Providence "P" Hat trick

Jeff and I did some New Years Eve fishing tonight in Providence looking for the elusive striper. We did not find any. Jeff snagged a couple of pogies. I caught three species that start with the letter "p". First I caught a large white Perch, then I snagged two Pogies. Lastly I came across a very common species in Providence, although they are usually on the side of the road. This one was swimming slowly upcurrent when I hooked it. It was a Plastic bag. There you have it, three species all starting with "P". Perch, Pogy and Plastic Bag.

All kidding aside, I love catching white perch. This was my first saltwater one this year. Saltwater perch get big. Sometimes two pounds and fifteeen inches. This one was a solid 12 inches. Only yesterday I found out they are a  member of the temperate bass family and related to stripers.

I think this is the craziest thing I've ever done fishing...

Dave ( front) and Clay ( if Dave's in front I assume you know where Clay is) trying desperately for a carp 

Clay, Dave, myself, Todd all smiles before our trip

Today I went up to New Hampshire carp fishing with my friends Clay and Dave from Catch-them -all ( see link to the side). They had not caught a carp yet in there quest to catch and eat every species in New Hampshire. Since I do a lot of carp fishing, it was hoped that I could come through and help them catch a carp. Unfortunately, it is late December, so like my chances of catching a salmon last week, chances were slim.

We met at a boat ramp below a power plant in Bow, NH.
We met just after 8 am. This meant I had to get out of my perfectly warm bed to drive an hour and a half to paddle upstream on deadly cold water in thirty degree temps at 5:30 AM!!! I hope this is telling you that I knew it was absolutely nuts to go!!! Besides myself, Clay and Dave, we met Todd. Todd also has his own blog www.nhundiscoveredtrout.blogspot.com. His blog is about fishing remote trout ponds with two of his sons. I had never met him before. Since I am very interested in remote trout ponds, as usual I asked a million questions. Luckily, Todd is a firefighter so it was nice to know someone knew CPR if we fell out of the canoe and there was an emergency.

I had tried to tell these guys that our chances of catching a carp in late December were slim. Also there was no way to prebait the area since it was so far from all of our homes and a ten minute paddle upstream. However Clay is such a ridiculous optimist, I got excited about the warm water and in my mind I our chances improved exponentially

I was pleasantly surprised that the thirty degree temps did not feel bad at all. There wasn't any wind so I only needed the sweatpants I was wearing and didn't have to sissy up and rip out my ski pants I brought with me. Remember I was fishing with New Hampshire guys. These dudes don't wear gloves after putting there hand in a hole when ice fishing. I had to look tough for I was representing all the Massholes south of the border. Like I said though, either I am toughening up to the cold myself, or it really wasn't that bad. The only thing that got cold was my left foot. I spilled coffee on my sneaker while paddling upstream. That felt nice at first until the cold set in. Because I packed everything except the kitchen sink, I had toe warmers with me, so I put them on and my coffee soaked foot got toasty warm.

After a 10 minute paddle we came to a small cove that is fed by a warm water discharge from the powerplant. As we were finding a place to anchor up, Todd saw a carp. I saw the bubble trail. That was great news, carp were in the area. We baited up, I showed Clay how to use a hair rig and method mix. Within minutes Dave got a smallmouth on a lure while Clay and myself carp fished. Todd fly-fished. Dave's smallmouth was the only fish we caught in FOUR HOURS. The only other fish we saw was a sunfish near shore.

After four hours of this nonsense we went below a dam in Hookset and tried the oxygenated water there. In an hour our results were the same.  The only thing I can say is time went by quickly. There were a lot of laughs. It was the first time I met Dave and Todd. I reminded Clay and Dave I would love to go up to the white perch spawn and fish for rock bass next spring.After nearly seven hours of fishing and paddling, we packed up, did the ceremonial hand shake, and went in separate directions to our homes with the heater on high in all our vehicles.

  I wish we could have caught a carp, so they could have added it to the quest. Since we only needed to catch one between us, it was disappointing not to hook up with one.So I tried to look at it this way, it was a bad day fishing but if you looked at it as just hanging out with friends for a few hours, it was a good time.

After Clay puts up a web album I will steal some pictures and add them to the blog. Also, check back often the next few days, I am doing my end of the year review in three parts.

Awesome Striper Fishing Tonight

I went to my favorite striper wintering hotspot tonight. Its the same place I've gone a couple times this year. Up to tonight I caught a total of one striper and  one hickory shad that came off at my feet ( and I snagged two menhaden).

That finally changed tonight. I landed eight stripers in a couple hour period. I was using my trout rod. I caught all my stripers on a 1/8 ounce jighead. I was using a 2" white grub and a 2" shad body. Needless to say landing each striper was an adventure on the small freshwater rod. My biggest striper was only about 22 inches, so my little rod could handle them.

Dave and Jeff were among the guys I fished with. Dave caught the largest striper of the night, about 25 inches. Jeff hooked the largest fish of the night. Unfortunately, it came unhooked. They both caught multiple fish. It was a good night for all of us.

There were eight or nine guys fishing tonight. I saw a total of 19 fish caught, including my eight. There were a lot of fish around. I hope it continues.

Product Review- Kastmaster

I have talked to a lot of fishermen who say they have never caught a fish on a spoon. A lot of guys have them in there tackle box weather saltwater or fresh but rarely use them. I thought for this reason, I would do a product review of the Kastmaster spoon.  Being close to Christmas, it would probably make more sense to do a review on a big item like a sleeping bag, fishing rod, or kayak. However, a spoon makes a nice stocking stuffer right?

Let me first start off by saying a few things. First, I don't use spoons in saltwater unless absolutely necessary ( read: 50 mph wind in my face and I can't cast anything else). Secondly, I use Kastmasters exclusively when using a spoon in freshwater. Therefore, I can not tell you if a Hopkins smoothie or a Little Cleo is as good, better or worse. I feel that a Kastmaster works well for me. If trout are hitting spoons, I assume they will hit my Kastmaster, if they don't I switch to a different color or different lure all together.

Okay, lets start... The Kastmaster is a spoon made by the Acme Lure Company ( based in Providence, RI).  They range in size from 1/12oz.- 4 ounces. Prices range from about $2.50 to over $7.00. Smetimes they cost more than that in some tackle shops.They come in a wide variety of colors.  I use three sizes. I use the 1/8 oz.for trout, the 1/4 oz for salmon and 3/4 oz. for lake trout. Of those three sizes I use the 1/8 oz almost exclusively. I only use the bigger sizes when I am at Wachusetts or trying for broodstock salmon ( we all know how that went). I use the 1/8 oz. trout fishing quite a bit. Of the 224 trout that I caught this year I caught 55 on Kastmasters. All were on the 1/8 size. I am sure the smaller 1/12 ounce would catch as many trout, but I like the castability of the 1/8. It casts a long way even into a strong wind in your face.

As for colors, I try to keep my selection real simple. I don't see the point of having twenty colors. There are two reasons for this. If I have a favorite color, then I'm going to put it on my line when I want to use a spoon, leaving the other colors to rust. Also if I have 20 options, I'll be spending more time deciding what to use instead of fishing. I firmly believe in ( KISS) Keep It Simple Stupid. For color selection I have these colors. Silver, Gold, Silver/blue and perch. I almost always start with gold. Its my go to color. I use it on sunny and cloudy days. If it doesn't work, I'll usually switch to a different lure and if I switch back to a Kastmaster I use the silver. I have never caught any on the silver/blue one, but I rarely fish it. As for the perch, I just bought it. I do think it would work well on holdover trout that are used to eating baitfish. I expect good things from that color.

I do find they work best when it is either windy or there is a little chop on the water. Thats not to say you won't catch fish with them under calm conditions, but when its calm I usually use other options. Without question, if there is a wind in your face, put on a spoon and cover some water. As for a retrieve, I usually use a constant steady one. Not to fast, just a normal comfortable speed. Of course if that doesn't work, try different speeds, I usually go slower before I go faster. I've caught many trout barely reeling along the bottom.

