Freshwater Spinning Reels

 Working at Bass Pro Shops has meant that I have learned a  lot about gear. I take good care of my equipment so many of my reels are over ten to twenty years old. This has been great for my wallet but when it came to learning my job it meant that I had to learn about ALL of the new equipment. To be completely honest, if you came to the Reel Counter and asked about saltwater conventional reels I'd tell you straight out that they are not my strong suit and you know more than I do. I'd rather be truthful than bullshit you. However, I do know about all of our freshwater spinning reels and can get by with our baitcasters. 

  One thing you need to realize as you read this is... no  matter who you talk to at Bass Pro Shops or a tackle shop there is bias and strong opinions. Some guys have brand loyalty. The good news is the bias is usually based on experience and /or the experience of friends. Think about this, if I see three of the same rod come back to the store broken I'm going to quickly assume that rod is garbage. I won't recommend them to people. Another positive is that we aren't sponsored by anyone. Fishing pros get paid to use a product and promote that product. No one at Bass Pro has ever told me to push Bass Pro (or any other brand) products. We don't even get in trouble for talking people into cheaper equipment if it fits their budget (or level of experience). 

   With all of that said here are some general tips before I get into specific reels. Everyone I work with thinks Lew's reels are garbage. The most famous bass fisherman in the world, Kevin Van Dam, is sponsored by Lew's but everyone thinks it is overpriced junk. Shakespeare, Zebco, and Quantum sell either lower price gear or in Quantum's case they sold out to Zebco. The quality has gone down because of this. Abu Garcia is considered decent equipment but you can spend the same money on better equipment from other. Rands. The best companies are Shimano and Daiwa. Bass Pro reels are pretty good and they are actually made for us by Daiwa (shhh, our secret). Most of the newer companies such as Proficiency sell junk.  

    Lastly, before I begin, remember that all companies make cheap equipment and really expensive equipment. Just because a thirty dollar reel is made by Shimano does not mean it is good. An analogy that people can relate to are cars. Toyota makes great vehicles like Tundras and Camrys, but the also make the Yaris. You can't expect a Yaris to be as comfortable as a Camry. It can not be expected to last as long either. The same is true of reels. You do get what you paid for. However, after a certain point there are diminishing returns. I can promise you that a three hundred dollar freshwater reel is not twice as good as a one hundred and fifty dollar reel. 

     What makes a reel more expensive than the one next to it?

    I get that question a lot. The answers are this. More expensive reels are lighter. They have more ball bearings which makes them smoother. The more expensive reels also have higher quality ball bearings. This last fact is less known. When reading the description of a reel they will all tell you how many ball bearings they have, but you can't tell how good the quality is of them. There really isn't any way to tell. 

   When I was a kid, my mom would buy me a new reel at Benny's every spring. It would be a cheap reel about $15. She would tell me to take care of it. I would and it would last the summer. I'd put it in the shed for the winter. When we took it out the following spring it would undoubtably make some sort of clicking or hissing noise. The handle would no longer turn smoothly. She would get annoyed with me and we would repeat the cycle where she would buy me a reel and tell me to take better care of it. But I did take care of my reel. They were cheap reels and the one ball bearing would corrode and the guts would rust. It took me years to realize that I didn't do anything wrong. Don't expect to get years out of a twenty dollar reel. It just won't happen.

Under $50

   Please keep in mind when buying cheap reels, they won't last very long. Hope to get two or three years out of them. If you do, it is a win. The Daiwa Crossfire LT is probably the best reel at this price. It gets good reviews. The Bass Pro Tourney Special also gets very good reviews (the rod does not!). The only thing I don't like about the Tourney Special is that no matter the size, they are really on the same frame. The handle and body for a size ten (which should be for trout) is the same as the size 40. The only difference is the spool size. So I would go for the Daiwa LT. Any reels under this price are made. Any reel cheaper than the LT is made out plastic with really weak internals so don't expect it to last. 

