The Drive In

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As I learned last night, there used to be over 4000 Drive ins in the United States. Now there are less than 400. The last time I went to a drive in, I was about five years old. I went with my mother and aunt and we saw Jaws. Actually, they saw Jaws, and I hid in the back seat with my eyes closed and my hands over my ears scared shitless of the giant shark.

Since I now spend many nights standing thigh deep in a very large ocean, without thought of sharks, I thought it might be time to go back to my youth and go to a Drive In movie. Laurie and I had been talking about going to the Drive In for two years, last night we finally went.

We went to the Rustic Drive In in  North Smithfield. It is very simple to get to it as it is only a mile from I-295 on Route 146. From 295, you have to pass it and do a U-turn at the light. The cost is $27 a car load. This is obviously a very expensive trip for one person, but a really good deal for a family of five. It was just Laurie and I, so we just looked at the cost as an experience. Your twenty seven dollars get you two movies as a double feature.

There are three screens and at this time of year the movies start at 8:55. The options for last night were:

1. Despicable Me/ Transformers

Our screen before the movies

2. Rough Night/ The House

3. Cars/ Wonder Woman

Since Laurie does not like movies with special effects, we went to screen 2. Since this is a review of my experience at the Drive In and not of the movies, all I'll say about them is they were both cheesy comedies. Rough Night was the better movie. The House had every bad cliche'a comedy can have.

We got to the parking lot 40 minutes early because online reviews said there can be a long wait. We did not have that problem, there was only two cars in front of us. After you pay your fare a parking lot attendant tells you which screen to go to. By far, our screen had the least amount of cars watching the movies. Wouldn't you rather watch Wonder Woman or Transformers also?

There is a concession stand in the middle of all three screens. The prices are the same expensive prices you would expect to pay at the movies. We bought a large popcorn ($7) and brought our own soda and ice.

There is a ten minute intermission between movies
This little clock on the screen counts it down

To listen to the movie, all you have to do is tune into the radio station they tell you. The sound was
clear and obviously, you control the volume.

The one thing online reviews are right about is the parking lot. It is terrible. The speed limit is 5 MPH because so many kids are running around. However anything more than that, and you'd be liable to blow a tire or break an axle. The lot is full of potholes, dips, and large bumps. I hope they resurface the lot soon because quite frankly it is so bad, it can turn people off from going back.

After the movies were over around 12:15 we exited. We had no trouble leaving the lot other than avoiding falling into a pothole never to be seen again. We did not have any wait what so ever leaving the lot.

I enjoyed my nostalgic experience going to the Drive In. Although the movies kind of sucked, that wasn't why we went. If I went again, I'd like to see a big action movie on one of those huge screens. I liked everything about going back in time to the movies except the parking lot surface.

A scene from Rough Night

2017 Part Deux- A New Beginning

One  of my favorite pictures I've taken so far
this year

Looking back on the first half of 2017, I can say, that outdoor wise, it has had some ups and downs. I'm not talking about everyday life and things we can't control. For me, I'm just talking about the stuff I'd write on this blog. Everyday life has its challenges such as cars breaking down, taxes being due on April 15, and a variety of other challenges we call life. I do not judge a year by those things. I can't make the starter in my car last forever, and I not can keep my family healthy. This blog is not about everyday challenges. Who the hell would want to read that anyway? Besides, lets be honest, if you are reading this, there are a lot of people worse off than us, so I count my blessings

I judge a year, by how many great memories I make. Some of those memories I share with others while many I do alone. Unless the year is marred by something catastrophic, I usually focus on the positives.

None the less, I am a big fan of looking back at those memories I've made. I very much enjoy making a photo album at the end of each year. I am an obsessed list writer. I make lists for everything. I have lists for each book I've read, movie I've seen, daytrip I've done over the last fifteen years. I also make lists for daytrips I'd like to do and a calendar of upcoming events.

So it is no wonder as we pass the halfway point of the year, I look back at the beginning of 2017. I realized a couple of things. The first, I caught a lot of fish, and a lot of big fish. Secondly, if you take away fishing, the first half could have been a lot better.

My first ever channel cat will always be fond memory

Winter is winter, and I just hope to get through it. All in all, it was kind of fun. I bought tickets to
enough low cost plays and concerts that I always had something to look forward to. I tried skiing but got hurt. I got lucky and I healed fairly quickly without medical treatment. The one thing that set me back was I was exercising a lot before I got hurt. Since I healed, quite frankly, I've been too lazy to make time to workout much or used that time to constantly fish. Of course, the outcome of this, is weight gain, that will kick my ass when I eventually start hiking.

