The southern coast of Maine blows my mind on a regular basis. The gulf is truly a salty wilderness. Despite the rugged nature of the coast, her waters are inviting and vary greatly. From the quiet mud flats, long ocean side beaches, rocky shorelines, backwater estuaries and everything in between, Maine is a fly anglers dream.
I’ve been lucky to experience some of the greatest fisheries around the world, but I stay deeply rooted in my pursuits of guiding fly fishermen and women to striped bass each summer in Maine. It’s the diversity of the fishery that continues to bring me back year after year. In a single trip we might pole a beach in my shallow water skiff casting small flies into rolling waves, cast big flies into the wash where New England swell meets granite rock, explore backwater estuaries & marshes, fish small tidal rivers or pole some of our many shallow mudflats looking for striped bass just the same way fly anglers hunt for bonefish in the Bahamas. Striped bass are opportunistic feeders and fill so many niches along our coast; we fish for them how WE want to.
Mud Flats - I began guiding striped bass fly fishing for one reason: these fish cruise the flats feeding on shrimp and crabs in very skinny water. They can be sight fished just like you would fish for bonefish and permit. Striped bass on the flats can be a challenging, but when successful, a very rewarding endeavor. "We’ve got 3 stripers at 11 o’clock moving left to right at 60 feet. Put a cast 10 feet in front of the fish and let that sink. Long strip to get the slack out of your system… Okay, short strip… he see’s it, another short strip, he’s got it! Long strip!” That’s the classic dialogue on the flats when it all goes right. When these flats fish are hooked, they fight hard because they feel vulnerable in the shallow water.
Photo: Dylan Schmitz
Poling Beaches - When the conditions are right, poling the ocean front beaches looking for cruising fish in the surf is an absolute blast. Watching striped bass through clear water on the sand is mesmerizing. These actively feeding fish can cruise in the wash; a perfect place for a fly angler to place a fly for a big striper. The surf churns up prey and the striped bass capitalize. Stripers will also cruise in the slightly deeper water outside of the wash. Anything can happen along the beaches and it can be a great place to target big fish. My best bass from the 2019 season came from poling a home beach. I made a long cast in between a 40” fish and a much, much larger bass. They both stormed the fly and the 40”er beat the older, slower bass to the punch. Creating competition for your fly is always a great strategy.
Beach Bass
Rocky Coast - Here’s where I drop the trolling motor and we tactfully meander our way up and down the rugged granite Maine coast. I position the boat a precise distance away from the rocks to safely deliver a fly into the crashing waves. Each pocket of wash can be holding a strong, dark colored bass. These bass are often much darker in color than the bass on the flats as they quickly change their color to adapt to their environments. We’ll find singles, schools, and everything in between casting to the rocks. This engaging element is a great place to go for good numbers of striped bass on the fly rod. It’s just straight up beautiful.
Classic Maine Rocks Fishing
Peaceful Marshes - Marshes litter our Maine coast and serve as a nursery for many species aka a bait factory for striped bass. Shrimp, mummichogs, menhaden, crabs, silversides, sand eels, herring, young lobsters, juvenile flounder and more fill these waters. Stripers in the marsh often zero in on a particular food source so matching the hatch can be key. Here we swing flies, sight fish, blind cast to pockets and banks, and fish the tide as it rises and falls. While in the marsh, look for different bird species and other wonderful coastal wildlife like deer, fox, and countless other amazing creatures.
Marsh Flats Bass. Teamwork. Photo: Vedo @beershower
Rivers and Creeks, Large and Small - I’m based just north of the Piscataqua River, which boasts one of the fastest tidal currents in North America. The Piscataqua splits Maine and New Hampshire, dividing the two states, and flows in and out of Little and Great Bay in New Hampshire. There are 5 freshwater rivers that flow into Great Bay and Little Bay: Bellamy, Oyster, Lamprey, Squamscott, and Winnicut. These rivers are spawning grounds for many fish. For striped bass, the most important resident might be the river herring and american eel. Each spring, striped bass follow this prey up into the headwaters of the Piscataqua to gorge after their long spring migration up the coast. These rivers and creeks offer countless places for stripers to hold and feed. Our 8 to 12 foot tides every 6 hours make this an incredibly dynamic environment.
Photo: Ben Carmichael
Fly fishing for striped bass is one of my favorite things to do. I grew up with striped bass right in my backyard and for the past 8 years I have been lucky to call Maine home. Our resident run of striped bass give us great entertainment from mid-May through the end of October, sometimes even later. With so many different elements to fish we can chase them exactly how we want. I even left out “the blitz” and chasing striped bass under birds, which is another very popular way to fish for striped bass on the fly. Let’s get on the water and chase these fish exactly how we want to.