End of the Year Review Part 2- Fishing

Obviously when I write a review of my year, fishing is its own topic. I had a decent year fishing but to

be completely honest it was not as good as 2012. I caught some big fish, but I did not catch as many fish of most species as I did last year.
I actually kept track of the number of days I fished this year. This is the first year I have done that.  I went on 165 different days. To be honest I thought two hundred would have been more like it. The two months that I fished the least were February and June. I only went six times each of those two months. February was awful for stripers so I didn’t go much to save gas money. June, I am sure is surprising. When I got home from Niagara Falls I sat home after work for almost two weeks doing next to nothing.

I caught 27 species of fish this year.

Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, red breasted sunfish, pumpkinseed sunfish, carp, golden shiner, common shiner, fallfish, brown bullhead, yellow bullhead, white catfish, brown trout, brook trout, rainbow trout, pickerel, white sucker, yellow perch, white perch, bowfin, striped bass, bluefish, cunner, hickory shad, scup, tatoug

red breasted sunfish

I caught three species I had never caught before; bowfin and red breasted sunfish, tautog

Notable species that I did not catch that I have caught other years include eel, fluke, sea robin, tiger trout, landlocked salmon, lake trout, false albacore, I did not snag a menhaden which is legal.

Species that I specifically targeted but did not catch are northern pike, eel, walleye, golden trout, alligator gar (Florida)

Around September 1 I noticed I had caught 24species of fish. I then put in an honest effort to catch 30. Unfortunately it was too little too late. I have never caught thirty in the same year. I caught a golden shiner at a pond near Wachusett but couldn’t get a laker or salmon. I went out for eels twice, both times catching a ton of bullheads, but not an eel. False Albacore did not show up near shore so I lost out on them. I did get a white perch to get species #26.  Then I caught some hickory shad for #27. In Florida I thought catching a shellcracker would be easy, but I did not come across them. I did not hook the gar that ripped the head of my shiner off.

Here is a rundown of the fish I target a lot.

Carp-

I had a great year fishing for carp. I caught a personal best mirror and a personal best common. Both were 26 pounds. Besides that I caught numerous fish over 15 pounds and a decent amount of

twenty pounders. I had a couple nights of catching a whole bunch of small carp in the early fall. The only negative was the streak of five skunkings in a row during the hot spell in July. It would be impossible to ever grade carp fishing an A+ because there are just so many slow days. All things considered two personal bests and May was so good I blew off stripers, I would give carp fishing for the year an A

Ice Fishing

2013 was the first year I went ice fishing in twenty years. I immediately fell in love with it. I jigged a few times early in the year and twice during December. I can't give a grade on how I di since I am still pretty raw. I caught one large largemouth. Since I was targeting panfish the bass was a nice surprise. I caught a lot of panfish during a couple of hot sessions. I absolutely love ice fishing.

Stripers

I really did blow off some striper evenings this spring to go carp fishing. Consequently, I did not catch as many stripers as I could have. During the summer I don’t waste my time fishing for them because there are better options. This fall was not very good overall, yet when I went fishing for them, they were usually around. More luck than anything, but none the less, I did catch fish making my hour drive to Narragansett worth it. I missed the first two weeks of November since I was in Florida. I did catch a fish around 40 inches, not a monster but a quality fish.   

B-

Trout

I know this is a pattern but I carp fished a lot during the spring on days I could have been trout

fishing.  I caught 119 trout. I caught them in 23 outings. That averages out to 5.4/trip. Last year I also went trout fishing 22 times. I caught 221 fish for an average of ten fish. So basically, I found twice as many fish an outing last year. This would seem to be like a terrible drop off. One day in New Hampshire last year I caught 53 trout in one day then another 27 the next. So if I take away those two days, the numbers are similar. March was also much colder and snowier than last year, so the fish were active earlier in the spring in 2012. Still I didn’t have too many great days this year. I had two days that I caught twenty fish, those were my high days.

B-

  Bass

I fished a lot for both largemouth and smallmouth this year. During the early spring I fished a lot in my kayak. During the late summer I walked the shoreline of a reservoir many evenings. I had some good nights and some bad nights. The biggest bass I caught was a smallmouth in New Hampshire about 18 inches.  Bass fishing was more of an afterthought, just something to do close to home.

C

Besides the carp fishing, fishing was only okay. I didn’t seem to have as many great days as last year. I think part of that is my fault. If I go fishing six times in the same week, but its two nights each carp, trout, and striper fishing then I can’t really get into a rhythm. If I striper fished six days in a row in May it would be easier to get a pulse on where the big numbers are.  Fishing for multiple species is part of who I am though.

As for the ocean, I think the big storms last fall brought huge numbers of stripers into Narragansett Bay. I caught over 200 in November alone. This year I didn’t come anywhere that number.

On a note that has nothing to do with me, bluefish were non existant this year. I only caught one in all the times I fished the ocean. I know two guys that fished over 100 times in the surf and between the two of them they caught less than FIVE all year. I don’t know what is going on with them but they were nowhere to be found.

Normally I keep track of deer, eagles, moose, bear and turkeys I see each year. I did not keep a formal count this year. I do know I saw well over 100 turkeys. Far fewer deer than normal, maybe 5-7. Laurie saw a bear. I saw an eagle in New Hampshire and a couple at Wachusett.