I love smallmouth bass!!!

If you ever have a conversation with me and ask me what my favorite types of fish are, near the top of the list is smallmouth bass. Of course I fish for carp and trout when I am fishing in freshwater. I never really fish for smallmouth. The closest consistent smallmouth fishing from my house is about an hour away, or so I thought. Heading east Plymouth or the Cape both have good smallmouth lakes.. In the other direction, Wachusetts Reservoir is about the same distance. I used to fish the Lakes Region of New Hampshire about five times a year for smallies.

A couple days ago, my friend Jeff convinced me to try a lake he used to fish often. He told me there used to be some smallmouth in the lake. I figured if I caught one, at least I'd catch another species for the year. Basically, I figured we'd catch some panfish and a largemouth or two. Any actual smallmouth would be freaking awesome.The lake is only about five minutes from house so I had nothing to loose.

So we went that night. I ended up catching nine smallmouth. The biggest was 13 1/2 inches. I couldn't believe it. Needless to say, I have been back every moment I haven't been sleeping or at work ( and the Kenny Chesney concert yesterday).

Yesterday before the concert, I went for 2 1/2 hours during the sunniest part of the day. I caught four smallies and a Larry. The largemouth was 16 inches. The two biggest smallies were 13 and 14 inches. These may not be giants but, any legal size smallie is a good fish and they FIGHT SO HARD.

Today I only got two before dark, but one was 15 inches. So I'm not complaining. I'm just looking for that four pounder now, but if it never comes and I keep catching some  typical size smallmouth I'm okay with that. They are such a great fish. I can't believe I had this great smallmouth fishery five minutes from my house and I never knew about it. I WILL make up for lost time!!!

Snappers blues, puffers, and suckers

I went fishing last weekend and had a really good weekend numbers wise. I ended up with over 60 fish. The bad news was the biggest was about 15 inches.

I started my first day at Colt State Park. My goal here was snapper blues. I found them in big numbers.I used a silver Kastmaster and caught them on almost every cast. Everyone else was using a popping cork with a small teaser. Everyone else combined caught about 10. Do yourself a favor don't become married to just one lure or technique. I caught three times more than everyone combined. Not because I'm better than them or even luckier. Its just I was prepared to catch fish with a variety of lures. On this day, they wanted the flash of a spoon. On other days they like the popping cork. Be versitle.

After I left Colt State Park I went to the Mt. Hope Bridge. I used squid and caught about six scup. All but one was under 10 inches. I also caught a small sea robin and a puffer fish. Yup a puffer. Cute little guy. That was the end of day one.

Day 2 I went carp fishing. I went to a place wher ethe carp are small but numerous. I caught 8 along with 2 suckers and a golden shiner. Two of the carp were smaller than the width of my hand. The biggest was only about 15 inches.

The best part of my weekend was I caught three species I had yet to catch this year: sea robin, golden shiner and a new fish for me a puffer fish.

Hopefully I will have more big fish to write about soon. Pictures to follow.

Check out the article in this week's The Fisherman magazine

I have an article in this week'sThe Fisherman magazine about fishing for smaller species of fish during the August heat. The Fisherman is a weekly magazine highlighted by fishing reports.


For subscriptions and to check out the website the address is www.thefisherman.com

Games of the Thirtieth Olympiad

I have not wrote anything lately because I have been watching a lot of the Olympics. I have watched them almost every night since the Opening Ceremony. The only fishing I have done was Friday. I went to South County and tried for bluefish that had been hanging around last week. I didn't get any. They had moved on. My friend Dave caught the one and only one that was landed.  After my strikeout on my way home I tried for catfish. I got one decent bullhead ( about a foot) in an hour.

Laurie comes over every night during the Games and  we try to have supper ready for the 8 pm start. I promise I will write more in a few days. On a positive note, I believe my twisted knee is 100% healed. I will never take for granted going up stairs again!



Go Team U.S.A.

- Nick