$50-$80

   Despite being the second cheapest tier on the list, you can get a recent reel at this price point. In the same way teams look for "value" in the later rounds of the NFL draft, you can find good quality reels for under $80. Throughout most of my life this has been the price range of almost all of my reels. 

    The most popular reels we sell in this range are the Shimano Sedona, Pflueger President, Daiwa Regal, and Bass Pro Shops Carbonlite. To be honest, these four reels outsell all others combined including the other Bass Pro and Shimano cheaper reels. 

    I'll start with the President. Here is a situation where bias comes into play. We sell a lot of Presidents. It is a solid reel. It will last a long time. You could call it a "workhorse". I own two of them and I don't like them. A few years back I decided to treat myself and buy a new trout reel. So I bought a Pflueger President ( I don't remember when I got the second one). From the moment I bought it, I never liked it. I didn't like the look or the feel. If you read the reviews, they are generally fantastic. But for me, I didn't like the feel. With that said, do your own research and find out for yourself. You will probably like it far more than I do. Another added bonus is they go on sale quite often.

  The reel that I wanted to replace when I wanted to upgrade was the Shimano Sedona. I had it for fifteen years and  wanted something fresh. After buying my President and not liking it, I went right back to my Sedonas that I paid $60 for fifteen years earlier. I own three Sedonas. Two I bought for my trout rods (size 1500) and a 2500 that I found in a lake that I dried off and sprayed with grease. It has worked great for me. So needless to say, I am a huge fan of the older model Shimano Sedona.

   That said, the Sedona is closer to $100 now (it goes on sale for under $80 every couple of months). It is a good reel but the most expensive of this lot. I used to recommend it as the best reel in this price range, but because of the cost I think it is the third best.

   The Daiwa Regal is a damn good reel and may be the best reel under $100. If I didn't get a discount on Bass Pro brands, I would say of these four it is the best value. Although I'm only writing a few lines about it, is a damn good reel. The 3000 model weighs in at 7.8 ounces and has eight ball bearings. 

   The Bass Pro Carbonlite comes in at $80. I bought one in March and I love it. I love the 3000 size so much that I bought a 1500 for trout fishing ( to finally replace my old Sedona). The Carbonlite is really buttery smooth.  I promise that it you feel it, you'd be shocked at the cost. The drag on both the 2000 and 3000 is an amazing 22 pounds. Many saltwater reels do not have 22 pounds of drag. The other advantage is this reel is super light. Both of the above sizes weigh 7.4 and 7.8 ounces. The downside is that because of the wide spool (which makes it easy to cast and also a lot of line pick up per handle turn) it holds less line than others of equal size. As I said in the introduction, Daiwa makes Bass Pro spinning reels (shh!). The Carbonlite is basically a Daiwa Fuego that costs twenty dollars more. So you are getting a hundred dollar reel for eighty. As I said...value.

There are a ton of reels at each price range and there is no way that I could review them all. As I said, these are the most popular. Bass Pro makes another reel at about $80 called  the Pro Qualifier. I own five Pro Qualifier rods, but the truth is I do not like the reel at all. It feels heavy and cheap to me. But the part I really don't like is the oversized handle. The handle feels far too big for a reel of that size. The Daiwa Legalis is the reel in between the Regal and the Fuego. It is a very good reel but for reasons I really don't know, it is not a popular reel for us.  

$100-190

   While each manufacturer might have half a dozen models between $30-100  they only have a couple in each price range after that. Most companies make a model that is about a hundred dollars because that is a nice round number. 

  The Daiwa Fuego is a really good reel. As I said though, the Bass Pro Carbonlite is really a Fuego. However, if your brand loyalty is to Daiwa then you really can't go wrong for a buck ten. One huge advantage to the Fuego is that it does hold a ton of line.

