Trouble at the Trout Pond

Believe it or not, for various reasons I barely got to fish this week. Tonight after work was the beginning of my next two days off. Even though it was rainy I decided to go fly fishing. I hadn't been to the fly fishing only pond this year.  I got to the pond about 6:15 and put my kayak in. I ended up catching five trout and a couple sunfish. It was nice feeling trout fight on my long rod and I really enjoyed myself. About an hour into fishing an old guy came to the pond. He was watching me fish. I assumed he just wanted to get out of the house. Surprisingly, he stayed at the pond for over an hour. He wasn't fishing, seems to me that I would have been bored if I were him.

Right before dark he yelled out to me. This is the conversation we had

Him " How many did you get"
Me   " Five"
Him  "Really!"  ( he only saw me catch two, I got the other three before he got there he seemed disturbed that I caught so many)
Me      "Yup"
Him    "Is this the first time you ever fished here"
Me     "  Its the first time this year, I fished a lot last year"
Him  " I've never seen you before, you know no one fishes from a boat here"

Me   " Well there's no law against it. Besides if anyone was fishing from shore I would not crowd them"
Him " Well no one does it"
Me   " No one was fishing tonight so I didn't bother anyone, I've had this whole lake to myself on Friday nights, Like I said, if I saw someone fishing from shore, I'd fish far away from them"
Him   " Well its not gonna make you any friends"
Me " I'm not trying to make friends or enemies, I just wanna fish"
Him  " It will make you enemies. Some of the guys can cast where you are now.
Me   "Then I would stay away from there cast"
Him    ( He could see I was ready to leave because it was dark " Be safe"

 The conversation was polite. I did not raise my voice in an angry tone at all. He made it clear that my kayak was not welcome, but he was also polite in words not so much in tone.

Now here is what I have to say. There are no rules against canoes, kayaks or float tubes at this fly fishing only pond. I can pretty much put a kayak anywhere short of a public pool because it has no motor. Just because no one else has put a kayak in doesn't mean they can't. I would never crowd out shore guys. I make no noise, I am careful to gently rest my paddle down so not to spook fish.  I barely paddle so I can keep rising fish within my casting distance.  I release every fish I catch from this pond. Its fun to watch the whole lake covered in rises in a pond loaded with trout. I won't ruin it by keeping fish. Also NO ONE WAS FISHING THIS POND TONIGHT BUT ME SO WHO THE F*** WAS I BOTHERING!!!

So let me warn anyone that may fish this pond that reads my blog: I don't give a shit if other people don't put boats there. I will continue to do so. I will be quiet, and respectful. I expect the same from you. Chances are, I will catch more fish than you, so deal with it. Not because I am a better fisherman. I am sure you are a much better caster than I am , but because I have more room to move around and find fish. If you don't like it, than spend a hundred dollars and buy a belly boat that way you can do the same.

I do not want or expect to be harassed. If I am, the next night I will be back with an Armada of canoes, kayaks and belly boats for myself, son and all his friends. I am sure you will not enjoy your fishing then. I am very mellow and relaxed, however if my fishing experienced is ruined because your a douche bag, I guarantee, I will ruin yours as well! Call it immature, but I was not made to turn the other cheek!

Not every day off is going to be great but Jeff got a keeper

I always try to have at least one fishing adventure on my "weekend" off. Yesterday I went carp fishing with my buddy Dave. We didn't catch any monsters but the action was really good. We both got a few fish.  My highlight was a 19 inch sucker.
Today, hanging out with Jeff we thought we'd do some trout fishing in the am followed by some striper fishing tonight. The predicted high tide was about 8:30 tonight. I didn't feel like killing us, so I picked Jeff up at 7:20 instead of some ungodly early morning hour.

We tried three different trout ponds,but the trout fishing was horrible. Jeff got one brookie. He also targeted bass and sunfish and ended up with two each.  I targeted strictly trout ending with none while I got one small bass. We left this nonsense about 1 pm and went to respective houses, each of us taking a nap.

