Wanderlust Part 1 "The Begining "

 I had planned on writing a post about my lust to wander over the winter. However, as I was planning my format I looked up the definition of wanderlust. Of course I knew what the word meant. It is one of my favorite words. I was looking up the proper definition. In my Internet search I noticed a movie coming out by the same name. So if I wait until after the movie comes out, I feel it will cheapen one of my favorite words, and I will be the copy cat. Also, this is going to a long post that deals with thoughts and memories from my past so I am going to break it up into three parts. So here I go...

If I had one word to describe myself, I would choose the word wanderlust. I absolutely love to travel. I want to see it all! When I was a five year old kid I had my baby blanket on the floor in a corner of my living room. I left the blanket on the floor most of the time. I was past sleeping with it. On my baby blanket I had a globe, a puzzle map of the United States. I also had an old geography book with lists of the longest rivers, tallest mountains, largest lakes. Even at five years old, I was reading like the worlds biggest nerd. I memorized these things as a little kid. I used to time myself on how fast I could put the state puzzle pieces in the right position ( the pieces were in the shape of the states not regular puzzle shapes). While everyone else was playing with Star Wars figurines I was reading the 50 States book made for a second grade reading level.  The point of this long stroll down memory is even as a little guy, I wanted to know about and see places I was reading about.

By eleven years old, I was planning vacations that I could never go on. Vacations that my parents wouldn't have done even if we were rich. I read an article in Field and Stream about shad fishing in the Delaware River. This was before internet and information was not at your fingertips. I wrote a letter with a bunch of questions to Pennsylvania Fish and Game. It was filled with questions with spaces in between for answers to be hand written. They were kind enough to answer all my questions. I then tried to figure out distance, gas costs and motel costs for that area. I planned the trip for the following spring. Keep in mind I'm 11 years old doing all this. My parents were not taking me on a trip to fish for shad six hours away. So besides planning my vaca for the following spring I planned on taking it again when I would be eighteen. I assumed I'd have my drivers license and be out of school. So I figured out the dates weekends would be in May 1993. Of course May 1993 came and went I did not make it to northeastern PA, but that desire to travel and see it all was there even at that age.

When I got older out of school and having a full time job, I went on vacations. They were usually places in the northeast. Just because these places were close to home and within a days a drive, does not mean they were not awesome. When I first started working for Norton Honey Dew, Laurie and I went to Gettysburg. There is no place like it. You can feel the ghosts and hear the roar of cannons echoing from 150 years ago.

When money was tight I took trips to New Hampshire. We would hike 4000 foot mountains. We always had a good time hiking and looking for moose.  One year we went to Scranton,PA to visit a friend. A couple years ago, DJ and I went to Baxter State Park in Maine. The place is absolutely loaded with wildlife and beautiful scenery.

Also I love Washington, DC. It baffles me that I love it so much. I despise cities, yet there is so much to see in DC, that I can deal with all of those people. I've been there three times. I would go back again tomorrow.

I find myself attracted to movies that involve places I want to visit. I spent an entire winter Netflixing movies from exotic locations. Classics like Mutiny on the Bounty, Key Largo and To have and have not were watched that winter. Of course I feel I am one with the charecters in 127 Hours and Into the Wild. I love movies about what the west was like such as Dances with Wolves and Jeremiah Johnson. When I watch a movie with amazing scenery or a beautiful location, It reminds me of places I want to go and also places I've been. The way a lottery ticket helps you dream, I get the same feeling watching a movie about the southwest during a January snowstorm.

All the while, during winter I would buy used books from Amazon. I would buy books about the west. I bought book about hiking in national parks. I bought books fishing in national forests. Books about state parks, scenic drives and streams to paddle all grace my bookshelves. I bought mapbooks of Montana, California, Colorado and a couple other states. There is a book series of watchable wildlife. You can buy a book of each state. Each book shows the best places in the state to see wildlife. I bought them every time I found a cheap used one. I hardly watch any tv ( except Netflix and Thursday night comedies). I'd spend hours after work planning hiking routes through mountain passes. I'd figure out what mountain lakes I want to fish in Wyoming and Montana. I didn't know when I would get to see Yellowstone or the southwest but I always knew I would. There was no " if " only when... "

A bad two days of fishing

In the spirit of sharing the good with the bad here is my story of my two days off this week. Most weeks unless anything unusual happens (like T.S. Irene) Friday and Saturdays are my days off. Last week some great fishing was taking place along the Rhode Island shore. I had to wait until Friday to experience it. The phrase " a dollar short and a day late" completely explains my weekend.