    The Bass Pro Johnny Morris Signature reel is a hundred dollars. Compared to the Carbonlite, it has less drag and it is heavier. The Carbonlite's drag is 22 pounds while the Signature is only eleven. However, the added weight is because it has really good internals. It is really smooth reel and will last for a long time. I bought a 2000 size for my second trout rod

   I think the cream  of the crop of hundred dollar reels is the Shimano Nasci. I really like how this reel feels. It is as buttery smooth as the Carbonlite. Shimano has a habit of passing down reels to the next lower model when they upgrade a higher end reel. So this means that the Shimano Nasci at one point was really a Stradic a couple models ago. (with a few tweaks). So you are getting a great reel for a hundred dollars. It is slightly heavy. The 3000 model is 8.5 ounces but it does have twenty pounds of drag. 

   The most expensive reel I'll suggest in this price range is the Daiwa Procyon ($179) It is a top of the line reel at a modest price. It is light and silky smooth. 

   Believe it or not, there is actually a lot of crap in this price range. Lews and ProFISHancy make a lot of hundred to two hundred dollar reels. I've seen a lot of ProFISHancy reels and rods come back broken. I love the Johnny Morris Signature Series, but I am not a fan of our top of the line reel the Johnny Morris Platinum ($129). I was told that the gears can grind by a co-worker. Then a couple weeks later, I saw it for myself when a guy brought one in that he had for two weeks and it sounded like it was full of sand in the gears. The Shimano Miravel is a good reel but it is basically a Nasci with a graphite body. This cuts back on weight but in my opinion, it makes the reel weaker. 

Over $200

If you ask mw what my favorite reel is with the cost not being a factor it is the Shimano Stradic. The reel is not cheap. It costs $229. It is also not super light. It weighs 7.9 ounces. However, it is smooth. It is also a workhorse. I got one a month ago and although I can't vouch for its long term dependability yet, I can tell you how much I enjoy using it. I bought the 2500 model because I like the smaller handle that it comes with. It has a slightly smaller spool than the 3000 also. Other than that, it is the same reel. It has the same body, weight, and drag(twenty pounds).  Some people use the 4000 size in saltwater mostly from kayaks and catch very large fish. I watched a YouTube video where a guy frequently catches sixty pound Tarpon with it. I would never put a two hundred dollar freshwater reel in saltwater but it does show that the drag holds up to any fish that would swim in freshwater.

    The Stradic is the only reel in this category that I have personal experience with. However, the next Shimano up the ladder is the Vanford. It is basically a Stradic with a graphite body. It weighs under seven ounces. One of my co-workers has five of them. I'd worry about that graphite body like I would the Miravel but it is a top of the line reel.

   At this price range Bass Pro doesn't make any freshwater spinning reels. So the only reel that is comparable to the Stradic is the Daiwa Tatula. I will be honest with you, it is smoother than my Stradic. I like the Stradic more because I feel the reel is solid. But I would never try to argue against a Tatula. If someone offered me one with the receipt, I would not return or replace it. Great reel. 

  Summary

   There are reels more expensive than two hundred and thirty dollars. However, as I said at the beginning you are getting diminishing returns. For example, Shimano makes the $320 Sustain. I do not see any difference between it and my Stradic. I seriously doubt it could last much longer. For that matter, it is not three times better than a Nasci.  I also know that most fishermen are not going to ever need a $320 reel. 

   One thing to remember, the fishing gear industry is there to make money. A good reel may be twice as good as a shit reel, but only twenty five percent worse than a great reel. I advise you to reach the seventy dollar price range and buy a Fuego or Carbonlite if you want your gear to last. If you want to feel like you have a top of the line reel then a Stradic or Tatula may be the way to go. If you want something in between there really are a lot of good options. 

   

400!

 

I didn't get a photo of today's Stilt Sandpiper
but this is a photo I took of one a couple years
ago.

