End of the Year Review Part 1 Goals Reached/ Goals not reached

It is the time of the year again where we all look back at the year that passed by much too quickly and look ahead to the New Year and wonder what it has in store for us. For me, writing this post is one of my favorite things to write. It is my way to remember highs and lows from my year. That said, I am a pretty positive person, so I quickly wash away bad memories and look back on the good ones fondly. Maybe more than I should, I look back as much as look forward. That is why I keep a journal, take a lot of pictures and write some boring posts on this blog.

All that said, looking back is part of who I am. I enjoy checking to see if I achieved my goals and reliving old adventures through writing. So part one of my end of the year review just like last year will be a recap of my goals I set for myself last year and if I reached them. Below is the original list I wrote last year around January 1, 2013

1 Go 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 try catch 50 from Jan1-March 1.

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.

Here is how I did. I reached 10 of the 13 Goals. As you will see below, I didn't sleep outside, surf, or

 

1.      I did go to the MFA on February 20. I love that place, there are just so many cool things to see.

2.      I did catch one tatoug about 12-14 inches at Fort Whetherill. I have no idea how it found my bait with all the cunner around.

3.      I tried for walleye at Beach Pond but was unsuccessful in my bid to catch one.

4.      Fish for bowfin- I not only fished for them but actually caught one. This is one of my favorite memories this year. I wonder how many people in MA caught a bowfin. I bet it’s less than a handful.

5.       I went to New Hampshire 5 times. This seems to be about the average number of times I can go in a year.

6.      Catch 50 Wintertime stripers from Dec 2012-March 1 2013. If I reach 50, try to get 50 in the first two months of 2013.  I caught about 100 in those three months. In January I caught 61 and Feb I caught 9. I would have caught a lot more in Dec 2012, but I was laid up with an injury for the first two weeks while guys were catching 10-30 a night. Still I achieved both goals so I am very satisfied.

7.      Hike to Ethan Pond for wild trout. I finally made it to Ethan Pond. The bad news was the wind was howling at 30+ mph so casting a fly rod was near impossible. Nice hike, I will be back again.

8.      Fund my fishing habit by writing articles. I wrote quite a few articles for “The Fisherman”. I enjoy writing the money is just icing on the cake.

9.       I only went to Wachusetts a couple times this year. I never catch much of anything but the place draws me like a moth to a flame. I always think “what if” or “next time”. I always see eagles or loons.

10.  Try to do a lot of trout fishing in the early spring. Although it didn't feel like I went trout fishing a lot, I went the exact same number of times as last year. Early spring was far colder this year than in 2012, so I caught less trout. The point of fishing for trout early in the year was so I could carp fish more in the later spring. In that case this goal was a success. I didn't do much smallie fishing this spring but that was due to success with carp as opposed to fishing for trout.

11.  Either go surfing or paddle boarding. Nope I looked into rental for paddle boards. It was way more than I was willing to spend. I also wasn’t willing to spend $400-600 to buy one with a perfectly good kayak at home.



Released without a measurement
Around 40 inches

12.  Catch a 40 inch striper- I caught one really big striper this fall. I didn’t measure it; it could have been 40 inches or just shy. Either way I’m calling this one a win for a couple reasons. I caught a 40 inch striper a few years ago I had weighed that went 22 pounds. The fish I caught this year was closer to 30 pounds. So it was bigger by at least 6-8 pounds if not longer. Also it is the largest striper I have ever let swim away, a fact for which I am very proud.

13.  Sleep outside during the winter- It didn’t happen, no excuses.

End of the Year Review Part 2- Fishing

Obviously when I write a review of my year, fishing is its own topic. I had a decent year fishing but to

be completely honest it was not as good as 2012. I caught some big fish, but I did not catch as many fish of most species as I did last year.
I actually kept track of the number of days I fished this year. This is the first year I have done that.  I went on 165 different days. To be honest I thought two hundred would have been more like it. The two months that I fished the least were February and June. I only went six times each of those two months. February was awful for stripers so I didn’t go much to save gas money. June, I am sure is surprising. When I got home from Niagara Falls I sat home after work for almost two weeks doing next to nothing.

I caught 27 species of fish this year.

Largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, black crappie, bluegill, red breasted sunfish, pumpkinseed sunfish, carp, golden shiner, common shiner, fallfish, brown bullhead, yellow bullhead, white catfish, brown trout, brook trout, rainbow trout, pickerel, white sucker, yellow perch, white perch, bowfin, striped bass, bluefish, cunner, hickory shad, scup, tatoug

red breasted sunfish

I caught three species I had never caught before; bowfin and red breasted sunfish, tautog

Notable species that I did not catch that I have caught other years include eel, fluke, sea robin, tiger trout, landlocked salmon, lake trout, false albacore, I did not snag a menhaden which is legal.

Species that I specifically targeted but did not catch are northern pike, eel, walleye, golden trout, alligator gar (Florida)

Around September 1 I noticed I had caught 24species of fish. I then put in an honest effort to catch 30. Unfortunately it was too little too late. I have never caught thirty in the same year. I caught a golden shiner at a pond near Wachusett but couldn’t get a laker or salmon. I went out for eels twice, both times catching a ton of bullheads, but not an eel. False Albacore did not show up near shore so I lost out on them. I did get a white perch to get species #26.  Then I caught some hickory shad for #27. In Florida I thought catching a shellcracker would be easy, but I did not come across them. I did not hook the gar that ripped the head of my shiner off.

Here is a rundown of the fish I target a lot.

Carp-

I had a great year fishing for carp. I caught a personal best mirror and a personal best common. Both were 26 pounds. Besides that I caught numerous fish over 15 pounds and a decent amount of

twenty pounders. I had a couple nights of catching a whole bunch of small carp in the early fall. The only negative was the streak of five skunkings in a row during the hot spell in July. It would be impossible to ever grade carp fishing an A+ because there are just so many slow days. All things considered two personal bests and May was so good I blew off stripers, I would give carp fishing for the year an A

Ice Fishing

2013 was the first year I went ice fishing in twenty years. I immediately fell in love with it. I jigged a few times early in the year and twice during December. I can't give a grade on how I di since I am still pretty raw. I caught one large largemouth. Since I was targeting panfish the bass was a nice surprise. I caught a lot of panfish during a couple of hot sessions. I absolutely love ice fishing.

Stripers

I really did blow off some striper evenings this spring to go carp fishing. Consequently, I did not catch as many stripers as I could have. During the summer I don’t waste my time fishing for them because there are better options. This fall was not very good overall, yet when I went fishing for them, they were usually around. More luck than anything, but none the less, I did catch fish making my hour drive to Narragansett worth it. I missed the first two weeks of November since I was in Florida. I did catch a fish around 40 inches, not a monster but a quality fish.   

B-

Trout

I know this is a pattern but I carp fished a lot during the spring on days I could have been trout

fishing.  I caught 119 trout. I caught them in 23 outings. That averages out to 5.4/trip. Last year I also went trout fishing 22 times. I caught 221 fish for an average of ten fish. So basically, I found twice as many fish an outing last year. This would seem to be like a terrible drop off. One day in New Hampshire last year I caught 53 trout in one day then another 27 the next. So if I take away those two days, the numbers are similar. March was also much colder and snowier than last year, so the fish were active earlier in the spring in 2012. Still I didn’t have too many great days this year. I had two days that I caught twenty fish, those were my high days.

B-

  Bass

I fished a lot for both largemouth and smallmouth this year. During the early spring I fished a lot in my kayak. During the late summer I walked the shoreline of a reservoir many evenings. I had some good nights and some bad nights. The biggest bass I caught was a smallmouth in New Hampshire about 18 inches.  Bass fishing was more of an afterthought, just something to do close to home.

C

Besides the carp fishing, fishing was only okay. I didn’t seem to have as many great days as last year. I think part of that is my fault. If I go fishing six times in the same week, but its two nights each carp, trout, and striper fishing then I can’t really get into a rhythm. If I striper fished six days in a row in May it would be easier to get a pulse on where the big numbers are.  Fishing for multiple species is part of who I am though.

As for the ocean, I think the big storms last fall brought huge numbers of stripers into Narragansett Bay. I caught over 200 in November alone. This year I didn’t come anywhere that number.

On a note that has nothing to do with me, bluefish were non existant this year. I only caught one in all the times I fished the ocean. I know two guys that fished over 100 times in the surf and between the two of them they caught less than FIVE all year. I don’t know what is going on with them but they were nowhere to be found.

