A day late, but not quite a dollar short

Sunday through Tuesday the ocean in southern Rhode Island has been lit up with schoolie bass all over the place. The weather has been really warm and there has been almost no wind. Of course I had to work. So I was missing out on days where guys were catching 20- 50 fish a day. I couldn't take it any more so I asked my boss if I could go in early on Wednesday and get out about noon. He said I could.

When I got up Wed morning  the weather forecast for the day predicted 5-10 mph winds out  of the southeast. I knew the water wouldn't be glass calm like it had been. I just hoped the fish were still around. I picked Jeff up at 12:30 and headed down.

We fished three different spots and found fish in all three. It was not like it had been. I caught a schoolie at Gallilee Channel. We found more fishermen than fish at a beach in South County. Still I was probably 20 fish caught, and Jeff and I got a couple in the mix. Finally, he stopped at a very easy to fish rocky area in Narragansett on the way home. We picked up a couple more there. All the fish caught by us and everyone else were schoolies. I didn't see any keeper bass. I did see two blues and I suspect a few more were caught.

My highlight for the day was a fish I caught after dark. It hit one of my homemade deceivers that I made last winter. Its always cool when you catch a fish on something you made.

So even though the story of my year has been " you should have been here yesterday" we caught a few fish today. The weather was nice and I only had to work until noon. It could have been better, but all in all a good day. Like I said Friday any fish in November is a good fish.

I will post pictures after work today.

Any fish in November is a good fish!!!

I found out that the ocean was  not fishable today. The waves were big and the water was dirty. Unfortunately I had plans with Jeff to fish the Rhode Island south shore. This caused a dilemma for me. I knew Jeff was really looking forward to fishing today, but I was unwilling to waste all that gas money and time. Some how I had to break the news to my buddy. I couldn't get in touch with him by phone so I had to go to his house. When I pulled up, he came out of his house with his warm clothes in hand oblivious to the fact, I was about to let him down. When he opened the back door of my truck, he saw I didn't have any fishing gear in the back. I quickly told him that the ocean was unfishable. He thought I was pulling his leg at first. After a few seconds, he realized I was serious and wasn't driving down. The look on his face was about the same as realizing you have a winning lottery ticket, but for the wrong lottery.

We sat around for a little while and tried to figure out other fishing spots. Jeff kept suggesting places in the ocean that might be clean because they were out of the wind. I, however, had to play the role of Debbie Downer and tell him it just wasn't worth our gas. Each time I did, it was the loosing lottery ticket face. I don't blame Jeff for wanting to go despite the weather report. I have many times hoped that " it probably isn't that bad" At this time of year, if the ocean is dirty there just aren't as many options. The bay is pretty much vacant of fish, and the breachways are much better after dark. Also the tide at the breachways was wrong for trying them.

So after some grieving by both of us... we moved on with our lives. We decided to go trout fishing at my favorite pond. We went to Fearings in Myles Standish State Park. We got there about 2 and fished till 5:15. Fishing wasn't great, but it was fairly warm ( as opposed to the ocean breeze of 35 mph.) Between us we landed five trout. Jeff caught 4 and I caught only one. Jeff's four were the first ones for the year. So I'm calling it beginners luck dam it! So even though I only caught one trout, time went by quickly. I had fun, the pond is in a pretty setting and at least I knew there were fish in the lake. At the ocean, there may have not been any fish for miles. I think we made the right decision!

No pictures I left the camera in the car. Most fish were about ten inches, one was 14.

P.S. Feline AIDS is the number one killer of domestic cats ( if you get that reference you rock!!!)

Ah- Chu... You let me down again

this is the best picture I could get of the salmon

Stillwater River

You know those women that are in shitty relationships and keep running back to loser guys, as their friend you can't figure out what spell these women are under? Well that is my relationship with Wachusetts Reservoir. I had an unexpected Wednesday off today. Instead of going to the ocean and chase fish with stripes I went to the "Chu". I am sure I could have fished with Dave if I gave him a call ,and I'm sure Jeff  would have been glad to go to the ocean. Instead, I chased my dream of catching a landlocked salmon and lake trout, fruitlessly once again.

