Sunrise Bass Blitz, Keeper Stripers & Offshore Haddock - Maine Coast Fishing Report June 16, 2025

Artificial Lure here with your Maine Atlantic coast fishing report for Monday, June 16, 2025.

We kicked off the day with sunrise at 4:47 AM and we’ll fish right through until sunset at 8:19 PM. Tides are prime for action, with the first high tide rolling in early at 1:49 AM and peaking again at 2:29 PM. Lows are at 8:19 AM and 8:28 PM, so plan your river sessions around those moving waters, especially outgoing and incoming near river mouths—always the ticket for active fish this time of year, according to Bar Harbor tide charts and local knowledge.

Weather’s warming up after last week’s chill, and that’s pushing fish into feeding mode. Expect skies partly cloudy, light southerly breeze—a classic favorable June day on the Maine coast. Water temps are on the rise, which helps both the inshore and offshore bite.

Striped bass action is wide open across the southern Maine coast right now. Saco Bay Tackle Company reports the oceanfront has taken off as herring runs dwindle, with bass moving out to the sand beaches and jetties. Pine Point and Camp Ellis are on fire for early risers, with schoolies and keepers taking sandworms and Whip-it-Eels. Over at Parsons Beach and Drakes Island, a fresh wave of 24- to 30-inch stripers has shown up, and chunk mackerel is fooling the bigger fish—several reports of 30-inch class bass landed near Drakes just this weekend.

Early mornings around the Saco Bay islands are still producing mackerel, best targeted at first light with size 10-12 Sabiki Rigs, especially those dressed in gold flash or UV accents. If you’re after that live bait bite, mackerel are working wonders for both bass and groundfish this week. Out deeper, the offshore crowd is into a red-hot haddock bite, with several fish topping five pounds and some true slabs over ten pounds reported earlier this month.

In the rivers—namely the Saco, Kennebunk, and nearby tidal creeks—bass are still shadowing herring, but are also taking well to tube-and-worm rigs, mackerel strips, and white soft plastic stick baits. On the marsh edges, grass shrimp are coming into play as a food source, and a well-drifted clam or paddle tail will pick off fish along grass banks and sod edges, especially on the turn of the tide.

For lures, you can’t go wrong with Whip-it-Eels, Albie Snax XL, topwater plugs for dusk or dawn action, and jointed swimmers or glide baits as mackerel push inshore. Sandworms and chunk mackerel are top natural baits right now.

Hot spots to hit this week: Pine Point Jetty for the sunrise bass blitz, Drakes Island for keeper stripers on chunk mack, and the Saco River mouth for surface feeds around tide changes. Offshore, target haddock near Jeffreys Ledge and bring the heavy braid!

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