I picked Jeff up about 6 pm and we headed to Providence. I caught one small striper and had one more on. Meanwhile, Jeff caught 4.His biggest was a nice thirty incher.

I'm going to have to rethink adventure options for the next few weeks. Burning over half a tank of gas for one brook trout, is not a sensible thing to do. I plan on prioritizing my adventure ideas, at least until late spring when New Hampshire becomes my favorite option.


White sucker

Jeff's Brookie

11 Year old kid catches 23 pounder

One of the women I work with ( Holly) has a son that loves to fish. His name is Ronnie. I've known him and his mother for a few years now. Ronnie loves to fish and be outdoors. Ever since I got rehired at work, Holly has mentioned Ronnie has been wanting to go fishing with me.  This was school vacation week so I took Ronnie fishing.

I didn't know what we would fish for when I left for work this morning, so I packed EVERYTHING. I was prepared for kayaking, saltwater, carp, and panfish. I hoped to use the kayak. What 11 year old boy wouldn't want to paddle a kayak. When I went to pick him up, the pond that we were going to fish was glass calm. This got me looking forward to catching a boatload of perch.

By the time we got to the pond 45 minutes later, it was a little breezy, but it kept getting stronger. We fished from the kayak about a half hour before giving it up.  I had pre baited an area in case we fished for carp. After taking the 'yaks out of the water and setting up our rods we had about 90 minutes to fish. Ronnie was casting meal worms catching plenty of sunfish when one of the rods went off.

I did not pick it up. I wanted it to be his fish if he landed it. He set the hook and the fish started taking line. After at least a five minute battle, Ronnie landed his first carp ( there is dispute whether he ever caught a very small one but based on his description, I think he caught a large golden shiner before).

His fish was enormous. It weighed 23 pounds. I have to say it looked bigger. I weighed it three times to be sure. First carp/ 23 pounds. My biggest also 23 pounds, I've been at it 11 years. I can't say Ronnie was gleaming with a smile that wouldn't come off. His expression was more like disbelief on how big the fish was. That was my exression too. The fish was so big, there was no way he was going to hold it, so we laid it on the ground while he held it from squirming for a picture.

Good job Ronnie!

Terrific striper fishing

This past week the striper fishing has been truly great. I could go on with many stories about fish caught by myself or my friends this week. My last three outings have been 7,9, 12. Jeff and Dave have both been nailing fish.

To spare you all the details, I'll just talk about tonight. Jeff and I went to his favorite place to fish tonight. Its a place he talks about often and catches a lot of fish at. Its a spot where schoolies can be caught one night and the next a big fish might be caught. Blues show up here also later in the spring. We started about 6 pm. The sun was in our face and the breeze and temperature were very comfortable. After fishing about five minutes I walked back to the car to get my sunglasses. In the time I was gone, Jeff caught two fish. Both schoolies, both a lot of fun. We both noticed the stripers were spunky tonight, probably due to the warming water temps.

Surprisingly, we ran into some bait and tried to follow it up the shoreline. Although the bait was in close, most of the stripers were at the end of the cast. Between Jeff and myself, we landed 23 fish. My friend Dave and his brother were in a boat just offshore, I don't know how many they caught but it was a lot. They got a couple keepers. They got close enough on their drift a couple times to yell to each other.

Bad angle but this fish was 33 inches

Right about dark, I hooked into my last fish. I could tell immediately it was not a small one ( the previous fish was my smallest of the night; about 10 inches. After a 3 minute battle that involved a lot of line screaming off the reel, I landed my first keeper of the year ( not including holdovers in January). It was 33 inches. After a few pictures we let it go. That was a hell of a way to end the night.


Post script- I seriously doubt I will catch as many trout as I did last year. I'm going to ride this striper train as long as I can.

