My First Time Ice Fishing in 20 years



 For the first time in twenty years I went ice fishing yesterday.  My last experience was not a whole lot of fun. I went with my friend Eric Meyer to a pond near some of his relatives house. We set up some tilts and caught a mess of pickerel and I think a couple bass. However I was not dressed appropriately. I was wearing sneakers. My winter coat was not warm enough, and I recall my hands freezing. Basically I was not prepared and froze my ass off.

Yesterday, my friend Dave called me up to tell me he was going to do some scouting to see if any ponds were safe and he would let me know if they were. I have been bugging him for a month to take me ice fishing. He uses a jigging rod, and I had never done that before. Also he has a chipper and an auger. I had no intentions of buying either until I found out if I would have fun.

Dave didn't know I had Friday off when he told me he was scouting. Some how I managed to invite myself to go with him. I met him at his house a half hour after we got off the phone. He took me to a pond in northern RI that freezes fairly quickly. It is also loaded with panfish ( perch, bluegills and crappie).

We dug a few holes. I used the auger while Dave used the chipper. We jigged a small Kastmaster tipped with a mealworm. We didn't get any, but some guys that were fishing the other side of the pond were leaving. They were using shiners . When they left we jigged in their holes ( they were there all day without a hit). We didn't get any at their holes so we went back to ours before we left.  I managed to get one little yellow perch. That was the happiest I have ever been catching a six inch fish. It was my first fih ever jiggingwhile ice fishing. It was the only fish we caught on this slow day.

Surprisingly, I had a great time. My new boots kept my feet warm. I wore ski pants over my sweats. I stayed very comfortable even though the high was around 22 degrees at best. I can't wait to go again. I am even sad that the weather forecast is for a warming trend. Thanks for taking me Dave!

Goals for 2013

Goals for 2013

Here are my goals for 2013.  I’ve spent the last couple weeks coming up with this list. Notice, that for bowfin and walleye, my goal is to fish for them not necessarily catch one. I just want to give myself a chance to catch one. This is like my goal last year for albies. To catch an albie , you need some luck. Same with walleye and bowfin, I know nothing about them. I will do all the research I can but ultimately, I will need some luck to get one. I just want to put in some time to give myself a chance.

1 Got to the Museum of Fine Arts.

2. Catch a tatoug. I don’t think I have ever caught one. I am pretty sure I fished for them once when I was 5 years old. I think about giving it a try but never do.

3. Fish Beach Pond for walleye at least once

4. Fish for bowfin. Apparently a couple places in Massachusetts have them. I’d like to give them a try.

5. Go to New Hampshire as often as I can (reoccurring goal)

6. Catch 50 winter stripers (Dec 1-March 1). If I reach this goal, l will try to catch 50 from Jan1-March 1. As of January 14 I have caught 43 between Dec/Jan. I did not fish much in December

7. Hike to and fish Ethan Pond for wild trout.

8. Continue to help fund my fishing habit by writing fishing articles. (Reoccurring goal)

9. Try for lakers at Wachusetts Reservoir in April. Stay away from Wachusetts in the fall. (Fish for stripers in the fall) (Reoccurring goal)

10. Try to do tons of trout fishing in March and April so I can concentrate on stripers, smallmouth, and carp in May.

11. Either go surfing or paddle boarding at least once.

12. Catch a 40 inch striper.

13. Sleep outside once during the winter. Shawme Crowell Campground is open year round.

 

First stripers of the Year... Finally!

It’s amazing how good fishing can be a matter of perspective. When I was catching fish in November anything less than five or six fish was a slow night. Even then, I was lucky to find absolutely fantastic nights/days where catching fish was easy from start to finish. Even early this winter, all the guys fishing were catching ten to twenty fish.

The same was true this spring trout fishing. There were days when the trout would hit anything and catching them was just a matter of casting and reeling them in. Although I did blank once or twice in the spring, most of the time fishing was fantastic.

Two weeks ago before the freeze up I caught some nice brown trout. I went four straight days. I caught fish all four times without a skunking. Yet I did not kill them by any means. Those four days I caught 1,4,1,1. Not exactly lights out fishing. Yet I was very satisfied, and pleased with the results.

