Scant minutes before sunrise, ambient light had illuminated Popham’s sandy shore and lapping waves. I was 23 years old and strolling southward from Fort Popham to the sandbar that extends to Wood Island – a bar covered with water at that moment. The Kennebec River enters the ocean here, and folks on the nearly mile-long stretch from the fort to the sandbar can see islands in the near distance and the open Atlantic.

“This has to be one of the most beautiful places on earth!” I said aloud with genuine awe.. Since that day, I’ve traveled to myriad states, provinces and 20 countries, the latter give or take a couple, and my statement proved correct.

This world may offer us a jillion jeweled spots, and I’ve seen many, but the pulchritude proved no better – just different – than that stretch of Popham.

Such a magnificent setting for saltwater fishing has drawn me here for stripers, mackerel and occasionally bluefish – a happy bonus – for much of my life.

My weapon of choice here surprises folks. It’s a 12-weight Thomas and Thomas fly rod with a Billy Pate marlin reel, 30-foot, fast-sinking shooting head and running line – an outfit for long, booming casts. A competent caster with such a large rod can easily throw 100-plus-feet of line to reach stripers boiling that far from shore. And, yes, it’s an arm-tiring fly rod, but part of the allure of the outdoors begins with exercise.

An Orvis 9-weight rod, Orvis V reel and WF-9 fly line (either a floater, intermediate or super fast sinker) offer me a second choice for wading or floating flats. When I was much younger, my tippet for stripers was an 8-pound mono a la Atlantic salmon, but these days for stripers, I choose 16-pound fluorocarbon for the 12-weight and 9-weight.

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I’d like to say striper fishing at Popham Beach is pig simple, but maybe I feel it’s “pig simple” because of decades of experience here. After setting up my fly rod, I walk slowly down the beach looking for signs of feeding stripers. Game fish splashing, baitfish jumping, shorebirds diving into the melee and so forth reveal stripers or maybe bluefish, feeding on forage species. These spots indicate where to concentrate.

If no feeding signs show, folks should cast where differing depths create faster or slower currents that hold fish. At Popham, the sand may look flat, but underwater knolls, bumps, potholes, trenches, etc. produce slower currents to hold baitfish. These are good spots to cast, because stripers know forage hides in slack flows. Another plan focuses on casts to precise spots where currents slide against one another at differing speeds, creating rip lines.

When anglers cannot see signs of where to cast, it becomes a game of making imaginary grids and carefully covering every yard of water. While beach or ledge fishing, I pretend I’m standing in the center of a clock, facing the 3, and begin with a 15-foot cast to 1 o’clock, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 o’clock. (Seven to 12 o’clock is land.) If nothing hits, I reach out to 20 feet and repeat the sequence. This fan-shaped plan continues out as far as I can cast. Aiming casts at 1 and 6 o’clock next to shore may seem ridiculous, but sometimes stripers lie close to land in inches of water, particularly where wave action digs 12- to 18-inch deep holes.

Here’s another point at Popham. The sand constantly shifts, and in places miniature bars extend from the beach for a season. The current often runs parallel to shore and picks up speed over the more shallow bars, attracting baitfish and in turn stripers, mackerel or blues looking for a meal.

More often than not when I’m fishing Popham, it’s a game of blind-casting in an orderly fashion over and over to cover water in the thorough search for a moving school of game fish.

In the Androscoggin, Kennebec, Sheepscot and nearby rivers, my known waters, folks have been catching schoolie stripers and larger this summer. Anglers should use large herring and Lefty Deceiver patterns for fast-moving water. Farther south, mouths of the Presumpscot, Harraseeket and Royal rivers, shoreline around Cape Elizabeth, and shores of islands in Casco Bay have produced lately.

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My two favorite striper and blues patterns include 1/0 to 5/0 Lefty’s Deceivers in red and white or yellow and chartreuse. A yellow and chartreuse Deceiver consistently fools fish. Mackerel are around, too. Casting offerings that match natural bait is the key, and those choices can range from size 10 to 5/0. Keep your eyes open.

Stripers and blues are invading Maine – often in swarms. Get out and take advantage of the bounty.

Ken Allen, of Belgrade Lakes, a writer, editor and photographer, may be contacted at:

KAllyn800@yahoo.com


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