On Friday I went down with my buddy Jeff Henderson. We left home while it was still dark. We went to the West Wall in hopes of starting our day with false albacore. For those that don't know, these fish are small tuna. They come inshore to feed on small fish. They are very fast and very picky. Also, hooking one does not guarantee landing one. Neither of us had ever seen one, so the thought of catching one of these speedsters was worth loosing some sleep.

We fished hard at the wall for over 3 hours. We saw one hooked and lost. No others were hooked as best we could tell. I caught a small keeper striper but let it go. That was the only other fish we even saw hooked.

After we gave up on the West Wall, we headed for Narragansett looking for bait and stripers. To our disappointment, we found neither. For the next 4 hours we hit many spots, but all we could manage was one small schoolie each. We left about 2:30 disappointed but not defeated.

The next morning after dropping DJ off at cross country practice, I called Jeff and woke him up. I asked him if he wanted to give the ocean another shot. He had family commitments so he couldn't go.  Jeff definitely had the better day. I fished from 9:30 am until after dark. I caught one small bluefish. Ouch... I know right. I hit multiple spots and some of the better producers more than once. What a waste of gas!

The only saving grace was I talked to my friend Dave and he said his son spent all day Friday fishing and had similar luck. So at least I knew that the fish had moved on and I didn't suck at fishing! Here's hoping it gets better!!!!

200th Trout!!

200th trout was a 10 inch brookie in New Hampshire

While up in New Hampshire I caught my 200th trout of the year. Considering how great fishing was it wasn't much of a challenge to go from 150 to 200. As usual my computer is giving me trouble, so writing has been on hold.

Here are the stats:
Rainbows                            108                             
Browns                                        3
Brookies                                       1
Tigers                                           4
New Hampshire Brookies          84

Caught from 13 different places

5 MA/RI Lakes
6 New Hampshire Lakes
2 New Hampshire Rivers

How caught:
Fly Rod                     77
Casting Bubble/Fly   21
Spoon                         36 ( 20 in one hour)
Roostertail                 15
Worms                       13
Shiner                           1                   
Powerbait                  37

Caught the most out of Falls Pond 44. It has been a fun year. When I can download pictures off my camera to my computer I will put some online.

How do I get talked into fishing this lake over and over and over!!

I originally wrote this post 3 weeks ago but just got this picture from Jeff today. So I am updating the date so you guys can see it

Last night I got talked into going carp fishing at my least favorite place. I admit, it didn't take much convincing so only I am to blame. My buddy Jeff had baited up an area of Hopping Hill for a few days. He told me he was fishing there Thursday. Stupid me decided to join him ( I told ya it didn't take much convincing). Jeff got one carp while I caught a beautiful trophy size goose egg. The only saving grace was the pictures of Jeff's carp came out awesome. When I get them I will put them on this post so check back within a day or two.

The Call of the Wild

I went up to New Hampshire the last couple of days. I went alone. I can't say I NEEDED some alone time. However, with fall coming I didn't know how many opportunities I'd have. Also the weather on Thursday was supposed to be miserable. I didn't want to put anyone else in a position to have to deal with fishing in miserable weather. Conversely, if I wanted to warm up and dry off, I didn't want to have to man up and continue fishing. Also I knew the nights would be freezing cold and didn't want to make anyone else suffer through it also. So I went alone, like a lone wolf in the northland.

When I left home on Thursday, it was sporadically raining. There were intervals on sunlight and I hoped I might luck out when I got up north. No such luck. When I got to Franconia Notch, it was raining and there was a blistery north wind making the rain come in sideways. There was no way I was putting the kayak in Profile Lake. There was also no way I'd be able to fly fish. So at 5:15 I started fishing Echo Lake. I used my spinning rod. With the wind in my face my only option was a spoon. I got a hit my first cast. Then my second, I landed a trout. In the next hour I caught 20 trout. It was non stop. I never had such amazing trout fishing. Unfortunately, I was paying the price for my success. The 25 mph wind was blowing a cold stinging rain in my face. I fished until 6:15. As soon as I stepped out of the water it stopped raining. I didn't turn back around.

I figured the smart thing to do was set up my tent while it was not raining. Besides my hands were freezing. After I set up camp it was already getting dark. It was only 7 pm. Luckily for me, I had Jack London with me to pass the time. I wanted to find out what happened to his wolf/dog White Fang. After a while my eyes got tired and I went to sleep. It was a cold, wet night and I woke up a bunch of times.