As for salmon, I have heard that salmon are attracted to orange so I have a silver/ florescent orange spoon in 1/4 ounce. The most popular color for Wachusett lakers is 3/4 ounce silver/blue.

To show you how effective a spoon can be, I can give you two examples.  On September 17 I went up to New Hampshire. The weather was freezing. There was snow on the mountains. When I got there the wind was cold, wet and right in your face. The only thing I could cast into the wind was a spoon. I put on the gold 1/8 ounce and started cating. I got a hit on the first cast. I caught a brookie on the next cast. In the next hour, I caught 20, also had hits on almost every cast. I could have caught more, but it was so cold and I wasn't prepared for the weather.

The other example was around Columbus day. I was fishing Fearings Pond. Unlike my last paragraph, the weather was nice. I started walking the shoreline looking for schooling trout. I found a huge school. I landed rainbow after rainbow on the spoon. I caught 18 within minutes. I was getting bored so I switched to my fly rod.

I hope this product review is helpful. I know many anglers do not like using spoons. That's okay, but if you do give them a chance, make it a fair chance. You won't catch many trout if you only give it a cast or two. Like any other lure or technique it will catch fish in the right conditions. If you have any questions or comments, let me know.

After Christmas Shopping Fishing...

After doing some way to late in the season Christmas shopping, I did some spur of the moment fishing tonight. I was driving through Providence and decided to give some winter time stripers a shot. I've gone a couple of times so far this winter without any luck.

I tried a couple of different spots. At the first I snagged a menhaden on a zoom fluke. It was unintentional, but I assumed some stripers would be under them. I fished the area for a while. I bumped into a few more menhaden but didn't get any stripers to hit.

This poor menhaden that I accidently snagged tonight has taken a beating

I went up into the city and fished there for a while. I caught a small schoolie striper. It was not big but it was my first winter striper this year. I hoped it would be in a school, but no such luck.

I then went back to my first spot. It had a few guys fishing it including two that I know. I saw a hickory shad and menhaden get caught. Then a minute after that I hooked a hickory, only to have it come off a few feet from shore. The next cast I snagged another menhaden. Its cool how all these fish are schooling up together. I have no interest in snagging menhaden, but hooking into one and then a different species the next cast was kind of cool. I bet there are some white perch and maybe even a bluefish in the upper bay also.

So I am glad I had a fun night. I caught a couple of fish.In a weird oddity, I caught a menhaden in December before I caught a striper. I would have loved to get into a school of hickorys. Those little guys are so much fun.

Clay, is this a mummy?

In what is definitely my first post ever directed directly at another blog, I have a question for you, Clay.

As the person I know that knows the most about small fish I ask what is this? I assume it is a banded killfish or mummy. I was at Little Pond in Plymouth, MA yesterday. There were a bunch of these little guys dead on one shoreline, maybe a dozen.  This one was about 2 1/4 inches long, the biggest about 4 inches. I saw one swimming in the lake, but he was the only live one I saw.

Mass Wildlife has pond maps online. The map of Little Pond does not say any fish species of small size except golden  shiners, but the last time the pond was sampled was many years ago. Obviously they could have been introduced at any time. Or these could be bait from a previous fisherman with only the one remaining.

I do know that banded killfish and mummies look a lot a like, if you think it is one of those but can't tell any more than that, I will try Mass Wildlife. I do not think they are any form of dace or chubs, but hey, that's why I am asking you

Little Pond Search for Salmon ( kind of)

As you know, I have been really wanting a shot at broodstock salmon this winter. If you read the post below, obviously,I have very little chance of catching one. Yesterday I got information ( from Jeff) that the salmon were stocked this week in Little Pond, Plymouth.That said, we didn't know what day ( maybe even tomorrow), but we did hear that only six would be stocked. SIX!!! Even in a lake called  Little Pond,  finding one of six salmon in a forty acre pond is tough. Factor in that if someone caught one and kept it, our chances drop 17%.

Then again, what is 17% of almost zero. We decided to go down to Little today despite the fact in our hearts we knew we were not going to catch a salmom. We left at 6:30 this morning. I left my map book at home, so it took a little while to find it. I have only fished Little once, on Easter. www.southernnewenglandoutdoors.blogspot.com/2011/04/trout-trifecta.html So my memory of the directions were a little fuzzy. It took a little over an hour to get there.  I bought shiners the night before and planned on floating them under a bobber in case a salmon was hungry. 

No luck for salmon. We did not see any. I did hear one guy say he caught one two days ago ( this meant they were stocked and also my chances of catching one were down at least 17%!). We did get a couple of trout. I caught a brown trout and Jeff a brookie. I also picked up a small bass. The state only stocks rainbows in the fall. That means the two trout we caught were holdovers from at least this spring. They were very healthy looking fish. Jeff's brookie was in its spawning colors.  I did not get any pictures. It was rainy and drizzly. I didn't want to take the camera out of the car in that weather. I assure you, the trout were caught. If they were a fish story or a figment of my imagination, I would have caught the gorgous brookie in spawning colors.

So to sum up, we knew we were not catching any salmon, so it wasn't a disappointment. We fished for 4 hours and only caught three fish total. Yet, I caught only my third ( or fourth I have to look in my reports) brown trout of the year. Jeff caught his first brook trout this year, actually his first in a long time. I caught a trout at a lake I had never caught a fish before. Lastly, as best I can remember, the two fish I caught today, may be the first freshwater fish I have ever caught in December. It was 50 degrees, 10 days before Christmas and I caught a fish... so I'm good

Broodstock Bad News

In December, the state of Massachusetts stocks broodstock salmon in lakes throughout the state. These are " retired" fish. They have been spawned out for eggs for Atlantic Salmon restoration. Each year the state stocks whatever number that is available to them. There is no set number  ( as opposed to trout, which are grown specifically for stocking ) of salmon. The state makes it clear that these fish are a bonus and there is no guarantee that they will even be available.

Unfortunately this is a bad year.  Because of T.S. Irene the hatchery in Vermont lost many of the broodstock salmon. Massachusetts did not get any this year from them. Last year 1740 salmon were stocked in the lakes throughout Mass. This year that number will be 300. Each district will receive 60 fish. I do not know how many lakes will be stocked. Last year five lakes were stocked in my district ( southeast). If the same number are stocked this year that means only 12 salmon will be put in each lake. This is disappointing for me. The closest stocked lake is about 1 hour away. It hardly seems worth the drive with so little chance of success.

I was hoping that I could fish for broodstock salmon until ice in. Now I'm going to give it a shot once. I hope I catch one but even if I do, I will probably only go the one time. I think they will either be fished out quickly or spaced so far apart that it will be like finding a specific  needle in a pile of needles. A far smarter decision would be to go to the seafood store up the street and buy a couple of salmon steaks. That may just happen.

Not much fishing going on here...

I don't know if it is worth your time to read blogs about nothing. I have nothing to report, but I haven't wrote anything in a week. So here I go trying to fill two paragraphs with nothing.

I went trout fishing a few days ago at Whitings Pond. I only went for about a half hour after work before picking DJ up from track. There is a very short window from when I get out of work until dark this time of year. I didn't get anything.

Monday I went carp fishing straight from work at a reservoir in East Providence. It was very warm out and the next day was supposed to be rainy. I hoped to pick up my first ever December carp. I did not. It was so nice out I would have fished until well after dark, but I had to pick up DJ. My friend Dave ended up fishing the same spot as me, later that night. He also had no luck so I felt better about my strikeout.  I do think I am going to try to catch a December carp again this month. It would be a cool goal.

Unfortunately, salmon won't be placed in Cape ponds for at least another week. I had hoped to fish for them last weekend and this weekend coming, but it would have been fruitless.

So thats about it, sometime before I go salmon fishing I will give you guys my first ever product review.

