My nephew Jared Roche has long wanted to catch a shark and conveyed that interest to my brother Chris, who mentioned it to me.
In recent years, it came to my attention that Bob Humphrey is an experienced shark fisherman and is very involved in the big shark fishing tournament held in Maine out of Portland each year.
This writer goes back a long way with Bob Humphrey. When I first became involved in the New England Outdoor Writers Association (NEOWA), the group was in the process of establishing a scholarship program using a generous endowment which was left to the organization by a member when he passed away.
Initially, $500 scholarships were presented to a student from three of the New England land grant universities (University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Connecticut, University of Rhode Island, University of Vermont, University of New Hampshire and University of Maine) on an alternating basis. That scholarship is now awarded to a student from all six states and the amount has been $2,000. Bob was chosen by the committee I chaired in 1986 and he attended the interview wearing a red and black plaid wool shirt that reflected his outdoor personality and character.
Bob worked for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service out of UMass and in 1988, became one of the original partners in Woodlot Alternatives, Inc., a biological and environmental consultant firm. In 1995, he left to form his own company, Casco Bay Environmental. In the fashion of a true Mainer, he began simultaneous careers as an outdoor writer, a registered Maine guide and a professional sportsman.
Bob grew up on the ocean, initially fishing and boating on the waters north of Boston. As a young teen he worked on the family charter boat, a custom-built 38-foot sportfisherman, and fished with some of the first commercial bluefin tuna boats out of Beverly, Gloucester and Newburyport. At age 15 he passed the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary Safe Boating and Seamanship class.
After a brief hiatus to raise a family and start a new business, he got back on the ocean and is guiding saltwater fishing trips on both inshore and offshore waters, where he also fishes commercially for bluefin tuna and participates in big game fishing tournaments, including the Spring Point Shootout Tournament held in late summer.
What we learned was that sharks are treated differently when brought to the boat. You do not swing a toothy predator into the boat for pictures and some quality time.
When this fellow writer and NEOWA member contacted him about shark fishing, he led with a statement that good fishing was dependent on water temperature and the later in summer the better. Since my schedule gets full as summer wanes, we took the first open date and that had us headed out of the Royal River, where Bob moors his boat.
The Falcon IV is a 28-footer that is outfitted completely for offshore fishing for tuna and sharks. We ran out the river and across Casco Bay, headed offshore, ultimately setting up and chumming about 30 miles offshore.
Offshore fishing is not exciting. Like tuna fishing, you sit and wait for a shark to appear, investigating the thawing, ground-up fish that creates a line of scent. We were first visited by a huge school of mackerel and immediately manned a rod and jigged up a bunch of small “tinker” mackerel for bait.
After a wait, the first shark appeared and Jared was first up. Eventually, the porbeagle shark grabbed the bait and Jared was hooked up. What we learned was that sharks are treated differently when brought to the boat. You do not swing a toothy predator into the boat for pictures and some quality time. Bob used his de-hooking tool beside the boat to release the fish, and we re-baited and waited some more. We landed a livewell full of mackerel in no time and were amazed at the constant presence of the big schools of them most of the morning.
Chris and yours truly also landed small porbeagles and it was fun fighting these fish. Blue sharks are common once the water warms and an occasional mako shark is a special prize. The makos are known to make spectacular jumps and are great fighters, but our day was limited to the three porbeagles. Not only was the surface temperature in the low 60s but it was also down from earlier in the week. Bob had made it clear from first contact that later was better, but you never know about water temps as wind, storms and weather can influence things.
Sunday, we got out early to beat expected gale-force winds and looked for striped bass. Locating stripers is done by looking for diving shore birds or surface turmoil, as schools of baitfish like pogies (menhaden or bunker) or mackerel are escaping school of stripers. When we found the schools the fish were very picky and not breaking the surface. Bob put us on some cruising surface stripers but a combination of the fish being skittish and our (mostly my) poor casting did not result in any hook-ups. We then tried to anchor and drop chunk bait, but ran out of time.
The trip did not result in great fishing but the food and adult beverages were superb both nights in nearby Freeport. Bob worked his butt off for us and will catch his share once the waters warm, probably now since we are gone.
We can all say we caught a shark and saw humpback whales, harbor porpoises, seals, an ocean sunfish and more mackerel than you could imagine. An enjoyable Maine getaway for sure.
Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has written the Sportsman’s Corner since 1984 and has served as advisor to the Mahar Fish’N Game Club, counselor and director of the Massachusetts Conservation Camp, former Connecticut Valley District representative on the Massachusetts Fisheries and Wildlife Board, a Massachusetts Hunter Education Instructor and is a licensed New York hunting guide. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.