My Computer is fixed. Here are some pictures

 Jeff Henderson's First Carp

Jeff Henderson's Second Carp

Jeff with a fluke

Me with a 17 inch bullhead

One of my scup

 Here is one of the eels we caught. Feel free to laugh at the goofy face

DJ with a yellow perch at South End Pond

DJ with a scup

Inspiration...

First before I begin, let me tell you I think my computer is fixed. If I can pick it up today or Friday, I will quickly put up pictures of Jeff's first carp and the scup we caught a couple weeks ago.

I haven't done much fishing lately. I've been working kind of late. After work, I've had plans for movies ( like tonight- Friends with Benefits) or been tired and just watched the Red Sox and National Geographic Wild ( channel 232 on my cable service). The times I have gone out I have been targeting fish I normally don't target.

Partially because of my new friends at Catch-M-all and partially because I got lucky this spring catching 2 new species, I thought I'd try to see how many species I could catch this year. This is definitely not a "quest" like Clay and Dave. I do not plan on driving all over the state to catch fish. If I ever attempted to catch all the species in Massachusetts I'd need to spend a lot of time at the Connecticut River and Quabbin. Time I do not have. However their quest did get me thinking.

I caught brown trout and tiger trout this spring. Both of those were firsts for me. I thought a fun goal would be to see if I could catch more types of fish than any other year I have been fishing. As I have pointed out several times on this blog over the last few years I have fished primarily for stripers and carp. This year I really have been expanding my angling adventures and fishing for other species. Last year I had a goal of seeing more species than I previously had ( mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and fish combined). I broke my previous record by July 1.

This year I am not going to add up how many species of fish I've caught until the winter. I may have already broke my record. I'm not going to check, that way I will keep myself motivated.

Here are some highlights over the last month or so:

When I went to Wachusetts I caught rock bass for the first time ( new species #3) and got my first of the year smallmouth

DJ and I went fishing on the Charles River specifically targeting yellow bullhead and eels. We were successful

I dragged poor DJ to Lake Tiogue in the rain and we caught brown bullhead and we each caught a white catfish.

Dave told me where he caught some big scup last month. While fishing for scup we also landed fluke.

So far so good. I have only ever targeted/caught scup two other years of my life. Fluke were accidental but I'm always glad to catch them. The Charles is loaded with yellow bulls and eels, but sitting on a mosquito infested bank after dark can be tough. Of the above fish the toughest to catch were the white catfish. We had to sit in the rain one night and the other night we went to Tiogue I caught a 17 inch bullhead, but no whites.

Other fish that should not be to hard to catch if I put in the time are hickory shad, tatoug, red breasted sunfish. If I spend time at Wachusetts this fall I could catch a lake trout. Lastly I really, really ,really want to catch a salmon.

Jeff's First Carp

Last night I went fishing with Jeff Henderson. Jeff is an old buddy of mine from coaching little league baseball. He had been living in Kodiak, Alaska for the last couple years enjoying world class fishing for salmon and halibut. On top of that, seeing Kodiak brown bear, whales from shore and bald eagles was a daily occurrence. For that time I have been EXTREMELY JEALOUS of him during summers and quite happy not to be him during winter.We've gone fishing a few times this year, mostly hitting saltwater.

Jeff had never caught a carp. Before he moved to Alaska, he was strictly a saltwater and occasional largemouth fisherman. Like a lot of people, he had no idea we have great carp fishing in some of our good bass lakes. A couple months ago we went for Jeff's first carp at a lake in Cranston, RI. We got a couple runs but nothing to show for it. He kept a good attitude and was willing to give it another try.

After that we ran into some really good striper and scup fishing so carp fishing was put on hold. This week I started working my old/ new job. I knew I'd be kind of tired after work and would not be willing to or have the time for any big fishing adventures. I asked Jeff over the weekend if he wanted to give carp another try Tuesday night. He said yeah. For the last couple days I baited up Hopping Hill with tons of corn. I really was hoping for Jeff to catch one. With all this hot weather the carp are as miserable as we are in the heat. I was hoping all the corn would make the carp feel like they were on easy street.

We got to the lake about 6:30 with the plan of fishing until after dark. We set up 4 poles. The plan was for Jeff to take the first hit no matter what pole got hit. I was just a spectator. Tell me that doesn't make me the best friend nicest guy in the world!!! After a short time we got our first run. Jeff set the hook and the fight began. It was a long battle of about 10 minutes. He could not believe how strong a carp was. This from a guy that catches sockeye, king salmon and dolly varden just for sport. When the fish tired I jumped in the water and grabbed the fish. I was wearing sandals and it felt good to soak my tired dogs.

The fish was about 15 pounds. It was a good sized one for that lake. An hour later right at dusk Jeff got another hook up. This one was on a lighter pole using only 12 pound line. The fight was just as long. The carp was a little smaller than the first, maybe 12 pounds. It sure as hell didn't fight like it. I picked it out of the water and gave it to Jeff.
We got some pictures of both fish before we let them go. I was impressed at the way Jeff admired the fish. Considering he has caught so many " glamour " fish it was nice to see his admiration for a " trash " fish and its fighting ability.
I think Jeff is hooked.