Normally I keep track of deer, eagles, moose, bear and turkeys I see each year. I did not keep a formal count this year. I do know I saw well over 100 turkeys. Far fewer deer than normal, maybe 5-7. Laurie saw a bear. I saw an eagle in New Hampshire and a couple at Wachusett.

Winter Opinion Pieces are back!!! Carp fishermen are spoiled by Size

Carp are one of the few species of fish in New England that an angler has a good chance of catching 

This little 2 1/2 pound carp was a worthy adversary on light
tackle. So much so it deserved its picture taken before
being released

a trophy almost every time out if they fish the right spots. If you think about other species of gamefish chances of catching a big one on any given day are fairly slim. I think many people would agree a large bass is five pounds and a true trophy, over seven. How many does an average fishermen get of those a year. Maybe a couple five pounders and a career best of seven or eight pounds. Pike fishermen in southern New England will ice fish all winter for a couple fish over ten pounds. Trout fishermen chasing stockies will catch very few trout over 18 inches. Stripers over 20 pounds are certainly out there, but from shore, you really have to put time in to get one.

Carp on the other hand can grow to large sizes.  Another advantage to carp is in most ponds they are all almost the same size. Some lakes they will all be 4-8 pounds, other lakes they can be between 18-22 pounds. In those lakes it is rare to catch one under 15 pounds. Where are the small ones? Beats me. Very few carp lakes seem to have all sizes from juvenile to trophy.  Most places seem to have a very small size range. Unlike largemouth bass where you might have to catch 100 fish to get a six pounder, with carp it’s a matter of fishing locations that have carp of large average size. To catch a fifteen pound carp, you simply have to know what you’re doing and fish a lake that has fifteen pounders. Chances are, most carp you catch will be that size without wading through 14 inchers.

What is considered a trophy is a matter of opinion. Some guys think they elusive thirty pound barrier is the holy grail. Some guys think 25 is a big fish. Some think twenty is a trophy.  Rhode Island DEM considers a 15 pounder a big fish. Whatever your standard, an argument could be made for each. I’m sure largemouth bass fishermen new to the carp world would be thrilled with the ten to fifteen pound fish.  

Here in lies how quickly carp fishermen can be spoiled by size. Most guys new to the sport want to graduate up quickly to monster proportions. They think now that they caught a quality 18 pound fish, they need a twenty then a twenty five and up. I am one hundred percent for catching big fish. I love catching big ones as much as the next person, but if your whole goal is to break your personal best every time out or to hit the next multiple of five, then your trivializing the smaller fish. If you reel in an eighteen pounder and say “it’s only an eighteen pounder” then you’re in the wrong sport Haas.  It bothers me when guys are disappointed because it’s not the next trophy.

There does seem to be a common link for fishermen that take size for granted. That link is they are usually very good fishermen for other species. Guys that are used to catching big fish of other species like stripers or largemouth or even tuna want that monster right away. On the other hand if you take a kid carp fishing and they catch a ten pound carp they don’t say ‘now I need a fifteen pounder” they are more likely to say “I want to catch another one! That was awesome!”

Most dedicated adult carp fishermen care as much about catching carp as they do the size. I've sat next to my friend Paul in January with no hope of catching anything over ten pounds. I've sat with Dave in February reeling in six pounders saying they were a good fish for that water body. Its not just the winter that little ones are targeted. I've had fifteen fish nights in July, the biggest might have been pushing four pounds. I was not alone, other carp guys were enjoying the action as well.

The enjoyment should be in the fishing and hopefully catching. Getting a PB should just be a bonus when it happens.  There are plenty of places I carp fish where I have no chance of catching one over ten pounds. I have just as much fun fishing those locations. Mirror carp from the Blackstone River system are amazing fighters. They can compete with the most spirited bluefish or smallmouth bass. Catching a five pounder in the spring with high water spilling into the trees is a real challenge. They are truly amazing. In the places that have these fish an eight pound carp would be a real eye opener.

There’s a place up in Massachusetts that fishes really well during even the hottest summers. The carp are very small. A good one is four pounds. Yet they are plentiful and again, very spirited fighters. They will give every ounce of energy. I love fishing for them on warm July nights. Sure I’m not going to get a twenty, but I might catch twenty fish.

All I’m saying, is if carp fishing is going to be a hobby of yours, then you should do it for the right reason. The main reason should be simply to catch carp. What if you get that thirty pound fish your second time out? I can tell you, you might not ever catch another one. Only a handful of guys in Rhode Island and Massachusetts have caught one. Are you going to quit fishing because you reached your goal? You might as well because if the only reason to go carp fishing was to catch a monster, you succeeded, move on and take up surfing.

