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Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Capt. Joel Koch
August 21, 2002
Portsmouth - Saltwater Fishing Report
Fishing August 21st and week ending August 18, 2002.
Last week after continued temperatures in the 90’s the water temperature in the Piscataqua River was warm. I found that continued warm weather with no rain can hurt the inshore fishing especially for bigger Striped Bass. The warm temperatures however can get the Bluefish active at the Isle of Shoals.
So as the heat wave continued I altered my fishing plans and headed out to the Isle for Blues. Each day last week we caught some Bluefish with the best day on Saturday when we landed about a dozen fish between 10-12 pounds. Bluefish are real good fighters and on the lighter tackle we use, provide some great acrobatic jumps. As my guests did not want to keep any of the Bluefish I used a Boga grip to land them and released them all unharmed to fight another day. Unfortunately, I see way to many people gaff these fine fighters and then throw them back as though they might live with a ½ inch hole in them. We all need to practice catch and release for all fish we don’t plan on serving at the dinner table.
We caught the Bluefish on live Pollock and fresh herring, floating these baits under balloons. Of course chumming helped to bring the Blues to our baits.
With Tuesday’s cooler temperatures I switched back to Striper fishing in the river and was rewarded with 20 or so fish with 2 keepers. Chunking Herring and Mackerel did the trick although we did have to fish a number of spots to yield success.
Hopefully the continued colder temps will bring the larger Stripers back feeding in the river.
Good fishing.
Capt. Joel
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