What types of fish I chase and what I use to catch them

Most everybody that I know that doesn't fish can not understand why a person needs as many poles as I have. If you take a look at what an obsessed fisherman owns it will look like a complete waste of money to anyone that is only mildly interested in fishing. As someone once said to me " You can only hold one at a time"
I thought I might answer this to all the people that have said this to me in one simple blog post instead of explaining a million times over. Fishing rods are tools. They are tools for catching fish. Like any other tool they all have a purpose. As an example of tools, lets take a saw. I have a chain saw. I use it to cut branches down and small trees in my backyard. You would not use a chain saw for precision cuts of a 2x4 or to cut a piece of plywood. You wouldn't use a circular saw to cut wood in your backyard. They have a specific purpose and although they are similar, using the right tool makes doing the job easier and dare I say more enjoyable.
Same with rod/reel combos. It wouldn't be any fun catching trout on my saltwater rod designed for catching twenty pound stripers. It would be damn near impossible to use a trout rod fishing the surf for big bluefish. Each has its place. With this in mind I will give a quick explanation of what I have and why I " need" it.

Trout-
I have two 6 foot medium light shimano rod s for DJ and I they have shimano sedona reels rigged with six pound line. Many of the rods I have, I have two of the exact same set up, so DJ and I each have one. I love these rods. They are light enough to cast a light jig but can cast a quarter ounce sinker with powerbait. They are light and a decent trout puts up a good fight on them. We also use them for catching panfish like perch, calico bass and sunfish
2-Bass Pro Shops 6 foot light rods that are 2 piece. My above rods are only one piece and can't take them apart. These 2 piece rods were on sale last Christmas for $30 each. I needed them so I could take them backpacking to trout lakes. They do the job just fine.

2- Fly Rods 9 foot 5 weight. These are also Bass Pro rods. They are on the low end of the price range for fly fishing. They work great for us. I am so new to fly-fishing I don't know what I'm missing not owning a $300 rod, and I want to keep it that way. Caught a bunch of trout on them over the summer. They are two piece rods. I do regret not getting the 4 piece rods as it would be much easier packing them for backpacking

Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass
I used to fish for bass almost everyday of my young life. Since I have discovered carp and stripers, I have pretty much abandoned bass fishing.
I have a 6' 6" baitcaster for throwing spinnerbaits and heavier lures.
2- 6' medium spinning rods for throwing lighted lures. When I bass fish I do a lot of topwater and unweighted plastic worm fishing. I need a rod with a soft tip to get topwater plugs to move easily.

Carp-
Since you don't constantly hold the rod while carp fishing most carp fishermen use two rods. When they get a bite, they pick one up and set the hook. Right now, I am in the process of upgrading my carp gear ( and by that, I mean I want Santa to help me out this Christmas). Basically in my world I need 2 sets of rods. One for small waters and one for big rivers with lots of current.

2- 7 foot medium heavy freshwater rods/ baitrunner reel with 12 pound line.These are my small water rods. I am in the minority of my carp fishing buddies using lighter gear. I like these 7 footers ( actually love). They get the job done for me almost everywhere except the Connecticut and Merrimack Rivers.. Some of the guys I know use 9 foot rods as there light stuff. I prefer these as they are easy to handle, light and I can fish tighter spots without worrying about how close the tree is behind me. Both of rods are Bass Pro Graphite series. They are only $24 when on sale. I think they are a great deal. They are plenty sensitive and strong. Why would I spend more money on better graphite rods when these are awesome! With these rods with 12 pound line and a little playing the fish I have caught carp to 24 pounds.

2- 8 foot saltwater rods. Again a lot of my friends are using 11 foot rods for there big water. I'm happy with my 8 footers with 17 pound line. They are made for catching fish in the surf so carp fishing is no problem. These are what I want to upgrade. The ones I have work fine but they are made of cheaper components so I want to get nicer ones.

