Fish are still biting

For those guys brave enough, there are still fish to be caught. I guess a little further north, the ice is safe and people are ice fishing. Down here on the RI/MA border the water is open. A few coves have a small glaze of ice, but nothing safe. When I went fishing the day after Christmas the cove I caught my brown the day before was under a half inch of ice. The next day it was ice free. The next week looks as though daytime highs will be in the mid-thirties while night time lows will be in the twenties. These could be the last days of open water fishing (freshwater) down here. Whether the ice gets thick enough to fish on is anyone’s guess.

The fish are still fish to be caught. Stripers are in the usual holdover spots. By all accounts (including mine) the fishing has been consistent and some nights have been spectacular. These fish are mostly schoolies. Fishing for them is simple. All you need is a light saltwater pole and some 4 inch zoom flukes, and 3/8 to ½ ounce jigheads. Move around until you find them.

18 inch trout caught yesterday

Trout fishing has also been excellent. Fishermen down the Cape have been catching lots of trout while chasing the newly stocked salmon. I was going to try for the salmon on these two days off at Little Pond in Plymouth. Since I have been catching big browns in northern RI, I couldn’t justify the trip. Yesterday I went trout fishing about 20 minutes from home. I cheated and bought half dozen shiners. I ended up catching six trout. Four were on shiners, two on a small silver Rapala. Tough to justify a two hour round trip to Plymouth when catching trout up to 18 inches right near home.

My guess is that if you have a lake full of pickerel they would be willing adversaries also. Fish are out there. There are guys out fishing for them. If there weren’t, On the Water and the Fisherman would not waste their time with fishing reports. Don’t let a little cold or wind stop you. Dress appropriately and keep your hands and feet warm… the tv will still be there when you get home.

An Apple Pie and Trout Christmas

 

Laurie with her world famous apple pie.

I sincerely hope everyone had a great Christmas. For those of you that don’t celebrate Christmas,I hope you had the best December 25^th of your life. We had a very good day and I managed to get some productive fishing in.

Laurie sleeps over on Christmas Eve and we watch a movie. I was invited to a party from a friend at work, but Laurie had a hectic day and wanted to relax. DJ went to a party at his girlfriend’s house. He sleeps over his mom’s on Christmas Eve, so she picked him up from there.
When we got up, we got food ready for the evening feast. Laurie made a pumpkin pie. I cut up potatoes. When DJ got home we opened presents. Besides the things I buy him, Santa brought a gift for both of us. We got us a new two person tent. It turns out that EMS was discontinuing an awesome tent and the last one (the floor model) was 50% off. So he couldn’t pass that up and he thought of us.

After presents I brought DJ to his grandmother’s house so he could open more. Laurie went to visit relatives at a nursing home. So I had about three hours free. I decided to go trout fishing. I never made it out this fall because of stripers so I thought I’d give it a shot. I was really hoping for one.  After about an hour I hooked one. It was a beautiful hooked mouth 17 inch brown trout. On the next cast I hooked a bigger one but lost it. Those were my only hits. I’ll say it again; any fish in December is a good fish. I was quite happy to get the Christmas fish. I let it go, I had plenty of food.
That night we had a Christmas dinner. Laurie made an apple pie on Christmas Eve morning that we ate for desert.  It was delicious. We never touched the pumpkin pie.
 
Today after work, I went trout fishing again. The spot I caught my fish yesterday had iced over. I had to fish further up the beach. I fished for an hour and caught one brown. It was a nice fish 15-16 inches, but not as big as the Christmas brown. I caught both fish and the other hit on a small silver sinking Rapala. I tried other lures but they did not produce.

Big Fish were had by ALL last night ( the two of us fishing)

I went fishing for holdovers Friday night. It was my third time this week. On Tuesday we caught over forty fish. On Wednesday I did not even bump the bottom. Not a fish to be had. I didn’t even see a rat or rabbit. Both of which I see ALL the Time. The wind turned north and maybe it turned off the fishing. Interestingly, I had my best nights last year when the wind was from that direction. You just can’t predict what winter stripers will do, where they will be, or if they are hungry.

