The Fishin’ Hole BlogFish

Yesterday saw some nasty weather, but there was some time to get out and do some fishing.

Stripers are still slow to bite, they seem to be completely ignoring plugs and surface poppers. Tubes with or without worms still aren’t working out very well at all.

HOWEVER, I got out in the evening for a few hours and landed 6 nice fatties, two of which were under the slot, the rest just in the slot.

Later in the evening I landed a good sized eel, and what I think were Herring were pipping the surface EVERYWHERE. This is important because it means the stripers still aren’t very hungry, and they have plenty of food to eat.

The 6 I caught were all in brackish water toward the river area, and on worms. If you can get hold of live herring this might work as well. Sand worms still seem to be the bait of choice though.

A couple of small schools of blues have come and gone, although I have only seen one school personally, and they weren’t particularly hungry either.

The pogies seem to have disappeared for a little while, although I am sure they will be back. It looks like the late season is going to be hotter than the early season. Macks seem to have thinned out some, and I did see a porpoise blow out in the bay. So there are critters in there moving them around and out. This will make the stripers hungry again.

We will be going out to try again today to see if we can find some bigger stripers in the bay.

This weekend all the cogs, permits and paperwork should be in place for The Fishin’ Hole to be able to legally sell bait, tackle, and gear right at the boat lauch on Biddeford pool.

We are excited to be able to service our customers this way. We plan on having frozen Macks and pogies, Sand worms along with rods, reels, mack rigs and other fishing gear.

This should prove to be a good time!

Over the weekend I tied up a bunch of Mackerel rigs, 4 drops mostly but did a few 7 drops just for those who are serious about loading up on bait.

New Striper and blue fish hooks and rigs are also in, so grab them while they are hot….. and cheap.

Don’t forget we can special order Cortland, Penn, most any gear you need.

I am also on the hunt to find a carpenter who can re-do the shop to make it look more like a retail space and less like a garage.

So If you have some decent Carpentry skills and would like to trade work for fishing gear, time on the water in my boat, or whatever else we might offer, just pop in this weekend, or give us a call.

Mackerel are still in, but schools are thinning. So get out a good mackerel tree and snag them while you can.

The Mackerel schools are thinning because the Blue fish have arrived. I have personally seen a couple of small schools and had a few grab at my poppers, but none brought overboard yet.

However, yesterday I confirmed that the blues were actually in the bay by casting out a 15/16 oz Black and Gold Rattlin’ Chug bug and watching the fish swirl at it. A couple of good looks at the profile and coloration confirmed my suspicions of blues.

Watch for schools at low tide pushing remaining macks and silversides up to sand bars and beaches for easy meals. Trolling for blues doesn’t seem to be working yet, so casting poppers is still the best method for catching them.

Some stripers are still in, so not to worry. Fresh clams and sand worms up in the river are still a hit, as is live bait fish. If you are fishing in the river though, I would suggest fishing a high tide and using live shiners, herring or chubs. If you find yourself out at a mid tide or low, fishing toward the salt in the river trenches seems to also be working well. It IS however, time to keep the leaders on as the blues will bite pretty much anything a striper would like to bite on to.

The trout and salmon up river have slowed a bit on blue dun mayflies, but seem to be happy taking Elk Hair Caddis and Muddler minnows now. After the hungry hour before dark, start sinking down some Fishin’ Hole Hares ears Nymphs or Beaver Nymphs for some tastey dinner.

This weekend The Fishin’ Hole is having a sale. Many Items are marked down…. rods / reels, Tying supplies, flies and more.

In addition to the already marked down prices you will get an ADDITIONAL 10% off all purchases, and orders placed!

So get into the shop THIS WEEKEND! For some great deals! The Fishin’ Hole would also like to welcome to town all the Stripers247 folks!

In this post I would like to address some of the tactics that should work best with our flies. I will also be pointing out some of the highlights to our flies that you won’t see in others, and what makes them unique.

Before you just hook on any old fly and start throwing them out to the stripers in the water its important to look at a number of factors in and around the water you are on.
What is the weather? What bait fish are in the water? Will you need a steel leader (should the blues be in).

Lets start with the weather. The general rule is “Dark flies on dark days, bright flies on bright days” This rule of thumb doesn’t always hold true, but has certainly proven a good way to start. The best bet is to hit the water with a few of each in case the weather changes.

A bright fly might be considered something like the Orange striper bait or a Red Devil.
 Red Devil
Orange Striper bait.

Other Options for bright attractor flies might be Chartreuse, or yellow and chart. color combos.

Dark flies might be considered something like a Blue, or Purple/pink combo. In the shop we also have some very nice black, and chartreuse cactus chenille flies that seem to work VERY nicely.