In my opinion the best reel ever made is the Shimano Baitrunner 3500( see above photo). Baitrunner reels are needed carp fishing so line can come off the reel with your bail closed so your pole doesn't end up dragged in the water by a running fish. Its cost was $100 but you could use it in both fresh and saltwater and it will last forever.UNFORTUNATELY the dumbasses at Shimano ( that's right I said it) discontinued this model and replaced it with a new version with the new price tag of $179. Screw that. There are other newer brands of baitrunners ( Okuma being the most well known) They are substantially cheaper than Shimano, but the quality is not as good. Luckily for now I still have my old Shimano Baitrunners and I will keep those workhorses as long as I can.

Saltwater Striper Fishing
Striper fishing for me is broken up into three categories. Surf fishing for big ones and schoolie fishing from shore and fishing in my canoe.
Schoolies.
I used to use 7 foot medium heavy rods by Bass Pro Shops rated for 8-17 pound line. The same type rods I use for carp fishing. I have moved to an 8 footer. I still use the same shimano spheros 4000 with 12 pound line. The 8 foot BPS powerstick gets much longer casts and even with the same strength line I can horse bigger fish to shore a little quicker with the longer rod. I still use the 7 footers when fishing for schoolies in the canoe.

Surf fishing- I have a ten foot surf rod with a Shimano Spheros 12000 rigged with 20 pound Big Game. I have had this for years. I use it mostly for eels and big plugs.

I am thinking of getting an 8 foot surf rod with a smaller reel. I can't cast the big rod for 5 hours the way I used too since I got the pinched nerve. I don't use eels as much as I used too. The shorter rod will not only be lighter, but I will have better control of poppers.

Canoe- I use the above 7 foot schoolie rod for smaller bass. For larger fish I use a 7 foot heavy Teremar rod ( 15-30 pound line) . You just can't use the big rods in a canoe. I also have a 7'2" old quantum rod made 20 pound line. If I know I will be trolling eels, I will put my Shimano Baitrunners on the rods. Otherwise, I have a couple old reels that have yet to fail me. I use for casting plugs.

There you have it- The rods I use most often. I have a few others either that I don't use because I don't like them or I have upgraded. A quick recap-

Trout/ Panfish 6 combos- 3 for me, 3 for DJ ( including a fly rod for each of us)
Bass 3 combos plus we bring one othe above rods
Carp/Catfish 4 combos- 2 for small waters, 2 for big rivers
Stripers 6 combos- 3 schoolies ( 2 seven footers for DJ and I and one 8 foot), 1 surf and
2 heavy canoe rods for big stripers.

I have many friends that have more than me. I don't have a rod for bottom fishing in the ocean. I could use my surf rod for this but it was not made to throw a 5 ounce sinker and a crab. Like my saw example, it can do the job but it would be much easier with a stronger rod. I don't enjoy bottom fishing in the ocean anyway. Even if I give it a try, if I don't get anything, I quickly cut off the hook and sinker and start plugging. DJ wants a saltwater fly rod. We will see if Santa brings that, if he does, the kid better share it.
If I was still bass fishing I'd surely have at least 5 rods. I have another baitcaster that has a broken reel. Theres no reason to buy another since I never use it anymore. So I have a $ 99 rod without a reel.

I'd like to sit here and after reading this post tell you that I have gone overboard with fishing equipment. However all the combo's I mentioned get used at least a few times a year. The ones that I use the least were the cheapest ( the two piece trout rods). So I hope I have explained to the non fishing public why your fishing obsessed ( insert relative here) has so much gear.

Some Stripers still Around

Went fishing down the southcoast of Rhode Island yesterday with my friend Dave. We hit three spots in Charlestown and Narragansett. Between us we caught seven fish ( he beat me by one). Other guys were around fishing the water while we were lucky enough to have 55 degree temperatures. We either caught or saw fish caught at all three locations. Fishing wasn't hot and heavy but, any fish and/or warm days at the end of November are bonuses. It was nice to have both in the same day.
To see a picture of me lifting a fish over the rocks check out Dave's blog.
http://www.ristripedbass.blogspot.com/

I am not nearly as round as my waders and under my wader sweatshirts make me look.