   Today I reached my 400th vertebrate for the year in New England. Getting my three hundred and sixty fifth bird on July 20th meant I had a pretty good shot at 400. This would have been much easier if Laurie wasn't wheelchair bound with a broken leg. 

   Still, I've gotten out on my days off from work setting her up in the morning before I leave for a half day. Since July 15, I have been going to Ninigret Pond and/or Napatree to find shorebirds. Birding has been terrible and I have missed way more species than I expected.

   On the other hand, I've seen a bunch of tropical fish while seining. On this quest I have gotten eleven lifer fish species and many others that I had only seen for the first time last year.

   My biggest nemesis has been Brown Bullhead. I've targetted them five times. Once I got blanked. Three times I was into White Perch so thick that any worm I casted was gone before it hit the bottom. Finally, the fifth time was the charm. I went to a pond that has catfish last night and had one within five minutes. Brown Bullhead species #399

  Today I had to lead a bird walk with my friend Danielle in Little Compton. I didn't really plan on getting anything new, but after the walk I was going seining with four other friends in Newport so I thought I'd have a good chance of seeing #400 today. But, it turned out the four hundredth species was a bird. At our second birding location we saw a Stilt Sandpiper. It was a far away look but the bill was unmistakable. So I can clearly count it. 

   Later on, I went seining with Dick, Marge, Louise and my seining partner Allison and didn't see much in the seine. However, the tidepools had some really cool tropicals. We saw two species of Butterflyfish, Spotfin and Four Eyed. We also saw a juvenile Snowy Grouper. We didn't get photos of any of these fish but I encourage you to Google them. They are all very pretty. 

By the numbers

Birds 288 (252 in RI)

Mammals 25

Herps 25

Fish 64

Skimmers and Seahorses

 At some point I plan on doing a blog post discussing freshwater spinning reels. However, life is still getting in the way and I have been extremely busy. I have gotten out a few times since my last post. Mostly seining and failing at catching some target species with hook and line.

   During my adventures, I have gotten lucky with two things, I've gotten some amazing photos of wildlife. While my camera sucks compared to my old one, the light has been great and I have gotten photos far better than I thought when I was taking them. The second thing is that when I've gone seining I have gotten lucky with some cool species. The coolest was a Seahorse. More precisely, three Seahorses. 

    Last week I met my friend Allison for a day at the ocean. The first stop was Napatree Point in the hopes that Black Skimmers would still be there. They had been around for a couple of days so I was nervous they would take off over night. However, we got lucky. There were five juveniles in the lagoon. Once they woke up, they went flying around and skimming the water to catch food. The birds were close and the light was great. Photos below and then after that...the Seahorses. 

After we left Napatree we went seining at different places. We went to multiple spots in Ninigret Pond and at Quonny Pond. In one of our seines we hauled up three Seahorses. We were both really excited and high fives were had. We were very careful with them and took quick photos while they were out of the water. He put them back quickly and they swam off. I was surprised at how big they are. One of them went eight inches or more. The other two were over six inches. We also got some other fish but that is for another day.

When life gets in the way...

 I am not a fan of real life getting in the way of my nature. The last month has been really hard since Laurie has had some serious medical issues which lead to a broken foot. She has been in either a hospital or rehab (not drug rehab) since July 15th. So if you are wondering why I haven't written much, I've spent almost all of my time either working, sleeping, or visiting. 

   While none of us wants to deal with health issues of our own or loved ones, I realized something... when I'm birding, fishing, hiking, etc... for me it is real life. I don't look at those things as something I do when I can but rather something I need to do to be human. It was an interesting realization, but I think it is probably true for anyone passionate about their hobbies. Our hobbies are just as important to us as our jobs, wealth and maybe even family and health. I mean, when I was injured, I can't tell you how many times I dreamed of albies or how heartbreaking it was for me when I couldn't chase a rare bird. Health first, yes, but then love life.