Websites- Its Christmas Time

Now that Thanksgiving has passed and we are in December, it is time to listen to Christmas carols. I hate my radio when I hear Christmas carols November 10th and just listen to my cd player.It is time to be in the Christmas ( or Holiday if you are not Christian. I respect your religion if you respect mine, but in my house it is a Christmas tree ) spirit. So I thought I'd write down the places I buy my fishing gear. Today seems as a good a day as any to write this post. I have it off from work. It is windy and the ocean is dirty so I can't saltwater fish. The salmon have not been stocked yet and trout fishing was not good last week. Although I could carp fish, it is 38 degrees and sunny with a 20 mph wind coming from the north. North winds seem to shut down carp fishing in the lake I fish, so I write.

As you know I actively fish for stripers, carp, trout and blues. This year I have gone back to basics fishing for largemouth bass this summer. Also I have tried to catch some new species this year such as lake trout ( successful), false albacore and landlocked salmon ( both unsuccessful). As you can imagine, to fish for all those species you need a lot of gear. You can't fish for stripers with the same gear you would use for trout.

Unfortunately, you can not buy gear for all those species in one catch all tackle shop. To get the best prices and selection you have to shop around. I am not a fan of shopping. My wardrobe is  always in need for new clothes. I believe in the line in  Kris Kristofferson's song "Sunday Morning Coming Down" - and found my cleanest dirty shirt. Ok its not that bad, but in all shopping for clothes sucks.
That said, there is nothing more exciting then knowing I have a package of fishing gear in transit from a website. So without further adue, here are the stores and sites I buy from. Maybe it will help you with your Christmas list from St. Nick.

K-1 Baits www.k-1baits.com    K-1 sells a lot of carp bait. I only buy flavors from them. One bottle of a flavor will last a couple years. I have scopex, fruity pineapple and tutti-fruity. I use these to flavor corn. They also sell boilies. I need to give them a try.

Wackerbaits www.wackerbaits.com  I bought quite a bit of gear from them. I bought my bite alarms and banksticks from them. Also my baiting needle, Carpmax size six hooks, and other gear. They have all prices of gear from cheap crap to out of my price range. There is plenty of mid priced good quality gear.They also sell Pesciva corn. My friend Dave is nailing fish left and right with this stuff. I will have a couple tubs of it next year.

Fishwest www.fishwest.net is a fly fishing shop in Utah. They sell pretty much anything you would need for fly fishing. I actually only buy one thing from them, Tiemco 2457 hooks in size 6 and 8. These are actually nymph hooks, but a lot of us use them for carp fishing. They are light but work real well for pond carp. They are $5.95 per 25. This is a hell of a lot cheaper than the $6 for 10 of the above Carpmax hooks. I use the Tiemco hooks in ponds and the Carpmax only in big rivers with big fish and current. FREE SHIPPING no matter how small the order.

Anglers Dream Fly Shop www.anglersdream.net This is where I buy all my freshwater flies. They sell a lot of fly gear but for flies the prices can't be beat. I usually place a couple orders a year.  The customer service is outstanding. I have my flies within a couple days.They send a hand written thank you note and usually a free fly. I suspect at prices as low as 52 cents the flies are not made in the USA. I can attest to the quality though. I caught 18 fish on one hares ear ( 10 trout and 8 sunfish). It still looked brand new before I casted it into a tree this spring. I will say some of the nymphs do not sink well. So I use unweighted nymphs near the surface during a hatch and beadheads when I want to get deeper.  Shipping is only $ 2.88

Cabelas www.cabelas.com Obviously Cabelas is a huge outdoor chain. You could buy almost anything you could want from them. I place one annual order with them a year. I live near Bass Pro Shops so I only order things from Cabelas that BPS doesn't carry or is cheaper at Cabelas.
                        
I only use steel sinkers for weights one ounce and under. It is a personal choice not to use lead in these smaller sizes. Besides lead is illegal at Wachusetts and New Hampshire ( it kills loons) so I figure I may as well use non lead everywhere. Ultra Steel is about the cheapest brand. BPS carries it, but Cabelas is about 30% cheaper and I get more per bag. I also buy my clear casting bubbles from them. I bought a Cabelas brand reel from them last year and so far I love it. Sometimes their sales are cheaper than Bass Pro, so I keep an eye out for sales of stuff I use in quantity like sinkers.

Bass Pro Shops www.basspro.com I live near BPS in Foxboro. Largemouth bass fishermen can find anything they need at BPS. They also have a great selection of fly fishing and saltwater tackle. Not everything I need is at Bass Pro. I find flies expensive compared to Anglers Dream. Cabelas does have random things ( like Ultra Steel Sinkers) that Bass Pro doesn't.

All that said, I ask for Bass Pro gift cards for Christmas, there is always something there I want. Right now I'm hoping for enough gift cards to buy the float tube with fins and pump.I make my own saltwater flies, BPS has the material I need, it is slightly higher priced than some websites, but I don't have to pay for shipping if I drive the 15 minutes to pick it up myself.

Walmart www.walmart.com Do not overlook Wallyworld when buying tackle. They do not usually sell high end rods and reels. They do sell the same lures and jigheads as everywhere else. I buy my hooks, Powerbait, jigheads and the occasional lure from Walmart. You can't beat the prices.

Liquor Store-  Skyy Pineapple vodka for flavoring corn

Tackle Shops- They are definitely way more expensive than Bass Pro or Walmart. They do usually have good infomation. I will obviously buy bait from them, but I may stop in for a package of hooks or some other low cost item just to ask a few questions on whats biting.

There you have it. Its a pretty extensive list, but if you are a multiple species angler you limit your options only going to the tackle shop or Walmart.

Post Thanksgiving Picnic, Hell Ya!!!

I can't believe this weather. This weekend was in the low sixties. Laurie and I thought it would be fun to have a picnic three days before December first. Last picnic we had was late summer at Colt State Park in Bristol,RI. Today we went to Fearings Pond in Myles Standish. I know what your thinking... I just wanted to go trout fishing. Not really, it was beautiful out. I really wanted to enjoy the weather. 

We brought some chicken salad, bulky rolls, chips and pasta salad. We washed it all down with root beer. After we ate we went for a walk and scouted out the campground for nice flat spots. In case we want to camp there in the summer, we found some really good sites.

After our walk I did break out the fishing pole. I only fished for about 20 minutes. Laurie read the newspaper in the sun. No fish were biting so we left and drove around the state park.

On our way home we saw 10 wild turkeys, a good way to end the day.

Stripers on Turkey Day

Before stuffing my face at dinner today, Jeff and I did some fishing down in southern Rhode Island. We left home at 6:00 am. We fished different spots until about noon. We did not have the numbers of fish from earlier in the week, nor did we expect too. After yesterdays storm and east wind followed by a northwest wind today, it was a crapshoot if we would find fish.

We did find a couple of fish. Jeff and I both got a striper and a bluefish. We both had a couple more hits. The blue I caught was about 5-6 pounds. I didn't see Jeff's blue. Both stripers were small. If we didn't have to come home for dinner, I think we could have found some more. Oh well, if this was my last day surf fishing for the year, at least I didn't get skunked.

Happy Thaksgiving everyone!!!

The Life I don't Want

At the risk of offending readers, I am going to give you my opinion of something that bothered me a little today. For the last few days the beaches in Southern Rhode Island have been red hot for fishing. Stripers of all sizes from a foot to keeper size have been caught by the hundreds the last few days. There have also been schools of bluefish also.

I could not enjoy this fantastic fishing. I worked Sat, Sun,and Monday. I was also on call this weekend so I couldn't go very far when I got out of work.

Today while I was at work, I was talking to a few regular customers. They are retired guys in their mid 60's. There is a young 60 and an old 60. We probably all know people at that age that are sickly and we know people that you could swear are forty. The guys in the donut shop are healthy strong and most importantly like to fish.

These guys talk about fishing almost as much as I do. They look forward to opening day and talk about stripers as much as sports. One of the guys asked me if I got down to the beach for the great bluefish action. He had gotten a call from a friend in Charlestown about the action. The friend told him how great the fishing was.

