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Date: August 12, 2023 Body of Water: Casco Bay - Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Striped Bass Time: 7:30 AM - 12:30 PM Moon Phase: New minus four days; waning crescent moon Tide: High at about 9:18 AM Conditions: Clear and bright, light southerly wind, about 60 - 70 degrees. Water temperatures 61 - 63 degrees F (+/-). I am getting either less patient or smarter. Regardless, I spent little time checking my usual mackerel haunts with only a single touch, and by 8:30 I was outside Hussey at Red Marker No. 2. Fortunately, my deep friends were there. The bite wasn't fast and furious, but by 9:15 (slack high tide), I was motoring over to the whitewashed shoreline of Vaill Island with a livewell loaded with pollock and mackerel. This was my first visit of 2023 to Vaill Island under favorable high-tide conditions, and with the swell-generated wash in rocky pockets, I was confident that I would find some bass. Staying safely away from the rocks, bump-trolling a live mackerel produced nothing. But the first time I tossed my bait right up against the rocks into some confused water, a striper pounced on it. The pattern for the day was established; the biting bass were tight and under the cover of the wash. I pulled six bass from 24 to 26 inches from the rocks in about two hours of effort. Mackerel produced four, but pollock scored two. All came from rocky whitewater pockets, and the island's complex and exposed southwest corner was most productive. This was nerve-wracking fishing! The three-foot swell was providing the opportunity for this reasonably productive pattern, but it was also threatening to push me into the rocks if I ever let my guard down. When bass number six came in at about 11:30 AM and was still a "small" 26-incher, I decided to take a breather and re-located to Peaks Island. I left biting fish and lost my groove. I couldn't get anything going. My choice mackerel were gone, there wasn't suitable wash for productive use of the pollock, and the wind was picking up. I called it an "easy" day and was off the water by 12:30. What do I have to say about this? Not bad for a mid-day August effort. While I prefer mackerel as bait, pollock produced again, and once again I experienced their attraction to bass in the wash. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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