So todays plan was to fish the Sillwater River for spawning landlocks then try a gate I hadn't yet fished for lakers and smallmouth. I got to the river about 10 am. I tried one area of the river for a couple hours. I kept fishing different pools for about 1/2 mile from my parking spot. I didn't so much as see a shiner. Then I went upstream to another parking area near a bridge. I looked down into the water and saw a four pound female. I got my gear and quietly went downstream a bit. I was not going to keep any spawning salmon if I caught one. Still it felt like an unfair fight. I was 10 feet from a fish I could plainly see. It did not seem very " sporting". As it turns out it was unfair. I casted at that fish for 20 minutes and it didn't so much as look at my offering. I will say this, seeing a wild ( non hatchery raised) salmon was one of my goals this year. Even though I didn't catch it, seeing it was a privilege I am grateful to have witnessed.

After my salmon fishing outing I headed to one of the gates that had a long walk. I went to a point that supposedly has deep water around it. It seemed very shallow for as far as I can cast. So I walked the shoreline to another point with deeper water. There was another fisherman at the next point a hundred yards away. I didn't catch anything of course, but he landed 9 lakers. I'd say that was frustrating, but I learned at least a spot on the dam lake that gives up fish. I don't know how big his largest was and I only saw him catch a couple. I biologist was walking around doing a fishermen surveys and she told me he caught the 9. Finally about 4:45, I called it a day.

On the bright side, I saw a bald eagle. I avoided a turkey that flew across the road while I was driving around the lake, and I saw my first salmon.

So considering this was just another epic fail for me at the Chu, it was the most productive. I actually saw a salmon in the river. Maybe if I get lucky, next time whether this year or next, there will be more salmon in the river and I will have a better shot. Also I now know where to fish for lakers next time. Hopefully, that point will be vacant. I don't need nine, I would be quite satisfied with one!!!

Friday I will be at the ocean!!!

The next four months of this blog

Last year from November through  February I didn't write to much on the blog. Being winter, I didn't get out much. As far as I concerned, I didn't really have much worth saying. This year I am going to be a more active writer. So I have a few ideas of things to write about. I thought I would share them now.

Why share them now? Because writing this means I can stall shoveling the four inches of wet snow currently melting in my driveway. I have two branches that fell in my yard from last nights storm, both are so large, I can't drag them myself. If I give it a couple of hours most of the snow will be melted and DJ will be up and can help me drag the branches. So I write..

November- If we are lucky there is about three weeks left in the striper season. The snow storm may have shortened that timetable.  Many fish could be high-tailing it south right now. I plan on giving the ocean a shot a couple more times. I also still want to give Wachusetts another shot. I still haven't caught a lake trout or salmon. This week I might give it a go depending on the weather.

December- The state of Massachusetts stocks broodstock salmon the first week of December. I want to catch one very badly. There are  some ponds in Plymouth and the Cape  that I am going to try. I want to catch a salmon so much, I will be willing to stand in freezing cold water in my waders in below freezing temps to catch one. I WILL put in my time to catch one. 

I am also hopeful that stripers will over winter in the Providence winter in numbers like the good old days. I doubt this will happen, but I can dream can't I. Whether the fish are there or not, there is only one way to find out. So I will be giving the river a try at least a couple of times.

I can't say I have any fishing destinations lined up for January and February. If Jeff is around we might talk me into ice fishing. That said I will have stuff to write about that I hope you find interesting. I'm going to do more product reviews. I think they will be useful to outdoors people. I also plan on doing a couple of fish recipes. I'm finally going to give my list of favorite outdoor movies and books.

Basically what I am saying is even though winter is coming, keep reading I won't go into hibernation like I did last year. Thanks for getting this site up to 5000 hits!!!!

The best news in a while!!!

I have been complaining a lot about how bad the striped bass fishery has been the last few years. I have given my opinion on commercial fishing. I've complained many times that to many spawners are being taken out of the population. I've complained that the number of schoolies only 40% of what it was only five years ago.