First Ever Salmon Today!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jeff and I went to Wachusetts Reservoir this morning on a hunt for the ever elusive lake trout. As usual the lakers proved elusive. However, I caught this 23 1/2 inch landlocked salmon. When I weighed it, two hours after I caught it, it went 3.2 pounds.

Jeff and I got our first fresh stripers today

First off don't read so quickly, I wrote STRIPERS not STRIPPERS.

Although my buddy Dave has been nailing stripers for over a week now, I finally got out my first time for them today.  Jeff and I each caught a small schoolie each. We got to the spot ( courtesy of a tip from my friend Dave) right as the action was dying. We each picked one up. So at least our season has officially started. Suprisingly stripers are already all over the place. They are in the ocean and in the bay. With warm temps this weekend coming, some big numbers could be caught

50th Trout of the Year landed

While I was down the Cape last Thursday I landed my fiftieth trout of the year.I am a list/ chart guy. I can't help it. I like comparing stats. So I keep track of how many, how caught and where. Here are the stats for the first fifty I caught this year and also compared to the first fifty caught last year in parenthesis


Date I caught number 50     April 5  ( last year May 9)
Number of days I caught at least 1 trout - 9 ( last year 16)

Pond I caught the most                    Fearings     17 ( last year Falls 30 )

Species

Rainbows             32       (46)
Browns                 13      (3)
Brookies                 5      (1)

Number of different lakes  6    (4)

How caught

Spinner ( Roostertail)                    30     (6)
Spoon   ( Kastmaster)                   13      (1)
Fly fishing ( with fly rod)               2      (9)
Casting Bubble/ Fly                        3     (12)
Powerbait                                        2     (20)

Kepp in mind that I know these statistics don't say much. Still theres a few things that can be taken away from them.

-Last year I caught 2/5 of my trout on Powerbait. This year only two trout. I made a decision to use lures and avoid Powerbait as much as I can

- I've caught 18 trout that are not rainbows so far this year, only 4 last year. This is because I'm spending more time down the Cape and Plymouth where they stock more browns and brookies

- I caught my first  trout last year March 31 and my fiftieth on May 9. I don't know how many trout I will catch this year or how much time I will even fish for them but I am way ahead of last year. I caught my 40th trout March 31 this year.

- I caught more on the fly rod in the first 50 last year. I normally don't start seriously fly fishing until the second or third week of April, so thats not a suprise.

- It took me 16 successful outing to catch 50 trout last year. Thats a little over 3 trout/ outing. This year I did it in 9. Also I really caught 65 trout in those nine trips I'm averaging over seven trout a trip. I'd like to say its because I'm so much better than last year, but more likely its because I've taken a couple all day fishing trips and ran into some fresh stockies a couple times. Nothing like a 26 trout day to boost your average.

Freshwater oddities

I've gone carp fishing the last three nights. I've caught a couple, but I've caught some really weird things the last couple days. Ironically while writing this I am watching River Monsters. Although I can't claim any " monsters", I can say catching these two things were just as odd.

Last night I caught a yellow bullhead catfish. Normally yellow bullheads are almost brown. The belly is slightly yellowish, as opposed to a brown bullhead whos color is a creamy white. The only real way to tell the difference from a yellow and brown bullhead is the light chin barbels of the yellow.

Not last nights fish. Last night I caught a yellow bullhead that was lemon colored. I have never seen one that color. It was so yellow it almost glowed. Both pictures are the same fish. It was really pretty. Luckily I caught it, it was the only thing I caught last night.   

     Tonight I caught something even more bizarre. I did catch a carp, but right before dark I got another hit. It took some line so I set the hook. As I was reeling in, I knew I didn't have a carp, it was kind of dead weight but was kind of heavy. I thought I might have a very large bullhead.  When I reeled in, I realized I had a turtle. I'm not a fan of catching turtles. Snapping turtles can be a pain, but I just feel bad catching a sun turtle. In Southern New England we have painted turtle and spotted turtles living in ponds along with snappers.

