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Date: June 5, 2022 Body of Water: Casco Bay and Broad Cove - Falmouth/Cumberland, Maine Moon Phase: First Quarter waxing moon Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Striped Bass Time: 8:45 AM - 1:30 PM Conditions: Low tide at 10 AM. Clear; northerly wind about 10 mph and 60 - 65 degrees. Water was clear but green; water temperatures 56 - 58 With no clear plan, I started my day uncharacteristically late. I used the late start as an opportunity to pick up the last two dozen blood-worms from The Tackle Shop. Reports there seemed to generally reflect my experience, and so I started with the simple and familiar. I decided to make a pass by the landing with the tube-and-worm. Within ten minutes I got my first bite. It stole my worm, but I'd marked multiple fish at this spot in about 11 feet of water, so I motored up-tide and reset. Same result! And then I repeated myself again. Ughh! I hate donating worms and switched to casting a swim-bait. After ten casts or so without a response, I convinced myself that these nibbling bass were small and not worth my time. I decided to use these same tactics, but in new water. Twenty minutes later or so, at just about slack low tide, I was setting up in Broad Cove for the first time. I'd followed my mapping up the "gut" of the bay, and as I idled about, I started marking fish near bottom. I'd perhaps only trolled 30 seconds when the rod bent over and the drag pulled a bit. This was no nibble, this fish had eaten! Glad to have broken the ice with a fat and spunky striper in the low 20s (inches, that is), I quickly re-deployed and hooked up again. This time it was a solid 25-incher, a quality fish on any day in my book. I was trolling the tube-and-worm as slowly as possible, and about 55 - 60 feet (nine repeated color patterns, plus leader) behind the rod tip. Both of these fish came from about 13 feet of water in the mapped gut. I gradually expanded my searching/trolling area as I continued to hunt biting fish. I occasionally switched trolling directions as the fickle wind swung around the compass erratically. I also mixed in a few rounds of lure casting (Ben Parker spoons and small, white swim-baits), but other than a single visible follow, these generated no action, so I kept turning back to the tube-and-worm. I lost and found active groups of fish a few times. At the end of my session, two or more hours into the flood, the fish were pegged to a nearby shallow drop-off in 8 - 10 feet of water. By the time I'd burned through my first dozen worms, I'd landed nine stripers to a verified 27 inches, with an additional unverified, flubbed "keeper" boat-side. Not a bad recovery after losing my first three worms to nibblers! This was a solid tube-and-worm session, and in a new-to-me location to boot! This was especially good action given the high skies and bright conditions. I arrived back at the landing at 1:30 PM to pick up A. This was about a 15-minute trip given the extensive path through Falmouth's mooring field. But A and I enjoyed a leisurely return to Broad Cove, where we shared a pleasant, drifting lunch. Just as I approached Anderson Rock to set up a trolling pass, we were approached by a couple of nervous kayakers. They'd lost track of their son and their nephew. With a general idea of the direction they'd taken and a description of "one red, one green" kayaks, I motored across Broad Cove. Soon enough a single reg kayak came into focus. The oblivious son was okay; we pointed him the direction of Cumberland Town Landing and told him to meet his parents there. He wasn't sure where the cousin was, but pointed towards Sturdivant Island. We returned to the parents and told them to meet their son at the town landing while we looked for the nephew. We found him paddling uncertainly near the eastern end of Sturdivant. We beached the boat, loaded him into amybaby22, connected his green kayak with a tow rope, and headed back. Rescue complete, A and I turned to the fishing. But the wind had continued to increase from the southwest, I had little boat control, and we soon called it quits. We had our own long slog back, given the stiffening headwind. What do I have to say about this? Broad Cove had been a good audible. The stripers seemed more aggressive in the slightly chalkier water. It offered a pleasant and peaceful setting (little boat traffic, fewer moorings and lobster pots, etc.). I'll be sure to return to explore it further! It had been a good day, not only for the fishing and the shared time with A, but also because we had helped a few folks in more-than-mild distress. All the kayakers were wearing life jackets, but beyond that, they had not planned well. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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