Striper fishing... new personal best! (Pictures!)

[mallard]

Well I got to go out on a boat the other day and catch some live mackerel we later used for stripers.

The first striper of the day was the biggest, and I caught it!



And from another angle with no hat or sunglasses:



The fish was 30 inches long (unsure about weight, we measure fish by length up here.) Maybe 12-15 pounds.

Even on 30 lb test and heavy baitrunner tackle, the fish put up a muscle of a fight. We had 4 people, and caught 5 stripers. Everyone else caught one, and I caught two. My other one was a lot smaller, about 22 inches, and was barely big enough to keep.

And for those of you who don't get to see seals very often:



All of those grey lumps are seals. Birds are on the other side.

Our technique: go near islands in the middle of the river and let the mackerel go near the bottom, set baitrunner on, and let the striper take good run. After about 5-10 seconds of the run, put the reel in gear, set the hook, and fight!
Dead mackerel were working fine too.

Striped bass fishing is a lot of fun. They get a lot bigger than black bass. But they can be harder to catch!

Oh yes, and we were on the coast of Maine at the mouths of the Sheepscot and Kennebec rivers.