End of the Year Review- Part 2, Fishing

2014 was not one of my best years fishing. I could give you excuses, but the truth is overall, I never gave myself a chance to make it a truly epic year. Whether or not it could have been great or merely average will never be known. For three reasons my fishing could have been and should have been a lot better.

1. I spent so much time chasing the goal of thirty species the first half of the year, I took myself out of position, to use a basketball cliche', to catch a lot of glamour fish. Example- you can't catch a lot of New Hampshire brookies when you spend half a day driving to and fishing for red breasted sunfish.

2. Also during the spring, I carp fished a lot. It was great, but if you give up a perfect striper tide to carp fish, well, your not going to catch many stripers.

3. I hiked a lot in New Hampshire and the late fall/winter. I was in great shape in NH so I hiked instead of fished. In the fall, I wanted to stay in shape so I hiked instead of fished. As they say, dry lines catch few fish.

Make no mistake, I caught less fish than the last few years, but I have no regets. I wouldn't trade the view from Franconia Ridge for a 5 pound trout. Even my winter hikes that were not that special were enjoyable. I saw some cool if not spectacular scenery. I could have been fishing but any time I am outdoors it is a win.

Goal 1. Catch 30 species
Because I became a little obsessed with this goal I was within striking distance by June.  The 32 species I caught are largemouth bass, bluegill, pumpkinseed, brown bullhead,crappie, yellow perch, rainbow trout, striper, pickerel, carp, white sucker, all before April 15, which is when I started dating the first ones I caught for the year.

From there, smallmouth bass, brook trout, yellow bullhead, bluefish (only 3 all year, all on the same day), white perch, red breasted sunfish, common shiner, brown trout, scup, cunner, black sea bass, sea robin, fluke, golden shiner, lake trout, green sunfish, menhaden, golden trout. The last three species were fallfish to reach 30, the two of my favorites albies and hickory shad to top of theyear at 32.

I caught three species I'd never caught before, golden trout, green sunfish, black sea bass.

Some notable species I did not catch any of that I caught before are white catfish, tatuog, eel, landlocked salmon (I've only ever caught 1 ever), bowfin (one ever).

Carp- the main reason I caught so few stripers and trout this spring was my persistant pursuit (illiteration) of carp. I spent most every day in May fishing for them. I gave up striper tides, I gave up Cape Cod trout daytrips to fish for them. It certainly paid off. I ended up placing second in the Rhode Island CAG tournament. I caught a new pb at 28.5 pounds. In May alone I got 13 over seventeen pounds. . My friend Eric and I had one day where we got 6 twenty pounders. In the fall, the few times I went carp fishing, I was litterally dropped into fantastic fishing catching huge numbers. I did have have a stretch in the summer where I got shut out a few times. That does happen carp fishing so even with the one bad stretch because of all the big fish in the spring and big numbers in the fall, I rate this year an A plus.

Stripers

Again, I didn't fish for stripers that much. However, when I did, it was not good. My best day was in  October. I caught one after another from first cast till the last. None, I repeat none were over 20 inches. Other than that one day, I only had sporatic ok days. I did not catch any big stripers. If I could give my year two grades it would be I- for incomplete and an F for how bad the fishing was.

Trout

I'm catching less and less trout these days. I caught 121 for the year. I usually catch almost that many in New Hampshire alone. Can't catch 'em from a mountain. This spring, I fished for them a few evenings but took less Cape trips and Plymouth trips than normal. Still trout fishing was productive when I went. I did not catch any trophies other than the golden trout and the five pound laker.

Grade- B

Everything else combined-

Obviously this year "everything else combined" t

akes on a different meaning because I tried to catch many species.  I love albies and was glad to catch some on the West Wall. My friend Eric took me on his boat and we caught a bunch of black sea bass. I spent five hours on a forty degree day at the Chu without a hit, then caught two lakers around 4 pm. So many memories. That's what makes keeping a journal and doing posts like this fun. Looking back