An all Nighter

I know I start many blog posts with " I had these two days off this week so I did, blah,blah blah" but it makes sense since most of my adventures are on my days off. I'm finding it harder and harder to justify long drives after work because I can only fish for a few hours. On days off I can fish all day or stay up late as I want. I have not figured out the risk vs. reward divided by four dollar gas equation yet, but I think you get the idea.

So having today and Saturday off I chose to fish last night. I had this crazy plan all week to fish Narragansett until I could barely stand, go find a spot to sleep in the car then wake up and fish during the day today. The only question was whether or not I would "lazy out"

My friend Laurie comes over every Thursday and we watch the NBC sitcoms until 10. So I left on my adventure at 10 pm. She offered to stay home, but only a bad friend would have blown her off to go fishing ( unless its a new moon then it is understandable).

 So I got to the ocean about 11:30. The waves were not too bad and happily there was a lot of cloud cover. I got my waders on and walked out to my chosen spot. Within minutes I hooked and landed a 33 inch striper. No matter what, I felt good about that. At least my adventure and half tank of gas would not be for naught. I fished for about three hours at this spot. I caught five keeper bass up to 36 inches. They were all caught on four inch shad bodies and 5 inch wildeyes.  I tried swimmers but with my eight foot rod and my vertical challenge I just did not feel I was getting the distance I needed to fish the plug effectively. So I concentrated on shorter casts towards structure. The strategy paid off.

At about two thirty I headed to the East Wall to sleep in my car in the fishermens parking lot. I laid my head down at 3 am. I slept on and off until 6:30. Some tool decided to pull in and park right next to my car. Mind you I was sleeping not facing the water in the back corner of the lot. I guess its good I got woken up but another hour of sleep would have been nice.

  When I woke, the waves were significantly larger.  I started fishing different spots, most of them were dirty. Even when I found clean water, I did not find any bait. I managed one snapper blue. I decided to fish a back estuary ( read; out of the big surf and wind) This paid off for me also, I found a school of hickory shad and caught them until my heart was content. They were a lot of fun. They are acrobatic leapers that put up a hell of a fight on a light rod. They are very aggressive and will devour a small jig that resembles a small baitfish. I was using a 1/4 ounce jig and 2 inch shads and 3 inch zoom flukes. Both were equally effective. As I am sure small grubs, wildeyes or bucktail jigs would work well. One guy was using a fly rod but could not reach the school that well and picked up a couple.

After catching my fill I drove home The waves were still building and I decided not to spend the rest of my day looking for clean water. . I tried to stay up but my bed was calling my name.

Never leave fish!

In my last post you saw that Jeff, myself and a bunch of other guys caught many keeper stripers Friday. At the bottom of the post I wrote " the fish were still biting when we left". I know that fish were hitting all night for various fishermen. Some of the stripers were over 40 inches. Some guys fished this spot in the wee hours of the night.  I am very happy for these guys. I don't get jealous, if anything, I root for other fishermen to do well.

When we left between Jeff and myself we caught four keepers up to 36 inches, a couple schoolies and one big bluefish. That would be a good night striper fishing. However... we did leave while they were biting. We were soaked and had been out all day and had an hour ride home.

The next night Jeff went back to the same location. Who can blame him? The fishing was great the night before ( and the night before that when we were not there) he certainly expected some good fishing. I could not go because I had to work Saturday and Sunday and was on call both days after work.  There were twice as many fishermen as Friday and only one fish was caught.

Sunday he went back again, Jeff was the only one there (again I was on call). He didn't get any that night. Jeff knows how to fish. There is no doubt in my mind if fish were there, he would have caught them.

The lesson is this... Don't leave fish. You never know if they will be there next time. We were wet but we had been wet for three hours. We had been out all day but whats another hour...

Don't leave fish especially big ones.

Day- Night Doubleheader

I had Thursday and Friday off from work this week. I did absolutely nothing on Thursday except go to my son's cross country meet in the afternoon. Although I love watching my son compete and enjoyed that 18 minutes of my day, I was determined to have more than 18 minutes of fun on Friday.

Friday morning I went carp fishing. I realized this week I had not caught a carp this month. September 21 is a little to close for comfort so I decided to give carp a shot during the day.  I fished a spot that I had done well in the spring but really shuts off during the summer. I didn't get a hit for the first two hours. During that time Jeff called me and asked if I wanted to go to the ocean. I said yes and he told me we would leave about noon. Five minutes after Jeff and I got off the phone I got my first ( and only) hit. After a long battle I landed the fish. It was thirty inches long with a 22 inch girth. It was estimated at between 20-24 pounds. I took some pictures and let it go.

