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Date: July 17, 2021 Body of Water: Casco Bay, Falmouth, Maine Moon Phase: Full Moon minus six days; waxing gibbous moon Tides: High Tide at 4:58 AM; Low Tide at 11:11 AM Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Striped Bass Time: 5:45 AM - 1:30 PM Conditions: Gray; just a touch of breeze; about 70 degrees F; water temperatures 64 - 67 (Clapboard and Prince Point) and about 60 (Hussey Sound and Vaill Island) I thought conditions would be perfect for visiting Prince Point with a popper; high tide, gray skies and still conditions. Thinking isn't knowing; even though there was a nice current running through and over this structure, I didn't raise a fish in 45 minutes. I even drifted a sand-worm and swam an Al Gag swim-bait without a touch. From here I went searching for mackerel by Clapboard's east end. I lucked into a couple of singles, but in addition to my slow start it was super weedy here, so I decided to head out to Hussey. Setting my line in 100 feet of water and going with the outgoing current, I immediately connected with another single. I was annoyed to flub it boat-side, but when I dropped my spoon-and-Sabiki down again, it was immediately covered by macs. A subsequent drop left me with 9 in the live well. When I lost my rig to a submerged lobster buoy, at least I was ready to really go fishing! It was now about 8 AM, and I motored to Vaill Island for the first time in 2021. I wanted to try new water, so I started at the northwest corner, but floating weeds made a clean presentation difficult. I wasted some time fighting this before finally presenting a pair of mackerel along the rocky south face. About midway down this side, a pair of large, barely submerged boulders provide a perfect ambush spot, and I was not surprised when a 23-inch striper confidently ate my mac in the shadow of the boulder. At 8:40 AM, I was finally on the board! This striper, while short, certainly was fit. I passed through this water again in the opposite direction without contact. I continued my clockwise circumnavifish of the island until I got to the sandy bar that connects Vaill to Long Island. This water was simply too shallow to navigate at this tide (although I noted a lot of healthy seagrass here, so it might be worth exploring at a higher tide), and I returned to Vaill's southwest point to do another pass along my favorite island's southern face. Between 10 and 11 AM, the fishing really picked up. Every mackerel I had aboard was eaten (7) or harassed to death (2). I landed two more bass (25 and 26 inches), missed a couple to turned hooks, had one bait simply plucked off the hook by a sudden, explosive hit, and (to my chagrin) broke off a nice bass. (To be fair, my leader parted mid-way and not at a connection; it must have been chafed during a previous encounter. This is still avoidable user error, but not self-inflicted). The best fishing was found near the previously aforementioned boulders, but also around the island's southeastern point, where the water drops fairly precipitously into more than 30 feet of water. Out of bait, I half-heartedly tried to catch some more in Hussey around Noon. The tide here was slack, there was no bird or porpoise activity, and I didn't waste too much time trying at this point. I tried swim-baits around College Island, but there was too much floating weed to make this effective or enjoyable. I left Hussey to try to make bait around Clapboard; there was still time to hit the east end on my way home. About halfway between Hussey and Clapboard, I noticed a dimple on the surface; I dropped my Sabiki and started trolling. Another single mackerel came aboard, but that was my last of the day. As I continued to troll towards Clapboard, I noticed the water had turned brown and warm; now up to 67 degrees. The same brown, warm water held at Clapboard's east end; but that's where I was, and I was going to use that mackerel! It took a few passes, but at 1:20 PM, a long, drawn-out dance between predator and prey culminated in a fine surface strike over about 15 feet of water; and I ended my day with another 26-inch striper. What do I have to say about this? When every bait gets attacked by the targeted species; that's a good day! But I am still mildly haunted by the missed fish and (ugh!) the one I broke off. But, I think the positives certainly outweighed the negatives for the day. I didn't get to explore as much new water as I'd hoped, but I did expand my knowledge of Vaill Island; and I definitely saw some features that will need to be explored further. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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