Still fishing for temperatures in the 50s. At
present, river temps. at mid-forties. Probably in the next few weeks at best. (Date- May 4, 2003)
2003 Files
Still fishing for temperatures in the 50s. At
present, river temps. at mid-forties. Probably in the next few weeks at best.
(Date- May 4, 2003)
May 19- a few stripers reported caught in Richmond and Gardiner. Nothing in the upper river area yet. Going to hit a few hot spots tomorrow morning and give it a go. Should see some action any day now. Ocean temps finally hit low 50s, river temps 54 in Waterville/Winslow. However, bait is still running and is spread throughout the river, so the fish have no real reason to come straight to Waterville. There is plenty of feed all the way up. There should be some fish around here by the weekend if only for their instinct to swim as far as they can up-stream pre-spawn.
May 24- Still no stripers, the ocean temp. is still cold, last checked, was 46 and dropping due to the recent cold weather. We need to see 52 degree temperatures there before stripers are going to make the trip. It seems everything is running about 3 weeks behind the normal coarse of events. Last weekend, I guessed that fish would be in by this weekend. However, I'm changing my forecast (due to the weather) to next weekend .. one of these times I'm going to be right! Oh well I guess I've got a little more time for fly tying... like I need more!
May 26- Just a few small schoolies caught in the Waterville/Winslow area in the last day or two. Things should be looking up in the next week or so. We're getting a fair amount of rain this weekend, should bring the water level up nice this week. It may be time to start hitting the early morning action.
here's the data from ole #44007.
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Wind Direction (WDIR): | NNE ( 30 deg true ) |
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Wind Speed (WSPD): | 5.8 kts |
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Wind Gust (GST): | 7.8 kts |
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Wave Height (WVHT): | 2.6 ft |
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Dominant Wave Period (DPD): | 8 sec |
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Atmospheric Pressure (PRES): | 30.00 in |
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Pressure Tendency (PTDY): | -0.06 in ( Falling ) |
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Air Temperature (ATMP): | 44.8 °F |
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Water Temperature (WTMP): | 43.0 °F |
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Dew Point (DEWP): | 44.6 °F |
the ocean is still cold at 43 degrees; about 10 degrees off normal temps. this time of year. Any fish that are up river now are resident fish. I don't believe we'll see any migratory until we see sustained 50 degree temps at this buoy.
tight lines!
June 5-12- Fishing has been decent early in the morning. Just started taking pictures recently, and have been catching some nice chunky fish. The best fish so far was 38 inches and about 20 pounds (no picture of coarse); most of the decent fish are averaging 30 inches or so. Rubber baits and poppers seem to be the winners lately with jigs in deeper water. Also fish seem to be a bit line-shy this year, mainly because the numbers are down and less competition for food gives them more time for looking things over. Clear mono down to 10lb test was needed a few times just to get bit. The faster the water your fishing, the bigger the line they will bite.
June end- Hey not the best June season I've seen but some real nice fish were caught in alot of places that were not the usual spots. As a matter of fact the normal hot spots were slow at best. This lead me to believe that these fish are staying away from the high pressure spots. There was absolutely no other reason for this to happen this season. There was more than plenty of bait in those spots; temperature was optimum; water quality was very good; However the fishing pressure was high, even when there were no fish there. Folks just never gave them a break in those areas; they never had a chance to feed there without a popper rustling over their heads.
Augusta was decent fishing but sporadic at times. Again, fishing pressure was high for the few fish that are kicking around. It seems everyone still needs to run their outboards in this area, jumping from spot to spot like kids in a candy store. I even witnessed one boat crank it's motor right at the dock, then bolt to a spot while fish were breaking in his wake and continued breaking right off the dock after he left. Kind of made me wonder if he was even striper fishing, until I saw him a while later and sure enough, he was trying to catch stripers.. it was worth the chuckle I got anyhow. As I was drifting by he said, "had any luck?" ..."boy it sure seems slow this year eh?" .. it's probably slow everywhere he goes with that outboard running.. YA THINK?
July 1-6- Pretty slow during the sunny days. The best fishing is still at night and or under low light conditions. Still catching fish with sea lice on them, but few where the water is low.. kind of hard to believe after all the rain we've had recently... we could use some high water conditions to cool things off just a tad.. river temp is in the high 70s.... yuck!
get yourself a head lamp and hit 'em at night.. don't shine the light in the water though.. spooks the crap out of 'em.
~tight lines~
July 26- Went to Augusta this morning and fished the last half of the out-going tide from 4:30-10:00. We caught some nice fish and got pictures of two of them. Water temp. was 77 degrees, cloudy, and not a soul in site all morning. As a result, the fish we did come across were aggressive on poppers and big rubber. There seemed to be a fair amount of bait around and I believe they were blue-back herring. They were certainly large in size. The gray herons weren't telling any lies. If you see them stationed on shore, you'd better sneak in and fish it- worked like a charm.
this year has certainly been a challenge to stay in fish, but rewarded well every time we found them. Oh well, if it was easy, then it would be crowded and even more frustrating.
August 16- We fished in Phippsburg this weekend and caught some decent fish. Both blues and stripers on artificials. Poppers, sluggos and jigs all caught fish equally well, fished the outgoing mostly and monitored some of the incoming tide in a few spots, it seemed as though things were setting up for some fishing during the last half of the incoming... Had a good day. We actually brought some bait but never had to use it.
~tight lines~
End of Sept. thru early Oct.- Things have been pretty wild in Winslow, the alewife run is now in full swing. It started in the last two weeks of Sept. and seems to be about half way through it's cycle. (currently Oct. 5th) Some real nice fish are being caught in Waterville/Winslow. A lot are in the mid to upper 30" class- 15 to 20lbs. , water temp. 60 degrees. ............... be there early and late. I have some nice pictures for the gallery.
good luck
Oct. 14-15- I'm not saying where and when but holy cows, are there some fish to be had in the upper river!.. not great numbers but the fish are big and strong with lots of kick left in them for the temperature (57-58). The bite is unusually light, almost unrecognizable as a take. If one wasn't using no-stretch lines, you would have no idea that they were even there. They are slipping in under the guise of darkness, exclusively. If your fishing daylight hours, your wasting your time in a big way. We've been using the same presentation all year and nothing but their timing has changed. Locations that were good in the spring/summer are good now; I mean really good!.. carpel tunnel straps are on! hot packs after hours for the shoulder, and I'm good for the next night.. just wait till 9:00pm and hit the spring /summer spots! YOU WON'T BE SORRY! but your arms might be! HE HE
one other tip: fish where the bait is coming from and areas down river, all the way to Augusta and beyond are good fishing now. Just grab 'em and growl!
good luck and tight lines mates!
Oct. 19- Well, It's just about over. I fished this morning, caught 3 nice fish in the high 20" class and they were so cold, there was almost no fight to them. I checked the water temp. and was surprised to see that it had dropped hard and was only 52 degrees.... BRRRR!.. that's the coldest I've caught them in Winslow. Real spongy takes, and no fight means it's at least over for me. One could probably still catch a few fish, but the fight is hardly worth the effort. Oh well, (sniff sniff) I guess we wait for next year! I have a few new things I want to develop this winter and try out next season.. this thing just may knock your socks off! .. see ya'll in May 04!
time to hibernate!