Seacoast New Hampshire Sportfishing

Family obligations kept me shoreside this week, but family is core and so was not TOO much of a hardship. Heard thru a colleague the fishing was staying steady (a good thing…) and on two short trips on Sunday for a boat inspection and son’s buddy’s trip saw that was true. Early on we struggled against water temps that had dropped more than ten degrees overnite due to the frontal passage, but still scored a few before resuming sea trials. Later, my son & buddy trip produced several stripers and an estimated 10 lb bluefish that returned the circle hook at boatside. These guys just wanted to go back to mackerel fishing, and then get ice cream – so we did!

Later in the day while swimming with the kids I swam up the beach a ways, and seemed to be in a ribbon of small herring. Oh, those stripers will happily stay inshore just like last season. Out comes the cast net!

August bookings are gratifying, so if we are not able to accommodate your request I’ll try to refer you on to a quality alternative. We are targeting several spots with fish concentrations, and my colleagues and I are working for the collective good, sometimes even squeezing over to get each other in to the zone if the fish are really packed in.

Sooooo….

Cm’on down.

Capt. Bob

What to say, except we’re very thankful to share another nice week of fishing with nice folks.  Once again, the pics probably say it all – my clients like to catch nice fish on light tackle, and we’ve been doing a lot of that lately!

Mackerel are still available inshore, although at times maddeningly hard to hook as they scarf chum feet from the transom. Once again this week the bait pen paid off. This morning we had taken four fish, including a 44″ queen released, before a colleague who’d left a half hour before us completed catching his tank full.

Bluefish are mixed in amongst the bass on most trips, with a few biteoffs expected.

Happy to report a 100% success rate on our post-fishing lobster bonus this week, too!.

Tuna still spotty offshore, but hey, with this much fun on the beach it’s time to c’mon down……

Capt Bob

This week’s report is a pleasure to write. Consistent fishing, increased true trophies among them, and only one weather-related reschedule required. One heartbreaking ‘couldn’t stop her’ reinforced the fact that the bigger fish are here, and hungry.

The pictures probably tell much of the story. Big smiles and big fish. Know what happens when two clients get a triple header – look at the photo and see! Hint: Capt Bob dared ‘em to land them all, and happily filmed their success.

We had good results using our bait tank this week, stockpiling mackerel to jumpstart our early trips.

Bluefish are now firmly within the mix, too.

Offshore the tuna are slowly building in numbers, so as much fun as we’re having inshore we’re hoping we can offer tuna/striper combo trips soon.

My Best,

Capt, Bob

Picture this: after dodging thunder cells (and catching stripers all the while) we finished last nite’s charter under the halo of Live Free or Die fireworks launched from a local beach – while hooked up just offshore using lighted bobbers and mackerel. The adventures of Capt. Bob…

The fishing has been pretty darn good. Settled weather has allowed us to get on bait and stripers with pretty good results. Bluefish joined us last week, when the inshore water approached 70 degrees.

Most of our fish are in the just legal to mid 30″ range right now, with the occasional near trophy. On our Shimano light spinners these guys put on a real show, soooooooo….

C’mon Down.

Capt. Bob

The fishing is holding up well, albeit still with the need to accommodate the weather variables. Bait is readily available inshore – good thing as on one trip this week we had to reload due to first half multiple hookup mayhem!

We’re now commonly seeing fish in the 30+ inch range, and expect to see some honest trophies at any time. On our light gear the current crop is a handful, and those topwater bites are fun for all. At least two double headers on each trip this week, soooooo……

My Best,

Capt Bob

We’re enjoying pretty consistent fishing, albeit with a weekend cold front interruption. Nice trend is that we’re starting to mix in larger fish, particularly as dark approaches.

Sorry for partial pics; a combination of failure to pack and inability to get flash to work. Will get my 10 yr old son on the latter right away…

If fun’s what you want, fun’s what we got, sooooo….

C’mon down!

Capt Bob

As mentioned, steady weather is equating to steady fishing again this season. Volatile weather, not so much…

We were blessed with cool sea breezes most of the week, wishing they could carry further inland to our sweltering comrades. Along with those light breezes we enjoyed calm, warm water, ample bait, and hungry stripers!

Still no true trophies, but solid numbers of very solid, scrappy all legal fish.

A couple of fun photos below. A regular client introduced his until-then striperless Mom to our magic last summer. Guess who caught the largest fish of the night? The trash talk started early this time, with Mom claiming bait procurement superiority. The first six fish on board consisted of three consecutive double headers, and I’m not saying who had the largest one. After a dozen aboard and many missed, we ended the evening by them each claiming an EQUAL SIZED lobster. You taught him right, Mom!

Stay cool, stay safe, and Hey C’mon down!

Capt Bob

P.S. See the tag in the fish below? We hope to contribute to fisheries management by tagging fish on a regular basis. Hope you’ll help us!

Seems like only last season we were seeing that our fishing shut right down as a frontal passage chilled the inshore water temps – sometimes as much as ten degrees overnight. Sorry to say Mother Nature is playing that trick again, most recently late last week. With that front we lost our steady action, and saw water temps drop as low as 47.

Yesterday morning we fished hard to produce several shots and one keeper, which we released after tagging. By noon the wind changed onshore, the water temp increased ten degrees, and we landed, tagged, and released 5 keepers within 40 minutes!

I relate this to ask your patience and flexibility in our charter schedule. I’d much rather play creative, weather sensitive calendaring than endure a long, low fish session due to adverse conditions. I expect you would too, so thanks in advance should we need to ‘get creative’!

P.S. Our hard fishing crew did take home a full house lobster feast yesterday courtesy of our Bonus, soooooo –

C’mon down

Capt. Bob

We had loads of fun on a short Memorial Day trip. Several double headers, including the one that has me hogtied in the photo below!

Keeping up our Bonus tradition, we hauled several lobster traps post fishing. One contained an approx 8 lb brute shown below. Unfortunately it exceeded the inshore Max size limit by a solid inch. Rats!

I have invested in a large floating bait pen, and plan to stockpile mackerel whenever possible, allowing us to get right on ‘em.

Soooo….

C’mon down.

Capt Bob

After a VERY long winter it’s finally striper time!

Going solo to both set lobster traps and scout for trophies (did I mention the new Shimano outfit aboard?), I needed a photographer and companion. Went 5 for 8, and then home for a striper finger dinner.

It’s been a long winter and a gloomy spring,soooooo –

C’mon Down!

Capt Bob