Happy Thanksgiving

Sifting through the B.S.

If you are a devoted fisherman/woman you probably spend at least some time reading fishing reports or have a subscription to fishing or outdoor magazines. Every week in the Providence Journal there is a fishing report for the weekend. On the Water Magazine does the same thing on their website, except they cover all of New England as does The Fishermen
I am also a subscriber to On the Water because it covers New England fishing and anyone can write an article and submit it. If published the pay is pretty decent. I used to subscribe to national magazines Outdoor Life, Field and Stream and Sports Afield. I prefer OTW because it covers our local area. Since I am probably never going dove hunting in Texas or marlin fishing in Cabo I don't need to wade through articles I have no interest in to find what I want.
These things being said, just as you are not supposed to believe everything you see on tv, you really can't believe everything you read about fishing. Lets start with weekly fishing reports. First off they are not always reliable. Many of the reports have to be submitted by Thursday prior to the upcoming weekend. Just because fishing was good Wednesday, doesn't mean Saturday it will be the same. The tide will be 4 hours ahead from Wed to Sat. If high tide was at first light on Wednesday and the fish were actively feeding by Saturday high tide will be at 10 am under a bright sun. Chances are good those same fish will not be as active in that location by the weekend.
Obviously weather is a big difference maker when it comes to fishing. If a big noreaster comes in Friday night, it doesn't matter what the fishing pattern was before, that front will change everything. On the other hand if the weather line up and the tides line up it can be possible for the fishing forecast to be somewhat predictable especially during May or the new moons of June and October. Even more than a weatherman, you can't hold these guys accountable when they try to make an honest prediction. Not only do they have to factor in weather but also tide, time of year, moon phase, location of bait, where the fish may have been at the same time last year, and seasonal movements.

My issue with some of the fishing forecasts is what I consider to be purposeful deception. This is where sifting through the bull is tricky. When writers get info for the reports they call up local tackle shops. The shops supply information to the writer based on customers saying where they will be fishing and coming back to get fish weighed in or telling of success and failure. Also most tackle shop employees are die hard fishermen who go out often enough they themselves are reliable sources of info. Writers also get info from marinas, guide services and deep sea fishing boats.
You have to consider the source when it comes to fishing reports. This year was absolutely the worst year fishing on the Rhode Island coast in the last 20 years. This is no exaggeration. Fishing can be summed up as terrible. There weren't many schoolies this spring. The keepers were way down and this fall has in a word SUCKED. Cape Cod Canal had a very good year, I am not saying there aren't fish around, but if you fish in Rhode Island fishing was way off. This can easily be attributed to a huge lack of bait.
So if fishing is terrible in Rhode Island why do fishing reports say there are fish around? Money. It doesn't do a tackle shop owner in Narragansett to give a bad fishing report. If you don't go down and buy some bait or tackle he is out of business. So of course the owner will give a positive report. These may not be lies, maybe one of there employees got a couple schoolies during the week at Narrow River, maybe a keeper at Hazard Ave. These things may be true, but in previous years you'd have a dozen guys catching a dozen fish at Narrow River, and at Hazard Ave you'd have blitz of peanut bunker that blues, stripers and false albacore would have been feasting at. The other possibility is a fisherman catches a couple fish one night so that is reported, what is not reported is the 4 other nights that he went fishless.
The same can be true of party boats and guide services. Why on earth would a deep sea fishing boat say that there customers aren't catching anywhere near the number of fish they did two years ago. There is no way way you'd spend $60 a person to hear that. So instead they tell of the big one that was caught that week , or the one day in the last seven where customers actually had success. It is all about money. I am not even suggesting its about greed, people need to make a living, unfortunately the fishing was so bad in Rhode Island this summer that most positive fishing reports were more than stretching the truth a little bit.
You also have to weigh in about where the reports come from. Narragansett and Charlestown have many tackle shops. If you want to know about the Narrow River and how its fishing, chances are you will read about it from at least two tackle shops on OTW website, The Fishermen, and ProJo. However, there is one small bait shop in Jamestown and I am not even sure it is still in business. You will never get a fishing report from Jamestown. This spring I had about a week where fish up to keeper size were actively feeding every night in a small cove in Jamestown. They were picky, but I was catching between 8-15 a night. Yet other than the occasional big fish at Beavertail, Jamestown does not exist in fishing reports. This works for me because it keeps my productive spots a little more secret, but it also works for the bait shops in Narragansett that want customers to frequent there store.
The very same thing can be said about Upper Narragansett Bay. In most years the bay is loaded with schoolies at just about every public access point from Bold Point in Providence, to Barrington and Oakland Beach opposite sides of the bay. If the adult menhaden are in, huge stripers will follow them and feast until the big boats wipe out the bait. You rarely get a reliable fishing report about the upper bay. The writers don't have the same relationship with the tackle owners up there. You may hear about a couple of the more well known spots but not because they are the best producing spots, but because they are the ones everyone has heard of. Case in point, Barrington Beach usually has some schoolies during May but it is not nearly as productive as the rocky areas along Barrington.

