June 2015: Tim Moore Outdoors

By Tim Moore:

As I write this we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the first striped bass along the New Hampshire coast. The alewives are in the Lamprey River which means the bass will soon follow. By the time you read this we should be knee deep in stripers. As the bass first arrive they will congregate below the dams that contain alewife runs. As more bass show up, and as the alewives make their way up river and out of reach of the hungry stripers, the activity will pick up in Little Bay and the Piscataqua River. That’s where you will find me and my kayak fishing clients. With what appear to be more average conditions, especially compared to last year, I am anticipating some consistent fishing with good catches this season.

With so much to fish for I will spend most days in my kayak this month guiding, pre-fishing, and filming my show. No matter what my clients and I are fishing for, we are always looking for big fish. June is when we target big post-spawn crappie, walleye, and northern pike, sometimes all in the same trip. I had amazing results vertical jigging for striped bass with 2.8 ounce diamond jigs and 1.4 Elite Deluxe jigs from Daddy Mac Lures late last season. I plan on putting my clients on some of the big girls that like to lay below the smaller fish using this technique this year. I also had great success casting swim baits at dawn and dusk. In fact, my two biggest fish of the season came on cranks and swim baits last year.

I also do a fair amount of winter flounder fishing from the kayaks. These are very popular trips, especially in June since the fishing is so good and the weather is too. For flounder I fish most of New Hampshire’s harbors and drift-fish almost exclusively. My setup consists of a two-hook flounder rig with as little weight as possible, usually 1 ounce. I use sand worms or clams depending on where I am fishing and slowly drag my bait along bottom.

The Connecticut River is where I spend most of my fresh water time for northern pike and walleye. This season I will be running kayak fishing trips and trips from my 16’ Lund tiller. The boat trips should be well underway by mid-June, but the kayak trips will be going full speed all month. Most people don’t realize that we have a fishable population of walleye right here in New Hampshire, or that they are hands-down one of the best eating fish out there. Anglers are allowed four fish per day. I typically fish jigs with curly tail grubs on the bottom, but when the walleye are tough to find I will resort to trolling a bottom bouncer rig with a crawler harness to cover more water. Once the sun rises the pike will begin moving into the setbacks to feed and sunbath, and I follow them in and throw my signature series Whisperer lure at them. These combo trips are a blast!