 Anyway, I have gotten to sneak off a couple of times since July 15. I figured I'd share a few photos of some cool things that have been around

 

 I've actually gotten two lifers since Laurie got hurt. The first was the famous Flamingo that has been vacationing in the Northeast. I got to see it on the first day it was in Rhode Island. My phone blew up with reports of it from everyone that knows I'm a birder. Today I got to see a  Lark Bunting. This is a midwestern bird. It was in Norton and I went to it after visiting Laurie right before dark. Weird, everyone told me about the Flamingo, but no one has sent me messages about a Bristol County first bunting. On a downside, I didn't have a memory card in my camera today.

  Last week I went snorkeling and seining with Allison O'Connor and seining with Louise. This is the time of year when tropicals get lost in the Gulf Stream and make it to New England. The day did not disappoint. The only bad part of the day was I dipped on catching a Dogfish at Fort Adams despite hearing they are so plentiful they are a nuisance. 

The most beautiful fish I saw was a Beau Gregory. They are a stunning tropical fish that I saw snorkeling. I don't have an underwater camera so I didn't get any photos.

Crevalle Jack

Mojarra species

Pompano

Permit

Same Permit

   I've been leaving my minnow trap in the water hoping to catch this little native. It is a Banded Sunfish (in bad light). It took weeks of baiting it up everyday. It only had any species of fish a few times but it had crawfish every time I checked it. One day when I threw the crawfish back in the water a Bullfrog that I hadn't seen hopped over and devoured it. So after that whenever I caught crawfish, I always threw one over to my new friend. I fed it all summer. 

Below is the friendliest Buff Breasted  Sandpiper ever. For three days it would walk right up to anyone sitting still. It got so close to me I could have pet it. 

This morning I went and saw baby Diamondback Terrapins as they were hatching. With the addition of the Terrapins and the lifer Lark Bunting I am up to 381 New England vertebrates for the year

Short Bigeye

 

Both photos by P Carl

   Today I got another lifer and it was a tropical fish that most certainly got caught up and took a ride on the Gulf Stream. The species is known as a Short Bigeye. They get to twelve inches or so. When they are adults they live in six hundred feet of water on the Continental Shelf in the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico. It stands to reason that the big eye is so they can find food in the deep  almost dark water of the deep

   As with many of these southern species, I had never heard about them until a couple weeks ago. They have been showing up in Rhode Island and on Facebook. Apparently, enough got swept up the coast that people have been running into them.

   Thursday I got a phone call from my friend Carlos that he was seeing a bright orange tropical fish. I had remembered seeing this fish on Facebook and sent a photo to him and my friend Sue and that is what they thought they saw.

 

Today I went to the mudflats looking for birds and hoping the fish were there. I brought my seine just in case. Myself, Sue, Carlos, and another birder named Carl caught six of them in one swoop of the seine. We took a bunch of photos though mine are terrible. Luckily, Carl took a lot of photos and many came out great. The two photos in this post are his.

   Juvenile tropical fish end up dying when the water temps drop in the fall. They don't have a chance to make it back into warm water. Because of this, the fish we caught today were donated to a local aquarium. This way the fish get a second chance at life and the public gets to see them.

Saw two new birds today. Up to 372 species.

Tell me you don't know how to fish without telling me you don't know how to fish...

    Working at Bass Pro Shops the past few months has put me in contact with fishermen from all skill levels from pros to people that are buying their first fishing pole.  I have literally had hundreds of people come up to me and ask advice on their first pole. I've had mothers and fathers ask me what to buy their kid and I've had retirees tell me they want to get back into fishing for the first time in forty years. I am certainly not going to make fun of their ignorance. We all have to start somewhere.  Whether you are a six year old or a sixty year old picking up a new hobby, you need to build a foundation based on info and learning through repetition.

    However, many of these one on one conversations are exactly the same. I find myself telling ten different customers the exact same thing on a busy Saturday. While many people will tell me straight out they know nothing about fishing, you'd be surprised at how many others will pretend they know what they are doing. Here are some interactions that I have on a regular basis and some funny stories...

