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The calendar may say August but the feeding frenzies are saying “fall.” Spike mackerel are swarming inshore and are the key to much of the catching. Larger macks can be found offshore and are proving too appealing for Charlie Tuna to pass up.
There’s great news from Captain Bob Weathersby of Seacoast NH Sportfishing as it looks as if the stellar striped bass fishing of a few weeks ago has returned. Live and free-lined mackerel drifting along the Piscataqua River has been productive as has hopscotching along coastal “fingers.” There has been a resurgence of the offshore Isles of Shoals big bass bite with open-water blitzes tipping off the bedlam below. Mackerel remain abundant along the coastal ledges and Isles. Ironically, should you find mackerel on the surface that are reluctant to feed, odds are pretty good you’ve found the bass or maybe even bluefin. Regarding bluefin, Captain Bob has been putting anglers onto some serious standup tuna including an 85” that was schooled on standup gear! During the same trip, they missed a rec fish. The go-to tuna treat has been mackerel. Jeffrey’s Ledge has been the venue for pollock and haddock with sharks less of a factor than before.
Captain Andy from Adventureandcatch Charters said that haddock and tuna are the big stories. Provided that you don’t mind wading through dogfish, you will find haddock on Jeffrey’s Ledge. There are also good size pollock but they are not plentiful as of yet. Rec-size tuna can finally be found throughout Scantum, South and North Jeffrey’s and even at the Isles of Shoals as well as up and down the coast, Charlie is chewing anything and everything from haddock to herring to mackerel. Regarding mackerel they are an easy find by the 2KR Can and if you don’t find stripers there, take a livewell full over to the Isles of Shoals where big bass are back.
Peter from Saco Bay said that stripers are on the move all along the coast as they seem to head the need to feed. While certainly not fall, the first leg of the highly anticipated “fall run” seems to be happening. Hot spots to consider are Kennebunk, Pine Point and Freeport. Anglers are catching on the Albie Snax XL, Al Gag’s Whip-it-Fish and GT Eels. As for bait, spike mackerel have been an easy score with many anglers using them for bait. Pogies are prevalent just north of Saco with big bass hounding the schools. As for groundfish, if Jeffrey’s or Platt’s is too far to reach, consider Tantas which is much closer yet still giving up a few haddock and pollock.
From our friend Captain Lou of Diamond Pass Charters comes word of an uptick in the bite over the last few days. They’ve have been getting fish mostly off the beach fronts. Slowly trolled mackerel have been like dowsing rods for finding the bass, and once found anglers are staying with the school and pounding them with flutter spoons or jigs/soft plastics. They are also seeing some sporadic surface blitzes off the beaches with school sized bass feeding on spike mackerel. Albie Snax XLs, spooks, and pencil poppers have been best bets for those blitzes. The night bite continues to impress as well. Live eels, and imitation style soft plastics have been best. They are seeing some bite offs and hearing a little about the random bluefish being caught but nothing to write home about.
Spike mackerel caught up by the 2KR Can and drifted among the current of the Piscataqua River are accounting for steady striper action. However with the reappearance of a big bass bite near the Isles of Shoals, you may be better served going on a boat ride. Farther up the coast, soft plastics such as Albie Snax are accounting for striper action off Wells, Saco, Pine Point and Kennebunk. Offshore, some haddock can be found off Tantas while the better bet is Jeffrey’s Ledge but beware there are tuna as interested in your grounffish as you are!
As the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran overtakes the foreign policy debate in Washington, two Democratic governors with potential 2028 presidential aspirations — Gavin Newsom and Andy Beshear — recently traveled to New Hampshire, introducing themselves to the state’s famously engaged voters. The two weighed in on the war and both criticized and questioned President Trump’s strategy and endgame.
“If a president is going to take a country into war, and risk the lives of American troops and Americans in the region, he has to have a real justification and not one that seems to change every five to 10 hours,” Beshear told CBS News after a Democratic fundraiser in Keene.
“This President seems to use force before ever trying diplomacy, and he has a duty to sell it to the American people and to address Congress with it,” Beshear continued. “He hasn’t done any of that. In fact, it appears there isn’t even a plan for what success looks like. He’s gone from regime change to strategic objectives and now is talking about unconditional surrender, which isn’t realistic where he is.”
