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Date: August 15, 2021 Body of Water: Casco Bay, Falmouth, Maine Moon Phase: New Moon plus seven days; waxing (first) quarter moon Tides: High Tide at 4:41 AM; Low Tide at 10:47 AM Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Striped Bass Time: 6:45 AM - 2:30 PM Conditions: Clear and bright; about 60 - 75 degrees F; northerly wind over 10 mph; water temperatures generally 63 - 65 degrees in Hussey and beyond, but up to 67 inshore It was immediately obvious that conditions had changed. In addition to the autumnal feel of the morning, several schools of fin-fish were dimpling the surface, and a seal patrolled just offshore. I made a few casts to the balls of potential bait, but they showed no interest. I think they were happy pogies, and since these are typically too big for me to live-line effectively, I set off for Hussey Sound to try to find some mackerel. I made several passes with the outgoing tide in a few different spots, all without any luck. I decided to check the "mini-rip" east of College Island for any willing bass. I scored a 24-incher on the Al Gag 4-inch swim-bait (whew!), the 100th striper to come aboard amybaby22 in 2021. But that seemed to be the only willing striper here, and so I relocated to the south side of Cow Island. The bottom was carpeted in fuzzy bait, and a few marks indicated the presence of bigger fish. I dropped a Hogy epoxy jig and danced it near bottom from 15 to about 30 feet. I snagged a sand eel (hence the fuzz), and this guy was a perfect match for my jig. When nothing reacted, I casted the area with a plastic sand eel (Joe Baggs?) and a bucktail jig, but I couldn't convince anything to eat. I decided to try making bait again, but this time near the Pumpkin and the nearby channel markers. Again, things were slow, although I thought I felt a few taps indicating contact. I relocated to the tip of Overset Island, where I thought the combination of outgoing current and deeper water might hold some bait. Here, I knew I was getting hit, and I enticed an entire school of macs to the surface. I could see them hitting my sabiki, I could feel the taps, and I still wasn't hooking anything! Lesson No. 1 for the day; in such a situation, check your hooks. After weeks of use, every single hook on the string had corroded and broken off! A quick sabiki replacement had me in the game, and a half-hour later I had more than a dozen baits in the live-well. I set up for stripers with a pair of baits right along Overset. While I had some very nervous baits, I had no takes. When I turned around to re-trace my path, I first noticed the whirling birds, and then the surface frenzy. An all-out blitz was taking place a few hundred years away, and just about where I'd made bait. I quickly retrieved and stowed my baits, grabbed a popper rod and motored over. The commotion was largely dissipated by the time I drifted in, but my first cast with the Smack-it Jr. popper was crushed; and I was immediately cut off. I grabbed the rod with the sand-eel jig and fired that out. That too was sliced off. Two casts, two baits lost. Lesson No. 2; when the gator bluefish arrive, be prepared with heavier leaders or with longer baits tied on! I waited for a few minutes for the school to resurface, but all remained quiet. I returned to Overset, with no luck, and as I started to make my move to Vaill Island, I saw another group of active birds further offshore. These seemed to be working over porpoises, though, and my popper went untouched here. I set up on the east end of Vaill for a pass along its southern face. Conditions were at just about slack low tide, now. As I approached the island's western tip, my "short" mackerel rod went off; the fat 26-incher really fought for the rocks, but yielded to consistent pressure. With my second photographed striper of the day, my Striper Cup "limit" now seemed within reach. After another unproductive pass, I returned to Cow Island. The northerly wind now was honking, and Hussey was quite rough. I was glad to set up in the lee of Cow. My first pass over Waypoint 170 produced a strike on the "long" rod; a nice 28-inch "keeper" completed my limit! When a subsequent pass went untouched, I extended my troll all the way around the island's eastern point with no luck. I relocated to Clapboard's eastern point. A spunky 22-incher ate here as I deployed a short bait; and then I relocated to Clapboard's west end. The wind was pounding into this area, and boat control was difficult. My single run yielded another strong 28-inch "keeper" from a familiar waypoint marking a perpendicular, rocky spike off the island's ledgy point. Pretty much out of live bait at this point, I returned to my mooring. It had been something of a grind, but I'd caught some really nice fish. Plus, I'd benefited from Lesson No. 3; try to relax and enjoy myself, and don't take any set-backs so personally! What do I have to say about this? All valuable lessons, and all earned on a beautiful day. Had I landed the bluefish, had the blitz been bass, or had I found another, it would have been a perfect day! This was the most active (albeit brief) blitz I've ever witnessed in Maine, and I hope it's a harbinger for what fall might bring. I believe I only had five bass bites all day, and I converted each one. I made the most of my chances. I've been positioning my "short" mackerel about 25 - 30 feet off the rod tip, while my "long" bait is swimming about 50 feet off that rod tip. Tangles have been minimal, even though each mac seems to have its own ideas about where it should be swimming! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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