Big brook trout and landlocked Atlantic salmon get all the press in Maine, but there’s an underappreciated striped bass fishery in the easternmost state. So before you load your drift boat and head inland, consider expanding your angling opportunities this spring by attending Striper School.
Put on by Eldredge Bros Fly Shop in Cape Neddick, Maine, the annual two-day school teaches students how to find, hook, and land that wicked stripah. Instructors Jim Bernstein and Jeff Faulkner (who have been chasing stripers for a combined 50+ years) will cover fly selection, tide charts, and all things striper-on-the-fly.
The clinic runs the weekend of June 10 and 11, just in time for the stripers to make their way into Maine. “We start seeing fish in mid-May and the fishing just keeps on getting better until they leave in late October,” Bernstein says. Bernstein’s optimistic about the upcoming striper season. “This year has been pretty good. We started with a lot of smaller fish but now we’re starting to get more in the 28 to 32 inch range.”
Once you finish your sessions, stick around and put your newly acquired skills to the test. Contact Eldredge Bros Fly Shop directly at (877) 427-9345 for more info.
Tom Bie is the founder, editor, and publisher of The Drake. He started the magazine in 1998 as an annual newsprint publication based in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. He then moved it to Steamboat, Colorado (1999), Boulder, Colorado (2001), and San Clemente, California (2004), as he took jobs as managing editor at Paddler, Senior Editor at Skiing, and Editor-in-Chief at Powder, respectively. Tom and The Drake are now both based in Denver, Colorado, where The Drake is finally all grows up(Swingers, 1996) to a quarterly magazine.