New Hampshire trip

[BenCantrell]

In August Ally and I went to New Hampshire to spend time with her family. It was my first time fishing the Atlantic north of North Carolina, so there were lots of new species to be had.

We started off with tidepooling right after we arrived.



I added 3 new species before we ran out of daylight.

Cunner +1


Grubby +1


Rock Gunnel +1


The next day tropical storm Henri (formerly hurricane) hit. Ally's brother-in-law went out and fished for stripers, and actually caught a small one, but we stayed indoors.



The ocean needed a few days to settle down, so on our 3rd day we went inland and fished some mountain streams.



Eastern Blacknose Dace


We thought fallfish would be easy to find, but we couldn't find them despite hitting up several spots.



Lake Chub +1


On the 4th day we drove to a small harbor. We started off by catching some bait.



Atlantic Silverside +1


The jetty didn't give up any new species for us, but I caught some cunner upgrades. We were hoping for flatfish or bigger sculpins.



Cunner (PR)


In the evening we went looking for banded sunfish and sticklebacks, but we only found mummichogs.



Mummichog


On the 5th day I went solo kayaking and trolled a Rapala X-rap 10 around, but no hits unfortunately.



While I was out there I kept hearing lifeguards blowing their whistles. I guess they didn't like that I went close to the rocks on the left. Didn't seem dangerous to me, lol.



Ally joined me for kayaking on the 6th day, and this time I hooked up with my first saltwater striper. It hit a Lucky Craft 110.

Striped Bass (PR)


We explored a bit more of the coast.



Last day before heading home we drove down to Massachusetts to do a full day party boat. The crew said we looked like we came from Florida.



I was cautiously hoping for two new species, but boy did we do better than that!

Haddock +1


Spiny Dogfish +1


Pollock +1


Atlantic Cod +1


Silver Hake +1


Acadian Redfish +1


Longhorn Sculpin +1


We couldn't  take fish back, so we donated all of our keeper haddock and pollock to the crew, and they made a big pot of fish chowder for the 2 hr boat ride back. It was a cool way to end the trip.



The party boat was Captain's Fishing Parties. I definitely recommend them if you're in the area. https://www.captainsfishing.com/

[Latimeria]

Damn!  That's a hell of a trip!  I've fished New Hampshire a few times, but pretty much only caught LM & SM bass, pike, brook trout, bullhead, perch in FW and in the salt only caught stripers, blues, winter flounder and cunner.  I've seen tons of salmon and SW trout, but couldn't get any to bite.

Thanks for posting Ben!

[BenCantrell]

I've fished New Hampshire a few times, but pretty much only caught LM & SM bass, pike, brook trout, bullhead, perch in FW and in the salt only caught stripers, blues, winter flounder and cunner.

Any tips for targeting flounder?

[Latimeria]

I've fished New Hampshire a few times, but pretty much only caught LM & SM bass, pike, brook trout, bullhead, perch in FW and in the salt only caught stripers, blues, winter flounder and cunner.

Any tips for targeting flounder?

Bloodworms=Winter Flounder

Muddier bottom in bay is the best.  Flats near channel is another area.

[BenCantrell]

Bloodworms=Winter Flounder

Muddier bottom in bay is the best.  Flats near channel is another area.

Cool thanks, that definitely helps. Everything I did was clean sand bottom and rocks. I snorkeled off the beach too, and all I saw were a few small stripers cruising.

[Latimeria]

Bloodworms=Winter Flounder

Muddier bottom in bay is the best.  Flats near channel is another area.

Cool thanks, that definitely helps. Everything I did was clean sand bottom and rocks. I snorkeled off the beach too, and all I saw were a few small stripers cruising.

Little vacuum shaped mouths like a Sturgeon.  Great eating fish!

[Latimeria]

Also have the Windowpane Flounder up there.  I've caught them up there on a few occasions. Are you still up there?

[Pinoyfisher]

Cool trip Ben!!

[sasquatch]

Good stuff.

[skrilla]

Good read!

[vdisney]

As always, good read and great pictures   

[BenCantrell]

Also have the Windowpane Flounder up there.  I've caught them up there on a few occasions. Are you still up there?

No, this was back in August. We'll go up again sometime though, probably next summer.

[jrodda]

Covered a ton of ground. Thanks for the write-up, cool trip.

[Tim524]

Nice adventure as usual, I've never been East of The Rockies

[WasWheresMyBeer]

Ben you always post killer writeups, thank you. Great variety!