Since January 1, I have put in a lot of time chasing stripers. Tonight was my fourth night out. On Saturday, I fished almost three hours without a hit. I hadn’t even had a bump. I tried every lure that I use to catch wintertime stripers. Finally tonight I caught two fish. I had a hit about fifteen minutes after I started fishing. The next cast I caught a fish. It wasn’t huge, but hey, the monkey was off my back.  A few casts later I caught another. Both fish were caught on a 3 inch white triple ripple grub mounted on a 3/8 ounce jighead. So in the two hours I fished tonight I caught two fish and had two other hits. This would have been an awful night two months ago, tonight I was ecstatic to catch these fish…all a matter of perspective.

RI Enviremental Police were doing there job Saturday Night

Last night I went striper fishing in hopes of catching my first striper of the year. I was determined to put in a lot of hours to reach this goal. I got to my first spot at 5:30 pm. I tried multiple spots and much to my dismay, I am still fishless.

The first spot I fished was also my last. Essentially, I did a circle around the river. The only place that had any fish was a dark area behind a rockpile. A couple teenagers were fishing the spot and one of them caught a bunch of fish on a small swimmer. I had a swimmer also but it was bigger than his. The fish wouldn’t touch it. The kids left about eight. I fished another 40 minutes with no luck.

At 8:40 I finally gave up. I emerged from behind my rockpile and saw a large SUV parked directly behind my car. I was parked on an otherwise dark deserted road. The SUV was running, so obviously I was slightly nervous going back to my car.

I opened up my trunk to put my gear away. Someone got out of the SUV. It turned out to be a RI Environmental Police Officer. He asked me if I caught anything. While we were talking he used his flashlight to see through the windows of my car. He asked me if I had any coolers. I did not. He was looking for undersized illegally kept stripers. Since I do not keep any fish, I did not have anything to worry about.

He then asked me to show him my license, which I had left in the car. I showed it to him. After that I told him all the spots I fished and what lures I was using. I told him about the kid that caught the fish earlier. We talked for a couple minutes and I was on my way.

Ever since I started winter time fishing in Providence a couple years ago, I have hated winter much less. I used to be depressed until spring came. Now that I have stripers to fish for (even if I don’t catch them) I am so much happier. Just being able to get out of the house and fish for a couple hours a few days a week makes winter so much more bearable.

 I want to thank the Environmental Police Officer that was out at 8:40 on a Saturday night for protecting this fishery that I love so much. This was the second time in a couple weeks I have seen an EPO in the area.  When I saw him last time there were a lot of guys fishing. He was looking for illegally kept fish. With their presence, poachers are much less likely to keep undersized schoolies. I think most of the regular winter time fishermen are happy to see the authorities. Most of us HATE seeing undersized or too many fish kept. I have called on poachers before.  Glad to see you out there this winter.

Thank you,

Nick Pacelli

End of the Year Review Part 2 Fishing

End of the Year Review
This is my favorite blog post to write for the year. I look forward to writing it starting the end of November. It gives me a chance to look back at fond memories from the previous year. Writing my end of the year review also makes me look back on things I could have done differently and also to see if I achieved my goals I set at the beginning of the year.  

To begin, this was my best year ever fishing. I probably fished a couple hundred times. I caught more fish of many species than I previously had.  I caught more big fish of some species than in other years and I broke my previous largest in a couple species. Let me preface this post by saying that although I make this public, it is my way of reliving events over the past year. I enjoy making memories and this post is a way of organizing them. Part two is about fishing. Obviously I spent so much time fishing this year, I neglected some of my other fun outdoor activities ( bird watching for example)

Stripers;
I had an unbelievable year when it came to catching stripers. I broke some of my own records.

1 I caught more stripers this year than ever

2. I caught more keepers this year than any year since 2001

3. I had my best night ever for keepers (5)

4 . I had my best day ever for stripers (not including days they blitz) 27

5. I had my best month ever for stripers  this November) 203

6. I had my best 30 days ever from Oct 14-Nov 14                  215

I spent a ton of time striper fishing this year. I really enjoyed fishing both down at the ocean and in the Upper Bay. Just as an example of how much time I spent fishing for them, in the 30 days of November I went out 22 days. This spring the fish came in very early because of the warm winter. Fishing was unbelievable the end of April and early May. The fish moved on earlier than normal so I stopped fishing for them earlier this summer than I normally do.  From May 18- Sept 15 I fished for other species.

