This morning marked my first mackerel fishing trip of the summer. Well no that is actually wrong it was the first wildlife watching trip where we caught a few mackerel. It was grey and chilly on the way down the Saint George River with only a slight breeze out of the east. With calm seas and cloudy skies the visibility was excellent and there was a lot to see.
First when we left Thomaston Harbor there were maybe a dozen ospreys circling a school of baitfish in the harbor, joined by a few seals. On the way out to the islands we passed three different pods of harbor porpoises with as many as a half dozen in one of the groups. Seals seemed to be everywhere and not at all frightened of the boat. We passed several sleeping on the surface of the water. I assume that the large schools of herring and mackerel have pulled all of the fish eating predators into the river.
While fishing we saw an eagle and had several seals feeding on mackerel quite near the boat. We caught a bunch of mackerel although no big ones. The ride home featured a few more seals and osprey but no stripers on a couple of brief stops.
Overall a great wildlife watching trip and oh by the way the fishing was pretty good.
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