Needless to say, I get excited for spring. I have so many ideas and plans, that I really can't do them all in the best of circumstances. So when Mother Nature throws me some nasty weather, it screws up my spring more than any other season.  This May was dreadful. Even when we had nice weather, it usually ended the day before my scheduled days off. This led to a cancelled camping trip to bird and fish in Newburyport along with other cancelled plans throughout the month.

Once the weather got nice, I started doing the work of three people at work because two of them got

Too much rain,
not enough birding

hurt. I tried to do my job as best I could, but was also doing the donut deliveries and managing a store 2-3 days a week. This of course, led to two things, less free time and extra money. Combining the rainy spring with the extra work (both people are now back to work) has led me to look fondly on the turning of the page to the next half of the year.

A New Beginning-

Sine the last two months were kind of stressful and did not live up to my expectations, I have decided to start fresh. With July now here, comes different types of fun that only summer can bring.  The first two weeks of July can mean a lot of our favorie places are over run with people. I don't blame them, if your two week vacation is in July, then you are limited on when you go on vacation. Because so many people are out and about, I'm going to postpone my New Hampshire weekends until the 20th.

However, I have a lot of fun ideas for the next two weeks. Going to the Paw Sox game and fireworks tomorrow.  Monday, I celebrate my birthday by watching fireworks in Cumberland. The 4th, Laurie and I are going to Concord if I can get out of work early enough.

On the 8th, I'm trying to convince Laurie to go to Providence Waterfire. We are also talking about going to a Drive In movie, an A&W stand (like from the 50's), a polo match in Newport, and to see Sea Turtle eggs. The weekend of July 13-16, my town has a Kid's Day carnival where I can watch fireworks again on Fri and Sat while eating delicious Blade Meat sandwiches.  Not a bad first three weeks of July.

I have a list (of course I do) of things I want to do before the end of summer. The things I wrote are on there along with a few others. If I do most of the stuff on the list, then it will be a great summer full of memories which will cancel out a so so spring.


For the record my favorite memories from Jan-June

5. Two Lakers and a Salmon at Wachusett on the same day.

4. Three days in March I went to two concerts (Femmes of Rock, Dropkick Murphys) and saw a King Eider

3. Golden Trout- Caught 13 trout including 3 over nineteen inches and a 20 inch bow

2. A five day period  I caught really big fish- Carp (Conn River), Black Sea Bass (Buzzards Bay), 20 Pound striper (Narragansett Bay), Keeper Striper (Downtown Providence), Huge blues (8-19 pounds from kayak)

1. Going to Race Point with  Laurie and seeing the Whale Show

Here's to having a Great second half of 2017!!!!!!!!!!!!



                                       You've got to accentuate the positive
                                       Eliminate the negative
                                       Latch on to the affirmative
                                       Don't mess with Mister In-Between

Article in this week's The Fisherman Magazine

Check out this week's issue of The Fisherman Magazine. I wrote this week's Surf Column
titled "Old Favorites still Catch". As you can imagine, it is an article about lures that used to be hot but are now relegated to the bottom of the surf bag or the basement. It is my first published article this year.

Amazing day at the Connecticut River

My first channel cat. He may not be big, but look at that face. 

All week I hinted to my friend Dave that I really wanted to fish the Connecticut River on Friday if the conditions were right. Dave called me Thursday night while I was surf fishing to see if I still wanted to go. I left him a text to say "hell ya"

We had one of the best days ever. Dave had "the spot" where one rod was just on fire. He caught 12 carp and 2 channel catfish today. I think 9 of them were on one rod. He ended up catching a thirty pound carp and a 32 pound carp. He also had three others over twenty pounds.

My numbers do not compare. I caught a few fish. However, I did catch two over twenty pounds. One of them was a twenty five pounder. The strange thing about it was that it was a Mirror Carp, which is pretty rare for the Connecticut River where Commons prevail.

My other highlight of the day was my first ever Channel Catfish. It wasn't a big one, my guess is that it was just under three pounds. None the less it was a new species, and one I really have wanted to catch for a long time. In Connecticut you can use three rods. I used two of them for carp and one for catfish. The last time I went I used hot dogs and livers and never got a bite. So today, I went au' natural and fished fish. I used a chunk of my bluefish fillet (caught nothing). My other bait was a two inch piece of last night's dead eel. That is what I caught the catfish on.