Beshear also said he thought that Congress should have reined in Mr. Trump’s war powers.
“He is trying to ignore Congress. He’s trying to even ignore the American people,” Beshear said.
He went on to note that the president’s State of the Union address took place “three — four days before he launched this attack,” and Mr. Trump “didn’t even have the respect to tell the American people the threat that he thought Iran posed to us.”
Last week, both the House and the Senate failed to pass resolutions to limit Mr. Trump’s war powers and stop him from taking further military action against Iran without congressional support.
For Newsom, the war with Iran constitutes part of a broader criticism of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At an event last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Newsom had compared Israel to an “apartheid state.” Later, in New Hampshire, he sought to clarify his comment.
“I was specifically referring to a Tom Friedman [New York Times] column last week, where Tom used that word of apartheid as it relates to the direction Bibi is going, particularly on the annexation of the West Bank,” Newsom explained during a book tour event Thursday night in Portsmouth. “I’m very angry, with what he is doing and why he’s doing it, what he’s going to ultimately try to do to the Supreme Court there, what he’s trying to do to save his own political career.”
Friedman wrote that at the same time that the U.S. and Israel are prosecuting a war in Iran, within Israel, Netanyahu’s government has undertaken efforts to annex the West Bank, driving Palestinians from their homes; fire the attorney general who is leading the prosecution against Netanyahu for corruption; and block the government’s attempt to establish a commission to examine the failures that led up to the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre of Jews by Hamas.
CBS News has reached out to the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.
On Iran, Newsom said, “I’m very angry about this war, with all due respect, you know, not because I’m angry the supreme leader is dead. Quite the contrary. I’m not naive about the last 37 years of his reign. Forty-seven years since ’79 — the revolution,” Newsom said. “But I’m also mindful that you have a president who still is inarticulate and incapable of giving us the rationale of why? Why now? What’s the endgame?”
Many attendees at Newsom’s book event said that the situation in Iran is a top-of-mind issue for them, too. Some said they’re “horrified” by what is happening.
29-year-old Alicia Marr told CBS News she decided to attend Newsom’s event because of his social media response to the war with Iran.
“There was one spot left, and I decided to pick it up, and it was due to his response to the war, that it is just unacceptable, and I would agree with that,” Marr said.
While some voters like Marr are eager to hear about where potential candidates stand on foreign policy, many at Newsom’s event said they care most about how potential candidates plan to address domestic issues.
“I’m more focused on getting the middle class back on track and fighting the oligarchy, and I’m less invested in international issues,” said Anita Alden, who also attended Newsom’s event,
“I wouldn’t call myself America first, but we have so many problems at home that are my priority,” she told CBS News.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may also be weighing another White House bid, told Fox 2 Detroit last week that she “unequivocally opposes” the Trump administration’s military action in Iran and urged Congress to take action.
“If we want to stop Donald Trump with this random decision that he has arrived at, then Congress must act, and Congress must act immediately. The American people do not want our sons and daughters to go into this unauthorized war of choice,” Harris said.
Mr. Trump has lashed out against Democrats who have pushed back on his Iran strategy, calling them “losers” last week and arguing that they would criticize any decision he made on Iran.
“If I did it, it’s no good. If I didn’t do it, they would have said the opposite, that you should have done this,” the president said.
Local News
A Massachusetts man was arrested late Wednesday night after police say he was driving more than 100 mph on a New Hampshire roadway.
Officers with the Rindge Police Department stopped a vehicle shortly after 11 p.m. on Route 202 near Sears Drive in Rindge following a report of a car traveling at excessive speed, according to a statement from Chief Rachel Malynowski.
The vehicle, a 2020 Kia Stinger, was spotted traveling at 104 mph in a posted 55 mph zone, Malynowski said.
The driver, a 21-year-old man from Attleboro, was arrested and charged with reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to police.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 5. If convicted, the man faces a fine of at least $750, in addition to the court’s penalty assessment, and a 90-day license suspension, Malynowski said.
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