A couple weeks ago Cheyenne and I went to Maine. We spent our entire time in coastal areas, mostly Downeast. Much of the week was dedicated to Acadia and Bar Harbor, and area I hadn't been to in three years. Last I was there Noah and I discovered how entertaining the surf fishing was. The most abundant fish were pollock, followed by Atlantic mackerel. Noah fished small jigs and I fished tiny streamers, and we caught a lot of fish. I was excited to be back.
This trip wasn't a fishing trip, but as always I squeezed as much out of it as I reasonably could. Cheyenne fished with me. We used fairly light rods throughout the trip, but I started out with a 5wt. That would certainly be light for surf fishing, but not for these fish. The inshore pollock aren't big animals. They run about 9 inches on average. They're exceptionally strong for their size though. On the first little excursion I lost one that would have gone about 20 inches, huge for the surf. It kicked my butt immediately. I had no chance at all. From that point on I didn't encounter anything other than the expected size, but it's good to know that fish that large can be present.
We found the best luck in bubbly white water near the top of the tide. There were plenty of fish around throughout the tide, but it was safer to get to water's edge at high tide. Maine's big tides leave a lot of slick, algae and seaweed covered rock exposed as the drops.
Noah and I had figured out how much more productive whitewater spots were on the previous trip, and that's no surprise. The same thing is applicable to surf fishing through the Northeast, and to many different species.
At points the fishing was very fast paced and we doubled up quite a bit. At other points it seemed there were only a few fish around that we picked off right away before things went quiet.
What seemed to be absent the whole trip was mackerel. The only sign I saw of them was from seals that were catching them about 80 yards off the beach at our campsite. Maybe that stems from warmer water temperatures than in July, when Noah and I had found them. Maybe it was something else entirely, I'm not sure. Mackerel have always been a bit mysterious to me. They seem to be everywhere and nowhere at once. Noah and I made a few trips before we actually finally caught them. We also had to go much further north than we though we'd have to. They seem to be an objectively easy fish to find and catch, anx yet I can't. It's funny to me that pollock turned out to be much easier.
As the trip progressed, I made some slight methodology changes. I'll cover that in the near future. It'll be interesting, and it opened up and idea I'd like to delve into. I'm going to be expanding the range of saltwater fly fishing, but in the opposite direction it has been expanding. Instead of heavier rods, bigger flies, and huge bluewater fish, I want to reveal to you all the fish quietly hiding in plain sight... some bigger than any trout you've ever caught, but small enough that the saltwater fly fishing community as a whole hasn't given due.
Until next time,
Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.
Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, Streamer Swinger, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version.
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