Tick, Tick, Tick

Winter is definitely in retreat. It is February 22 and today was sixty degrees in North Attleboro, MA. The next two days will also be 55 or above.  Ice is only stubbornly around in small shaded waterways. All ponds, lakes and rivers are ice free.  I'm hoping that after the next couple of warm days, the freshwater fish go from sulking in the depths to warming themselves in the sunny shallows. We have had an extremely mild winter. Most days were above forty degrees. We only had two snow storms. One was a freak storm in October, the other was only about 4 inches a month ago.  It was been a very nice winter to be outdoors ( unless you like to ice skate or ice fish).

Do not get me wrong, just because the winter was so warm, does not guarantee a warm spring. Last spring was freezing. I remember having 10 days with cold north winds  in late March early April. I was still catching trout in Massachusetts and Rhode Island into June. I learned a long time ago not to worry about or predict the weather. I can't change it, so I just go with it. I just fish for whatever I have the best chance of catching. This I know, whether a cold spring or a warm one, spring is almost on us and fish patterns will be changing real soon.

One of my Janauary carp, will I get one in February?

This leads me to a couple of goals of mine I had this winter that I may not achieve. The first has to do with carp fishing. Since I caught a carp in January, easily the hardest month to catch one, I want to keep a streak going and see how many months in a row I can catch one. Well I only have a week left in February and so far... nothing. I've only gotten to go carp fishing twice and both times for only about an hour. On days I work it is much easier to go striper fishing after dark than it is to make time to carp fish during daylight hours.  I planned on having the next two days off from work. With both days predicted to be over 50 degrees, my confidence was high .I planned on fishing sun up till sundown if need be, to catch one. Then I got thrown a curve ball. The person that covers my days off from work is extremely ill. So with her in and out of the hospital, I'm not sure how much free time I will have the next two days. Hopefully I will get lucky and catch one, but I will not have as much time to fish as I had planned. This year being a leap year, may be just what I need to catch one. I will keep you posted.

The other goals has to do with the wintering stripers in the Providence River.  Since December 1 which is my unofficial beginning to winter time stripers I have caught a total of 48 stripers. I would really love to catch fifty. Unfortunately, I have been stuck on 48 for some time now. I guess you could say my " unofficial " end date for wintertime stripers would be March 31. So I have plenty of time. However, with the warming weather, the fish that were in the river may have moved into the bay. It's possible they might not come back at all. The more times in a row I get blanked, the less likely I will want to  fish for them.

Of the forty-eight I have caught  this winter, I have caught 39 since January first. If I can manage to get those two more, my next goal will be to reach fifty for the first three months of the year.  Again it depends on the fish. Also another problem, my goal is to catch fifty over wintering stripers. When the fresh ones arrive in the spring  whether before or after my unofficial end date of March 31, then winter striper fishing is over.

Keep in mind none of these goals were any of my beginning of the year goals. Things change though, since I caught  48 stripers of course I want to catch the nice round number of fifty. After catching a carp in January, of course I want to catch one in February. Its just the competitive nature of the beast.