On the subject of what is believable in fishing articles you also have to remember that bussiness is, well, a business also. Money motivates editors also. They are always looking for a fresh idea. Whether it be a new location or a new technique they are always looking for something fresh. These are articles you can learn a lot from and believe me I have. When I first started saltwater fishing I read everything I could find about it. New magazines, internet articles, back issues with articles of specific locations anything I could find. These articles can be a huge wealth of info.
Still you have to wade through the B.S.. I once read an article about a new way to largemouth bass fish. The author wrote about purposely casting his lure over a tree limb and having the lure bounce up and down into the water until it aggravated a bass into biting. I think many of us have accidentally done this and caught an occasional bass while your line is caught on a branch. I'm not quite sure this is a good approach to an actual technique. First off you would have to be an absolute perfect caster. Secondly, theres no way all your casts are going to be perfect so your going to spend plenty of time retrieving your lure from being hooked in the tree branch in the process spooking the fish. I am not judging this man, if this is a successful way to fish for him, I tip my my rain hat to him. I do not think this is practical for almost the entire rest of the fishing population.
Articles like this run in magazines because they can't write about the same lures and the same places year after year. Be especially careful of articles about new techniques but also remember when someone writes about a fishing location they will not give away there favorite spot. There may be an article about the rocks at the Cliff Walk in Newport but they will not tell you the rock they caught a 40 pounder. I try to use these articles as guidelines. They can be very useful for general locations and public access ( directions) but its still up to us to learn the spot and actually put the time in to find out when it is productive.
Sometimes you can read something written by a many different people, but completely disagree with there assessment based on your own experience. A great example for me is the use of fluorocarbon leaders. If you read what all the experts say, if you use fluorocarbon you will get more hits. For those of you that don't know what fluorocarbon is, its basically a high tech fishing line that has the same refractive index as water making it invisible to the fish. For the last couple years I have used fluorocarbon but my fish percentage has been the same as regular mono line. What's the difference? Well for one, a 50 yard spool of mono leader material is about $6 but fluorocarbon is about $ 27. That's a big difference. I mentioned to one of my fishing buddies last week that I have never seen a difference. He has had the same results. So when my fluorocarbon runs out I will be going back to the $6 mono. For some guys, they swear by fluoro and for them I can't question it works for them. Sometimes you just have to experiment and decide for yourself.
One of the very best sources of info is going to seminars at fishing expos like the Eastern Fishing and Outdoor Expo each Feb. I usuually go on the day that has the most seminars I would be interested in. These seminars are run by experts at what they do. Whether its a fly fishing guide or a shark fishing specialist the people running the seminars usually know way more than the average weekend warrior. Again though you must be cautious. One regular on the seminar circut ( and I won't mention names but many surfcasters know him by his number of books) hasn't seriously striper fished in the last ten years. During the month of May ( the month with the most consistant striper fishing all year) he turkey hunts. Also he is getting older and he certainly is a wealth of knowledge, but by not seriously fishing the last few years he is not up to date on new lures, techniques and patterns in where the fish and there bait are. Although he has caught thousands more fish in his life than I have, I seriously doubt he would outfish many guys anymore, yet he is considered a god in the surfcasting world.
At one point I was very friendly with a part time fishing guide. After a while I realized he wasn't into fishing for fun. All he was about was making money off of it. I certainly have no issues with making a living doing something you love especially fishing. He didn't love fishing, he was writing fishing articles and doing "expert seminars" and trying to run a lure selling bussiness. What bothered me was he never actually went fishing. If you are going to be " an expert" than maybe you should be out there reading the water and going fishing. I think you owe it to the people your speaking too or are reading your articles to actually know what you are talking about.Our friendship grew apart.

