Paul's Hunting Blog: Stripers are here!

I have finally lifted the curse! A couple weeks ago I caught my first salt water fish; a 12 inch american shad. I caught it on a sabiki rig at the Saco boat launch late one night. I took it home and froze it to use it for chunk bait for striper fishing. The next day the tide was perfect outside of work when I got out so I decided to throw a few casts along with another guy from work. A couple casts in I hooked into my first striper. I landed a 15'' schoolie and he caught a 20"+ one after me. I was using a rapala lipless shad rap. Stripers fight pretty good and when the bite is on it can be constant action. They shut off just as fast as they start up though.

American Shad. My first salt water catch!

My first striper!

Go-To Lure!

A guy came into work and told me about a good trout spot on the Little River in Lebanon Maine. I parked at a church and walked through some woods and down a dirt road to the most beautiful little river I have ever fished on. I caught fish right away and all morning. I caught 5 brook trout around 10", 3 blue gill, and 60-70 creek chubs. It was a soul cleansing morning getting out there before 7am on a weekday and having the whole place to myself. I foul hooked one trout so I ended up with some lunch to take home. I used a #8 snelled bait hook with a silver spoon and orange beads tipped with a small trout worm. It was amazing the place held blue gill since the deepest hole I fished was about 18" deep. I used a new Ugly Stick Lite 7' ultra light rod I picked up with a Shimano Sedona 750. That combo made it really fun and I could cast my super light bait better than my 5' ultra light rod.

Creek Chub

Lunch!

Very basic but effective!

Today, I went striper fishing after work for about 20 minutes since the tide looked good. I caught one 15" schoolie. At some point I have to get into some keepers. Striped bass have to be 20-26" or over 40" to keep in Maine and only one per day.

Since lipless crank baits have been the weapon of choice I picked up a Bomber Super Pogy hoping for improved casting distance and thinking the Bomber would hold up better than the fresh water Rapalas I have been using. I don't have a picture of the lure but I will post the packaging so everyone knows to be cautious using these baits. I tied it on twice and could not get it to swim right. I used the same rig as with the Shad Raps but it never would work. It casted very well due to the weight but hung up on itself a lot and refused to swim. I will not try these again.

Here are some odds and ends for pictures from my phone. A bunch of guys at work decided we should do a fishing tournament so partners were chosen and rules were made. The tournament should be a ton of fun and bragging rights are on the line. I will post my results if I ever get out to fish in the tourney.