Good morning anglers, Artificial Lure here with your September 17th Maine Atlantic fishing report.Sunrise rolled in at 6:51 AM with sunset at 7:10 PM, giving us steady daylight to chase the bite. Winds were light out of the northeast early, building just enough to stir up a modest two to three foot chop offshore. Air temps started around 54°F pre-dawn, working their way to the mid-60s out on the water. Crystal clear skies, excellent visibility – perfect for spotting working birds or surface bait.Tides today were early and notable: high at 4:22 AM and 5:00 PM, low at 10:24 AM and 11:31 PM, with a moderate to strong current on the grounds. These pushing tides have really kept the fish on the chew all week, especially during the incoming and just after peak highs. Watch those tide turns – that's when you get the heavy action.On the salt, offshore headboats like Bunny Clark Deep Sea Fishing are reporting a banner week. Most of the boxes have been filling fast with pollock, easily the most abundant catch this month, with anglers boating dozens per drift using diamond jigs and cod flies. Haddock numbers are solid—some pushing five pounds—and you can legally keep one cod per person this September, a real treat after years of restrictions. Reports include a 26 lb. trophy white hake, 19 lb. pollock, and plenty of cusk up to nine pounds. Remember, fast drift and blue sharks have claimed plenty of rigs, so pack a few extras and maybe a wire trace for the toothy ones.Inshore, the bait has thickened up. Mackerel schools are plentiful from Cape Elizabeth down through Saco Bay. Sabiki rigs tipped with small strips or bare hooks are doing damage off piers and boats. Bluefish have made their first big push in the past week; most are on the small side but feisty, hammering topwater pencils and flashy spoons during the outgoing tide.The stripers are staging for their autumn run and getting more aggressive with every cool night. River mouths in the early evening, especially Scarborough Marsh and the Saco River, are producing keeper-class linesiders on live eels and soft plastics. A white bucktail jig or a live mackerel freelined near the current edges remains the go-to, but on overcast mornings, dark-colored swimmers or big paddletails get the nod.Up the rivers, the Penobscot is on fire for smallmouth bass. Local guides report catches of up to 14 fish a trip, most in the 15- to 16-inch range, with the occasional lunker around boulder fields. With cooling water, the fish have shifted a bit deeper, so target them with shallow-running jerkbaits, bronze or firetiger Rapalas, or soft plastics on 1/8-ounce jigs. If you like fly angling, dry flies and poppers are having excellent success thanks to thick insect hatches.A quick shrimp update: the fishery remains under moratorium due to the continued poor condition of the stock, so shrimping is still off-limits for the foreseeable future according to the latest from fisheries managers.For hotspots, Two Lights State Park is a classic if you want a shot at mixed-bag surf action – stripers, mackerel, the occasional blue, and harbor pollock right off the ledges. Offshore, Tanta’s Ledge remains the top mark for bigger cod and pollock, but the mouth of the Saco River will give inshore anglers action all day on stripers and blues.Best baits for today: diamond jigs and cod flies outdoors; on the rivers, bronze Rapalas, soft plastics, and white bucktail jigs in salt; flies, grubs, and jerkbaits for smallmouth inland.Thanks for tuning in, and if you want the latest, be sure to subscribe so you never miss a report. This has been a quiet please production, for more check out quiet please dot ai.Great deals on fishing gear https://amzn.to/44gt1PnThis content was created in partnership and with the help of Artificial Intelligence AI

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