Call this post " Failure" or "O for October"

As many of you know, I am trying to catch at least one carp every month this year. Well, that quest failed today. I did not catch any carp during the month. Many excuses start with " it wasn't for lack of trying" for me it was completely lack of effort.

I did not spend any time fishing for them until Oct 27. Then I only spent two hours due to two commitments for my son. Then tonight on Halloween I felt terrible that I didn't catch any, so I fished for four hours and all I could show for it were a couple bullhead. So that's it quest fail.

During the beginning of the month by all accounts carp fishing was awful. I wasn't fishing for them since I was spending every waking not working moment chasing stripers.Some days that I didn't have to work I was getting up at 6 am and fishing for them till well after dark.

During the second half of the month carp fishing was much better by all accounts. Again, I was chasing fish with stripes all month. I went fishing at least 22 days this month yet only twice for carp. I dropped the ball, but all I could think about were the schoolie stripers. Schoolie fishing has been great. I haven't been blanked in many outings, maybe a month. So I enjoyed catching them,now I regret not pulling myself away to get a carp.

So the streak ends at nine months.

The Streak Ending Culprit!!

Some pictures from New Hampshire

When we went to New Hampshire a couple weeks ago, we only had fun because we made the most of the cold wet weather. Still we saw some cool things (mostly rainbows). Here are some pictures.

 

Laurie eating an apple at the Robert Frost Farm





 

 



Apple at Robert Frost Farm





Rainbow over Mount Washington Hotel

My last Narragansett Overnight and tons of schoolies

Laurie's biggest

I haven't wrote anything for over a week. Usually when I don't write it means I didn't have anything worth while to write about. For a change I haven't wrote any posts because I have been to busy fishing. When I haven't been at work, I have been fishing. Usually I have been going fishing straight from work. It has been a fun week.

On Sunday it was to nice out too watch the Patriots game. So my friend Laurie and I went out to enjoy the fall weather. Somehow I easily convinced her to go fishing. We headed to Upper Narragansett Bay and fished within site of the Providence sky line. We tried a couple of spots. Within minutes we found a school of breaking fish. We started catching fish almost immediately. It was fun catching schoolies. They were not very big but they numerous. I was catching mine on shad bodies and zoom flukes on a jighead. Laurie was catching them on a homemade bucktail jig that I made. It was all white with a red collar and weighed 3/8 of an ounce. Believe it or not, we ended up catching fifty between us. It was cool watching Laurie catch over twenty stripers. Not only that but she also caught the biggest one.

Obviously, the next night  I went back. I ended up with 15. All were caught on bucktail. I learned something from the night before. To keep this short, fishing the Upper Bay I caught over 50 stripers  this week. None were very big. The biggest was maybe 23 inches. I used my light schoolie rodwith only ten pound test line so each fish felt like a good fight.

On Wednesday night I went to the ocean. I am really enjoying my  Narragansett overnights sleeping in the car. However, if my last trip didn't go as planned, this one was a complete shock. I went to Narragansett and the waves were huge from the hurricane in the Atlantic. I went to the East Wall to sleep and I was in such awe of the size of the waves that I watched them for 20 minutes first. I saw one set of waves not break on the wall, but actually roll over it. They were coming in at over 10 feet. It was unfishable, but it was an awesome sight.

I did decide that I'm not going to do any more surf fishing over nights this year. The nights are so long now. Since it gets dark at 6:30 I can get in a few hours of fishing and still be home before midnight. On the flip side, I could get up early and fish from first light throughout the day  and fish into the dark. There is no need to sleep uncomfortable in my car more so now since the nights are getting colder.

Yesterday after sleeping until 11 am I decided to try for the schoolies again. A guy I know named Tom was there. Dave showed up a few minutes later. Between the three of us, we hit a bunch of spots. We only caught six fish between us. So apparently, this spot has cooled off too. Although six fish in a spot is a disappointing number in a location that would have held 100 fish a week ago, I admit I enjoyed myself. It was a nice day. I hung with a couple good guys and I caught a couple fish. Honestly when I left, I felt like I had a good day and was" high on life". I guess thats what it is all about.

4 Blankets and a sleeping bag

I got up to New Hampshire for a couple days this week. Laurie and I went up one last time for the year to see the foliage. We went up on Wednesday morning and could have stayed till Friday, but the weather was not in our favor.

Wednesday morning we left around 9 am. We could have left earlier but we thought of a great plan to stop at the Robert Frost Farm in Derry on the way up. I checked the website and written in black and white, it was open until October 11. We went up on the tenth so this was good news to me. I have wanted to stop and see the farm for a couple years, but normally I'm leaving for NH either at an ungodly hour in the morning or after work. This was my first chance to go there and I was excited.