 I would also like to point out that even though it is mid November the weather has been amazing. Sunday it was sixty degrees. At the beach it was barely windy at all. The water was glass calm ( last time I was there 10 foot rollers were crashing on the shore). Sometimes mid November fishing can be downright painful. I have fished in thirty five degree temps with biting winds standing in water cold enough that with waders on I was chilled through. Right now the weather has been perfect. Anyone that can should take advantage of it.

The point of all this disjointed thought is this. These guys knew that fish were blitzing all over southern Rhode Island yet they were in a donut shop! They knew fish were biting, they talk about fishing all the time, the weather was awesome and they were sitting inside drinking a medium regular. My mind can not comprehend this.

I could understand if they had family commitments and couldn't fish, but they were in a donut shop all afternoon. I obviously understand having to work, but they were retired. I could understand if they didn't have the money for gas, but all these guys drive nice cars and trucks and I know that is not an issue. Lastly I could understand if they didn't want to fish in a dangerous situation. No matter how healthy you are I understand that at an advanced age falling on rocks into a heavy surf could be life threatening. Like I said earlier, the fish were blitzing a beach, the water was calm and and the walk from the parking lot was only about 2 minutes.

I don't want to grow older like that. I want to fish instead of talk about fishing. I hope I continue to fish and hike all the time. I do not consider 60 old. One of my best friends is that age. I plan on following his example and fishing, hiking and kayaking. I don't want to talk about doing things when I could be doing them.

-Life is not a spectator sport, if watching is all your gonna do then your gonna watch your life go by without ya

                               - Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame ( that's right)

-There's just so many summers and just so many springs

                                 -Don Henley

Best November I ever had

  This year I have fished more this November than I ever had. Considering it is only the 17th and I have almost 2 more weeks left, this could be my best November ever. Today, I fished with my friend Dave, we went carp fishing. We landed a whole bunch of carp, no monsters, but plenty into the teens. It was a great day fishing. By any standards any month of the year today's carp fishing would be a success. The fact that we caught 10 a month and a week before Christmas is awesome.

This has been a very warm November. I've been at work comfortable in  just a t-shirt almost every day outside. That is one reason why the fishing has been so great. I have also been out more that usual. Even on days I work and then pick DJ up from track I've trout fished for an hour or so in between. 

This month I finally caught my first lake trout. I've caught some stripers each time I have fished for them and I've caught some trout here and there.

Catching carp today has just been added to a great month. Going again tomorrow

VINDICATION !!!

My first lake trout and a mouth full of sunflower seeds

As many of you are probably sick of reading I have spent a few days this year fishing at Wachusetts Reservoir mostly for lake trout. It has been fruitless. It has been  as frustrating as being stalked by an ex-girlfreind. So what did I do on my day off today? I drove to "the Chu" at six o'clock this morning to give it another try. The definition of insane is ... Me!

Only this time I dragged my buddy Jeff along with me. So we left home at 6 am in 34 degree temperatures to fish for a fish I haven't caught in five tries.To make things even cheerier, there was a 25 mph wind howling out of the southwest. When we pulled into the parking lot at 7:15 there were three cars in the lot. I was devestated. Of the 37 miles of shoreline ( just a guess) I only wanted to fish 25 feet. If someone would have been in those 25 feet, I may as well have slept in. We walked out to the point. There was one guy fishing, but there was room to fish without crowding him. So we set up two poles with shiners. We each  fished a spoon near the bottom with another pole. After three hours it was looking bad. Then we each caught a lake trout! I caught mine on a shiner. Jeff's was caught in such a lucky way, that if it swam up to him and said "I surrender" it wouldn't have been any less suprising. I'm not even going to write about it.

Mass Wildlife feels there are too many lakers in the lake ( yeah right- six trips one trout, they are not swimming in my direction) so they encourage the taking of smaller lakers by not having a size limit, so we kept them.  We brought them home and ate them two ways. We wrapped some chunks in bacon and fried them up. We also baked some fillets in breadcrumbs, garlic powder and pepper. I heard lake trout tasted like crap, but they were delicious.

So finally after all those trips I feel like they were all learning experiences for today- All my time wasted, gas money spent and hikes to the lake are finally vindicated ( justified)!!!

Homemade deceivers

My buddies up in New Hampshire asked me to show them some pictures of deceivers. A deceiver is a fly that is shaped like a small baitfish. For saltwater they are usually made on a size 2/0 or 3/0 hook. They are fairly simple to make. All you need is some bucktail, the hook and some hackle feathers, thread and of course a way to work on the hook like a fly tying vise.

A deceiver can be used as a fly on a fly rod. It can also be effectively used as a teaser on a leader. They are usually fished a 18 inches or so ahead of a heavier lure for casting like a bomber plug or bucktail jig.

They can be made in any color combination. To make them at home, I only make three colors. I make a white one, a black one and an olive one with a white belly. I feel the olive is much more realistic than all white for daytime use. I use the black one at night. Truthfully, most of the summer my leader were without teasers. I'm regretting that now. Having a teaser ahead of your main lure doubles your chances.

Although, I caught a my first fish the other night on one of my homemade teasers, DJ already had. He caught a few fish with them on his fly rod this spring and summer. He caught fish in the evening on the olive one and I caught mine the other night on black. At the risk of making my blog an ode to my friend Dave's blog, if you want to learn how to make them you can check out his video. They are simple to make and very effective

http://ristripedbass.blogspot.com/2009/07/tying-black-deceiver-flyteaser.html

State Record Carp caught and released by one of my best friends!!!

If you read my posts a lot you see that down in Mass and Rhode Island I only have a couple fishing buddies. I fish with Dave Pickering and Jeff Henderson. I have occasionally gotten together with a few guys from the Rhode Island chapter of the Carp Anglers Group.

I am proud to say that Dave Pickering caught the state record carp today. The fish was over 36 pounds. It would have beaten the old mark by almost four pounds. Why did I say would have? Because true to his conservation minded philosophy he weighed it and let it go. To have a record be official, you need to get it weighed at an official weigh station. There is no way a fish that size would survive a journey like that no matter how big the bucket. So Dave did the only thing that his conscience would allow and let it go.
Amazingly, Dave has caught another fish this year that would have broken the record. Also he has caught fish in Massachusetts that would easily win the state pin for the largest carp caught in the state many times. All were set free.

Take a minute and check out a picture of the fish on his blog. Its pretty amazing.

http://www.ricarpfishing.blogspot.com/

A day late, but not quite a dollar short

Sunday through Tuesday the ocean in southern Rhode Island has been lit up with schoolie bass all over the place. The weather has been really warm and there has been almost no wind. Of course I had to work. So I was missing out on days where guys were catching 20- 50 fish a day. I couldn't take it any more so I asked my boss if I could go in early on Wednesday and get out about noon. He said I could.

When I got up Wed morning  the weather forecast for the day predicted 5-10 mph winds out  of the southeast. I knew the water wouldn't be glass calm like it had been. I just hoped the fish were still around. I picked Jeff up at 12:30 and headed down.

We fished three different spots and found fish in all three. It was not like it had been. I caught a schoolie at Gallilee Channel. We found more fishermen than fish at a beach in South County. Still I was probably 20 fish caught, and Jeff and I got a couple in the mix. Finally, he stopped at a very easy to fish rocky area in Narragansett on the way home. We picked up a couple more there. All the fish caught by us and everyone else were schoolies. I didn't see any keeper bass. I did see two blues and I suspect a few more were caught.

My highlight for the day was a fish I caught after dark. It hit one of my homemade deceivers that I made last winter. Its always cool when you catch a fish on something you made.

So even though the story of my year has been " you should have been here yesterday" we caught a few fish today. The weather was nice and I only had to work until noon. It could have been better, but all in all a good day. Like I said Friday any fish in November is a good fish.

I will post pictures after work today.

Any fish in November is a good fish!!!

