicinity of Clapboard for bait again. No luck there; we cut our losses, saved our energy and headed in with the plan of returning and trying again later in the day. We hit the water at about 4 PM and headed to the ledge stretching from Prince Point. My popper and various flukes were ignored, but Dr. C scored another schoolie on that same Al Gag swimmer. This repeated itself on a rock complex at high tide off Clapboard. Both fish came from immediately adjacent to the weedy rocks. Dr. C had quite the day; I'd been skunked! The next morning, we started tight along the Falmouth shoreline with our lures. I raised fish on two of my first three casts, but did not connect, and that was it for my popper for the day. After one last try with the tube-and-worm and with the sun higher, we relocated to Hussey Sound and tried to make bait. Skunked again, we quickly turned to the College Island saddle for another try. This quickly produced a low-20-incher on the Al Gag swimmer, but nothing else chose to play. After a bit, we tried to make bait again off the deep end of College Island. Now, we had a bit of success and landed three or four baits in about 45 minutes. After another unsuccessful round of casting the saddle, we decided to deploy our live baits at Cow Island. The first one was almost immediately found, hit, and plucked off the hook. With this quick reaction and the number of fish on my sonar screen, I was hopeful that we would be able to convert at least a single mackerel into a striped bass for Dr. C. Our second bait was harassed and pushed to the surface, where it was grabbed by a gull. Our last bait simply gave up the ghost in the presence of so many bass. Out of live bait, I was starting to prepare the anchor for a quick session of chunking. Dr. C casted and drifted the now-dead mackerel. A bass picked it up, and Cr. C did a great job of tightening up at the right time! And this was obviously a big fish! It fought hard and deep, but the tackle did its work, and we slid the net under a beautiful 32-incher! After a quick celebration, we chunked in place for a bit, and looked for more mackerel. But our fortune had run dry. We were back at the dock well before noon. What do I have to say about this? What a way to end the weekend's fishing efforts! We harvested the fish and had a fine grilled dinner. Patience and hard work had paid off, again. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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