Two Good Days

I wrote this on Sunday, but just got around to posting it today  (Monday)

I had the last two days off. The weather was beautiful. Cool nights for sleeping and days that topped out about 80 degrees.  That kind of weather is not my idea of great fishing weather, but it’s not like I was going to stay home because the weather was “too nice.”

On Friday morning I did some carp fishing. There was a perfect little breeze. Sitting in the shade was what I assume southern California weather is like. Unfortunately the fish did not think so. After trying two different spots, I gave up for the afternoon.  During the evening, I considered going to South county Rhode Island to do some saltwater bottom fishing.

I chose not to go. The Red Sox were playing the Yankees and the Patriots had a preseason game. I didn’t mind missing the beginning of those games to fish. However, I didn’t want to drive home an hour. So, I chose to fish local. Also, fishing local saved me about $20 in gas. I decided to go for smallmouth at a lake about ten minutes from my house. The lake I fished does not allow boating. So I walked around the lake casting a 2 inch shad body on a small jighead. I managed three smallies and a largemouth. The largest fish was the largemouth. It was about 15-16 inches. I started fishing just before sunset and fished until about dark. The sunset across the lake was awesome, and I thought the fishing was pretty good too.

Saturday morning I wanted to get an early start to go hiking. Unfortunately, events would make that impossible. My plan was to wake up about 7 am and be hiking well before eight. I woke up at 5:30 am with the beginnings of a migraine. I took some Excedrine Migraine and went back to bed. I knew then I wouldn’t be up at 7. When I got up at 8:30 the headache was gone, but I got a text from work asking me to bring something from one store to another. By the time I finished that errand it was almost 10:30. My son was still in bed and I knew he had to work at 11. So I got him up and after he got dressed I gave him a ride to work at 11.

After dropping him off I drove to the Blue Hills near Boston. I got there about 11:40. I started packing my backpack and put my keys in the front pocket as I do every time I hike. Then I closed the car door with the backpack still in the car. I locked myself out of the car. After referring to myself as a dumbass many times I called AAA. They could not find the parking lot I was in for a long time. Finally after about 90 minutes they arrived. So my hiking that I planned to start at 8 am finally commenced at 1:17 pm.

I hiked around Houghton Pond and then up Houghton Hill over the Skyline Trail to Great Blue Hill. I could see the Boston skyline. It was fairly clear, but the pictures make it look hazier than it really was. I hiked back after a short break and headed home. I plan on doing a separate post about the Blue Hills because it is a diamond in the rough just outside of Boston.

Later that evening I went smallie fishing again. It was cloudy so I went a little earlier than Friday night. I did the same thing working the shoreline. I only caught three fish and none were all that big. The sunset was even better than the night before. The sky was on fire.

 So all in all the fishing wasn’t great but it wasn’t too bad either. The weather was nice especially considering its mid-August and it could easily be ninety five degrees. I wish I could spend every summer weekend off in New Hampshire, but that is not realistic. So I’d say I did not waste the last two days and they were quite enjoyable.