Competing Against Friends



Two successful anglers happy for each other's success
Picture from last year

I thought I would tackle my views on the subject of competition while fishing. There is a lot of money in bass tournaments, fishing derbies, Striper Fest, ice fishing tournaments, etc… That is not what I am going to talk about here. What I want to discuss is competing against friends.

 To be completely honest, I would prefer to work as a team and root for each other than to try to beat my buddy.

 My favorite thing about our carp fishing group is that we all root for each other. When we have our semi-annual fish ins, if someone catches a fish, cameras come out and pats on the back are as common as doughballs (carp fishing simile). I have been the guy to catch the carp and I have been the one to go fishless (more often than I would like to admit). The beauty of our group is we all get along and we have a good time at these fish ins sharing stories and laughs.

I have chased species I have never caught a few times with friends that had never caught that species either. I have said that whoever catches the first one, we will take a picture of it together. Obviously, if I wasn’t the one to catch it, I wouldn’t say I caught it but as a team WE achieved our goal. When I caught my first bluefish, I was with my son. Neither of us caught one before. I have a picture of both of us holding it. Even though I caught it, we as a team accomplished our goal.  He ended up catching one a few minutes later.

So I look at fishing more as a team game than a one on one contest. I figure the competition is versus the fish anyway. If I was trout fishing with a buddy, I would much rather lose 12-9 than win 4-1. Why? Because if I lose 12-9, that means I caught nine trout, which is a good day in anyone’s book.

I have had a few friends through the years that cared as much about catching more than me than how many they actually caught. I’m a guy and I have testosterone, so when they do this, it gets my dander up. There’s nothing more aggravating than someone rubbing it in when they are catching (especially when you drove) or worse being a sore loser when they are not.

I’ve been on both ends of the fish hitting one person’s bait and not the other. There’s nothing you can do about it. Sometimes it’s just luck. When I’m the one catching, I will do everything I can to help my friend(s) hook up. I’ll give them the same lure, tell them to cast near me, etc… However I don’t deal well with poor sports. Then all bets are off and it is every man for themselves. Hearing them complain about it makes me try harder to catch more fish (fuel on the fire).  My mom used to say “if you’re going to cry, I’ll give you a reason to cry.” Whining isn’t going to help you catch fish.

For my part, I don't mind "losing". I do not mind at all if someone catches more than me. I am a numbers guy so I know exactly how many fish I am catching. However, I look at it as me versus the fish. If I have five nights in a row of great fishing but you catch more than me all five nights, than my hats off to both of us. I’m a pretty happy guy. When your fishing partner is Dave Pickering, you learn very quickly that you’re going to “lose” more often than you win. I don’t waste my time trying to out fish him, I just enjoy talking fishing and having a few laughs. For Dave’s part on the rare occasion where I catch the bigger or more fish, he is happy for me and wants me to succeed.

If I do start fishing with someone and I see that they get upset when they are having a rough day or rub it in when they are catching, I usually distance myself from them pretty quickly. Catching fish is never a sure thing. We are all going to have days when the fish aren’t biting. Complaining about it, won’t change that fact.  

 

 

Ice Fishing this Friday

Ice Fishing

My weekend off was more than a museum and a nice restaurant, for the first time in a week I went fishing. It wasn’t planned and I did not expect to go. I got a call from Dave Thursday night that the fish were really biting on a small pond in Rhode Island. I was more than happy to tag along the next day.

We met up about two pm. When I got to the pond, Dave had been there 45 minutes and had already caught fifteen or so fish. I drilled a couple holes and started fishing. We were both jigging. We were using half ounce Kastmaster spoons. Dave was tipping his with a mealworm. I was using waxworms, both can be purchased at pet stores,

We were catching one bluegill after another. After an hour Dave mentioned a couple times that he was surprised neither of us caught a bass. He said it again a few minutes later. A few minutes after that I hear  “Holy smokes”. I looked up and his rod was bent in half. After a decent battle he landed a bass weighing almost three pounds.