So I went Friday night. When I got there Dave had been fishing for a little while. He caught a couple. On my first cast I hooked a fish that felt pretty big. After I hooked it Dave said “I should warn you, they have been good size tonight” He was right. This fish was large enough that when he offered to get the bridge net out of his truck, I said “Yes, please”

Between my line and his help, I caught what was about a keeper size striper. We didn’t measure it so it could have been 28 inches but if I had to guess, I’d say it was just under. Fat and healthy, it was though (Yoda). I left my small camera at home so it got released without a picture.

We each caught a couple more, but fishing wasn’t hot and heavy. They were all good sized though. I caught a couple 22, 23 inches but they were averaging over twenty five inches. Dave hooked into a nice fish and after a couple minutes and having his landing net handy he landed a monster. In terms of length, he both estimated it about 31 inches. It was ridiculously chunky. Dave, who has caught tens of thousands of stripers more than me guessed it was 15-16 pounds. I would concur. When we got it in, a light bulb went off that I had my big camera in the car. I ran up to get it. The batteries were almost dead, but I managed to take four pictures before they died completely.

 Although we both only caught four fish a piece it was nice knowing we were casting to very healthy keepers. Sure as hell beat wrapping Christmas presents!!!

Off the Disabled List

As I said a couple posts ago I have had to deal with a herniated disk in my neck since the last couple days of November. I am feeling much better now. I went to a chiropractor and amazingly after two visits I feel 90% better. In the next paragraphs I will explain what the pinched nerve felt like, so if you don’t want to read about someone’s medical issues skip down to the fishing.

The symptoms are pain in my shoulder and upper arm. I can be tough for a while but being in constant pain is mentally exhausting. I had to sleep sitting up for about a week and even then I’d sleep about twenty minutes at a time. You have no idea how long a night is when you wake up twenty to thirty times.  Sometimes it felt as though a match was burning my bicep muscle from the inside. No word of a lie, the muscle felt it was like it was on fire. Other times it felt as though I had a nail being wedges into my shoulder. The pain moved and I could fall asleep with pain in one spot and wake up fifteen minutes later with it shooting in another. It is impossible to enjoy watching tv. To read a book isn’t even an option because it is impossible to concentrate for more than a line or two without going back to the pain. Honestly, I can’t imagine Hell being any worse. For those of you that have had your sciatic nerve pinched and giving you great pain, I can relate and you have my full sympathy.
Luckily, this chiropractor is amazing. Last time I had this happen I tried to work through it for six weeks. Then I told my boss I needed time off to heal. I went to physical therapy three times a week along with doctor’s visits. After almost another month of this rehab I was finally pain free and ready to go back to work. My job had been eliminated.

As you can imagine, when this happened again, my biggest fear was that I would be jobless again. So I was honest with my boss about the pain. Luckily for me I got to spend most of the last week training a new manager so I did not have to do much manual labor.
I was told to try a chiropractor that had done wonders for a customer at work. After a really painful day I made an appointment. Unfortunately, I called on Tuesday but he didn’t have any openings until Thursday so I sucked it up another two nights.

On Friday morning I explained to him my previous injury, how this was exactly the same and hoped he could help. He worked on me and the total visit was only 30 minutes. That night I was in a lot of pain. I had to sleep sitting up. The next morning about 10 am, the pain went away. In about a five minute period I went from a lot of pain to it being gone.  I still felt some numbness and if I sneezed I felt a quick shooting pain but for the most part it was gone. All day Friday and Saturday I did everything I could to not jar loose my disk. I walked down stairs on my tip toes. I walked on uneven ground slowly. I even got in my car slowly instead of bounding in like normal.

I had another appointment Monday. I asked him a bunch of questions and he was great answering them about how a herniated disk works. He explained what he did and what I could expect. He worked on me less than the first time and I left my upper arm felt a little pulverized like it had been hit by a meat tenderizer but it wasn’t too bad. Other than the pain being almost gone, the best news was he told me the act of casting a fishing pole would not hurt the disk!!! Bo-yah!!!!!

I didn’t go fishing last night because my arm was a bit tender, but you can bet your ass I went tonight. Fishing was great. Between Dave and myself, we caught over forty stripers. Apparently if I would have gone last night fishing was just as good. We caught them all on Zoom Flukes. I didn’t whip out the bucktail jig, I was happy just catching fish. Experimenting to see what they would or wouldn’t hit could wait for another night. Tonight it was just nice to get out and catch some fish. Honestly it was just nice to get out, fish, and be pain free. Catching fish made it all the more sweeter.
Hopefully, I can keep healing. I took a couple Advil tonight as preventive maintenance in case there is any swelling. A couple is fine. For the last month I was eating Advil like it is a food group. So if all goes well (meaning I wake up pain free in the morning) I should have more fishing posts in the near future. I have Friday and Saturday off this weekend, I do not plan to waste it

Sorry no pictures, we both left the camera at home

Post script: I wrote this last night about 11 pm. I woke up with a little tiny pain. I took some Advil and had some soda ( caffeine is a pain reliever for me, weird, huh?). I went fishing again tonight. Did not get a hit. Go figure.