The carp were caught on a hair rig baited with one piece of plastic corn ( I  used white and pink today) and two pieces of maize. I used a method ball wrapped around the sinker also.

I will post pictures of the twenty and twenty five pounder when I get them. We took the pictures of them on Dave's camera.

Dave's thirty two pounder

Blackstone Gorge

Believe it or not I have done something other than fish. On Sunday Laurie and I went to the Blackstone Gorge. We did this hike two years ago in June and it was time to go back. The gorge is an area where the Blackstone River cut through hundred foot cliffs. There are walking trails along the side. I don't say this often about short hikes in my neck of the woods, but this little trail is awesome. Whether you are reading this because you are a regular follower of the blog or followed the link from Facebook, this really is a cool little hike.

If you are looking for directions to GPS, it is at the end of County Street, Blackstone, MA off of Route 122

 The dam is at the bottom of the parking lot. The gorge is to the left

 A down river view of the dam

 I don't know what these rocks were called, but they were painted and some had quotes. If one "spoke to you" your free to take it. If you wanted to add to them you could. It gave the place a peaceful vibe.

 Iris down river from the dam. Rapids in the background

 My favorite part of this hike is the Mountain Laurel. It is bloom right now and there is tons of it. As I wrote two years ago, it feels like walking through a mini Eden.

 Strong rapids. Two years ago the river wasn't running nearly as high. It looked more like a trout stream with big pools than a raging river.

 Looking down from a cliff into the river

 Close up of the Mountain Laurel. 

 Laurie after we tackled one of the cliffs

Eden like flower lined path

Sometimes the Guide gets the Big one

Honestly, I would have traded this fish and gone fishless if I could
if it meant Ronnie caught it. But what are you gonna do?
He still did quite well landing a couple of 8-10 pounders

Tonight I took my friend Ronnie in the canoe in search of the big blues I caught Friday. I used to work with Ronnie's mother until they moved to the Carolinas a couple years ago. I took Ronnie fishing a few times when he was younger. The kid (now 16) is a rarity these days. He is an outdoorsman. He fishes and hunts (a lot) having gotten himself multiple deer, ducks and wild pigs.

Ronnie is up on vacation and contacted me to ask if I wanted to go fishing while he was up. I was glad to plan a trip. I had to work today (and tonight) so we fished after I got out of work this afternoon. I put the canoe on the car and met him at 3:45. I really wanted to put Ronnie on those big bluefish if I could.

If the bay was rough we were going to try a pond for largemouth. If it was calm, we were after the blues. When I pulled up to the put in, it was very calm. The shoreline protected it from the southwest wind. We put in, and paddled to the cove I caught them Friday. We didn't get a hit. I was afraid that might happen. This hot spell warmed the water ten degrees in two days.  Luckily we found them in slightly deeper water.

The blues were extremely fussy tonight. We both had roughly 20 hits each. They would swipe the lure or swirl behind it. We only landed two fish each. I got one that my scale said was 19 pounds. However, I am positive there is no way the fish was that big. I might believe 15, but not 19. It was still a very nice fish.

Since I used my new Bass Pro version of a Boga Grip, I landed all four of our fish. Unfortunately, because of this, I did not get a picture of Ronnie with his very respectable ten pounders. I really wish I did.

On a big fish role

Sorry, crappy phone pic of a fish on the ground.
Not my best work

Starting on Wednesday with the twenty pound striper, I am on a big fish role. Thursday I was treated to excellent sea bass fishing on my friend Eric's boat. As you can see from the post below, Friday I got into some tarpon like bluefish.

Well, I certainly did not expect the fishing to last since I started my work week  today. I went to one of my usual haunts and caught half a dozen small (really small) stripers. On my way  home I went to a spot rumored to have big stripers. I'm guessing the rumors were true because I saw about forty guys fishing a 100 foot stretch (no exaggeration on the number of guys, and the area was only one hundred feet). It looked like Opening Day crowds at your favorite trout lake. There was no way I was going to attempt to squeeze in.

I decided to walk a quarter mile away and try  fishing for a few minutes. I put on a Daiwa SP Minnow.I only fished 45 minutes landing two fish. One was a 20 inch schoolie and a keeper of about 15 pounds.

Although 15 pounds is not a giant, these days it is a good fish. Considering an hour earlier, I was finding fish that could not make 15 inches. Sadly for me, I have no chance of seeing if I can catch any nice fish for a fifth straight day. Laurie comes over Sunday... and she don't fish!