Being Prepared for the Weather in Maine!

from Coastal Angler Magazine | March 2023 | Boston Edition

A CHANGE OF PACE

By Richard Yvon

can enjoy the Maine outdoors all year long by layering according to the outside ambient temperature. In Maine, it does in fact have the potential to rain on your parade at any time of year. In fact, it is possible to get hyperthermia at any time of year even in summer! A good rain jacket and bib can save your outdoor adventures from getting dampened! Today’s rain clothing has come a long way from the waxed cotton days of our mentors. Today’s material is breathable, water proof, wind proof and light weight. It can be easily stored in a day pack or even a fanny pack. Under layers can be polypropylene, wool, fleece and the latest technology of moisture wicking material with a UPF rating to boot! Layering with a good breathable rain jacket and bib can get you through nearly all weather conditions.

Good

foot gear is essential…It

is rather difficult to have “one type fits all”. So we always recommend a waterproof, breathable type shoe or boot that has good ankle support. When you venture out it is always a great idea to have an extra pair of shoes and extra breathable socks. On hikes especially, we often remind people to bring along extra foot gear in their day pack. It can save a hike and your feet! At the end of the day a boot dryer will ensure your next days comfort and also prolong the life of your gear. Happy Trails in the outdoors!

Our favorite winter clothing for Ice Fishing has to be our Artic Armor floating ice-fishing suite! Our friends from the “Official Hook, Line and Sinker” had us try the latest technology in clothing for out on hard water. It has become my favorite warm, lightweight, breathable, wind proof and most comfortable suite ever! Yes, it even floats!!! I hope we never have to try that feature out in icy water but it is certainly piece of mind while out fishing!

Never tried ice-out fishing? Well, this is when the big fish come out to play after months of being trapped under the ice.

Long story short, it’s time to get out on the water! That’s exactly what my good friends Aaron Orsi and Andrew Stidson did when they dropped their little plastic jon boat into a local lake. There were still chunks of ice floating around and they were able to pull a halfdozen largemouth bass in the three to five pound range and another ten under two pounds.

Regardless of when ice-out time starts in your neck of the woods, it can be a great experience. I’ve had incredible fishing adventures from Maine to South Dakota. After living with a roof over their heads for essentially

Ice-Fishing in New England

By Dan Kenny

three months, fish are enjoying the extra oxygen in the water caused by swollen rivers pumping in run-off and wind whipped waves which makes a great formula for catching some hogs.

And trust me, those hogs are ready to binge eat!

Of course, the weather’s never perfect so you need to plan ahead. Apparel is critical for dealing with conditions that can change daily or even hourly. I've always been a proponent of layering up with proper moisture-wicking socks and undergarments and fleece or wool pants and jackets. With the kind of fabric technology we have these days there are great companies like Frogg Toggs with products like the Pilot II Guide Jacket. The Pilot II protects you from all of the rain and wind and also comes with a zip-down liner jacket.

Most importantly, don’t get out on the water without a new and reliable PFD. With water temperatures hovering in the 30s or low 40s it literally takes minutes for you to be in major trouble or, to put it bluntly, dead.

So don't be a statistic—take the right safety measures first. Once you have your gear in order though, the ice-out world is your oyster. Think of it like this: we’ve been adhering to the strictest diet imaginable through the winter, not being allowed to eat steak, chicken, pasta, pizza or chocolate cake for three months. Then all the sudden we're invited to a buffet of epic proportions. And you guessed it—we’re going to eat until we get sick.

In a way, our favorite underwater friends probably feel the same way. They’ve had a tough go under ice cover but now there are dazzling morsels of food freely swimming in front of their faces.

Boom! Fish on!!

So if you haven't enjoyed ice-out fishing yet, don't let the cold stop you. Don’t wait until a perfect sunny day in June or July because you’ll miss out on some of the best fishing and the biggest fish of the year.

Instead, get out on the water and celebrate the end of winter on a pond or lake near you.

Until then, God Bless and Go Fish!

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I'll never forget the smell. We had started our journey through the sand over an hour before the stench hit us. I stopped dead in my tracks. "Do you smell that?!" My buddy was already freeing his lure from his bottom guide as I finished my question. While he fired off his cast, I noticed a shimmer in the wave breaking at my feet. SANDEELS! I yelled over. Not a couple sand-

Sandeels

By Pete McManus

eels. Not a couple hundred sandeels. Thousands of 4-7 inch sandeels are being pushed onto the beach in the middle of a moonless cloudless night on the atlantic side of truro.

When i received the "we should go hit truro.." text, I knew exactly what he was thinking. A Lot of walking. A Lot of casting. And a lot of explaining to do when I inevitably don't get home till 8 a.m. No brainer. I picked him up at 10pm in Dennis, and we were trekking through the dunes onto the sand by 11:30. Perfect timing to fish the 2 hours before and 2 hours after the 3 a.m high tide.

It didn't take long after the lures hit the water to hook up. I'm not sure what the exact number of fish caught was. I can't even be certain of what the best fish of the night was. We fished that half a mile stretch of empty beach from around 1 a.m until the sun came up. The smell of fresh sandeels and bass in the air the entire time. No trophies were taken. Just photos. And some amazing memories of a trip to a place abandoned by the surfcasting community.