Maine’s harsh winters often leave fishermen settling for fishing ‘related’ activities rather than the real thing for a large portion of the year. Shore based striped bass anglers may be at the top of this list, and are forced to simply daydream about their target species for up to 7 months out of the year.
Swapping hardware, tying leaders, and pouring over google maps offers little relief to the lonely anticipation of the spring run. Even when the fish arrive, surfcasters and fly fisherman are bound by tides, winds, weather, and the mundane obligations of everyday life. In an almost sadistic manner, shore-based anglers further stack the odds against themselves by limiting their reach to the distance of their cast, oftentimes not exceeding a hundred feet.
Pair all of this with a seemingly endless network of islands and variable coast, and you can begin to understand the overwhelming sense of urgency that striped bass anglers are faced with during their brief, fleeting season. These parameters ultimately set the scene for a 5-month marathon of sleepless nights, unhealthy obsessions with fine details like moon phases, bait, tides, wind, and the fear of missing out on the bite of a lifetime.
Maine’s sprawling sand beaches are sharply juxtaposed by harsh, seemingly unpassable rocky ledges. The ancient bedrock looks to have been fashioned by the hands of a surfcaster, offering an endless reserve of fishy structure to hobble along in the pursuit of your next bite. The same intimate and intense connection we feel when fishing with our feet on land is the very connection that binds us to the mainland, and forces us to remain observers of the islands that lie just out of our reach.
Maine’s coast boasts an expansive array of virtually unfished water, isolated from the public beaches and local hotspots that are accessible by mainland. Drastic tides flood and drain large stretches of sandy flats multiple times a day, making passage by larger boat tricky and sometimes impossible. Steep jagged ledges throw highly oxygenated white-water back at the ocean in response to the sea’s perpetual melee.
Grass-lined marshes teeming with crabs and shrimp meander inland from the harsh coastline, providing a nursery for young bait fish that will return to the ocean in the fall. These were the exact areas that we hoped to gain access to with the help of the Bonafide PWR129.
In addition to exploring new water, we were all eager to explore the spots that we were already familiar with, using the kayaks to improve ourselves as shore anglers as well. If you asked any of us, we would be confident in saying that we are extremely familiar with the spots that we frequent.
That being said, sometimes what lies beneath the churning water remains at best an educated guess. We are only able to see what the tide reveals, and what our lures come in contact with. Using these clues, we fill in the blanks with our own biases and create a slightly distorted picture in our heads of what lies directly in front of us. The prospect of getting directly over the top of these areas and visually confirming (or denying) our suspicions seemed like one we couldn’t pass up.
As a dedicated surfcaster, I can attest to the fact that you rarely feel like you are directly in ‘the bite’. That is to say that ‘the bite’ always feels like it is coming or going. Even the treat of catching a fish on your first cast can be quickly interrupted by the thought that you were actually late, and you could have been catching fish for a while had you shown up just a bit earlier. Even the best bites from the surf eventually die off as the tide changes and the conditions force the bass to move out of range of your lonely rock.
One massive benefit of the kayak that we were all excited for was the ability to follow the fish and remain in ‘the bite’ for longer periods of time, tracking their movement through the entire tide. Learning where the fish go after they move away from our isolated rocks would be a massive advantage, and may allow you to catch more fish or effectively target them at a different stage of the tide. With this goal in mind I gathered a team of friends that consisted of Flynn Willsea, Rick Griffits, and Camden Spear whom I thought would be up to the task.
DAY 1
The goal of the first day was to become familiar with the kayaks while exploring a cove that we were familiar with. After playing with the Newport trolling motor systems we quickly realized we would be able to cover far more water than we initially anticipated.
We immediately began cruising a sand beach in search of signs of life, and almost immediately found a large group of bass cruising just below the surface, only making themselves known by the occasional swirl or fin sticking conspicuously out of the water. These fish, posted up in the hundreds if not thousands would have been all but invisible to us if it weren't for the fact that the kayaks allowed us to get extremely close before spooking them.
That being said, catching them was not quite so easy. They were lazy and quite lock-jawed and most of the day was spent following the slow moving schools around attempting to find some code to success.
While we did have some follows right to the tips of our rods we were not able to connect with a fish. While wrapped up in the excitement of a possible bite aided by the stability and seaworthiness of the Bonafide Kayaks, we failed to realize the swells had been steadily growing to about 3-4 feet. We soon realized that we were going to have a difficult time reaching our landing spot.
Begrudgingly, we pulled ourselves away from the fish and focused our attention back to getting our boats to shore. We managed to get 2 of our boats to shore without incident aided by some surfing knowledge and well timed landing. Between sets Flynn, Camden and I all managed to get to shore and while we were preparing to help Rick land as a larger set of waves loomed behind him.
As Rick drifted closer to shore we realized this might not end well. Just as Rick realized his mistake the first wave picked him up and with his momentum pushed him to shore, the kayak riding the wave effortlessly until in an attempt to steer sent his rudder and the boat upside down. From there it was a mad dash to make sure Rick and his belongings were all accounted for.
Luckily, he and his kayak survived the ordeal intact. The first day certainly had its ups and downs. We learned a lot about the kayaks and saw some things that we had never experienced as shore fisherman.
DAY 2
Part of our goal in having these kayaks was to explore some of the unique areas of Maine we had never been able to before. For our second day we chose an area that had it all- A long sandy beach, large rock ledges,and a large sandbar that led out to a small private island.