I found out that the ocean was  not fishable today. The waves were big and the water was dirty. Unfortunately I had plans with Jeff to fish the Rhode Island south shore. This caused a dilemma for me. I knew Jeff was really looking forward to fishing today, but I was unwilling to waste all that gas money and time. Some how I had to break the news to my buddy. I couldn't get in touch with him by phone so I had to go to his house. When I pulled up, he came out of his house with his warm clothes in hand oblivious to the fact, I was about to let him down. When he opened the back door of my truck, he saw I didn't have any fishing gear in the back. I quickly told him that the ocean was unfishable. He thought I was pulling his leg at first. After a few seconds, he realized I was serious and wasn't driving down. The look on his face was about the same as realizing you have a winning lottery ticket, but for the wrong lottery.

We sat around for a little while and tried to figure out other fishing spots. Jeff kept suggesting places in the ocean that might be clean because they were out of the wind. I, however, had to play the role of Debbie Downer and tell him it just wasn't worth our gas. Each time I did, it was the loosing lottery ticket face. I don't blame Jeff for wanting to go despite the weather report. I have many times hoped that " it probably isn't that bad" At this time of year, if the ocean is dirty there just aren't as many options. The bay is pretty much vacant of fish, and the breachways are much better after dark. Also the tide at the breachways was wrong for trying them.

So after some grieving by both of us... we moved on with our lives. We decided to go trout fishing at my favorite pond. We went to Fearings in Myles Standish State Park. We got there about 2 and fished till 5:15. Fishing wasn't great, but it was fairly warm ( as opposed to the ocean breeze of 35 mph.) Between us we landed five trout. Jeff caught 4 and I caught only one. Jeff's four were the first ones for the year. So I'm calling it beginners luck dam it! So even though I only caught one trout, time went by quickly. I had fun, the pond is in a pretty setting and at least I knew there were fish in the lake. At the ocean, there may have not been any fish for miles. I think we made the right decision!

No pictures I left the camera in the car. Most fish were about ten inches, one was 14.

P.S. Feline AIDS is the number one killer of domestic cats ( if you get that reference you rock!!!)

Ah- Chu... You let me down again

this is the best picture I could get of the salmon

Stillwater River

You know those women that are in shitty relationships and keep running back to loser guys, as their friend you can't figure out what spell these women are under? Well that is my relationship with Wachusetts Reservoir. I had an unexpected Wednesday off today. Instead of going to the ocean and chase fish with stripes I went to the "Chu". I am sure I could have fished with Dave if I gave him a call ,and I'm sure Jeff  would have been glad to go to the ocean. Instead, I chased my dream of catching a landlocked salmon and lake trout, fruitlessly once again.

So todays plan was to fish the Sillwater River for spawning landlocks then try a gate I hadn't yet fished for lakers and smallmouth. I got to the river about 10 am. I tried one area of the river for a couple hours. I kept fishing different pools for about 1/2 mile from my parking spot. I didn't so much as see a shiner. Then I went upstream to another parking area near a bridge. I looked down into the water and saw a four pound female. I got my gear and quietly went downstream a bit. I was not going to keep any spawning salmon if I caught one. Still it felt like an unfair fight. I was 10 feet from a fish I could plainly see. It did not seem very " sporting". As it turns out it was unfair. I casted at that fish for 20 minutes and it didn't so much as look at my offering. I will say this, seeing a wild ( non hatchery raised) salmon was one of my goals this year. Even though I didn't catch it, seeing it was a privilege I am grateful to have witnessed.

After my salmon fishing outing I headed to one of the gates that had a long walk. I went to a point that supposedly has deep water around it. It seemed very shallow for as far as I can cast. So I walked the shoreline to another point with deeper water. There was another fisherman at the next point a hundred yards away. I didn't catch anything of course, but he landed 9 lakers. I'd say that was frustrating, but I learned at least a spot on the dam lake that gives up fish. I don't know how big his largest was and I only saw him catch a couple. I biologist was walking around doing a fishermen surveys and she told me he caught the 9. Finally about 4:45, I called it a day.

On the bright side, I saw a bald eagle. I avoided a turkey that flew across the road while I was driving around the lake, and I saw my first salmon.

So considering this was just another epic fail for me at the Chu, it was the most productive. I actually saw a salmon in the river. Maybe if I get lucky, next time whether this year or next, there will be more salmon in the river and I will have a better shot. Also I now know where to fish for lakers next time. Hopefully, that point will be vacant. I don't need nine, I would be quite satisfied with one!!!

Friday I will be at the ocean!!!

The next four months of this blog

Last year from November through  February I didn't write to much on the blog. Being winter, I didn't get out much. As far as I concerned, I didn't really have much worth saying. This year I am going to be a more active writer. So I have a few ideas of things to write about. I thought I would share them now.

Why share them now? Because writing this means I can stall shoveling the four inches of wet snow currently melting in my driveway. I have two branches that fell in my yard from last nights storm, both are so large, I can't drag them myself. If I give it a couple of hours most of the snow will be melted and DJ will be up and can help me drag the branches. So I write..

November- If we are lucky there is about three weeks left in the striper season. The snow storm may have shortened that timetable.  Many fish could be high-tailing it south right now. I plan on giving the ocean a shot a couple more times. I also still want to give Wachusetts another shot. I still haven't caught a lake trout or salmon. This week I might give it a go depending on the weather.

December- The state of Massachusetts stocks broodstock salmon the first week of December. I want to catch one very badly. There are  some ponds in Plymouth and the Cape  that I am going to try. I want to catch a salmon so much, I will be willing to stand in freezing cold water in my waders in below freezing temps to catch one. I WILL put in my time to catch one. 

I am also hopeful that stripers will over winter in the Providence winter in numbers like the good old days. I doubt this will happen, but I can dream can't I. Whether the fish are there or not, there is only one way to find out. So I will be giving the river a try at least a couple of times.

I can't say I have any fishing destinations lined up for January and February. If Jeff is around we might talk me into ice fishing. That said I will have stuff to write about that I hope you find interesting. I'm going to do more product reviews. I think they will be useful to outdoors people. I also plan on doing a couple of fish recipes. I'm finally going to give my list of favorite outdoor movies and books.

Basically what I am saying is even though winter is coming, keep reading I won't go into hibernation like I did last year. Thanks for getting this site up to 5000 hits!!!!

The best news in a while!!!

I have been complaining a lot about how bad the striped bass fishery has been the last few years. I have given my opinion on commercial fishing. I've complained many times that to many spawners are being taken out of the population. I've complained that the number of schoolies only 40% of what it was only five years ago.

So today I finally have some good news. Actually I feel it is great news. I am trying to convince myself to be only slightly optimistic, but truthfully I have images of the old days ( five years ago) of ten fish nights. The good news is... This has been a great year for striper reproduction in Chesapeake Bay. It seems that many young of the year striped bass  have survived their first few months of life. Actually, the young of the year index is the 4th highest total in history. This is great news, if this year class is as good as they say and there are no environmental disasters, we should have loads of 17- 22 inch schoolies in three or four years.

These fish will hopefully, in a couple years from now be a wall of schoolie sized stripers invading the Atlantic coast. In six or seven  years there should be a large number of just legal sized stripers along our shores. These fish will be legally protected in most states until they are 28 inches. Then recreational fishermen will start taking them. Recreational fishermen do very little to hurt the population. When this year class reaches 34 inches ( the size in Rhode Island) commercial guys will take their toll.

I feel that strong year classes should be protected for long term success of the species. We have not had a good strong juvenile recruiting year in six years. That is far too long. If we are only going to have good year classes every six years, then the strong classes should be protected to keep the population stable long term.

Although, I am getting ahead of myself in excitement, there is a downside. The group in charge of regulations on the entire Atlantic coast has finally realized there are a lot less stripers than five years ago. Next year they want to tighten regs ( its about time). Having a good year class will give commercial interests a little leverage on keeping quotas high ( read: above sustainable levels). They will claim taking large numbers of spawners has no affect on small stripers. To me, the more spawners you have during years when conditions are right for young of the year survival, the better.  Still, this is good news. I am not going to dwell on the politics of it and be happy and hope that three years from now, I may again find ten fish nights a common thing!!!