So today I finally have some good news. Actually I feel it is great news. I am trying to convince myself to be only slightly optimistic, but truthfully I have images of the old days ( five years ago) of ten fish nights. The good news is... This has been a great year for striper reproduction in Chesapeake Bay. It seems that many young of the year striped bass  have survived their first few months of life. Actually, the young of the year index is the 4th highest total in history. This is great news, if this year class is as good as they say and there are no environmental disasters, we should have loads of 17- 22 inch schoolies in three or four years.

These fish will hopefully, in a couple years from now be a wall of schoolie sized stripers invading the Atlantic coast. In six or seven  years there should be a large number of just legal sized stripers along our shores. These fish will be legally protected in most states until they are 28 inches. Then recreational fishermen will start taking them. Recreational fishermen do very little to hurt the population. When this year class reaches 34 inches ( the size in Rhode Island) commercial guys will take their toll.

I feel that strong year classes should be protected for long term success of the species. We have not had a good strong juvenile recruiting year in six years. That is far too long. If we are only going to have good year classes every six years, then the strong classes should be protected to keep the population stable long term.

Although, I am getting ahead of myself in excitement, there is a downside. The group in charge of regulations on the entire Atlantic coast has finally realized there are a lot less stripers than five years ago. Next year they want to tighten regs ( its about time). Having a good year class will give commercial interests a little leverage on keeping quotas high ( read: above sustainable levels). They will claim taking large numbers of spawners has no affect on small stripers. To me, the more spawners you have during years when conditions are right for young of the year survival, the better.  Still, this is good news. I am not going to dwell on the politics of it and be happy and hope that three years from now, I may again find ten fish nights a common thing!!!

50 inch striper caught by my friend's son

Ben Pickering, the college age son of my friend Dave caught a 50 inch striper the other night. Although I have been friends with Dave for many years I just met Ben about a week ago. After he measured it and took a quick picture, he let it go. You gotta give the kid a lot of credit for letting a once in a lifetime trophy go like that. I tip my cap to him. Great job Ben!!! I could write all about it, but it makes more sense if you read the write up by his proud father www.ristripedbass.blogspot.com

My buddy Amber

Last night my buddy Amber slept over. I didn't tell her, but my plan for this morning was to take her kayaking. Amber loves going out in the kayak. Before today we had gone twice this year. The first was just out to Falls Pond. The second time was when we went camping in Rhode Island.

Today, we waited until 9 am before loading the kayaks. I wanted it to warm up a little first. It turned out to be a nice day. The high I guess was about 65 degrees. I didn't actually have a plan until after we put the kayaks on the car. I ended up choosing to kayak Olney Pond in Lincoln Woods. We put the yaks in at the boat ramp and headed across the pond. There was a breeze kicking up waves on the launch side, so we headed to the lee side of the pond. We paddled that half of the pond. We landed at the beach. We used the porta john. Then we fished a little bit from the beach without any luck. We paddled back to the car and after loading the kayaks we went home for lunch.

This afternoon was the Rhode Island chapter of the Carp Anglers Groups semi-annual fish in. A fish in is a group get together. We fish for a few hours. Exchange infomation, and talk about the lakes the carp are hitting in. Since Amber was still over, I dragged he to the fish in. I promised her we would only be there a couple hours. It started at 3 pm. I assumed if we made it until 5 pm before she got to bored, it would be an accompishment.

About 8 of us showed up. My friend Dave is the president of the RI chapter.He is in charge of when and where the fish ins take place. This one was at Scotts Pond in Lincoln Rhode Island. Unfortunately, the fish were not hitting and when I left no one had caught a carp. To keep Amber entertained I brought a trout rod and worms. It was good that I did since the carp were not co operating.

After an hour of talking and no fish, we got out the worms. Within minutes Amber was into fish. She landed a sunfish and was pretty excited to be the first person to catch fish. We only had seven worms. So she wasn't going to have hours of panfishing. She ended up catching six sunfish and one white perch. The perch was the first one she ever caught. When the worms ran out it was almost dark. I figured she had enough and it was time to go. When we got in the car I realized it was 6:45. She buckled her seatbelt and told me she had a really fun day. I was happy about that. Its always cool to watch a little kid have fun, especially when its doing your favorite hobbies.