Gaspe, Atlantic Ocean

Caught the third in the morning. Very good fight and it was the longest.

Stripers are very cool and great fighting fish for sure. What is the regs. out there regarding length of keepers? I know in at least some parts of the east coast, there is a min. length limit for keeping (I think it was 24") but that was some time ago when stripers were in trouble...not sure what the situation is like now or regs. out in Que. They are pretty good eating fish too.

Striped bass
The daily catch limit, including catch and release, is three striped bass for anyone fishing in the coastal waters of Forillon National Park.
At all times, it is forbidden to be in possession of more than three striped bass.
At all times, it is forbidden to be in possession of striped bass that are not between 50 and 65 cm in length, inclusively.
Each angler must fish for striped bass using a hook or a combination of hooks, without natural bait, with only one hook on each shaft, for a maximum of three hooks on a line.

So they are still in low enough numbers to be controlled. Funniest thing is out on the west coast where they are invasive, they are doing really well. A friend of mine fishes the aqueducts for them. if you can get some whole frozen squid (the smaller, soft bodied ones) they are suppose to be irresistible to large stripers (I am assuming that live squid are hard to get but you never know at night with a strong light - you might be able to jig some up for bait; all depends if they happen to be in the area at the time you are there). Looking forward to more catch reports. There maybe pollock out where you are too...another great tasting fish and anything over about 3 lbs puts up a great fight - just strong as hell. Always wanted to get a fish over 10lbs but never did; mostly 4-5 lbers which are already great fighters and excellent eating.

Thank you, Flukes.
We are a half way back home. Camping for two nights near Quebec city and going to Sandbanks tomorrow.

Seeing those Mackerel brings back some good memories. Nothing like them cooked on a BBQ so that the oil drips out of them.

I married a lady from Nova Scotia and while her parents were still alive we visited many times. They lived down the South Shore near Port Medway and I caught many Mackerel off the Government wharf in Port Medway.

It was funny how the fishing would vary from year to year. Some years they wanted spoons, The next time it would be silver jigs and sometimes bait.

Some of the most fun fishing I had was one year using a 13ft noodle rod and float fishing with bait.

They would come and play with the bait and you had to wait maybe as long as 30 seconds before they would finally take the float down so that you could set a hook.

I filled a 5 gallon pail half full, much to the surprise of the locals who were not catching anything that day.

Fun days.

SDC

RM: You had a great east coast trip and sounds like a wonderful summer trip making all those stops on the way back too. There is always the next time.
SDC: Love the east coast. Most of the time, I spent out east was in the Bay of Fundy on Grand Manan Island (one of, if not, my favourite place in the world....in the summer that is). Never thought about using a float for mackerel. I usually did very well using a line with a series of 5-10 fairly large red flies (all pre-tied) and usually, the mackerel seemed to like things moving pretty fast. And it really depended on the tide too but once they are in, it was just non-stop action and stopping was a decision based on how much time you wanted to spend cleaning them.
I agree, mackerel has to be one of my all time favourite fish to eat but only if cooked the right way...as you mentioned...grilled (best over coals), until the oil starts to drip and nicely browned so that the surface of the meat was seared...then a bit of lemon juice. If you only cook it until the meat is cooked, it can turn some people off (can be a strong irony-tasting fish). The larger the fish (and later in the year) and more oily and tasty they are. And so easy to clean (basically, you just split them and take out the spine and rib bones - if cooked well enough the pins bones don't cause many problems (unless you have young kids...then I would cut them out)....makes me want to go buy some mackerel now to cook up on a bbq!

Great vacations always end too early. Glad you had a good time RM. Looking forward to seeing you catch another monster muskie and some big walleye and crappie. Hopefully are schedules match up later this summer/fall.

That's a good trip right there, one of the nicest drive on the east coast. I have a place 10 mins from there. I will be down fishing in August. Can't wait. And the macks are best smoked for sure, little greazzzey on the BBQ for me. Hope the herring start by the time I get there.

Thanks guys.

Home now.
Had to come back to home province to swim in lake Ontario and to have a sun burn The strong wind made big waves at Sandbanks today, but hid the power of the sun. Glad a rain moved in around 2pm and we went home otherwise I would burn even more.
Regarding mackerel looks like I was lucky to catch it on a 25g led minnow without doing much. The current was so strong that it could not easily drop. I pulled a bit and then let it go back again.
I tried a couple of days later for about 30 min and was able to catch one and lost one near the pierce. The ocean was calm and no current.

Our friends who suggested us the trip there have a house in Halifax, but now live in Toronto. They may go back next year. The next trip may be to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Great trip and great stories and pictures! Thanks for sharing, RM!

I have been to NS, PEI and NB and few years back but did not have time to fish as we were on a busy go-around schedule.

Cape Breton made the most impression on us.

it's funny, we just came back from Sandbanks on Sunday night from a weekend trip there. Did you fish there?