We pulled into the small dirt parking area about 10:30 and there was only one car in the lot. We got out and walked around the building and saw a CLOSED FOR THE SEASON SIGN. So we got back on the highway and headed to the mountains. Before we left we grabbed an apple off the apple tree and each of us took a bite. Maybe Frost himself planted the tree.

When we got to the mountains it was lovely out. It was about 45 degrees and rainy. The wind was blowing out of the northeast. Just the kind of weather that makes setting a tent up an adventure. After setting the tent up we drove around looking at the scenery. I thought about calling my friend Clay, but he was teaching school. Instead we went to Chutters and got candy and fudge. So we made some mac and cheese for supper, which was delicious. then we bundled up in the tent ( see name of post)

Next morning it was a balmy 36 degrees. Actually I'm being sarcastic but we knew in advance that it was going to be "brisk" The issue I had with Thursday morning was it was still rainy. The weather forecast was for a dry 55 degree day. That is something I could live with in mid October in New Hampshire. The drizzle was a disappointment. We still decided to drive around. We went down to Tripoli Road and Waterville Valley. It was pretty and we found some sunny areas.  We took a couple short walks.

Around 2:30 we decided it wasn't worth staying the extra night. The forecast for Friday morning was 35 and rainy. I did not want to take the tent down in that condition. It was Laurie's decision. She chose to go home.

So I had Friday to go fishing. I went to Narragansett. I didn't have a great morning. I caught a couple blues and a hickory shad. There were huge blitzes of blues off the avenues but they were way out. About 1 pm I decided I could do something more productive and headed home. Maybe the fishing picked up in the afternoon... I will never know

It didn't go as planned...

I went on another 30 hour fishing adventure from Thursday afternoon until Friday night. I got to the ocean about 2:30 pm on Thursday. I went to the East Wall where my friend Dave and I watched helplessly as False albacore were busting bait a quarter mile out. They never came in close. A few blues came in and Dave caught a couple I hooked two but missed them. I did manage to get my leader stuck between some rocks, not once, but twice. I lost my rigs both times. Luckily I only lost a fly and a zoom fluke. Nothing to expensive.

Night Fishing

I went to an outflow for some night fishing. Jeff and Dave were already there. Dave hooked a small fish but it came off. A few minutes later I hooked a giant seal and it broke me off almost instantly. Because the seal was around there were no other fish as it scared them all off.

At least that is what I wish happened. The truth is much more embarrassing. While I was at the wall, I realized my braid was low and in a long cast I could see my backing. So I went to a tackle shop to buy some. The tackle shop did not have any  to buy but they could put some on for me. I brought my reel in and the guy behind the counter spooled it for me. I paid for it and put my spool back on my reel and restrung my pole with a new leader.  I went to the outflow and fished. Dave did hook the small blue. A few minutes later I hooked a BIG fish. It snapped me off within seconds. My drag was to tight. The guy put it back on the reel and tightened it to tight. I should have checked it. I can't believe I forget to check it. I missed easily the largest fish of my year so far because of a careless mistake!!!

I went to sleep in my car for the night around 10 pm. I was exhausted. I got up about 5:45 am. I bought some breakfast and started another day of fishing on Friday morning.

I checked  a bunch of spots. I fished everywhere I went. I didn't just look for birds. I found fish in a couple spots but they were on tiny bay anchovies. I fished near Narragansett Pier. There was a huge school of bait. Every five minutes or so fish would drive into it. I casted into these schools fifty times. They I landed a few blues then a few small stripers. They were so picky it was almost impossible to get them to hit.



Then I got a phone call that huge bass were crashing the shoreline a couple miles away. I drove down and sure enough I saw a blitz of 15-30 pound stripers tearing into bait six inches from the shoreline. Ben Pickering had one about 30 pounds. I took some pictures for him then started fishing. Apparently, the fish were not fussy at the beginning of the blitz of the blitz, but once they filled up on one inch fish, they were also picky. Ben landed 2 more while I landed one. Ben's were one schoolie and one just keeper. I caught a schoolie.

After things died down, I went other places. I caught a couple more blues before dark. 



Lots of pretty colors, it would be cool if it
didn't hurt so much

So considering how long I fished I did not have near the quality of fishing I did the last three weeks. It would have been great if I would have landed the big one Thursday night or even one of the twenty pounders at my feet on Friday. Considering how meticulous I am about my gear, I can't believe I didn't check my drag. I also fell, cut up my knee and severely bruised my big toe.  I ended with six blues and 6 schoolies. I casted into fish almost all day so this is quite a disappointing number. Oh well, there is always next week