In my short time ice fishing I had never caught a largemouth bass. A few minutes later, I caught one that Dave’s could have eaten. It was about 9 inches. We took a picture because it was my first bass. In between our bass, we were still catching bluegills like it was mid-July. The bluegills were so aggressive we were catching some with no worms at all. They were hitting the bare hook of the spoon, although not as many were caught this way.

I then set the hook on a big fish. It took drag and after a minute it came up and I could see it through the hole. I saw a very large bass that I knew was over three pounds. After some gentle pulling, Dave lipped it for me. It was my biggest bass in almost ten years. It was about five pounds. We took some pictures of it and put it back down the hole.

We caught a bunch more bluegills and Dave caught another 14-15 inch bass. We called it a day about 4:15. What a memorable day for both of us.

Cassarino's on the Hill

Cassarinos

Well, my weekend of culture did not end with the Museum of Fine Art. Early this winter Laurie suggested we go to a restaurant on Federal Hill in Providence. There are many restaurants on the hill from little hole in the wall pizza joints to really high scale way out of our price range places. Neither Laurie nor I had ever gone out “to fine dining”. Most of the places on the hill are Italian.

When we were making plans to go, I got the pinched nerve in my neck. I didn’t want to waste money eating expensive food while sitting in pain so we waited until I healed. A couple weeks ago I reminded Laurie of her idea and asked her if she still wanted to go. After looking online at a bunch of menus we (she) picked Cassarinos. We (she) chose it because the menu was large with a large variety of choices, and the prices were reasonable (15-25 dollars for most meals). She made reservations for Thursday night. We didn’t want to deal with Providence traffic, both automotive and crowded restaurants, on a weekend night.



Clams Zuppa

Our reservations were for seven, but because there wasn’t any traffic we got there about fifteen minutes early. There is free valet parking. This was great because it was freezing cold and parking is tough anyway. It turned out there wasn’t any need for reservations; the place was only half full.

We got bruschetta for an appetizer. Laurie got chicken parm for the meal. I got clams zuppa (linguine in a red clam sauce with a dozen littlenecks). For dessert I got crème brulee. Laurie as she had been planning for two weeks ordered tiramisu. I had never tried either dessert before. I was definitely missing out. Holy cow, were they good. The entire meal was delicious. I did not have any faults with my meal at all. Laurie’s only complaint was there could have been more sauce on her chicken parm. Laurie got two lemon drop martinis. I had one beer and a water (designated driver).

Without the drinks, the meal would have been about $60. I don’t think that’s too bad for a night out to a fancy restaurant, besides I spend that in gas to fish all the time. It was something different that I have never done and it was fun.

Tiramasu

Post script: I completely understand that a restaurant review has absolutely nothing to do with Southern New England Outdoors. I chose to write about it because a fancy restaurant is as foreign to me as false albacore are to a Nebraska wheat farmer. It was a new and different experience for me and well out of my comfort zone.

 

Museum of Fine Art

Obviously, my hobby and passion is fishing. As I have mentioned before, I also love history. I have taken many daytrips to visit Battleship Cove, Lexington and Concord, and done the Freedom Trail at least five times. One of my favorite places to visit is the Museum of Fine Art in Boston.

On Wednesday night Laurie and I went. She took this week off from work and I had Thursday off so neither of us had to get up early Thursday.  I will not bore you with all the details such as hours, directions etc…The website has all the important information including floor plans. www.mfa.org

Here is one important detail. Admission is $25 for an adult. However on Wednesdays after 4 pm the museum is by donation only. It is open until 9:45, so there is plenty of time to see everything, even getting there at 4 pm. Instead of “donating” we rented to audio guides ($6 each). Many of the museum pieces have numbers next to them. You punch in the number of the piece and you can hear a short narrative about it.

If you haven’t studied the floor plan ahead of time, it is a good idea to do so before you start your tour. There is so much to see, you can’t see it all before you start to get sore feet or bored. As interesting as it all is, your mind (or at least mine) can only take so much information overload. We hit the exhibits we most want to see first and go from there.

