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/