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Date: September 3, 2022 Body of Water: Casco Bay - Falmouth, Maine Moon Phase: Waxing Quarter Moon Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Striped Bass and Bluefish Time: 7:30 AM - 1:30 PM Conditions: Low tide at 10:33 AM. Mostly sunny; S wind to about 10 mph and 60 - 70 degrees. Water was dramatically clearer after a few cold nights; water temperatures 61 degrees (+/-). Even though making bait was the easiest it had been all season, this session was a bit of a struggle. I was distracted by the possibility of finding some bluefish, the bass bite was relatively slow and I missed a shot at perhaps my biggest striper of the season. I skipped the early float fishing and headed directly out to Hussey Sound. The ebb was evident, and I stopped short of College Island in some deep (100 feet) water. I luckily had stopped over a school of macks, because I spent the next half hour drifting and jigging instead of trolling. Most of the macks were in the upper 25 feet of the column, and I put a couple of dozen into the well in less than half an hour. After an unsuccessful circum-navi-fish of College Island, I headed across the Sound to Peaks Island, where I picked up the stretch of shoreline I had fished the previous week. The wind was working against the tidal current, and it took a bit to settle in, but when I finally set up a good drift along this rocky shore, it didn't take long for my first bass hit of the day. And quite a hit it was! The bass took my mack with an unannounced, swift, precise and horizontal surface strike. I tightened up quickly and the bass pulled line from the substantial drag with apparent ease. I worked the fish around the single visible lobster pot, but the fish became entangled with something. I could feel the line rubbing against it. I was positioning the boat upwind of the unknown obstacle when I felt a final head shake and my line went slack. My braid had been worn through. I'm pretty sure this strong fish would have been my biggest of the season to date. Even though I lost... this was a good experience. But this was about it, and as slack low approached, my mind wandered to the pursuit of bluefish. I've seen no evidence of any this season to date, but I know they are around (more-so mid-coast). I decided to blind-troll deeper water outside the Sound with cranks. Using deep-diving sticks from Rapala and Yo-zuri, 60 - 120 back, I ended up trolling from the mouth of Hussey Sound all the way to Portland Head and into the mouth of Casco Bay without a hit or sign of the blues. At about 11:30 and with some current evident, I switched to live-baiting bass along the rocks. This was first time around Portland this season, and it was busy with boat traffic on this pleasant Labor Day Saturday. I picked up the shoreline of House Island. I got hit at the edge of a prominent rock pile. Finally, the skunk was avoided. This bass was a nice 26-incher, but was a bit deformed from an injury and didn't fight to its size. I selectively fished my way back along Great Diamond Island; many of these spots look better for high tide. I finally tried the west end of Clapboard without any luck. Before I headed in, I had to release about 18 live macks. WTF? What do I have to say about this? This had been quite the effort, and I covered a lot of water! Perhaps I'd have done better with a single persistent focus, but perhaps not. My lack of intel was obvious in my futile, blind search for blues. Let's just say, I don't like blind trolling, but I felt like I had to try to find them instead of waiting for them to find me. Conditions have changed! The increase in water clarity was startling. Let's hope the food chain remains intact for another six weeks or so! I'd have liked to have glimpsed that first large bass, but I am only left to wonder. Oh well, that's part of what keeps me going. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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