Seacoast New Hampshire Sportfishing

While the water temps are still holding at 64 degrees, the frequency of severe blows recently has caused us some reschedule challenges – thanks to all on that front.

We were spared a much worse churn this weekend, and should be back in business by midweek.

As per our typical fall pattern, weekends are booked solidi. The good news is we are now heading out at 5 , so even a weeknite trip is over early enough to be home for the news. ***For a slight tip, I will hook (bit not land) your fish while you enjoy a shipboard supper!***

Herring are solid in the harbor, and mackeral still available with some work inshore. Our pattern is now to fish the mackeral until an hour after dark, then cap off with eels.

The folks listed below warmed up for the annual NC marlin trip by spanking and releasing some fish under moonlight early in the week. They will be back for round two early next month – hopefully with some marlin pics!

As mentioned, weekend bookings are complete for the year. Please call is you are amenable for a weeknite twilight trip.

C’mon down…

Capt. Bob

After waiting out a hurricane and tropical storm, and the gobs of weeds left behind, we’re back in the game. Happy to report the fish are still cooperating.

The bite continues to be an evening twilight to early darkness pattern. Interestingly, it’s been mackeral even after dark they prefer – so we oblige! My one recent bummer trip was an early morning foray. Ironically, it was a rescheduled twilight trip due to traffic havoc on their end.

We’re using the light Shimano spinners almost exclusively now. It’s fun for all to have a good tussle with this gear – feeling every tug through the light braid. For eels and larger mackeral we switch to the Shimano level winds – and still have fun.

The downside of light gear is the occasional “oh no” moment with a fish that wants to get to the next county. We’ve been pretty successful employing electric motor hot pursuit, unless it’s too rough. The smiling blond client below – who released that big girl right after the photo, had an “oh no” a few nights ago. Snotty rough so we had to stay put. Ouch…

While it’s really unusual to have mackeral all season, we’ll stick with it. We are enjoying several spots where juvenile herring are concentrating bass, making double headers a fun challenge.

While the water temps are still above 65, the days are getting short.

Soooo….

C’mon down.

Capt Bob

Sorry to for the posting slience – fishing, a family vacation, and then the Hurricane shuffle. Hint: It’s much easier being a charter captain than a charter captain/lobsterman when a hurricane is on its way. Battening down the center console – simple. Repositioning pots pre-storm, then dodging surfers to recover them today – not so much.

Although the storm moved through pretty quickly, the weeds and churn will take some time to settle out.

Just before all this, the fishing was holding up nicely. The herring that held in certain shoreline pockets made the twilight bite fun. Stripers were also a little further offshore, at one point making it dicey to leave just-jigged mackeral in the water too long. They need to make Sabiki rigs with heavier leader!

Pre-storm we also had solid numbers of bluefish, and a slug of school tuna near the Isles.

I’m going to let things settle out, then come back swinging into Labor Day Weekend. Pretty booked through Sept, but I’d happily refer you on if I can’t make the trip happen.

Best,

Capt. Bob

We continue to hold the mackeral in close to shore, and baby herring have joined the mix. The bass have demonstrated a strong preference for finned bait over eels lately. No problem!

The fishing has trended upward in the last week. Our last three trips have had fish exceeding 40″ – our trophy baseline. It’s been fun cheering on the bass as they swipe mackeral in shallow water – attached to our lines!

Bluefish continue to mingle, although not in the numbers of recent weeks.

We’re fishing hard during the early mornings and evenings right now. It was fun having a client tag a 40″ striper on a live mackeral by moonlight several nites back. Almost time to emulate those southern swordfish guys and illuminate our floats!

I can now offer lobstering side trips, and am properly licensed to sell [you] fresh lobsters after our charters if desired. Ask me about my “client pot!”

C’mon down….

Capt. Bob

P.S. Want a photo that says SPECIAL OCCASION?

We’ve been scratching away at fish – some in the low 40″ range. The mackeral – hereby declared suicidal in the face of seal, bluefish, and pilot whale (yes, less than one mile from the beach…) pressure, have been getting thicker by by the day. The nite bite has been slow, I suspect due to the easy pickins come daylight.

How many mackeral? Long rod Ace Scott hooked one on a MACKERAL pattern today in 10′ of water!