I will post some pics as soon as my computer is fixed. Hopefully in a day or two

Great fishing this week

As usual I'm having computer problems so even though I had some good fishing this week I haven't been able to write about it. I'm at DJ's grammas writing this.

I went out Thursday night with my friend Jeff Henderson. We went to Narragansett and Jamestown. Our game plan was to fish spots until we found fish. We started before dark at Sprague Bridge. We were hoping to get some schoolies in the marsh behind the bridge. Within minutes Jeff hooked into a schoolie. Of course this gave us hope that we would catch a bunch. Nope.
It was the only one we caught in the time we got there until dark. We went to Narragansett Beach. There was a guy surfing on waves bigger than he was, so we headed to Jamestown. We tried three spots before we came upon fish. For most of the night we thought " here we go again" and planned on an awful night striper fishing.
At the last place we found fish. Within 2 hours between us we had 8 hits. Unfortunately for me, Jeff caught the majority. I only landed one fish, a large schoolie about 26 inches. I had two other bumps. Jeff killed me, landing 3 stripers all keepers about 31 inches. He also had one on that was 36 inches or more. It broke the line because he was using a schoolie rod with 12 pound test. He also had at least 3 more hits. Like I said he killed me. We fished until 1:30 am. Neither of us were very tired and fish were still around, but our feet were killing us because of standing on jagged rocks.

The next day I got a tip from Dave about some HUGE scup in the middle of the bay. Jeff and I went down to check it out. Sure enough within ten minutes of fishing we were into big scup, one after another. We were getting hits on every cast. It was awesome. We each caught a fluke and Jeff caught a small bluefish. On this night I caught a few more than him. We were getting hits on every cast like I said, but I figured out how to get a hookset a little before him. Also, we both agreed I had more fish in front of me, instead of him. So, we both started casting in one small area. ( No competition, teamwork) We landed fish well past dark. We caught more than we could count. They were all above average size. We also caught a few giants, easily going over 2 pounds. The really neat thing was we were catching them on lures. My go to choice was a 3 inch white curly tail grub. I was actually ripping the tail off and fishing with the stub. I was getting just as many hits, but they weren't focusing on the tail so I was getting more hooksets.
We were fishing a hundred yards from shore. Not the brightest bulbs. There was lightning all around. We kept an eye out for the direction of strikes and wind direction. Nothing came to close to us but the sky lit up enough times that we were nervous. After we caught enough fish, we realized we probably should not be in the water. We got out of the water and back to the cars at 9:46.

Like I said at the beginnig, my computer is giving me troutble, we have some pics of scup and fluke. When I get a chance I will add them.

Sea Turtle Nests

This is a single turtle nest

After seeing the sea turtles in Upper Narragansett Bay I have become very interested in them. I did a little research and found out where they nests.I took a nature walk to see some. I was hoping to see one building a nest, but knew my chances were remote. Finding the nests was very easy. They are protected from predators the same way piping plover nests are. When researchers find a new nest they wrap a metal fence around it to protect it from predators. I got some pictures of the nests. I can only imagine how incredible it must be to watch them hatch and help them make it to the shoreline.

This is a breeder box. Some of the nests are dug up and put into this box for protection

Sea Turtles, Authors and Stripers

This morning I woke DJ up around 9 am. It was a sunny morning and not to warm ( yet). The weather forecast for July 4th calls for possible rain and thunderstorms. So I headed out to do somedaytrips today.I got him up so we could take a kayak trip in an area of Upper Narragansett Bay known to have sea turtles. This species of turtle are called diamondback terrapin. Sorry I can't tell you where as I was sworn to secrecy. They are not large like Myrtle the Turtle at the New England Aquarium. However, I believe any chance to see a sea turtle is pretty cool. I've never seen one before and keep forgetting about going on this daytrip.

He put in about 10am and headed toward the ocean. Within a couple minutes we saw a few turtle heads. We were hoping they would be out sunning themselves and get a picture of them on land. Unfortunately the best we could do is see some heads. I think the water is warm enough now they don't need to be sunning themselves. Even if they do in the morning we got to the area to late. None the less we saw 5 turtle heads. We also saw tons of ospreys. At one point there were 10 in the sky plus others on nests. The area we paddled through was a beautiful marsh. I am surprised I didn't know about it. We planned on paddling about an hour. We ended up staying out almost three. It was warm on the water. We both used some sunscreen. As two dumbasses, we both had on cargo shorts on. We could have had a lot of fun if we wore bathing suits instead.


After we got home, I called the Minuteman National Historical Park in Concord, MA to see if there were any spaces left on the 3 pm tour of the Wayside. The Wayside is a house in Concord were Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Alcotts lived ( Louisa May wrote Little Women). Tours are given by the National Park Service but reservations are recommended. To my surprise space was available. I made reservations and we jumped in the car.