   Everyday I have multiple people come up to me and ask what they should buy. When they say they want a pole for "just for pond fishing". They always say "just" and they don't say freshwater or lake, they say "pond". This ALWAYS translates to... they do not expect to catch anything big so direct them to the cheapest pole in the store. These people do not want to spend any money on a pole, but since they don't own one, the cheaper the better.

   You'd be surprised at how many people actually think "Ugly Stick" are good rods. We sell ten or more a day. Some of our employees recommend them just because the rod is not going to break. The reel is junk though. I hate selling the combos to people because there are way better products for only ten dollars more.

On a regular basis, usually on Friday's (before people start vacation) people will come up to me and tell me they want a single rod for both fresh and saltwater. They don't understand that a freshwater rod will corrode in saltwater or that saltwater fish (and live bait) are too big for freshwater gear. Despite my explanation, I've had to sell rods far too big for freshwater to people that were going to use it in both ponds and the oceans. I've sold freshwater combos that I know were going to get used at the Cape Cod Canal.

  You'd be surprised at how many people ask where the saltwater line is or the freshwater line. To which I explain to them their choice is mono or braid and the line can be used in both the ocean and ponds.

   I had a guy on Friday come in with two junky rods. One was a six foot spinning rod with a 4000 series reel and an extremely light baitcasting rod that was falling apart. The line was a total bird's nest. He wanted me to put six pound fluorocarbon on both rods and got me a 250 yard spool of Vanish. The spinning reel could easily take over 400 yards of six pound line. I explained to him that both rods should take twelve pound line and that fluoro casts like crap because it is stiff. He wanted the fluoro because it was invisible underwater. He was going to Long Island and using the rods for fishing a lake and a bridge over a saltwater channel! So I told him these rods were not made for the salt to which he didn't care. I also explained if he got a two pound fish from the bridge he would break the six pound line trying to hoist it up. He did end up getting twelve pound line. BUT he had me use the 250 yard spool of Vanish for both reels. When I was done, the spinning reel was only one third spooled at best. There was a half inch of empty space between the line and the edge of the spool.

   Understandably, but so many people do not know that a baitcasting rod has a trigger and spinning rods don't. I show at least three people a day the correct way to hold a spinning combo. 

   You'd be amazed at how many people buy rods based on color. We sell these junk "Krazy color" combos. We sell bright orange baitcasters. People buy these things based on color even though they could get stuff so much better for cheaper.

   Combining the last two thoughts, I had a guy come up to me right before close last week who wanted me to "show him the most expensive rod" so I brought him to the G Loomis rods for freshwater. He then decided he was going to buy a baitcast rod (with a trigger) for a spinning reel. I explained why this wouldn't work (for one, you hold the spinning reel upside down and a baitcasting reel  reel side up) Not to mention the trigger! Then he told me he was going to use it in both fresh and salt. Then he wanted to see "the most expensive saltwater surf rod". Jesus, I wanted to get away from this idiot. He then proceeded to tell me he bought one of those Krazy Color spinning rods at Dick's last week and asked my opinion. While I did sugar coat it a little, I did tell him it wasn't good quality. He would be better off returning it and even if he couldn't get his money back maybe get store credit.

   Yes there's more... he then decided he was going to get a Krazy Color baitcaster (right after I told him it was junk) as a "back up rod" So I explained that there is huge learning curve and he would get tangles. Also, it wouldn't be a "back up" because a baitcaster is made to do different things than a medium spinning rod. So, he could buy a second rod, but it really wouldn't be a back up. He ended up buying the junk Krazy Color baitcaster anyway. I learned a very important lesson not to waste time with morons. Let them buy whatever the hell they want.

