The best fishing is just ahead

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While my Thursday jaunt on the Penobscot wasn’t too productive, anecdotal reports (and a recent drive-by check on one of the area’s most popular striped bass fishing spots) indicates that good times are indeed upon us … almost.

The grassy park in South Brewer, home to some of the area’s most avid shore fishermen, was busy Saturday, with about 10 anglers propping their rods in the rocks and hoping for the best. Some fish have been caught, and the best fishing looks to be ahead of us.

On Monday, I headed over to Van Raymond Outfitters – just a couple casts away from that park on South Main Street – and asked fishing department manager Jim Snow that age-old question: How’s the fishing?

“There are fish in the river,” Snow said, admitting that the start of the season has been a bit slower than in some years. “I think one of the big problems this year has been the spring we had. The cold weather and the cold water, the runoff. The fish have been in, it’s been sporadic for a couple of weeks, but they haven’t really taken off yet.”

And Snow’s the one guy who will know when the fishing really takes off. For the past five years, Van Raymond Outfitters has sold blood worms, the bait of choice among those shore anglers. And when the fishing’s good, it’s hard to keep blood worms in stock.

“[Three years ago] I went down [to Gouldsboro, where the blood worm distributor is located] on a Friday, got back here at 5 o’clock, and Saturday when we closed we’d sold all the worms that I brought back,” he said with a chuckle.

The grand total for that one day of business: 1,500 blood worms.

This year, that striper bait is going for $6.50 for 10 worms.

Striper fishing – or visible striper fishing – has been a fairly recent phenomenon on the Penobscot, but Snow said a simple change probably prompted many to give it a try.

“As a kid growing up I know we had neighbors who used to go down and fish the Souadabscook [Stream in Hampden], and they used to bring home big stripers,” Snow said. “So the stripers have been here. I think a lot of [the obvious popularity began] when they closed the river below the dam to all fishing. People moved down into this park and instead of being spread all over the place, they’ve kind of congregated and that’s brought notice.”

While most anglers target the two hours on each side of high tide, Snow challenged that conventional wisdom.

Many seem to think that the fish simply aren’t around when the water is low.

Not so, he says.

“The more I pay attention, I think a lot of it has to do with access to the river,” Snow said. “At high tide, it’s just easier to get to the river for the shore fishermen. I don’t think it necessarily makes any difference. The fish are there. It’s just that more people are fishing for them [at high tide].”

The daily bag limit on striped bass on the Penobscot is one fish. That bass can be between 20 and 26 inches in length, or longer than 40 inches.

Any striper shorter than 20 inches or between 26 and 40 must be released at once.

And while we’re on the topic of “releasing at once,” let’s take a moment to think not only about the proper way to handle a fish, but the message it sends to observers when we anglers don’t take that responsibility – and it is a responsibility – seriously.

On Saturday, I stopped by the aforementioned Brewer park to see how the anglers were doing, and didn’t have to wait long to find out.

A fisherman promptly hooked a nice-looking striper that was about 16 or 18 inches long.

The story didn’t end there, however. After scrabbling down over the rocks to get to his fish, he hauled it out of the water, walked deliberately back up to the grassy park, and flopped the bass down on the lawn.

After a minute or so of wrestling with the wriggling bass, he managed to extract the hook, then turned back to the water, grabbed the fish in both hands, and heaved it 30 feet or more back into the river.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who shook his head at the performance.

The process needn’t have been so lengthy, nor so tough on the fish.

If the angler in question had simply taken a set of needle-nosed pliers with him to the river’s edge when reeling it in (and a small ruler, if he was looking to keep a fish), he could have determined that the fish was short and had it back in the river in seconds.

Far too many stripers end up floating down river after similar landings, and it’s up to us to make sure we’re not only having fun when catching fish, but protecting the resource as much as we can.

Salmon meetings on tap

On Wednesday Atlantic salmon enthusiasts will gather in Holden for a pair of meetings that will help determine future angling opportunities.

Contrary to some published reports, the meetings will be held in the art and music room of Holden Elementary School on Route 1A. At least one salmon club newsletter listed an incorrect school as the site.

The evening will start at 6 p.m. with a formal public hearing on a Maine Atlantic Salmon Commission proposal to make a fall angling season on the Penobscot River an annual event.

Last fall a one-month experimental season was held on the Penobscot, which had been closed to fishing since 1999.

After the public hearing, an informational scoping session will be held to collect input and suggestions for a possible spring fishing season.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.