The fall was one of my best ever. Because the bay anchovies were around during most of September, so were the stripers. I watched thirty pounders feed in water one foot deep to feed on them.  Although I didn’t get any big ones that day, it was an awesome sight to watch. Also because so many stripers were around this fall I went from September until December 2 without a skunking.  The only down side to my year striper fishing was my big fish was only 36 inches. I didn’t get any 20 pounders. I can’t complain. I had at least 15 double digit fishing trips.

Striper Fishing- A  ( would have been an A+ if I caught a 40 inch fish)

Trout;

I caught less trout this year than last year. However that is because I spent so much time chasing stripers.  In terms of how many I caught during each outing, fishing was outstanding. I caught a total of 221 trout this year. I caught them in 22 outings. That averages out to 10 fish/outing. This can easily be attributed to finding fresh stockies a couple times. Also one day in New Hampshire I found every fish in the lake stacked up on a windward shore.

Here are some breakdowns.

How caught
Spoon                          49
Roostertail                 52
Powerbait                     2
Casting Bubble             3
Fly Rod                          85
Small Rapala                 20
Shad Body/Jig head     10

Caught from 12 different locations. The pond with the most was Echo Lake, Franconia Notch 75. I broke my personal best day three times with 26, 29 and 57. I did not catch any trophies this year until late December. ( I consider a trophy over 17 inches) However I had so much fun trout fishing both home and in NH.

Trout- Easily A+

Carp
One of my goals this year was to catch a carp in all 12 months. I screwed that up by spending most of October fishing for stripers. However, carp fishing was very productive for me this year. I caught a 24 pounder which is my biggest carp ever. I also had my best days ever. I caught 12 on March 24 then had 14  on July 17.  I had very few skunkings and did really well fishing for little carp in July. I ended up catching 80 for the year. If I would have fished for them at all in the fall, I may have broken 100.

Carp Fishing- All things considered, carp fishing is hard. I could have caught more big ones or fished for them more in the fall and summer but I still think I have to give this year an A-

Bass
I went bass fishing more this year than the previous 10 years combined. I fished from shore almost exclusively. I was shown a lake that had smallmouth and fished there a lot ( more time taken from carp fishing). I had some really good days. I caught quite a few over 12 inches, but did not catch any three pounders or bigger.  Because I didn't catch any big ones and had a few days that I caught 0-2, I would grade bass fishing B-

Everything else condensed.
I landed three species I had never caught before.
I caught my first ever landlocked salmon from Wachusetts Reservoir after many tries. I caught my first ever False Albacore and four more. I witnessed the best albie day ever in Rhode Island.  I also caught quite by accident a northern puffer fish. Somehow, the little red brested sunfish has alluded me for another year.

I fished for snapper blues ( skipjacks) a few times. I quickly realized this was a waste of time. One, I tried eating them and just like larger blues- YUCK!. Second they were everywhere so instead of targeting them, I should have been chasing stripers because  I found snapper blues most of the time I was striper fishing anyway.

I caught over 100 of  four different species ( stripers, blues, trout, hickory shad), and am kicking myself for not spending more time carp fishing.

Wrap up-  I love fishing. I had the great luck finding fish this year. Having  nothing to do with pure skill, I has so lucky to pull up to a spot and find so many fish I could get bored. I ran across a bluefish blitz that stayed within casting range for so long that I moved to go find stripers.

I found trout three times were I caught them on every cast. I had 10 or more striper days about 15 times. Keep in mind that I have a job and had to pick my days when I could get to Narragansett, I was just fortunate to run across superior fishing.

I spent more time fishing by myself this year than last. Most of my fishing in New Hampshire was alone as was over half my my trips to Narragansett. DJ did not do much fishing as he was chasing girls.  I brought two people fishing that caught there first carp ( a girl and a kid). I also brought a firend to the Upper Bay striper fishing. He caught a  few stripers, but he was seasoned at striper fishing but we had a good night.

This was easily my best year fishing ever
A for the fishing and A++ for all the great memories I made

End of the Year review Part 1

This is part one of my end of the year review. Normally I would do it the last couple days of the year, but I have been so bored that I figured I would start it early, its not like much is going to change. I really enjoy doing my end of the year review. If for no other reason I can go back and remember the year. I get to go back and look at pictures I took and check up on my logs. Basically, I get to enjoy the memories I made. The review will be in three parts.