I want to thank Angela Huestis for getting me the phone number for the doctor. I would also like to thank him, however I dod not have his name on me at the moment. I probably owe him my sanity and my the fact I still have a
job.

A Pinched Nerve in my Neck

 

Three years ago I had a pinched nerve in my neck. The neck did not hurt too bad but because of the nerves pinched on my left side, my shoulder and arm hurt like hell. It was the worst experience of my life. For almost three months I could not sleep more than 20 minutes at a time. I worked with the pain for over six weeks before I said enough was enough and I took time out of work. I don’t want to sound like a baby, but sometimes it felt as though I had a knife in my flesh and it was twisting. Other times it felt like a shooting pain that would move up and down my arm. I had to sleep sitting up because it hurt too much to lie down

Finally after three months, an MRI, and a month of intense physical therapy the pain subsided. Because my nerves were pinched for so long I lost a lot of feeling in my left bicep muscle and my left hand was weakened to half strength. It took a couple years to get the numbness out of my arm and I’d say within the last six months I regained most of my strength.   Unfortunately, after I took off the time to heal, my job had been eliminated. So I was out of work for a while.

Why do I tell you all this? Guess what I have again? Yup I have a pinched nerve in my neck again. It happened about ten days ago. I feel I am lucky that the pain is not nearly as excruciating as last time. Also on the bright side, I think it is already beginning to heal. I have slept in my bed the last three nights without too much discomfort. I still wake up ten times a night, but that is better than every twenty minutes.  I am optimistic that within the week I will be pain free.  

Needless to say, I have not been very active. Since I got hurt, I went fishing a couple of times. It sounds crazy to fish and risk further damage, but I think casting the pole loosens up some of the muscles. I am scared to death of reinjuring my neck or having a set back so I am past the point of careful. I am using my wrist to cast with very little upper arm movement. The little muscles in my shoulders I am using I am careful not to fatigue. I cannot risk losing my job again, so I need to heal this as quickly as possible.

I tell you all this because I have not put up any fishing reports in a while. Now you know why. Unfortunately for me, the winter time fishery for stripers has been very good so far. I could be cleaning up. I had my best month ever in November for stripers, and I am sure this could have been my best December ever if I wasn’t laid up.

The times I went fishing this is how I did; I went for sea run white perch one afternoon and caught quite a few thanks to a tip I got. I used my freshwater rod and had a blast for a couple hours.  It was cold that day and that felt really good to my neck muscles.
Last night I caught three schoolies in an hour and half fishing. I felt a little pain in my shoulder when I got home, so I think I might have to suck it up and take a couple weeks off from fishing. It’s weird that sometimes a little exercise makes my neck/shoulder feel so much better and then days like last night made it hurt more than it had in three days.  Stay tuned…?

Nothing Better to do

Nothing better to do

I fish almost every day. I find myself saying this to a lot of people “I had nothing better to do”. Usually this phrase has negative connotations. For example “Even though it was a blowout I watched the Sox game because I had nothing better to do”. For me it is the opposite. Within driving distance and within a reasonable budget I really can’t think of anything better to do most days or nights than fish.

I love going to the movies and compared to most people I go much more. Yet over the past year, almost every time I think about seeing a movie, I think about it cutting into my fishing time and that turns me off to the idea.   I have no problem going to the movies alone during a weekday. I used to do it all the time. Lately as you can see from my posts I choose fishing instead. I have gone to the movies a few times this year, usually with Laurie or DJ. If I make plans with them, I force myself to go.
I used to go on a lot of day trips. DJ and I have been everywhere within an hour and a half drive. When he was growing up I took him everywhere. Zoos, the Freedom Trail, Concord, Salem, Plymouth Rock, Battleship Cove and Museums are places we have gone. We have done most of those things multiple times. I don’t know if it’s because he is grown up or if I have gone to these places so many times that I have lost interest. Given the choice of going to Plymouth to see all the small attractions or to fish …well it’s a no brainer. The only exception to this is the Museum of Fine Art which is awesome. However the hassle to get there limits my enthusiasm to going only once every couple years.
So next time you see me out in the cold, fishing for winter time stripers or sitting in a cold spring rain carp or trout fishing, if I tell you “ I had nothing better to do”, just smile and know I am enjoying myself.
On a side note does anyone every say something had “positive connotations”