50 inch striper caught by my friend's son

Ben Pickering, the college age son of my friend Dave caught a 50 inch striper the other night. Although I have been friends with Dave for many years I just met Ben about a week ago. After he measured it and took a quick picture, he let it go. You gotta give the kid a lot of credit for letting a once in a lifetime trophy go like that. I tip my cap to him. Great job Ben!!! I could write all about it, but it makes more sense if you read the write up by his proud father www.ristripedbass.blogspot.com

My buddy Amber

Last night my buddy Amber slept over. I didn't tell her, but my plan for this morning was to take her kayaking. Amber loves going out in the kayak. Before today we had gone twice this year. The first was just out to Falls Pond. The second time was when we went camping in Rhode Island.

Today, we waited until 9 am before loading the kayaks. I wanted it to warm up a little first. It turned out to be a nice day. The high I guess was about 65 degrees. I didn't actually have a plan until after we put the kayaks on the car. I ended up choosing to kayak Olney Pond in Lincoln Woods. We put the yaks in at the boat ramp and headed across the pond. There was a breeze kicking up waves on the launch side, so we headed to the lee side of the pond. We paddled that half of the pond. We landed at the beach. We used the porta john. Then we fished a little bit from the beach without any luck. We paddled back to the car and after loading the kayaks we went home for lunch.

This afternoon was the Rhode Island chapter of the Carp Anglers Groups semi-annual fish in. A fish in is a group get together. We fish for a few hours. Exchange infomation, and talk about the lakes the carp are hitting in. Since Amber was still over, I dragged he to the fish in. I promised her we would only be there a couple hours. It started at 3 pm. I assumed if we made it until 5 pm before she got to bored, it would be an accompishment.

About 8 of us showed up. My friend Dave is the president of the RI chapter.He is in charge of when and where the fish ins take place. This one was at Scotts Pond in Lincoln Rhode Island. Unfortunately, the fish were not hitting and when I left no one had caught a carp. To keep Amber entertained I brought a trout rod and worms. It was good that I did since the carp were not co operating.

After an hour of talking and no fish, we got out the worms. Within minutes Amber was into fish. She landed a sunfish and was pretty excited to be the first person to catch fish. We only had seven worms. So she wasn't going to have hours of panfishing. She ended up catching six sunfish and one white perch. The perch was the first one she ever caught. When the worms ran out it was almost dark. I figured she had enough and it was time to go. When we got in the car I realized it was 6:45. She buckled her seatbelt and told me she had a really fun day. I was happy about that. Its always cool to watch a little kid have fun, especially when its doing your favorite hobbies.

The best three seconds

Other than loosing my virginity, the most exciting intense three seconds I know of are the three seconds from when a striper hits an eel until you set the hook. For those of you that don't know, the way to fish an eel is to cast it out. Reel it in slowly with the rod tip held high. When a fish hits the eel, you drop the rod tip parallel to the water. When line tightens, you rear back and set the hook. Waiting for the line to tighten is intense. Eels usually attract big stripers. I've caught very few schoolies on eels. Almost all the stripers I have ever caught on eels are over 32 inches.

I had sworn off eels for the last couple of years. I've been fishing for schoolies a lot with soft plastic. When I went for bigger fish I was usually using plugs. I know the eel population is not what it was, so I made a choice to not use them much at all.

Tonight I really wanted to catch a keeper. I went to my secret spot that I have only told a few people about. Its a spot in plain site of the road and easy access. Yet very few people know it is fishy. I bought two eels. Not exactly going to destroy the eel population buying two. I figured if fish were not around, two would be plenty. If there were a  lot of fish around, I could catch them on plugs after  I used the eels.

I ended up catching two stripers. The first was a schoolie about 26 inches the other a keeper 31 inches. I had a couple other taps but no takes. The best part was the time from hit to hook set on the two I caught. Best six seconds of the night!!!

Big Blues at the Ocean Today!!!

We kept two of the blues we caught. The first to smoke, the other because it swallowed the plug to its gills. It will be smoked also

I got out of work by 2 pm today and was not on call afterwards. I called Jeff and asked him if he wanted to go fishing. Low tide was at 4:30. That limited our options. There aren't too many " low tide spots". We opted to fish an outflow into the ocean. The water was rushing out of a salt pond as the tide dropped. Within minutes we each landed a schoolie striper. Honestly we have done so bad fishing saltwater this year, hooking a schoolie within minutes made the trip worth it.

Within a couple more minutes Jeff and I hooked up at the same time. This time we were not into schoolies. We were onto HUGE bluefish. The first two we landed were probably the biggest. They were 12-14 pounds. They were gorillas. We landed a few more the smallest was probably 8 or 9 pounds. All the others were over 10 pounds. It was not a blitz, but there were definitely a few feeding in the surf.  Jeff caught another schoolie, but the big news of the night were the big bluefish.

I will try to get a couple pictures up as soon as I can.

Kind of a weird week

One of the employees at work this week had a medical issue this  week so I didn't get any days off. It was just easier to work everyday than to try to figure out what to do if there was an emergency. Unfortunately, I kind of needed to stay close to home, just in case there was a problem at work. Basically, I was on call all week. Still I got out of work most days about 3:30 so I did do some fishing.

Last week I went fishing with Jeff Henderson, while we were fishing he slipped in the water and ruined his phone. On top of that he got a new job. He only found out late last Friday. Monday was Columbus Day, so he couldn't contact them until Tuesday. With Jeff's phone dying and I didn't know when he was working, I didn't get a chance to fish with him this week.

So because of being on call and not being able to contact one of my fishing buddies, things were not status quo for me. Early in the week, I went to Greenwich Bay and hoped to catch some stripers and blues. I heard they were in the bay pretty thick. I didn't see any, but I did see schools of menhaden way out in the bay. I grabbed my kayak off the car and paddled out. I ended up snagging six. Now that I had the menhaden, I decided to drive to Jamestown to use them for bait. It was pretty late and I assumed no one was gonig to call with a problem at work. I took a calculated risk. Also Jamestown is only about a 50 minute drive so its not like I was in New Hampshire. I tried four spots but couldn't find any fish. I went home with five of my six menhaden.

The next day I stopped at one of my friend Dave's favorite fishing spots to see if he was there.  I had been monitoring the water level and told him the day before it was fishable. He was fishing and walkked over to talk a few minutes. He told me, he had been fishing for an hour and already landed 12 carp. While I was talking to him, he landed four more.  While he was fishing, both rods got hits. I picked up one and landed a  six pounder. It was one of the first times in my life I caught a fish without having a rod and wasn't even fishing. I left and Dave continued to fish. He ended up catching 20. I went back later that night after I picked DJ up from practice. We only fished about an hour and we each caught one. Neither was very big.

After work, I have been doing some trout fishing. One day Laurie got some Wendys and I convinced her to eat it in the fresh air while I fished. We went to Whitings and I caught four rainbows in about 30 minutes. I have gone troutfishing a few times since. Sometimes only for a few minutes between getting out of work and picking DJ up from practice. Since the day I fished while Laurie ate, I haven't had a hit. I've caught a couple small bass on spinners or spoons, but no trout. I know they are there. One night at Falls I watched a school of about 10 swim by within feet of me, but they wanted flies not spinners. By the time I got my fly rod they were gone.

So as ridiculous as this sounds, my best fishing for the week was snagging menhaden and carp fishing without a fishing pole. I should get to the ocean Sunday so hopefully I have better stories than this. Next week I have Friday and Saturday off. I know Saturday morning I am fishing with a few carp buddies. I hope that the weather is good for those days. Here is my plan.

Thurs night after work- ocean ( stripers and blues or more likely nothing)
Friday- Wachusetts in the morning for salmon or at least to see them migrate up river
Friday night if fishing was good in the ocean Thurs, go back
Saturday fishing with carp buddies
Sat night      ???

It was the best of times, It was the worst of times...

It seems like every time I go fishing on my two days off, I will have one day of good fishing and one day of not so good to terrible fishing. Last weeks days off were no exception. I went fishing on both Thursday and Friday. Here is how it went.