1 This is Part one- Looking back at the goals I set last January.

2. Fishing 2012

3. Anything else outdoors – daytrips, New Hampshire, historic sites, and animal count

This is my original list of goals I set for myself for 2012. I wrote them down the first week of January. I thought since I am laid up with my herniated disk, I could at least go back and see how I did. The below paragraph is part of what I wrote that day.  Under each one I wrote down if I accomplished the goal or not.

So over the last few days I came up with some goals this year. As I was writing them down they kept coming to me. Since I branched out and attempted to catch many species this year, I have more goals for the future. At the end of the year I will come back and revisit them and see if I was successful or if I fail

Here they are in no particular order:

1. Catch a twenty pound carp ( the biggest I caught this year was 17 pounds)

I caught a couple carp over 20 pounds including a weighed 24

2. Camp at Shawme Crowell ( campground down the Cape open all year )in the spring and trout fish all weekend

I did not camp at Shawme Crowell but it was by choice. I did spend many early spring days trout fishing several Cape Cod ponds

3. Fish Ethan and /or Shoal ponds for remote wild trout experience.

I did manage to fish at Shoal Pond. Ethan still eludes me. The hike back from Shoal was when my knee really hurt and could barely lift my leg to walk out the last five miles. I did not catch anything at Shoal. The hike was beautiful though and I would do it again.

4. Fish Nickerson State Park

I got out to Nickerson once. The wind was whipping around 30-40 mph. I caught one brookie and one pickerel at Little Cliff. It’s an awesome place, but I have to drive by no less than five great trout ponds to get there.

5. Go to Acadia National Park for vacation in June


We did vacation at Acadia. We spent a week in June. It rained almost every day due to a low pressure system that circled the northeast. Still it was a great vacation. We biked, hiked and did ranger programs. Amber enjoyed the week outdoors.

6. Wachusetts Reservoir
Fish for lakers in April
Fish for smallmouth and rock bass in May
Do not fish Wachusetts in the fall when I could be striper fishing

I fished for lakers in April, I didn’t get any but caught a 23 inch salmon so I will take that in trade. I didn’t make it there in May because I was striper and trout fishing. This fall I striper fished and that was the right decision because the fishing was HOT

7. Go to New Hampshire as often as possible

I got to New Hampshire five times this year. I hiked three mountains (South Twin, North Twin, Galehead) We went to Thoreau Falls, Shoal Pond and Chutters ( homemade fudge). Great memories

8. Try to fund my fishing habit through magazine articles, selling old stuff, anything other than my work pay check.

I had three articles in On the Water and a few in The Fisherman. So I was successful, however it seemed every time a check came in so did a bill… such is life

9. Try again for false albacore in late summer.

I finally caught albies. I caught five in one day. Notice the goal was to fish for them not catch one. I just wanted to put in the time to give myself a chance.  They are too erratic to assume because you fish for them you will catch them. I did witness the best albie day ever and for that I am grateful.

10. Catch a carp on a fly.

Epic Fail- I tried once. That day I walked through a giant poison ivy patch with just sandals on to fish by some trees. I went to a different lake to wash the ivy off. I used camp soap and scrubbed my lower legs and feet while standing in the water. When I looked up there was a sign on the tree that said this “This lake is sick. Do not swim in or touch the water” I am not making this up. I did not catch the poison ivy, but I did lose momentum to try again

11. This was not on my original list but once I caught a carp in January, I wanted to see if I could catch one during every month. I lost my streak in October due to fishing for stripers every night. I tried twice the last couple days of the month but did not land one. Also I have not gone carp fishing in December so I won’t get one this month unless the weather gods are kind to me after my neck heals.

Wrap up:

I had the best year ever fishing. I enjoyed trying to achive these goals. I fish, camp, and hike just because I love being outside.  In early May I went to Central MA searching for large mirror carp with one of my friends. It was about 45 degrees and raining. We fished for almost five hours. We only caught a couple fish and none of them were overly large. Yet, it was a memory that I look back on fondly. That is what it’s all about, making memories and getting outside. Sure I have goals and am working on new ones for this year but whether I reach them or not is not nearly as important as making memories.

If I have to sacrifice three weeks because of a sprained knee to see the view from South Twin Mountain then so be it. It just made the view that much sweeter.  If I sit in the rain in an attempt to catch a twenty  pound  carp or drive an hour and a half to see Nickerson State Park for the first time, these are small challenges compared to the reward afterwards.