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Date: June 29 - July 1, 2023 Body of Water: Casco Bay - Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Dr. C Target: Striped Bass Good graduate school friend Dr. RC joined me for a weekend of fishing for the second consecutive year. While last year was a hot grind, 2023's fishing in the fog was outstanding, offering both action and quality! Session 1 - Thursday AM Time: 8 AM - 12 PM Moon Phase: Full minus five days; waxing gibbous moon Tide: High tide at 8:06 AM Conditions: Fog and drizzle, alternating winds but mostly from the north; 60 - 65 degrees. Water temperatures expected to be in the low 60s, but unverified because my sonar refused to power up. We started slowly and simply with clouds, fog and work looming. We hit the water at about 8 AM with a quest for some quick bait and a few chances at Casco Bay stripers. We encountered a school of bunker (the first of 2023, for me), and snagged a few for the well. Starting off the eastern end of Clapboard Island, we were fortunate to make relatively quick bait with mackerel. We were striped bass fishing off Clapboard's eastern rocky point by about 9 AM. I've lost the details, but our first six fish were all over 28 inches, topping out at just under 32. The trip was off to a good start! Session 2 - Thursday PM Time: 4 PM - 7 PM Moon Phase: Full minus five days; waxing gibbous moon Tide: High tide at 8:21 PM Conditions: Increasing fog after some brief sunshine, southerly wind about 10 mph; 60 - 70 degrees. Still no electronics. Bait took a little longer to find in the same area as the morning, but after picking off a half dozen singles, a loaded string by Basket Island gave us enough to start fishing before 5 PM. We hit the rocky shoreline of SW Sturdivant Island, and it definitely paid off. As the fog steadily increased in density, we landed a couple bass between 25 and just under 28 inches. Dr. C then hooked and landed amybaby22's largest yet striper, a 38-inch beauty. She swam away healthy! We ended the evening by chunking from a spot-locked boat. The chum and chunks flowed into a boulder field, and I was fortunate to land a small bass and miss another, much larger bass. It was nice to try a new (for 2023 and as modified by the availability of spot-lock) technique and succeed! Session 3 - Friday Time: 10 AM - 3 PM Moon Phase: Full minus four days; waxing gibbous moon Tide: High tide at 9:01 AM; falling tide throughout Conditions: Fog with a southerly wind about 10 mph or less; 65 degrees. Still no electronics! With the dense fog and no electronics to keep us safe, we stayed slow and close. We left the anchorage, picked up Clapboard and turned to the east. We set up our mackerel session off the northeast corner of Clapboard. It took no time at all to pick up a pair of singles on the trolled sabiki. We continued with a steady pick of baits and then flourished with a couple of drops that loaded the entire string. After 15 minutes of effort, we had two dozen prime baits in the well. The fishing only got better from there; starting off Clapboard's SE point, I got eaten almost immediately and landed a fat 26. By the time we were done at the NE corner, we'd landed seven to just under 28 inches and had missed a few, too. From here we moved to Clapboard's west end, where the pick continued. A couple of barely-there keepers joined a few other mid-20's fish. Meanwhile, I snagged a few bunker and added them to the well. When bait ran low, I switched to free-lining these, which attracted quite a lot of attention; when it became obvious that the bass were having a hard time eating these larger baits, we used them as decoys while we spot-locked and chunked. I scored two more bass (missing a third) to 26 inches and bringing the day's total landed bass to 15. Although we had no encounters with truly big fish (yes, I am currently spoiled), it had certainly been quite the day! Session 4 - Saturday Time: 9 AM - 1 PM Moon Phase: Full minus three days; waxing gibbous moon Tide: High tide at about 10 AM Conditions: Fog with a mild southerly wind about 10 mph or less; fog burning off by 11:30 or so; 65- 72 degrees. Still no electronics! With 20 macks in the well in the first half hour, we went to Sturdivant's SW corner to start our quest. We started fast with a 28-incher, and added two more including a 29 before moving to Clapboard's east end. We were hampered by weeds here, but Dr. C scored a 32-incher before we headed to the island's western end for our last stop of the trip. By now, skies were clearing, boat traffic had increased, and the bite was clearly "off" from the previous two days. Still, we doubled our day's catch with bass to 29 inches. We could have and maybe should have ended our trip when we landed a simultaneous double averaging 28 inches; but stubbornly refused to quit while we still had a couple of lively baits remaining. One of these got eaten on a miss, but mine was a rarity; it was released to swim again. We were hot, tired, and due elsewhere; with 33 stripers under our belts for the quick trip, we were more than satisfied with the fishing and glad to have gotten together! What do I have to say about this? Between the lack of incoming information from my sonar/chartplotter, the muted visual cues through the fog, and the constant chatter with Dr. C, I've a much vaguer memory of these trips than I am used to. Despite my recollection being fuzzy, I am confident in declaring this to have been a fine few days of fishing. The fog and lack of electronics limited our radius, but we stayed safe and found plenty of fish. While we relied upon fresh mackerel to entice our bass, it was fun to deploy a few pogies and successfully spot-lock and chunk. Oh yeah, we maintained our decades-long friendship and shared plenty of laughs. We have plenty of shared experiences to remember while looking ahead to future adventures. P.S. I am currently hanging my hopes on a corroded power cable as the cause of my electronics woes. I've trouble-shot and replaced everything else between the battery and the unit, and I'm buoyed by a single statement on the internet saying that any corrosion (I have a little) at the head-connector-end of the cable could indicate internal corrosion and failure. Replacing the cable should hurt less than replacing the unit! Time will tell... P.P.S. Okay, I overlooked the connecting cradle between the power cord and the unit. When I hooked up the new power cord and tried to turn on the unit, I immediately blew another fuse. I replaced the fuse, verified power at cord's end, and connected to the cradle again. I can't find any power from the unit side of the cradle, and I don't see the use of blowing another fuse... so I will wait until business hours on Monday to contact Garmin Support. At least there's still a chance that the unit itself is undamaged... Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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