I caught the fish on regular old sweet corn in the orange/ white can from Stop and Shop. I will say this, sweet corn wasn't the best choice. Sunfish kept ripping it off the hook withot me knowing. I reeled in empty hooks a few times. Until the water gets a little cooler, field corn would be better because it stays on the hook better. I did not have any on hand so I used the sweet corn.

Night

I got home about 11:30 had some lunch and packed for an afternoon in 'gansett. Jeff picked me up and he drove down to South County. We hit a variety of spots all the way from Watch Hill back to Narragansett. The only fish we could find were snapper blues.

Near dark we went out to our final destination. There was a ten minute walk then we started fishing.  My friend Dave was fishing with his son Ben. There were a couple other guys I had talked to a few times. Within minutesI got a big bluefish. I'd guess just under 10 pounds. After that it was quiet until dark. Then keeper stripers started hitting. Without question Ben had the best night. Dave also caught quite a few fish. Jeff got a striper about 34 inches long. I ended up with 4 stripers. Three were keepers. The sizes were 28, and two were 36 inches. Most everyone else caught their fish on swimmers. I got mine on 3/4 ounce jighead and 4 inch shad bodies. Fish were still hitting when we left.  I had a lot of fun.

Rhode Island Hat Trick

 

This months On the Water magazine had a great article about catching the Big Three saltwater species in Rhode Island (striped bass, bluefish and false albacore) written by Dave Pickering. 

It’s very difficult to catch all three of these fish in the same day from shore. False Albacore are without question the hardest of the three species to catch. Even in places that are known albie “hotspots” they still don’t always do what is expected. A person can wait all day for them to show up and they might not. A good deal of luck is required to catch albies consistently.



My one striper

I have been trying to catch them for a few years now, usually spending a couple days during September hoping for a school to pass by. The only time I actually saw any evidence of one was last year at the West Wall one guy had one on but lost it. I spent 2 consecutive days fishing for albies with no hint they were even around.

Having Friday and Saturday off this week I went to southern Rhode Island to do some saltwater fishing. I hadn’t been to the surf for a while. I didn’t care what I caught; I just wanted to catch something.

I started my morning off at the East Wall. I got there before sunrise. I stayed about an hour without seeing any signs of life. From there I started searching other public access areas. At my third spot I looked down the rocks and saw a bunch of fish feeding. I walked out over the bowling ball rocks and stated fishing. I caught a blue on my first cat. The second cast I caught a decent schoolie. I was using a 4 inch Zoom Fluke on a jighead. I was hoping to catch bass along with the blues. It didn’t take long to figure out that the school was almost entirely bluefish. So I switched to a homemade bucktail jig so I wouldn’t waste money on the soft plastic. The blues kept coming.

One of many bluefish

While all this was going on I saw a weird swirl out in the deeper water. I was sure it was a fish “porpoising”. I had read false albacore do this. After having my share of blues, I put on a wooden casting egg and a fly. I casted it as far as I could and when it got within range of the feeding blues, I’d reel it in as fast as I could so they wouldn’t chomp it off.



After a few casts I got a hit and thought I hooked a bluefish. After 30 seconds I was pretty sure it was an albie because it ran in at me and my line went slack (something else I read).  If it wasn’t an albie, I figured it was a 15 pound bluefish I could not believe the strength. I landed it and I was pumped. I waited a long time for that moment.  I also realized that by 9 am I had a Rhode Island Hat Trick. Needless to say the adrenaline was flowing.

It turns out the albie was the last fish I caught at that spot. The fish either stopped feeding or moved on. So I left had some lunch and looked for fish again.



First False Albacore ever. What an amazing fish

I found a bunch of guys fishing an area of open ledges. I went down to the water and right in front of me was a giant baitball.  Within a minute of being at this spot one of the older guys with a fly rod hooked and landed an albie. I asked if it was okay if I fished near them they responded this way “Go ahead and have some fun, we already did” Apparently they were catching albies and blues since dawn. I fished near them and although I tried to avoid blues because I was running out of soft plastic, I landed a bunch more.

As for albies, I caught another 4 more. They proved difficult to catch. The water was calm and the sun was bright. I could look down into the water and watch them swim by. Many times they would swim right toward my fluke. Look at it and circle away from it within a second. It was frustrating but also a good learning experience. I have braided line and attach a leader to it with a swivel. I couldn’t get a fish to hit using it so I made a blood knot to attach the leader to the main line. I also had much better luck with 3 inch albino flukes than I did with the four inch.  My friend Dave was fishing 40 yards to my left. He was catching them on an egg float and fluke. Since I had all my fish within 10 feet of shore, the egg was useless to me so I used a small ¼ ounce jighead.

