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Date: May 25 and 26, 2024 Body of Water: Casco Bay Boat: amybaby22 and float With: Alone 5/25, DA 5/26 Target: Stripers Time: 5:15 AM - Noon and 6 AM - Noon Tide: Lows at about 7 and 7:45 AM (fished float at Quad II on both mornings) Moon Phase: Waning gibbous moon, Full Moon plus two/three days Conditions: Generally clear to bright; strong south wind developing Saturday; 50 - 70 degrees. Water temperatures 53 - 57 degrees F (+/-); and even warmer (to 65 degrees) in the Royal River; generally very clear water except in Royal River and exposed Broad Cove on Sunday. And now the Striper Season can really start... with the arrival of the long Memorial Day Weekend, a pretty open schedule, and amybaby22 properly moored, I could focus on properly chasing stripers for the Summer. That proper chase includes shore fishing from the landing float when conditions warrant, and with the Full Flower Moon of May, periods of low tide corresponded with early morning. So, of course, I had picked up a supply of blood-worms on Friday afternoon. Saturday morning found me in place a full 90 minutes before slack low tide. The bite was surprisingly slow, but I did convert my only take at 6:15 AM into a solid fish in the low-20-inch range. This fish and a couple of other encouraging signs (a half dozen frenzied followers to my hooked bass, small rain-bait by the float and a couple of top-water busts, all for the first time this season) kept me on the float through predicted slack low, but then I was off in the boat to find something better. My first stop was Broad Cove; seeing that a couple of fly-fishers were already posted in the shallows, I chose to tube-and-worm my way into the Cove through the gut while watching for any positive developments. In short; there weren't any! No birds, visible bait, or bites. Knowing that Broad Cove is either "On!" or "Off!" but rarely in-between, I continued the search for bass elsewhere. I decided to check the sandy flats behind Prince Point on the incoming tide. Slowly easing along with the electric while fan-casting with a small swim-bait, I did spook one nice bass from these shallows, but they seemed otherwise empty. As I moved to the Falmouth shoreline for a pass with the tube-and-worm, my fly guide approached Mussel Cove. My pass produced nothing. The guide left the area for points east and south. I further explored the western regions of Clapboard Island, both trying to sight-fish but also blind casting. Despite a pretty good effort, I moved nothing. It was now getting pretty windy from the south, but I picked up A for a nice picnic. We tucked into Mussel Cove where I enjoyed my sandwich, chips, and a series of fruitless casts into the deepest available water. At this point, I called it a day! A and I enjoyed a good dinner in Harpswell, where I was further encouraged that things might change for the better by the sight of terns actively working over the weed edges along shore. On Sunday, I was pleased that new friend DA chose to join me, even though I had briefed him on my struggles! We started at the float, and DA converted two worm bites into a single schoolie. Then we off in the boat, hoping to arrive at Broad Cove by slack low. But first we had to check out the active surface bait just outside the cove's mouth. This turned out to be pogies, the first of the year for me. DA tried a fly while I fished beneath the pogies with a flutter spoon, but there didn't seem to be any bass with this bait. We casted the down-tide edge of an oyster farm, hoping that growth and small crustaceans could be holding and triggering some bait or bass. Not this day! We continued by entering the gut with a tube-and-worm. Once again, this was ignored and the cove was quiet; and neither fly-fisherman from the previous day were around. They knew better! The water here was very cloudy from the previous day's wind and so sight-fishing was out; we decided to make a big move to the Cousins and Royal Rivers. I quickly learned that the Cousins is NOT a low-tide area, and so we switched to the Royal. We made our way slowly upstream with the incoming tide, trolling a tube-and-worm while also casting the channel edges with a mush mouth fly. Still, nothing responded, although I was seeing increased "bait" on the sonar and there were occasional small bait splashes on the surface. Water temperatures had increased in this muddy water to almost 65 degrees, and so it seemed at least possible that we would stumble on some active bass. Almost at the yards and development in Yarmouth, I had switched to casting a fluke and I finally got hit near the surface over the deep channel. It was perhaps my smallest ever Maine Striper, and certainly the smallest in many years; it was a well-conditioned 13-incher. Success!?! Never before has such a small striper kept me in place for so long; but we were running out of time and I had nothing better to work. We stayed, but neither of us had another hit. We encountered a porpoise and another school of pogies in the channel between Chebeague and Littlejohn Islands. Nothing responded to our fly or spoon. I got DA back to his truck by the appointed time; it had been another struggle, but an enjoyable one. What do I have to say about this? This was a surprisingly slow and difficult start to my local boating season, but there were plenty of good signs suggesting that better times might be coming. These included; some small bait-fish around the float and about, some larger finfish bait, marine mammals on the hunt, and everything is working well on the boat. I can't really complain! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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