Numbers

This is number three in a series of posts about things I have been thinking about. Some are rants and some are just things I have been thinking about. This one is about numbers and keeping track of fish. enjoy

Numbers

I have always been a numbers guy. I keep track of a lot of things. I have a five subject notebook that I have labeled “Journal”. It is not a journal in the same way people keep a diary. It is really more like a series of lists. I have been keeping it since I was about twenty. In the different sections are lists ranging from books I have read to the number of animal species I have seen in each year. I know exactly how many movies I see each year separated by rental and going to the movie theater. I keep track of daytrips I’ve gone on and who was with me. I have a list of concerts I’ve been too.

The only time I write in “diary form” is when I go on vacation. At the end of each day I write down what I did or saw that day. Since my notebook is nine years old (I’m on my second since I was twenty) I leave it home on vacation. I take some scrap paper with me on vacation or another notebook and transfer the trip log when I get home. I am very thorough. If I did it I will write it down. Sometimes I will get detailed as eating a turkey sandwich on top of a mountain if it was a real good sandwich.

You’re probably asking yourself why I do this and where I am going with this. The answer is I don’t want to forget anything. I am very visual so if I write it down I remember it better. If I reread something it reminds me of it. Even when I keep track of movies, if I write it down, I am more likely to remember the plot five years later. 

The same thing is true of fishing. I keep track (usually on the computer) of the fish I catch and where I caught them. I know exactly how many trout I have caught over the last two years. This year I have been better at writing down the other species. Although I probably couldn’t tell you exactly how many stripers I have ever caught, I think my guess would be within fifty.

Some people keep track of these things and some don’t. To be honest, it is all about personality and what is fun to you. Some guys need to know how many they caught while others just go out and hope to catch fish and don’t think about how many. Neither side is right or wrong.

So when I write a blog post about a fishing trip it will usually include the number of fish I have caught. I write the number down for two reasons. One, I actually know how many fish I caught. Second, if I write “the fish were really biting” or “we caught a lot today”, I assume you would actually like to know how many.

Do not consider this bragging or boasting at all. It is not boasting. Besides there are only about five of you that read this and most are good fishermen so who the hell am I bragging to anyway?  Here are my reasons.

I put in a lot of time fishing. I assume if others fished as much as I do they are going to have just as many days where they run into large numbers of fish. If I write about a fifty fish day, I assume the reader knows that the fish were stacked up and anyone with reasonable common sense knows fishing was easy that day. If I have a day where I catch twenty stripers or trout it isn’t to boast. It is to share my experience. I want others to want to do the same thing. Maybe and hopefully it will get others to go fishing or get outdoors, which is the point.

Also, numbers really aren’t very impressive after a certain number anyway. I will give you an example This March I caught 9 trout at Fearings Pond. It was a good day, I had a person that read my blog say” You nailed them yesterday.” A month later I caught 26 in a couple hours. But is that number really three times more impressive than nine. Did I seem like I am three times better of a fisherman because I caught 26. The answer is no. I ran into some fresh stockies. I kept fishing for them because I rarely run into browns and brookies (I catch brookies in New Hampshire but not too many in MA) and that is what these were, so I took advantage of the easy fishing.  It wasn’t to pad my stats or to brag about how many I caught. I had only caught three browns in my whole life until that day so each one I caught was really fun for me.    

The point is some people keep track of how many they have caught. Some don’t. Some fishermen write down in fishing reports with tide, date, weather conditions hoping to learn from it. Some keep track so they can add up how many they caught at the end of the year. In the end, who cares? Just have fun doing it your way.  When I write how many I caught in a post it is because if I was reading someone else’s blog (and I do) I would want to know how many “a lot “was. If you read about how many fish someone caught they are trying to make a point of how good the finding was, not how good a fisherman they are. With a little luck and a lot of time everyone will have great fishing days.  Don’t read anything into it, but keep reading it.