The best of times...

Not knowing where I was going fishing until I got up I decided to go trout fishing down in Plymouth, MA. DJ had to stay home from school on Thursday because he was throwing up all day Wednesday. The school has a policy where you can not return to school within 24 hours of vomiting. So for him it was a free day from school. He was still week, but the throwing up was over. So when I got up early, and he was lying in bed, I knew I couldn't abandon him all day.

I went fishing for a couple hours in the am at Whitings Pond. All the ponds that get a fall stocking of trout where stocked this week.  I could see trout in front of me, but they were picky. I ended up catching two. One was a holdover from the spring. It was skinny but made it through the summer.Around noon, I came home and got DJ.

Under the premise that fresh air is good for you, I picked DJ up and headed down the Cape. We stopped at the Cape Cod Canal. I told him we would not fish saltwater unless we saw fish. We checked a few spots but didn't find any. WE drove to Scusset Beach and looked there. After we scouted we went to a sub shop for lunch. We got Italian grinders. Probably not the best choice for DJ since it upset his stomach a little.

After lunch we went to Myles Standish State Park to fish Fearings Pond. DJ's belly hurt so he just grabbed his book and sat at a picnic table soaking up the fresh air and sun. I started fishing next to him. I caught two trout really quickly on a silver Kastmaster. I knew the trout would still be bunched up so I set off looking for the school. I worked the shoreline for a few hundred yards then I hit the jackpot. I casted into a shaded cove and started hooking one trout after another. After my eighth, I walked back to DJ and told him this wasn't fishing it was catching. We was enjoying his book and didn't want to fish. So I made the walk back and caught a bunch more. I started getting bored after my 19th, so I walked to the car to get my fly rod. By the time I got back ( about 15 minutes round trip)  they were just out of casting range. I landed one more. All told I caught 22 trout and easily could have caught more if I didn't walk to tell DJ or got my fly rod. I fished Fearings for about two hours. Ten trout an hour is fun, wish I could have had some of that luck the following day...

The worst of times...

Again, I woke up with ideas of where to fish but no actual game plan. My thoughts were the ocean or Wachusetts. I still want to catch fish out of " the Chu" and its my only real option for lake trout and landlocked salmon. Also smallmouth fishing is supposed to be great, however, I can't seem to find them. I chose to go to the Chu. My logic was, if fishing sucks I could always leave early and go to the ocean later. So I was on the road about 7:30.

As usual, I tried for lakers and smallmouth. I tried shiners on the bottom and lures for both bass and the trout. I only landed to small bass. I fished from 8:30- until 3:30. I hit multiple spots and definitely put in my time. I ran across a biologist and asked a bunch of questions. He said salmon will be running in a couple weeks. I told him the spots I hit and he was surprised no fish were hitting. We both agreed fishing would have been better on a rainy crappy day. It was a beautiful blue sky with 80 degree temps. So I went home empty handed from there again.

Salt on the wound...

The next morning checking my favorite sites online, I checked my friend Dave's blog. On Friday ( my day at Wachusetts) Dave was in Narragansett. Possibly the largest blitz to happen in years took place right along the shoreline. For FIVE miles bass, blues and albies were blitzing bay anchovies along the shore. The bass were all keepers size or bigger. The bluefish were the big ones over ten pounds. If I would have decided to go to the ocean instead of the Reservoir, I could have caught large bass and blues on every cast all day long. Yes I was sick to my stomach after reading that!!!

Personal Best Mirror Carp

On Saturday I went fishing with my friend Dave Pickering. We went to a lake that he had done great at during the week. While we were there, another friend  Jeff Allard showed up with a friend of his ( who I never met ) Keith. So with four of us fishing and eight baits in the water we were bound to catch something. Happily for me I caught my largest mirror carp to date. It was 17 pounds easily besting my next largest by almost four pounds. Between all of us we got a few more carp. Jeff lost a big one that probably was bigger than mine. He handled it very well and continued to fish, I believe without even dropping an F-bomb. It was a fun unscheduled get together. All of us are or were one time members of the Rhode Island chapter of the CAG ( Carp Anglers Group). They are a great bunch of guys. Its fun to plan fishing trips with these guys, but it really makes for a good story when we wind up fishing the same place by accident.

When I can, I will post some pictures of fish caught.

Wanderlust Part 3 " The Aftermath "

    As we left off from Part 2 of what should be called at this point the story of my life, I was returning from a big trip out west last summer. When I got home I went through post vacation blues. I think a lot of people get them. It took me a long time to become my old self. It was at least a month. When I got home, I didn't want to do anything. I did not even want to go fishing, read that again- I did not want to go fishing. I don't know if it was because I felt nothing around here could compare with what I had done, or if it was just depression. I didn't need medicine or anything like that, but I had to battle to get out of the funk I was in.

You always hear people say that a trip like that, a trip to Europe or hiking the Appalachian Trail  will change you. You may not notice at first, but it does. For me it was the exact opposite, going on the trip only strengthened my conviction that I need to be tramping for the rest of my life. If given the choice, I would rather be homeless drifting across the country than have a stable marriage, house and a white picket fence. I know ladies, I am a catch. Unfortunately, cars run on gas and gas runs through gas station pipes only if you pay for it. So where does that leave me.

Well, I do what I am supposed to do. I work and pay bills like everyone else. However, if my life only consisted of coming home from work watch some tv, go to bed and do it again, I'd be absolutely miserable. I NEED to be out and about. I can fish for hours without getting a bite. I can hike endless mile through woods where one tree looks like the next. But at home, I can be bored  within 20 minutes of getting home from work. Hell, sometimes I'm bored within 20 minutes of getting home from five hours of fishing. Even I admit I have an issue.

So even though I can't drive across the country every summer, I have to find reasonable substitutions. Of course if you read my blog you know I fish all the time. I love fishing, it doesn't matter if its for trout, carp, or stripers. Fishing isn't just a way to kill time or relax. It is something I absolutely love.

If you've made it this far, keep going, your almost home. If you get anything out of this blog post it should be this: I saw a lot of America and New Hampshire can hold its own in scenery and outdoor fun with any place in the country.  The fact is the Grand Tetons and some Rocky Mountain ranges ARE more spectacular than the Whites, but that's about it.However the state has it all, it plays second fiddle to no state. You can hike deep in the woods. There is great fishing for both trout and smallmouth bass.  You can hike big mountains. Views are amazing. So whenever I have a free weekend I quench my wanderlust by going to New Hampshire. I actually think I appreciate I New Hampshire more now than before I went out west. Maybe I am just grateful I have such a great getaway spot three hours from home. Needless to say just knowing New Hampshire can be the next weekend away, makes for a much more relaxed Nick.

Did I just refer to myself in the third person in the last sentence? Oh well my blog. Deal with it ( or make fun of me, either way I don't really care). Lastly, I find myself reading more books about other peoples journeys. When I was young, I read a lot of books on sports. I read the history of the Celtics. Autobiographies of my favorite players were always on my want list. Now I rarely read books on sports now. I read books on hitchhiking, autobiographical accounts of hiking the Appalachian trail and of course " Into the Wild." I plan on writing a post about my favorite "drifting, tramping, traveling " books over the winter. My favorite writer is/was Edward Abbey who wrote a lot about the southwest. .

So there you have it. My life in a nutshell about why I would rather be homeless vagabond than a successful bussiness man ( although being a successful man would make it a lot easier to become a vagabond a lot sooner). Like I said earlier, I believe I was born this way ( no I did not just quote Lady Gaga).  My parents especially my mom gave me the love of fishing, nature, and animals. That said, I have taken the art of fishing way past the boundries my mom set. I probably catch more big fish a month than she did in her lifetime. My mom enjoyed fishing as a way to relax. I enjoy catching fish and took learning about them and there habits to levels my mom would have been bored to death with. By the time I was 25, I saw more moose than both of my parents combined. Not because I was luckier, but because I found out where they hang out. As opposed to my parents, who would just drive around hoping to find one.When I am intersted in something, I want to know  everything I can about it.I had an extremely stable two parent home. We never moved. We took a family vacation every year but never had conversations about seeing the world ( or more importantly all 54 U.S. national parks). So I firmly believe, no matter how I was brought up, if put in a different envirement, I'd still be the same. I would always want to know what is over the next hill.