That is why it was such a surprise to catch a red ear slider. Red ear sliders are not native to here. I caught one on three pieces of corn. Sliders are the turtle found in pet stores. The one I caught was most likely a release from someone that didn't want to take care of it any more.  Its a shame that people buy pets and just toss them aside when they don't want them any more. More importantly these sliders really are invasive. They could screw the ecosystem and compete with and possibly breed with native turtles. I can't say I'm not part of the problem. I couldn't bring myself to kill it, so I let it go.  

April Carp, Check

Pond hopping leads to my best trout day ever! 26!

Today was my first of two consecutive days off. My plan for today was to fish at Nickerson State Park in Brewster, MA ( far down the Cape) I planned on fishing there all day and learn the ponds as much as I could. I left the house before seven. Much to my surprise, I was at the front gate in ninety minutes. I planned on it taking two hours. I first fished the boat ramp area of Big Cliff Pond. When I got there a guy said he just caught a brown. Good news I thought. The wind was strong in my face so my only real option was a spoon. I worked the shore line on both sides of the ramp. Never got a hit. I probably covered about 1/3 of a mile.

I thought no big deal, there are other ponds to explore. I then went to Flax. The wind was also in my face. Even though this pond is smaller than Big Cliff, the wind was much stronger. I bet it was over 35 mph. No luck there. I then drove to a parking area between Big and Little Cliff.  Little Cliff was calm and the wind at my back. I worked my way around the open areas of the pond. I caught two pickerel and 1 brookie. At least I wasn't going home skunked!! However that is a hell of a ride for one trout.

I fished Little Cliff about an hour then tried Big Cliff on the other side of the parking area. No luck again. I then drove to the calm side of Flax hoping there might be rising fish and I could use my fly rod... Nope.... At this point it was 12:45. I'd been fishing for fours without much to show for it, and worse the wind was brutal.

I decided I was done with Nickerson and instead of fishing there all day I'd try some other spots on my way home until I caught trout. Worse case scenario was I wouldn't catch anything but it would break up my ride into pieces.  I drove back to Sandwich and fished a pond I've only fished a couple times before.  On my way to Sandwich ( heading west) the sky was covered in clouds. There was no sun to be seen. This perked me up. I was very happy with the cloud cover and thought it might get the trout in the mood to eat. The pond is only a few acres and a good portion of it has a wooded shoreline. When I walked to the windy side, it still wasn't bad. I could cast a roostertail far enough so I put on the yellow coachdog color that weighs 1/16 ounce.

The fish started hitting almost on my first cast. My first fish was a brown then a brookie. I thought right then I had a shot at a trout trifecta since all I needed was a rainbow and they are pretty common. I  caught ten trout on the Roostertail in about an hour. I did get a rainbow so I got my first trifecta of the year. The ten trout got broken up like this eight browns, one rainbow and one brookie. I decided to go back to the car and get my fly rod.

I came back with it and my spinning rod. The fish were on the shoreline with the wind coming at me. I couldn't get my fly out deep enough. Every time the wind would calm down I'd try it. I didn't get anything on it. However... I was still nailing them on the Roostertail. I worked the shoreline a few times. I ended up catching twenty five trout at this pond! It was awesome. The final breakdown was 16 browns, 7 brookies and two rainbows.

At 5:15 I decided to leave. The wind was calming down and the water was almost flat. I thought I could catch an insect hatch at Fearings. This was a mistake. I got caught in over a mile of traffic backed up at the Sagamore Bridge. After that I got caught in traffic along the Cape Cod Canal for another fifteen minutes at the rotary. I didn't get to Fearings until past 6:30. What I should have done was stay at the pond in Sandwich. The fish were still hitting. If the wind would have completely died I could have put in my kayak and got them on the fly rod. Lesson learned.

Twenty six fish for the day was still my best day ever by 6. Also, I caught 16 browns and 7 brookies made it that much better.