Striper

After hearing very encouraging reports from southern Maine I was looking forward to the the coming striper season. A trip down onto the saltwater section of the Saint George River has me encouraged. First water clarity has not been this good for several springs now. There was good clean green seawater well above the Route 1 bridge in Thomaston. Water temperature was in the 60’s another very positive sign.

But no stripers yet. Captain George Harris of Superfly Charters and I make our early trips searching for fish together. Saves gas and makes for a much more enjoyable outing. Not to mention we each solve the same problem of catching fish for clients a little differently. So it is a gret chance to learn from each other. While there were no stripers to report this morning we were treated to the early season Saint George River wildlife show.

Mothers Day is our annual trip to the fish ladder in Damariscotta Mills to see the alewife run. For those of you that do not know alewives are a river herring that return to many of our local rivers to spawn each spring. They are about a foot long and silvery. It has been a Mother’s day tradition for us since the boys were born that includes a late lunch out, usually in Damariscotta.

So far August has been a very busy month, I enjoy spending time with clients in the Maine Outdoors and hearing their comments. Lately though some really stand out.

Tuesday morning we were right in the middle of a hot and humid spell. I left the house at 5 AM to meet my clients for some striper fishing. I got to the end of the Beote Road and could tell something was not right. Looking in the rear view mirror delivered the bad news. Flat tire on the boat trailer.

Sometime during Thursday night Argy woke me and we were right in the middle of a tremendous thunderstorm. The lighting was frequent and vivid; it must have been raining hard but that did not register at that moment. I got up at 4 the next morning and looked down the driveway at our road. It was dark and foggy but I thought I could see something, a mound of dirt maybe? I figured that leaves or loose hay had blown into the road in the storm. Wrong.

All of the rain lately has lots of freshwater flowing into the Saint George discoloring the water and putting the stripers off. I had cancelled my morning trip and decided to try the Weskeag River in South Thomaston because it is a very small watershed and I reasoned less likely to suffer the freshwater stain. The morning was overcast with a little fog as I tried spots in the river. I had not been on the water there for at least ten years and had forgotten what a pretty place it is.

I was striper fishing this morning in the cold wind and wet. When I decided that I had enough and started for the harbor. I came around a bend in the river and saw a seal coming up out of the water. I shut off the outboard and drifted to watch as it was joined by a second small seal as they porpoised right past the boat about fifteen feet away. Seemingly not bothered by the boat they kept right on going even when I had to start the outboard to keep from crashing in to the riverbank.

Yesterday morning dawned foggy, drizzly and cold. Just like most of June. In fact I was quite cold on the morning striper fishing trip. But by the time I had driven from the harbor to home the clouds had broken up and we were treated to a perfect blue sky afternoon.

Striper fishing in the Saint George River has gotten off to a slow start this year. This week though there have been a few fish to make things interesting. Not the blitz of fish of years gone by but enough to keep me fishing the river.

I often write about how frequently we see eagles and ospreys on various trips and that they are almost always part of the early season striper fishing mix. Yesterday afternoon really made that point. Capt. George Harris of Superfly Charters and I were fishing on the Saint George between Thomaston Harbor and Warren Village checking to see if the stripers had arrived yet (nope).