Daylight Delight: Maine's Midcoast Fishery Thrives in June's Golden Hours

Artificial Lure here, your salty friend on the Maine coast. Today’s June 14th, and man, are we blessed—sunrise lit up the coast at 4:58 AM, and we’ll see the sun set at 8:24 PM in Portland. That’s a sweet stretch of daylight for casting, trolling, or watching for bugs and baitfish moving in the golden light. According to Portland’s tide charts, low tide hit around 7:56 AM, and we’re looking at high tide again just after 2:00 PM. That means the water’s giving anglers plenty of movement and bait to work with—perfect timing to fish those rips and river mouths during the tide changes.

The weather’s classic June: cool mornings, mild afternoons, and not a big storm in sight. Bugs are thick, the water’s lively, and the fish are hungry. Most anglers casting from the beach or fishing inshore are seeing a surge in striper activity—bass in the 30- to 40-inch range are showing up all along the midcoast, from the Saco to Casco Bay and beyond. The big rivers, especially Saco, are still churning with bass pouncing on herring schools—outgoing tide at the river mouths is your best bet for those bruisers. Over in Kennebunk, clams and paddletails are drawing big bites along the banks. If you’re looking for mackerel, they’re around early morning just off the islands of Saco Bay, and folks are slamming them on Sabiki rigs, size 10-12 with gold flash or UV hues.

Those deep-sea trips—like the Bunny Clark out of Ogunquit—are putting up solid numbers on haddock, with plenty of legal keepers, good catches of cusk, and the odd redfish and pollock. Drifting and anchoring are both paying off, especially with the recent marathon trips showing steady pickings and a few great stops.

Best lures right now? Bone SP Minnows and white soft plastic stickbaits are nailing stripers left and right. For bigger, more aggressive bass chasing mackerel, silver/blue DB Smelt-style plugs are hard to beat. Live mackerel—on the drift or chunked off the beach—are top bait. For fly anglers, red-and-gray Ghost streamer patterns have been crushing it.

Hot spots this morning: Try the outgoing tide at the mouth of the Saco River for schoolies and bigger bass chasing herring. Casco Bay’s river mouths and grass banks are producing well on the incoming tide—check those sod banks for bass snapping at grass shrimp. And for mackerel, target the near shore islands just off Saco Bay at first light.

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s bite, folks. Don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss a cast. Tight lines and calm seas.

This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.