I fished until 3 pm then had to drive home. All total I caught 5 albies, 1 striper and many, many bluefish. It was one of those “right place at the right time” days. Wish they could all be like that. Going back again today, I talked to a couple other guys that had a hat trick yesterday. At least four hat tricks and a hundred false albacore were caught. Memories for many of us that will last forever. 

Sunrise at Point Judith

How they were caught

Someone pointed out on one of my posts that I didn't give very much infomation on how I was catching fish. So I thought I'd give some advice for those fishing for the same species I have been fishing for.

The catfish I were catching a couple weeks ago were caught on hot dogs. They were cut into pieces about 3/4 of an inch and put on size two hooks. I was using bait runner reels. when the fish would run I would set the hook. I will tell you that of the five or so times  I went I only caught one white catfish. The key to catching white cats is to find a pond with a decent population of them. Most places are loaded with bullheads but places like Lake Tiogue and Mashpee Wakeby do have white catfish.

Bass

All the bass fishing I have been doing has been from shore. I've been walking the shoreline. Other than one day all my fishing has been done the couple hours before dark. When I first started fishing there I was using live crawfish. I switched from that to two lures. I have been using a Pop-R and two inch shad bodies on 1/8 jig heads. Those two lures have been accounting for all the bass I've been catching. Try the topwater after the sun goes below the tree line. 

The last two outings however, I haven't done to well. I'm hoping tonight will be better.

Trout

The fishing up in New Hampshire could not have been better. Catching eighty trout in less than eight hours of fishing is NOT BECAUSE OF SKILL, but because I found a couple of huge schools. The key was to keep moving until I found them. I caught them on anything I threw at them. Small Kastmaster spoons, sinking Rapalas, and small shad bodies. I needed pictures of a couple quality fish so I kept fishing even when I knew " Enough is enough". I just kept hoping for a big one. I got a couple decent ones.

I hope this helps anyone wanting to go fishing for freshwater fish. I will try to put more technical stuff in these posts for now on. As for sharing spots sometimes I can't

Better?

... So I've been doing a lot of bass fishing

I haven't wrote anything much. I've been doing a lot of bass fishing from shore. I have been fishing almost every night. I haven't caught any any trophies, but I've been doing good catching between 3-6 fish a night. Every time I catch my first smallmouth of the night, I remember how hard they fight. It always blows me away.

I've caught a couple bass closing in on 16 inches. The average size has been about 13 inches. That is nothing to brag about, but certainly a lot of fun.  If I do anything else fun I will let you guys know. I planned on going to the ocean this Friday but the waves might be huge so it might not be possible to fish for albies. So it looks like more bass fishing for me for the foreseeable future.

New Hampshire 2012 Part 4

I had Friday and Saturday off this week. I wanted to go to New Hampshire Thursday night after work. However I got out later than I wanted and I still needed groceries and to gas up, so I waited until Friday morning. I left at 5:40. I had the tent set up by 9:30 so I had all day to enjoy myself.

I started fishing the Saco River about 10. There were a lot of brookies in a big pool. I caught seven, the biggest being 14 inches. They were spooked by the time I caught four. I had to work hard for the next three. There were plenty of other fish in the pool, but I could not get them to bite. I left to fish another area.

I moved up river but couldn't get anything to bite. I was only wearing shorts and sandals. I decided to get my waders. As I was walking back to the car, the sky opened up. I figured if I was going to fish in the rain I should fish Echo Lake where I've had good success in bad weather. I did not quite make it to Echo Lake. I drove to camp to make sure it was okay in the wind and rain. I somehow managed to take a 3 hour nap. When I got up it was still only 3:30. Plenty of time to fish.

I went to Franconia Notch  and started fishing. I was using my spinning rod and caught one trout after another. In three and a half hours I caught FIFTY trout. I counted and I assure you I did not exaggerate. If anything I under counted. It was obviously the most trout I have ever caught in a day. Most were good sized too. They averaged about eleven inches with a couple bigger. After all those fish I went back to camp and dreamed of all those fish.

Next morning, I obviously went back to the same lake. I caught another 23. I caught a couple big ones. My biggest went abut 16 inches with a couple others over 14. I went home after fishing slowed down. I had a three hour drive ahead of me.

I ended up with EIGHTY trout in less than eight hours fishing. It was awesome. Did I get bored? Not really. Usually when it is catching and not fishing, it can get boring. I was looking for big ones today. I wwas hoping to get pictures for an upcoming article. So when I got the ones over 13 inches I took a lot of pictures ( this is not my computer so I will put some on later)

Have I mentioned I love New Hampshire!!!