Author's note:
If you read all three parts about Wanderlust, I want to thank you. I wrote this piece really just to put my thoughts in order. If you enjoyed reading about what is inside my head, I am glad. However, if you were bored and could care less, I understand that too. We all have our own problems, most people have problems a hell of a lot worse than whether or not I will ever get to Glacier National Park. I did not write it or expose my inner thoughts to you to whine or complain. I figured if you are a fan of my writing, I thought you might want to understand the rational of some of the decisions I make, or why am willing to fish in the rain or sleep outside below freezing.

The four vacation destinations left out of my ORIGINAL top 10 ( no paticular order)

1. Yosemite/ Giant Sequoias
2. Glacier National Park
3. St John, Virgin Islands
4. Olympic Peninsular, WA  ( OLympic National Park, Whales and Pugent Sound)

Also I'd like to get to Acadia National Park, Canyonlands National Park, the Everglades and Keys, and Kodiak Island

Thanks again for reading
Nick

Wanderlust Part 2 "The trip"

If you have read part one, you can see that from as long as I can remember I have wanted to see it all.  I don't know where it came from. Mom had no interest in geography or history. By the time I was 10 I knew more about both of those subjects than my dad. I bring up geography and history only because they are big influences on places I want to see. I feel humbled going to a Civil War battlefield. I remember thinking that if I don't see the Rockies before I die, no matter what else I do, my life would be incomplete. We went on vacation once a year to a cabin in Maine for two weeks. It was awesome, but nothing different than millions of other families. Needless to say I am a big believer in  nature in the argument Nature vs. Nurture. I firmly believe I was born not to sit still.

As we left the end of Part ,1, I was reading books about hiking, fishing, and driving the American west. Fast forward to the summer of 2010. My job had been " downsized". Also I had a little money in the bank. I decided that DJ and I would take a summer long vacation out west. For years I had been planning this trip. I never knew when. So when I finally decided to take it, planning was fairly easy.  I already knew the places I most wanted to go. My number one destination my entire life has been Yellowstone. The trip was going to revolve around Yellowstone. I had one of my famous lists, with the ten places I most want to visit. I figured a route that included six of them. You just can't combine a trip with the Grand Canyon and the Virgin Islands.  I had to figure out where we would be almost every day of the trip. I am a believer in having a plan for vacation., but also to know in advance things will change. Sometimes you have to fly by the seat of your pants. I did have to figure out when I would be at places like the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone. There was no way I was driving 3000 miles to find out the campgrounds were full.  I had to make reservations for crowded tourist areas.  So around early April, I made reservations for Yellowstone, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Custer State Park in South Dakota and Zion National Park.  Once I made the reservations the die was cast. There was no turning back or backing out.

So on June 27 we set off to find America. Our first real stop was the Badlands in South Dakota. We stayed there 3 days. We then went to Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park ( wild buffalo and hundreds of pronghorn) and Wind Cave. We then stopped at Little Bighorn on our way to the Beartooth Mountains. There was snow on Beartooth Pass. We had to adjust to the altitude. DJ was light headed and dizzy for a night. I could not quench my thirst for a couple days. I was drinking a liter of water an hour and I was still thirsty. Both light headed and thirst are symptoms from high altitude.  He did a three day hike into the Beartooth Mountains. We caught a bunch of trout.  Then when we got out we were off to ...

Yellowstone! We spent 7 days in Yellowstone. I bought a guide book that detailed every road mile, trailhead, and attraction.  I am not a highlight person. I want to see everything. I would never take one of those 6 hour tours to see the highlights. I'd rather see everything in one park then the highlights of five parks. It is just my make up. I divided the park up into sections to cover each day. We stayed at two different campgrounds. One on the east side, one on the west. I saw Old Faithful go off four times in one day. The first was at 6:30 am, no one else around but DJ and I. The boardwalk had frost on it, this was July 15. We saw buffalo, grizzlies, black bears, eagles, elk and everything else you can imagine.

We left Yellowstone to find Grand Teton has the most spectacular scenery I have ever seen. Also the park has as much wildlife as Yellowstone. It is an amazing place. After we left the Tetons, we planned a trip into the Wind River mountain range. This is where being able to change plans mattered. The mosquitoes were so thick bug spray did not help. While hiking DJ started counting how many he killed to pass the time. He was over 100 in five minutes before I told him to keep it to himself.  We spent one night in the mountains, so we had to plan four days.

After coming out of the Wind Rivers, we found a gorgeous campsite in the prairie. Then the following day we drove to Seedskadee NWR. There were trout in the river. Lots of wildlife and more free camping. We headed to Flaming Gorge and took a tour of the dam.  After that my car had trouble. Luckily there was a Hyundai dealership 30 miles outside Provo,UT. We were stuck there two day. When my car was fixed we went to Cedar Breaks National Monument. Of all the unexpected surprises on the trip this was far and away the best. There was an indescribable red rock canyon, 700 year old bristlecone pine trees and loads of mule deer. It was also at 10000 feet so sleeping was comfortable. The next night we slept in the desert on the Arizona/Utah line. It was a big change. It was still over 90 degrees at 11 pm. We did see the Milky Way since the sky was clear and dark.

After our night in the desert we picked up my friend Laurie in Vegas. I hate cities so spent about 20 minutes there. I never saw the strip. I got in and got out. We drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was all they say. We stayed at the Grand Canyon two nights. We then went to Zion National Park. We hiked through the Virgin River through a canyon with walls 2000 feet high and sometimes only 6 feet apart.  It was one of the best hikes ever. From Zion we drove most of the night to get to Arches National Park. Arches is a fairly small park. You can see most of the unusual features in a two day period. Unfortunately for us, we only had one day there. The good thing is I think we saw about 85% of everything. I can live with that percentage.

From Arches we drove to Rocky Mountain National Park. Rocky Mountain was awesome. We saw huge bull elk, moose and pikas. We stayed four days. The goal was to get Laurie used to the high altitude the first couple days. Then go on a big hike over a mountain pass the last day. We didn't do as long a hike as we would have liked, but it was due to time restraint. After our four days in Rocky Mountain, I dropped DJ and Laurie at Denver Airport. I stayed out west a couple more days then made the drive home alone. I planned on stopping in Arkansas and Virginia but I had more car trouble and got a lonely.  So after being gone about 50 days I came home.

I never got homesick once. Every day was its own amazing experience. I only slept on a bed once. Other than that I slept on the ground every night. I never got sick of it. I never got sick of setting up the tent or taking it down. I know without a doubt, I could have stayed out there living that lifestyle, for a couple years.

Although this is fairly long post, I could have wrote just as much about each individual day. There were just so many memories that I will never forget. One day we hiked up the back side of the Grand Tetons after a two hour ride around them through Idaho.  It was an eight mile hike with 5000 feet of elevation gain. It was an overnight hike so we had all of our gear ( tent, sleeping bags, food etc...) It was the most exhausting hike I have ever done. My body hurt bad, my knees hurt and my back and shoulders killed from the backpack. Once we got over the last ridge the entire crest of the Tetons opened up right in front of us. I forgot about my knees and back. You couldn't get this view from any road.  You had to earn this one. But there it was Grand Teton so close it was like you could reach out and touch it. We had chocolate bars with us that we saved for a snack. They were warm from the sun, so we stuck them in a snow bank to cool them off. While they were cooling we stepped onto Schoolhouse Glacier. That was really cool. Then we sat down and enjoyed one of the most magnificiant views imaginable.

Every day had a story equally as amazing ( but a lot less painful). Whether it was sitting under Landscape Arch or coming across a bighorn sheep herd on the trail.  One day I was swimming in a chilly mountain lake, while I was in the water a cow moose and her calf came down for a swim also. I can't put a price on memories like that.