Further more, in calm water and weather, popper or surface flies seem to work quite well. Any of the bass bug flies will gather the attention of Stripers in the river, when they are fished on a smooth surface.

Presentation counts for a million strikes when fly fishing, and Stripers are no different than trout, large mouth or any other fish. Instead of casting right on top of a rise, try casting just off to the side of one. 

When a fish hits the top, chasing bait or anything else on the surface they tend to swirl or spin around, just “Grabbing” what it is that suited them. That means throwing directly onto a rise may miss their attention.

When fishing sub-surface look for current edges, places behind rocks and structure where the fish can rest, but still keep an eye on food flowing by.

Our Striper bait flies are unique in that we super glue materials on throughout the process. This is usually avoided by most tiers because of cost and the hassle of gluing your fingers together. We pay the price of gluing our fingers together for the satisfaction of tough, quality flies. The eyes are super glued in place as well. While no fly is invincible, Flies from “The Fishin’ Hole” are much tougher than most.

This also includes our Mackerel rigs, Striper lead head jigs, and even our fresh water flies. While its not practical to superglue fresh water flies, we have gone to great lengths to ensure their quality and workmanship.

Good luck out there on the water, and get your orders in now!

The Saco River is jam packed with fish! From biddeford dam down there are thousands of herring crowding the river, out in the saltier water the schools of Mackerel are hitting record numbers. We have been tying Mackerel rigs as fast as we can, and the freezer is full of bait for the season.

There are still plenty of Stripers out in the river and the bay, but their bellies are full and it can be a little tough right now to pull a strike out of them. The best success has been seen with sand worms, rubber tubes, or jigs, trailed with a worm.

Blue fish are also in, but the same can be said about them, their bellies are full. Fish for blues in a little deeper water well out into the salt and away from the river. They seem to be trailing the Mackerel in, just at a little slower pace.

Herring can be snagged to enticed onto a sabiki rig if you fish slowly. Pogies may or may not be around, I personally haven’t seen any yet, but have heard some rumors about stray schools in over the ledge.

Sand sharks are more than plentiful the closer you get to the ledges.

Up in the fresh water of the rivers the temps have seperated and the trout are holding to cooler waters. Bass are everywhere and chub are up near the top. The trout are hitting the surface in the evening just before dark or very early just after sun-up.

Still water fishing is also hot now and catfish are biting crawlers and chicken livers wherever its muddy. The top of skelton dam is loaded with white perch as well and hitting worms pretty happily.

Get your kids out and go fishing!

After you get your gear at The Fishin Hole

We made the trip downeast on Friday. 5+ hours drive, hauling a boat, and more ords and gear than we could possibly ever use.

We made it to camp in Washington county, just past East Machias late in the afternoon. The East Machias river was LOADED with Alewives, and much to our dismay we discovered that one guy had the rights to ALL the alewives in the river.

We popped the boat into Gardner lake and hit bass and pickerel like there was no tomorrow. One right after the other hiding among the rocks and weeds. (pictures to follow)

We also discovered in one location (not to be mentioned) where Alewfe fences were constructed there were very few Alewives but plenty of salmon stuck behind the pen…… like about a thousand. We fished down river of a certain dm and hit some great salmon and trout fishing.

The black flies were thicker than we had EVER seen. Even with 100% deet spray, they were in our mouths, noses, eyes, ears… everywhere! In swarming clouds.

The White Perch were hitting in the evening and camp was outstanding. I will put together a full account of our trip later on, as a stand alone page on the website.

Stocking is well underway and happening everywhere from Aroostook down to York. Water temps are lifting and water is settling down, this is where heaven begins.

Southern Maine has seen mayfly hatches, stones, duns, and even a few hoppers here and there, trout are sipping Caddis and seem to be particularly liking parachute style hares ear dries.

Stripers have come to town to visit, the action is still slow and prefered bait is sand worms. Dig your own for now, but we will have some on hand later this summer.

Shad and herring are in the river so its only a matter of a few days before the big fellas chase them up. River water is warmer than the salt, so look to this warmer water for now to find your stripers.

White perch are up at the Songo locks, soon the Salmon will be in and all will be GREAT!

We got the report in that Schoolie Stripers had arrived in Southern Maine along the tail end of the Saco. So we did what we HAD to do. Gathered up the fly rods, some spinning gear, sand worms and headed down to get a first hand look.

We tried 3 or 4 usual spots, flies, and worms. The wind was heavy and may have had one hit. Ryan got a good heavy hit out by the bay…. something that pulled off his hook, line and sinker.

Whatever it was, it was a heavy hit, and gone fast. No other action and things were slow, but the view was great and we caught nothing.

We aren’t expecting to see any good action for another week or two, but we did see other folks out fishing, so they must be in here and there.

Sand worms are the best bet early in spring (as much as my fly rod hates to hear it)