   You'd be amazed how many people have more money than brains. A guy that owns a high end auto dealership ( BMZ, Mercedes, etc...) came in one day after catching his first fish. It was a striper and he was hooked. He came in with his wife and three kids. He bought all the kids push button poles. However, for himself he wanted to buy a thousand dollar Shimano Stella. One of our employees talked him down to a nice $260 Saragosa. Still, they guy wanted the Stella right up till he paid. 

   We had a guy put 80 pound braid on a small baitcasting reel. I doubt it held forty yards.

    We had a guy put a 5000 size reel on an ultralight trout rod with heavy braid. His target...squid.

   Lastly, a Portuguese man and his wife came in yesterday. His race only matters because he was going on a trip to Portugal. He had huge reel for thirty years that finally died. Obviously, that reel has been discontinued for twenty or more years so he was looking for something similar. He was talking to my boss and he wanted a reel that would be huge for tuna. Think about an eighteen wheeler for carrying your lunch. The reel he was looking for could hold 600 yards of 50 pound mono (yes  600 yards, and yes, mono, not braid). Then my boss asked him what he was fishing for and he said and I'm quoting "small fish like fluke". Good lord!!!

   

Operation 365!!!

 Since January 1 I have been on a quest. I've told very few people about it and even most of my close birding friends don't know. I have spent the last six and a half months trying to see 365 species of vertebrates in New England this year. I chose 365 because that would mean getting an average one species a day for the year. I originally had hoped for 350, but I got that the end of June so I knew 365 was very doable. 

  Today I hit the magical 365 with a very magical bird. The first ever American Flamingo to land in RI since records of such things were kept was my three hundred and sixty fifth vertebrate species this year! This Flamingo has been hanging around the Northeast for a month now. It touched down on a Cape Cod Beach twice but has spent most of its time on Long Island. Today it showed up in Little Compton. I got to see it along with very few other birders because it was at a private beach. I got very lucky.

   I've actually been at 364 since July 9th. I could have ended it very easily by catching a very common Brown Bullhead catfish. I didn't try because I didn't want Brown Bullhead to be the winning species. I wanted it to be something special. I got a Common Galinule a few days ago but I had to take a Boat Tailed Grackle off of my list the same day. I'd say Flamingo counts as special. 

   This journey required a lot of research but more than that it required planning. The most important factor was staying true to nature's calendar. For example, birding as much as I could in May was a no-brainer. But there were many other much smaller windows to get specific targets. Herring only run upstream in the spring. My only chance to see Sea Lamprey was at a fish ladder in Manchester in late May. The easiest Spotted Salamanders would be during a rainy night in March. Wood Frogs are in vernal pools for a short time. The list goes on. 

   I planned as many of these events as I could. If I felt the urge to go trout fishing but the weather was good for looking for snakes, I looked for snakes. I purposely took off the six weeks after May from birding to look for herps, go seining, and day trips. Since May, Laurie and I took a trip to Boston to see Italian Wall Lizards, went up to Maine on a Puffin Cruise (got four targets) and went to NH for NH specialty birds, Eastern Newt, and fish. 

 

 One thing I tried to do was bundle. I wanted to keep my driving/gas expenses down as much as possible. I would spend an entire day off in nature. I'd bird in the morning, go seining in the late morning, and try for herps around lunch time into the afternoon. I went to New Hampshire trying to get all of my species in one trip, but my car radiator and a couple of dips foiled that plan. Still, I had very productive days getting a large variety of species.

    I also put myself in places where I had a good chance to see things I couldn't easily see. At Bioblitz I got ten species most of them were fish. The reason was that RI DEM used a hundred foot seine to haul in a lot of species. They also set out lobster pots and when they brought them in, I got Sea Bass and Scup. My Puffin boat had four species. The whale watch I went in April had seven mammal and two birds. The whale watch I went on last week had the other two Shearwaters I needed.