John Hancock

We started at the far corner of the floor. This is where the impressionist paintings are. More specificly, we wanted to see the Monets. There are about five Monets in the room. The Monets are in the European section. I enjoy this because every painter you have ever heard of such as Degas and Van Goh to name a few. There are some paintings going as far back as the early Renaissance. It is pretty awesome to be standing next to a painting a thousand years old.

 After we visited the European masters, we switched our focus to American Art. For me this means finding the Gilbert Stuart paintings. Stuart was the number one portrait painted during Revolutionary War times. All the painitings of Washington, Adams, and Revere in your history books are from Gilbert Stuart. I enjoy these paintings of American heros. Other American painters including Bierstadt ( western landscapes) are represented.

Blocks from Temple of Athena at Assos

Next up we went to Ancient Art.  Some of the ancient stuff is a little boring to me such as pottery. However some “art” is really historic artifacts.  There are helmets and a shield from Greek soldiers. There are busts of Homer, Augustus Caesar, and many of the Greek and Roman gods of mythology. There are blocks from the Temple of Athena at Assos.

Ancient Egypt is well represented with an entire mummy. There are canopic jars. There is a head of Ramsess III. Also there blocks from an ancient gate leading to a temple.

Because of sore feet and hunger we stayed about four hours. We saw everything we wanted. We skipped out on sections of “ Jewelry”  and “Musical Instruments.” The museum may be considered “fine art” but for a history buff, there are so many really neat must see artifacts… Who doesn’t like mummies?   

 

I'm not a sucker, thats a sucker

Finally got out fishing for the first time in over a week. It was a nice day and I tried carp fishing for the first time this year. I invited my friend Dave. I baited up the spot yesterday hoping it would draw in some carp. Between us we got a couple bumps and ended up with one sucker.

There was still ice along the edge of the pond so the water is still a bit cold. Hey, at least we got out there. Beats being in the house.

Check out the RI Carp Anglers Group End of the Year Video

Every year RI Carp Anglers Group president Dave Pickering puts together an end of the year video. Many of the pictures are taken from Fish ins, pictures sent Dave along with fish either caught by Dave or by people fishing with him. Click on the link to go to his site. Some of the largest carp ever caught by the group were in 2012. Enjoy


http://ricarpfishing.blogspot.com/2013/02/2012-ri-cag-highlight-video.html

Going with the flow

Because of the bitter cold temperatures last week, I finally did some ice fishing. After going with Dave, I went out two more times. I fished the same pond in northern Rhode Island. I caught a few sunfish and perch both days. I think its kind of cool seeing a pumpkinseed with all their colors come through the ice. My last time ice fishing, I had a really good day. I got out of work a little early and got three hours in on the ice. I had a blast.

The forecast for Wednesday and Thursday was for extremely warm weather calling for warm rain in the fifty degree area. I hoped the ice could somehow hang on because it was going to cool off again Thursday night ( it did Thursday night was cold). Unfortunately my hope was wrong. Yesterday morning when I woke up, ponds that had six inches of ice were completely ice free. I couldn't believe my eyes.I doubt the ponds will refreeze enough for safe ice again this year.

Well, since the ice was not safe, I went back to my old winter hobby of striper fishing. That was out for almost a week because the river was solid ice. Yes, a salt river was iced over for a week. Because of the thaw I went back to see if any stripers were around. Along with a few other guys, we found the motherload. Stripers could be caught on almost every single cast. They were feeding aggressively even splashing the surface. Everyone was catching fish. They were in an area over a mile long. They were definately not holed up in just one spot. I ended up catching more stripers than any other day ever including the spring and fall. It was an awesome sight.

I went back on Thursday with my friend Amber. The wind switched to the north and it was cold. The fish completely shut off where weI went. We didn't catch any.

The beauty of having options is that cabin fever never sets in. Now that I fell for ice fishing, I will just do that when the weather is really cold. If there is no ice, I can fish for stripers every night. Either option beats watching tv and that is fine with me.