Friday morning wasn't much better. I was hoping for a clear sky. Nope... Still windy and rainy. My plan for the day was to fish. I was going to hit a bunch of spots and fish them until they stopped biting, and go somewhere else. I first went up Route 302 but it was closed before I could get to the Saco River. So I fished Saco Lake for a few minutes. It didn't take long for my hands to hurt from cold. I went back down to Franconia Notch. I picked up a couple more in Echo Lake. Profile was still to windy to kayak. The good news was at this point the sky started to clear. Throughout the day I fished five ponds and 2 rivers. To keep it somewhat short I will spare you all the details. I ended up catching 19 trout for the day. I caught 4 on the fly rod, the rest on spoons and spinners. I got two that went over 16 inches. Many were absolutely gorgeous in there spawning colors.

I did notice when the sky cleared that Mt Lafayette was snow covered. I told you it was cold. I took some pictures. I fished until dark then sat back down with Jack London as he continued his story about White Fang.

When I got up Saturday morning the sky was clear and the wind calmed down. I considered calling my friend Clay to see if he wanted to go fishing., but it was early and it would have been short notice. Also with Route 302 closed getting together may have proven difficult This was my day to come home. Although I had to be home at the end of it, I still planned on enjoying New Hampshire for a few more hours. I packed my tent and headed south. I fished Echo and Profile, both without any luck.  Then I went to Russell Pond and caught 2 trout. I thanked them and left.

I hoped to hit the Merrimack River on my way home in Manchester. I wanted to catch a red breasted sunfish. Also it would break my three hour ride in half. Fishing a few minutes on the river would be a nice break. I found one of the fishing spots Dave from Catch-them-all told me about. Unfortunately no fish were to be had. The place looked kind of lifeless. Maybe the hurricane washed the fish away. I couldn't get a hit using worms. So after 45 futile minutes I gave up and headed home. One cool thing about the spot was it was near Manchester Airport. I had Southwest jets flying only a couple hundred feet over my head. It was a bit intimidating but AWESOME!!!

Over my time in New Hampshire I ended up catching 41 trout. Idid not see any cool wildlife except for one toad in my camp. He posed for pictures while I was two feet away. The weather wasn't great but the fishing was. I can't tell you enough how much I love New Hampshire

The lake that wasn't ( at least for me)

 All summer I have been trying to get up to Shoal Pond to fish for wild brook trout. Both Shoal and Ethan Pond ( a two mile hike away) are managed as wild trout fisheries. They are in the Pemi Wilderness in the White Mountains. The trout are completely wild they are not stocked as either adults or fingerlings. All year I have wanted to fish in Shoal Pond. I wanted to fish Shoal more than Ethan because it is less crowded. Ethan has an AMC tentsite on the lake. Shoal is completely wild. Fishing these two little ponds has been at the top of my " TO DO " list for over a year

Unfortunately timing and conditions made it impossible to fullfill my dream of fishing for wild trout in the Pemi Wilderness. One time we planned on a three day in New Hampshire, everything was packed but we couldn't go due to circumstances that came up last minute.

Last time we went up in late August, fishing Shoal was our main goal. However on the way up Interstate 93, DJ got a fever. We kept it under control on our trip, but we decided not to venture far from the car. So going to Shoal and Ethan were out of the question.

Now even if I get another chance to go to New Hampshire this year, I can't fish the pond anyway. The season closes on wild trout ponds on Labor Day.  The season closes to protect the little wild trout while they are in spawning mode.

So I will have to wait until next year. Do these ponds really exist? For me they are more like a mirage. It seems like every time I think I'm going to get to them, something comes up.

Lets hope next year, I get my chance

150th Trout of the Year!!

I caught my 150th trout of the year while I was in New Hampshire at the end of August. I didn't realize it until today while I was adding up some other fish I caught. After catching the 6 yesterday I am up to 157. For my own enjoyment I'm going to allow myself to believe my 150th was the beauty I caught in the river. It may have been, if not it was definaetely between 148-151. So close enough

Here are some breakdowns like I did for numbers 50 and 100.

( Totals add up to 157 )

Rainbows                              106
Browns                                  3
Brookies                                1
Tigers                                     4

New Hampshire Brookies      43

Caught from 13 different places

5 MA/RI lakes
6 New Hampshire Lakes

2 New Hampshire Rivers

How caught

Roostertail                10

Powerbait                37

Spoon                       4

Casting Bubble/Fly    21

Fly Fishing                 69

Unknown                     2
Worms                       13
Shiner                           1

Caught the most out of Falls Pond  44

If there is anything to read into the numbers it is this. I definitely started using my fly rod more and left my spinning rod in the car the last 75 fish or so. Also in MA, I tend to fish within 15 minutes of home. While up in New Hampshire I do a lot more driving. I am also willing to try different lakes not just to fish but for the scenery.  Here's hoping for 200!!