If I was going to chase a single species, I wanted it to be either a lifer vertebrate or a state bird. I wanted to see many new species as I could. This meant I had to get off of my butt when a rarity showed up in Rhode Island. This has worked out far better than I could have hoped. I've gotten ten lifer birds so far this year and one state bird for RI (Black Necked Stilt).  For the sake of records the lifer birds I've seen so far this year are- MacGillivary Warbler, Northern Shrike, Little Gull, Hermit Warbler, Swainson's Warbler, White Winged Dove, Mottled Duck, Swallow Tailed Kite, South Polar Skua, and the Flamingo. 

Eastern Chubsucker

 
 


I knew going in that the wildcard would be fish. I know that I would get somewhere between 250-280 birds. I know what mammals, reptiles, and amphibians I could get within ten. Fish were the wildcard. I've caught in my best year 33 species in New England, I knew that would be an impossible number. To catch that many, I'd have to take too much time away from other animals. I couldn't spend days trying for a Bowfin when I could get five or more birds in that time. However, I have a new weapon, a seine. This allows me to catch small little fish I could never get on a hook. With the seine or with RI DEM I've seen twenty three fish species. I've also caught sixteen while fishing. There are certainly a lot more species out there so fish will still be the great variable (along with winter birds I missed) on what I end up with. Five of the fish are lifers (Smallmouth Flounder, Rainwater Killifish, Four Spined Stickleback, Sheepshead Minnow, and Eastern Chubsucker). All but the Smallmouth Flounder were in my seine. The flounder was at BioBlitz.

By the numbers... 

   Birds    276  (240 in RI, the other 36 in other states but not RI)

   Mammals 21 (one lifer Red Backed Vole)

   Reptiles     12

   Amphibians   11

   Fish               45

   Total lifers    15

Dips...

    Obviously, on a quest like this you are not going to bat 1.000. There are going to be dips. For fish, my biggest dip was American Shad. I tried for them at the Merrimack River and a fish ladder but never saw one. I tried for Northern Pike but since I had never caught one, I really don't look at it as a failure. For herps, I've tried for Green Snake a dozen times without success.  For mammals, I have very few rodents and didn't see a moose or bear in NH, I got very lucky on whale watches and even saw my only coyote from the deck of a whale watch boat.  

  I didn't get a chance to try for Bicknell's Thrush in NH. While I was in New Hampshire Merlin picked up Ruffed Grouse in the place I was looking for them. Despite my best concentration, I did not here them so I didn't count it. At that place (Pondicherry) I did get Mourning Warbler, Alder Flycatcher, Least Flycatcher, Purple Finch, and Yellow Bellied Flycatcher, so I'm not complaining.

   The one person that I talked extensively about my gameplan was Charles Avenego. I bounced ideas off of him multiple times a week for the last few months on  Messenger. I explained gameplans and listened to advice. I didn't always follow his advice. Even when I didn't, he has always been supportive and congratulated me on my victories. Thanks buddy!

Easy ones left...

   By far the easiest species left would be Brown Bullhead. There are other easy fish like Yellow Bullhead and White Catfish. I'd probably see Cod and other bottom fish on a Cod Boat and the Cape Cod Canal usually has a run of Mackerel in the summer and another in winter. I also haven't seen Bay Anchovies or Menhaden.

  I've got most of the easy herps, but I'd like to chase some of the harder ones but they require long drive to Connecticut or the Berkshires. Most of those would be lifers. I can get Leopard Frog at Great Meadows in August. I also need Diamondback Terrapins which will require a special trip but should be pretty easy. I'll keep plugging away at Green Snake

The easiest birds left are shorebirds. I should be able to pick up another five between shorebirds and terns. More if I get lucky. I missed a few winter birds, so I'll be doing this up until December 31. 

 You can't really predict mammals. I was told where otters live but haven't gone to look yet. I want to buy a small mammal live trap to try to catch different small rodents. That would be the biggest variable on adding to my number. Other than that, I am going on a bat walk on Saturday. So I could get lucky and see a species with people capable of identifying them.