Using the high sun to our advantage we set the Newport trolling motors and stood in the kayaks cruising the beach looking for fish in small pods to cast at. Fishing was tough but we did manage to catch one fish using this method. In order to hit all of the spots we wanted to, we transitioned toward the island, and easily portaged over part of the sand bar.
We had only been fishing the structure of the island a few minutes before Flynn yelled to us “there are squid following my fly in!” We jokingly said to him use a squid fly assuming he didn't have one in his fly box. Cooly Flynn pulled our a 12 inch squid beast fly claiming “I have never even casted this thing.”
After fishing the fly on a heavy sinking line for just a few minutes Flynn connected with a fish. While not a complete shock it was a great example of why you should always keep an eye out and match the hatch. We continued to journey around the island picking up more fish along the way. Eventually working our way back to the sand bar.
While it wasn’t a terribly productive day when it comes to landing fish, it was for feeling out how much water we could cover in these kayaks. Within a matter of hours we had covered around 8 miles- just the beginning as we headed into the next few days.
DAY 3
One thing that makes striped bass special is their unique behaviors, and how those change depending on their environment. Sometimes chasing bait in schools, cruising the flats in skinny water eating crabs, or sometimes sitting in the riffle of a river.
Today, we had picked a spot none of us had fished. Largely inaccessible by boat due to its lack of a public boat launch, we were able to launch at a small kayak ramp as the tide drained off of some untouched sand and mud flats.
Once we got our boats out onto the flat we found a pod of tailing bass in a shallow tidal creek as they fed on crabs and shrimp with the dropping tide. We pulled our motors out of the water and silently drifted the kayaks to the edge of an adjacent mud bar. From there we waded across the flat in ankle deep water as if stalking bonefish. I picked up a spare fly rod and took the first cast. I landed short but the fish luckily remained unbothered. Hoping that one of the fly guys might have more luck, I ushered Flynn over and he expertly landed his crab 3-4 feet ahead of a group of fish slowly working it back towards us.
Just as we began to assume they hadn't seen it and I looked away, Flynn said in his usual confident and excited tone “Im on.” No sooner than Flynn had hooked up, Rick had also joined the party and hooked a smaller fish. As the tide continued to drop the fish flushed out of the flat and into deeper water. After the guys had caught a few more sight-fished schoolies, we decided to have an island breakfast.
As we cooked we all marveld about how cool it was that we were able to access this spot. Not only a spot checked off of the list but most certainly one I will be returning to.
DAY 4
When debating how we should end our time with the kayaks we all kept coming back to the big schools of bass we had encountered on day one. We wanted one more good opportunity to try and figure out those fish. It's not everyday that you see thousands of fish schooled up like that, backs out of the water, seemingly just hanging out.
We decided that we would give it one more shot and spend half the day fishing and the other half gathering food for a beach dinner in the evening. By this point we were pros at launching off the beach and once launched we immediately found the bass in the calm morning light. We also found a pod of Atlantic mackerel and seized the opportunity to catch some for dinner. Flynn and Rick had luck with some smaller shrimp flies while I caught them on a sabiki rig.
Assuming we would have immediate luck we turned our attention back to the bass at hand. I threw a plug over top of the school and the bass erupted, scattering away from my lure. As I worked it back a few fish followed but none took. A multitude of casts followed but none of them yielded results. We all started to feel a little defeated. But then, all of the sudden Rick yelled with a mixture of surprise and confusion “I just had one!” We soon realized that the fish were exhibiting a more aggressive reaction to a bait zipping past than the usual feeding behavior.
In a flash I had switched my lure to a small diving minnow plug. I worked it by burning it fast followed by a dead pause. On the second pause a bass hammered my plug and it was on. I was able to land a solid 30+ in bass. Followed immediately by a few more. While I was doing this, Rick and Flynn both hooked up by stripping larger shrimp patterns in the same manner. The fish always seemed to be eating on the pause. Our camera guy Camden even got in on the action.
After about an hour of this the fish wised up and dove deeper where we could no longer see them. We felt largely accomplished in our mission. It's worth noting that although these fish were plentiful in this specific spot the Striped bass population throughout the Northeast has been under threat for the past 6 consecutive years due to poor spawning numbers resulting in extremely low numbers of younger fish who represent the next generation of spawners- an extremely concerning trend. We did our best to handle the larger breeding fish with care and release them quickly, understanding we were lucky to have such access to these fish.
With a thunderstorm starting to dump rain on us we made our way around the point we had been fishing and to a mudflat that we knew was laidend with Clams. Our goal was to dig some clams to cook up for dinner. Having acquired clamming permits from the town, we set to work searching for clams. Flynn, being familiar with the area, immediately found some clams just under the surface and with his stripping basket around his hip he skilfully and quickly dug up our limit of clams.
As the sun came back out after the rain we zipped back to a nearby beach and started to prepare dinner. As we made our fish tacos and steamed clams in wine sauce we reflected on a trip well spent. Although it had not been without its challenges we had all experienced things we had never gotten to and explored places that we didn't know existed.
The kayaks stood up to every task. I do believe that without them we would have had a hard time sneaking up on big pods of fish the way we had. They provided access to places no one could reach and did it without ever breaking a sweat. We covered lots of miles in big swells with the only mishaps happening because of our own negligence. Truly a special way to experience Summer in Maine.
— Scott Geissler