The tour was awesome. I learned a lot about the Authors and the house. It absolutely amazes me that so much talent was in Concord at one time. Imagine the Alcotts, Hawthorne, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau all being friends. On top of that Longfellow and Herman Melville ( Moby Dick) were friends with Hawthorne. It blows me away. Pictures were not allowed in the house. After the tour I took some pictures of the outside of the house. We didn't stay up in Concord after that. After the tour we just came home.

About 7:30 I left to go fishing. I knew I'd be alone in the evening all day. DJ was sure to be out and my friend Laurie was in Newport. I just wasn't sure what kind of fish I'd fish for. I chose stripers because high tide was 9:30. Also I hadn't fished for them in quite some time. I chose a good high tide spot in the upper bay. I was not the only one with this idea. There were 8 cars in the parking lot. Although the water was rough and bait was present of all of us, I was the only one to get a hit. It was a decent schoolie but it came off at my feet. After dark and no other hits, I went to East Providence to make a few casts. I caught one schoolie about 20 inches. After not getting anything else in the next fifteen minutes, I headed home.

Today was a long but fun day. I really enjoyed our kayak trip. I will definitely do that again. I have wanted to go to The Wayside for years. It was the last thing I wanted to do in Concord. I think I have gone to every other attraction ( other than fish at Whites Pond). As for fishing, I was kind of jonesing too. I didn't fish yesterday, so I was really missing the water.

The picture of the diamondback terrapin is from google images. I WISH I could have gotten a shot like that !

Amber's First Camping Trip

Thursday night DJ and I took his sister camping for her first time. For the entire winter she had been looking forward to going camping. Now that school was out we took her our first opportunity. We went to the George Washington State Forest in Glocester, RI. The drive was only about 40 minutes from North Attleboro. Our first choice was Myles Standish State Park in Plymouth,MA but it seems Mass parks were pretty full this week. I considered going to Nickerson, but did not want to drive 90 minutes each way. If it would have been a month earlier in the height of trout season I probably would have.

We got to the campground about 3:30. We were careful not to get there to early. We didn't want there to be to much down time for Amber/us to get bored. After setting up camp about 3:45 ( DJ and I have that down to a science) the kids went for a swim. It was a nice warm day, not to humid. Basically, in the sun you were warm and in the shade it was perfect. They swam about a half hour while I read. After the swim we went for a 2 mile hike. The hike went part way around around the pond. It was a loop hike. On the back side of the hike were hike in only sites. We walked by them. They were really nice, but we had already picked out our site on the main campground road. To my surprise, Amber enjoyed the hike and didn't complain she was tired.

It was breezy all day. We took both kayaks and planned/hoped to take them out on Bowdish Reservoir. As of 6 pm, it was still to breezy and the waves were a little much for an 8 year old. We went back to our site after our hike. It was only a quarter mile drive. DJ went for a run while Amber and I got wood ready for our fire later and took food out of the car for supper. When DJ got done running 5 miles we ate hot dogs and potato chips cooked on the grill. They were delicious. Amber was in charge of cooking. She did a great job turning the dogs and making sure they didn't burn.

After supper we went back to the pond so DJ could swim to clean off the sweat. The water was much calmer. Amber and I went out in the 'yaks. I brought a fishing pole. Amber does not like fishing but she really wanted to see me catch one. No pressure there. The smaller kayak is a lot slower than mine, so it took Amber much more effort to get from point A to B. She led and we just paddled up the shoreline into a big lily pad cove. I caught one pickrel while Amber picked a couple water lilies. She laid back in the kayak and kept saying how peaceful and relaxing it was. We stayed out on the water until 10 minutes after sunset. Still plenty of light left to put the kayaks on the car and get ready for a fire.

Back at camp we started a fire and roasted marshmellows. Although I am in the minority, I am not a huge fan of campfires. I hate the smell on smoke on my clothes. however, Amber needed to have one for her first camping experience, so I cheerfully roasted mellows with them. He kept the fire going about an hour. After it was out it was completely dark. He went back to the beach and look at the stars. We all saw one shooting star and looked at them about 20 minutes. Amber was more than happy to get back to the tent.

I guess I took the sleeping in the tent part for granted. She was really looking forward to sleeping in it. As soon as we got back to camp and brushed our teeth, she got in the tent and enjoyed being in it. With little chance of rain, we slept with the rain flies off the tents. That was nice.

I got up at 5:15 am. I wanted to do some bass fishing. The lake we stayed at is one of the better bass lakes in Rhode Island. The water was glass calm. I fished about 90 minutes. I caught a couple more decent sized pickerel. The absolute highlight of my morning was seeing a bald eagle. I couldn't believe I was seeing it. I reported it to the ranger later on while we were checking out. The ranger said sightings were very common. The day before we saw an osprey so to see a bald eagle was an unexpected pleasant surprise. I went back to bed about about 6:45 and slept until 9. The kids woke up about 8:20 and played a card game in the tent. We ate breakfast and packed everything up. We stopped at my brother's house on the way home. All in all Amber had a great time. DJ was really good about swimming with her and playing with her. I'm sure he would have rather text messaged his girlfriend. He played Go Fish and helped pack up her tent and supplies. He made my trip extremely easy


At the end of our trip Amber disposed of our trash in the proper place. No litter bugs here.