"Chasing Fall's Feeding Frenzy - Maine's Coastal Fishing Report"

Good morning from the rocky coast and broad surf of Maine! This is Artificial Lure with your September 6, 2025, Atlantic fishing report, dialed in for folks working the tide and chasing the fall action across our harbors and out in the blue water.

First up, today’s sunrise is at 6:43 AM, and sunset drops in at 7:25 PM—it’s a short window, so make the most of those prime dawn and dusk feeds. According to Tide-Forecast.com, we’re looking at a high tide around 6:41 AM and again at 7:10 PM today, with slack water around mid-day. Always check your local chart, but those early incoming tides have been heating up the bite along the shore.

Weather’s been classic early fall: daytime highs in the low 70s, a light northeast breeze off the water, and nights cooling things down enough to put a little white fog over the marshes. If you’re heading offshore, keep an eye out—brisk northeast wind has been flaring up, making seas choppy for the small boats. National Weather Service reminds everyone to heed small craft advisories and keep your PFD handy.

So what’s swimming? Coastal Maine in September means the “second season” has kicked off. According to this week’s On The Water and recent Maine DMR reports, you’ve got stripers pushing back inshore hunting herring fry and peanut bunker, bonito and Spanish mackerel scattered offshore, bluefish blitzing at dawn, and tautog starting to chew around the rock piles and reefs. Cod have been coming up near Flatt Ledge and other local knuckles. Near the surface, schoolie bass and slot fish are being caught in outlets and river mouths on the outgoing tide.

For you chunkers and deep runners off the ledges, the big story offshore remains yellowfin, true albacore, and some scattered mahi moving on warm surface breaks. The Bicardi grounds and canyons south of the muscle beds have delivered double-digit yellowfin to those with live or fresh peanut bunker—boats using live bait are consistently out-fishing jiggers and trollers. There’s been a strong presence of white marlin and even the occasional wahoo offshore, and if you hit the deep ledge after dark, swordfish action is picking up, especially wherever the squid draggers are working. If you’re targeting bottom fish in the bays, keeper fluke are still hovering on deep reefs, and late-summer tautog are starting to show.

Best lures and baits for today:
- For stripers, fresh live mackerel or menhaden is king, but don’t overlook soft plastics like 7-inch paddle tails in pearl or bunker hues. Topwater plugs are drawing vicious surface strikes at first light, and swimmers are working well along the mudflats.
- Offshore, bring live peanut bunker or chunk fresh bait—yellowfin have shown a clear preference for the real thing. When conditions call for artificials, classic cedar plugs, heavy jigs, and Flutter Spoons in sand eel patterns have all found success.
- For bonito and Spanish mack, metal jigs and epoxy minnows in flashy silver or green, retrieved fast, are the ticket.

Hot spots? If you’re staying close, hit the mouth of the Kennebec on an outgoing tide, or drift along the rocky edges near Cape Elizabeth—big schools of bunker and stripers have been pushing bait up against the shore. Offshore, the edges of Jeffreys Ledge have reported strong mixed-bag action with cod, pollock, and the occasional wolf fish, while midshore around the Bicardi grounds is your best bet for yellowfin when the window opens.

One last note: the menhaden run is well underway—according to Maine DMR, over 1.4 million pounds landed just yesterday, and there’s still plenty of quota left. If you want fresh bait, now’s your chance, but remember to keep it legal and watch those landing limits as things can change fast.

That’s it from the salt for this morning’s Maine Atlantic report. Thanks for tuning in—don’t forget to subscribe for the latest dock talk, and tight lines out there! This has...