The warm waters and macks have the bluefish in tight. We must have been bitten off six times today. Ouch!

Collective wisdom is that the predators will push the mackeral out shortly, which should reinforce the nite bite. Until then, come see how nervous a mackeral gets when a striper is on its tail!

Best,

Capt. Bob

We’ve been fishing a lot this last week, enjoying the beautiful weather, calm seas, and ready supply of mackeral.

The pattern right now has been a dawn bite, with things tapering off as the sun rises. On successive trips we’ve had double headers on the first drop or two, then go to singles, then….having to go hunting. The fish have also been  a bit lazy, as we seem to have a number of chasers that harrass rather than commit.

Lest this sound glum, there is a real thrill to watching mackeral sprinting for their lives, with bass swirling in pursuit. We try to use the light Shimano sticks, as many of the fish are marginal keeper size.

The nite bite has been off due to the slug of mackeral, but that can change at any time.

C’mon down…

Capt Bob

We’ve had several good trips this week, able to readily catch tinker mackeral and scoot back shoreside. When we do, we’ve been able to find decent numbers of fish. Our one “down” trip this week – last night, suffered from a tough southerly wind making it @#$% rough initially, confounded our efforts to get mackeral, and forcing us into a more stationary “hide from the wind” approach using eels. We scratched one fish for all that, a bummer for both yours truly and our hard fishing Team Joran.

I’m taking a couple of days to collect, then back at ‘er again next week.

Parting note:

Returning client Meghan took some pride in outfishing her Dad – or at least that’s her version. From this shot you can see she had a fun time doing so!

Best,

Capt. Bob

The sun has returned, and with it stripers – some approaching trophy size. The warm weather has also brought in a strong run of bluefish, right along the beach. While it’s gotten expensive getting flouro leaders and circle hooks bit off with increasing regularity, the many bass among them keeps us on plan.

The Birk party from New York, and Robertson party from NH this weekend were pleasant, skilled, hard working anglers. Our trips mixed after dark eelin’, and pitching tinker mackeral around the points during twilight. There is an unusually large amount of mackeral in tight – especially given the blues, but righ now we are “making bait” without the need to chum. Our parties enjoyed “run and gun” amidst the mackeral pods, and then the short run to fish zone central.

We’re finding the light Shimano spin sticks a lot of fun, very light but with enough backbone to control larger fish – most of the time! I had to invoke hot pursuit twice this weekend on hot fish in really shallow water, but that’s why we’re set up to run skinny!

Bookings have been busy, but please call if you’re ready to fish or vacationing locally. If not available I will strive to get you connected with a couple of fishy colleagues. You just have to promise to come back to Capt. Bob next year!

Enjoy the sun, and c’mon down…

Capt. Bob

Folks

It was a pleasant surprise to get back out this weekend after all the wind and rain. Mackeral were breezing only one mile from the beach, allowing us to get our bait quickly. The fish seemed hungry, scarfing the bait down in a rush. We loved it!

Eleven keepers brought smiles all around. The nine year old classmates pictures had two double headers, one of which yielded 33″ twins. As you can see by the rod in the background, we love those light Shimanos!

Yesterday’s westerly wind cleared out the weeds, and a spanking full moon is here.

Sooooo….

C’mon down.

Capt Bob

Okey smokes, turn off the rain and wind already…

After getting the s#*t kicked out of us on a trip on the weekend, Capt. Bob declared an early season hiatus and took the family on a short vacation. One Santa’s Village marathon, and several days of upcountry cabin repair later, we’re back to hold Ole Man Weather accountable for the forecast of improved conditions in the next few days. Let’s Hope!

With a solid week of onshore winds, and now umpteen million gallons of fresh water spilling from the Bay twice daily, we’ve got a bit of cleaning up to do. Prior to all this we were able to scrape together enough mackeral at the Isles of Shoals to make a daytime go of it, and enough voting age stripers to make those mackeral nervous. Real nervous…

I’ll post my next foray’s results, and look forward to getting back to business.

My time away reinforced how important it is to stay plugged in to the family when we can. Using that as a shameless plug, I take pride in showing families how much fun it can be to experience fishing together – I have plenty of practice! All I ask is that you allow me to substitute a guarantee – 15 minutes without a fish == no pay!

Best,

Capt. Bob