My personal definition of a quality size carp is fifteen pounds. I consider anything over 25 to be a trophy/monster. For the record, I have caught two carp that were twenty six pounds. I’ve never had one land on twenty five pounds. I’ve caught a few that weighed twenty four. Below that, many in the eighteen to twenty three range. I’m still looking for the thirty pounder. If I don’t get it and even if I do, the next time catch a decent fishI will never say the phrase “Oh, it’s just a seventeen pounder”

Icing

I went out to test the ice today. I wasn’t sure if I was going to find it to be safe. To be honest if I didn’t at one pond I probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere else. I’m cautious when it comes to ice, so if it wouldn’t have been safe, I would have called it a day. I got a late start (about 3 pm) and went to Falls Pond because it is right near my house. I drilled a hole so close to the shoreline that my auger was in the mud, I told you I’m cautious. So I went out into about 3 feet of water and tried again. The ice was about 4 inches. I went out little further and drilled holes in a straight line until I was about 60 feet from the shore and in about 8-10 feet of water. The ice was uniform at all my holes.

I started jigging in my deepest holes. At first I didn’t catch anything. I took a picture of a hole with my rod above it, just to prove I was on the ice. I decided to drill a couple more holes about 10 past my last hole. I let them rest for five minutes then started jigging. I didn’t get any hits for three minutes then all of the sudden my rod started to bend. I set the hook and reeled up a crappie. I was ecstatic that I actually caught something. I must have had the biggest, goofiest grin of my life.

I let it go and caught two other crappie and a small bass from that hole. The fish stopped biting so I started fishing my other holes. On my next hole I started catching one sunfish after another. I don’t have any clue how many but as fast as the spoon hit the bottom and I cranked it up a foot, I had a fish. My only regret is that I didn’t get out sooner. I fished until dark and the fish were still hitting. I ended up with 4 species of fish.

I was jigging a 1/8 ounce gold Kastmaster spoon tipped with waxworms. I was using a short homemade jigging rod with a small reel. I was using six pound line. The weather was about 40 degrees, I did not need a coat just my sweatshirt. I am not sure if the ice will be safe for long. There is a warming trend in this weekend and temps Sunday might reach 60 degrees. Tonight it’s only going to drop down to freezing. I’ m going to check the ice Friday morning but if it’s slushy, I will not be going out.

 

I apologize for not posting much this month.I have been writing a lot but not posting. I am working on a couple big writing projects for the blog. I'm working on my end of the year review and a three post piece about the White Mountains. they will be coming shortly.

...Any Fish in December is a Good Fish

One of my favorite phrases is “any fish in (insert the months of December, January, or February) is a good fish”. During those three months fish can be caught of course, but it is certainly more difficult. I’ve had thirty striper nights in January and caught carp sitting in a snow bank in the shortest month. Still, fishing is not consistent, and each fish caught is definitely not taken for granted.  For every great day or night in the winter, there can be five or six blanks in a row.

I had the last two days off from work. I couldn’t have dialed up more perfect December weather for fishing. Thursday was cloudy and misty. The high temp was around fifty degrees. The water was much colder than that, so the warmer air should have gotten the fish active. Friday was even better. It stayed warm all night Thursday night/Friday morning. Friday was again in the fifties. It rained on and off all night Thursday and showered all day Friday. The warm rain obviously warmed the water a few degrees. All of this warm weather should have gotten the fish active. I have seen fish get active many times when the temperature rises just a few degrees.

Thursday I went carp fishing from 10 am until 3:30. I went with one of my friends. We tried to different venues and hit multiple spots in each water body. Four rods out, not one hit.

Friday, I mixed things up and tried for some wintertime brown trout. I fished a few hours. I used shiners on one rod and lures on the other. Two rods, no hits, see a pattern.

At this point I fished 7 hours on my days off with not so much as a hit. I considered not going striper fishing Friday night. I knew traffic would be awful. Then I remembered it was going to be biting ass cold Saturday, so I didn’t want to waste the warm rainy night. So I sucked it up and went fully expecting to get blanked. Luckily, the fish were there. In two hours I ended up with six schoolies. I caught them on Zoom flukes. None were all that big but… any fish in December is a good fish!