Expecting horrible weather and possibly lightening, I will admit that I was a little concerned after scheduling this trip. I met up with a fellow fishing friend; Craig for this one. We have done a couple of trips together in the past and he is really cool to fish with. He also taught me quite a bit about trolling for salmon up on Lake Winnipesaukee.
We fished the top of high tide and all of the outgoing. With a slow start, we moved around a bit. Craig got a couple of fish from these moves and I was still waiting. Had a bunch of followers but no takers yet.
Moved out away from the crowds to fish this rip I saw forming. I think it was the 3rd or so cast I saw a fish bust on my bait. I was using my spinning outfit with a 1/2 spool of 10 pound line and nothing special for a sluggo on a jig head. The week before I had a knot half way up my line and had to sacrifice 1/2 of my spool on a 4 series reel so and have not had the time to respool it. I knew it was a good fish but it kept getting better with every run it made. 🙂 It was taking line like it owned its own Bass Pro Shops out there in the Atlantic. I’m sure this fish was planning to spool me and came close to achieving its goal, however I asked Craig to start the motor and we chased the fish down (I saw the end of the line coming up and hit it at one point). What a dance this became when there were other boats seeing me fight this fish and pulled in all around us. I got worried because the fish was like 300+ feet out and approaching another boat. Then in between us this jamoke was motoring between me and that other boat. Good thing we started the motor at that point and chased it down.
45 inches and 25 pounds- and my biggest striper to date. Let alone I got this fish on 10 pound line and a medium action spinning rod.
The rest of the day we got several more fish (maybe 30 or so between the two of us). Nothing big for the rest of the day but saw many good fish chase it to the boat then give up. We caught a couple of blue fish today too and found a feeding school of them. A little weird that they were in this early but they are still fun. Just a little annoying when you loose your baits to their teeth.
I had one on later in the day that was around 27-28 inches? However, it broke off at the boat. Go figure, I can land a 45 but not a 27. 😐 It was ok though as the rest of the day were gravy fish for me after this one.
Tried the fly several times but I’ll admit I’m not the best fly guy and with the wind, I did not do it as much. Did try about a dozen times without even a follow (clousers).
It did not rain out too much but the wind was much worst than they predicted. This made it tough to fish drifts. The fog was so thick you could not motor fast and boats by the dozen would appear out of nowhere during my drifts.
Overall it was a fun day and great fishing with Craig again. Hope to get out with him again soon. He said his casting arm was tired after this marathon.
Brian
NHAngler Fishing BLOG 