Fortunately, it becomes a lot easier to know what is a good article and what is ridiculous with experience. If you are a novice, and you take everything you read as gospel you will get burned once in a while. If you think about it, even if you are an expert fisherman, your still going to have bad days and if you fished the Rhode Island coast this year a bad summer. So if your trying to get into a new type of fishing or any other hobby, read as much as you can and try to figure out what is useful to you. Put what you have learned to use and try to prove or disprove theories.

Trauma Units, Seatbelts and too much Deep Thinking

As many of you know DJ's mom has been in the hospital for the last two weeks because of a terrible car accident. I haven't wrote anything in that time. I have been bringing DJ to the hospital to see his mom. Also DJ and I have taken in his younger sister while her mom is recovering. Needless to say the last few weeks have been hectic. Therefore for once I have a reason why I haven't written anything as opposed to an excuse.

I will be writing more this week. I hope to finish my piece on Block Island in the next couple days ( its in my drafts right now) Also I had an idea for a piece about my heros growing up and people I thought were role models that let me down.



For now, I have been thinking a lot about how quickly our lives can change in the blink of an eye. Seeing what Crystal is going through in the hospital makes you realize how important health really is.

Its so easy to take every day for granted. Last year I had a pinched nerve in my neck that caused unbelieveable pain in my shoulder for 3 months. I was getting maybe 3 hours sleep a night and then only for 10-15 minutes at a time. Since then I have vowed to enjoy everyday that I am pain free.I always try to have as much fun as I can. I won't sit here and say watching Crystal recover is going to make me more open to life. I have tried to live each day to the fullest since my injury. I know who loves me and am glad for those people in my life. I think what I am trying to say is even though I enjoy life, I can still take it for granted. All it takes is walking through any unit of Rhode Island Hospital or any other large hospital to realize it can all end in an instant. Anyone who thinks they are invincible or has the mentality that things won't happen to them can easily be humbled by a trip through the trauma unit.

I once heard a quote and I don't know who said it " Everyone knows they are going to die, but no one believes it" If you think about it, that is true. Almost none of us would live the way we do if we thought we would be dead soon. Things that you think are important aren't nearly important as you think.

It can't be argued that money is important. To be sheltered, pay bills and eat we need money. To fish, hike, travel, go to Disney we need disposable income. So to pretend money isn't important would be a lie. HOWEVER how many workaholics would put there job over there family if they thought they were going to die. Hopefully the answer is no one. Yet people put there jobs ahead of there family all the time. Would you waste time with anger if you knew that starting on Wednesday you'd be spending the next 3 months in the hospital recovering from a car accident? No

What I have learned the last couple weeks is are bodies are fragile. It doesn't take much to mangle it when loosing control of a 3 ton piece of steel at 60 miles per hour. Enjoy what you have, do the things you enjoy, spend time with the people you want to spend time with and don't take good health for granted.



Lastly I learned to put my seatbelt on while still in the driveway, not after I get moving. Wear your seatbelt at all times!!!

I hope you recover soon Crystal.

The reason for this picture in such a depressing post is that it shows 2 of my favorite people in the world enjoying life and having fun!