May 28th 2013: Cape Cod in the wind....

Took the family for a long weekend on the Cape. Thursday night it was blowing SW so hard the stop signs and street signs were shaking in the wind. That's perfect for surf fishing south side beaches with a high tide as the wind will push up bait + fish - only trouble is casting against the wind. Sometimes I get lucky and the wind quits around dusk, but not last Thurs. On the plus side, it wasn't crowded (everyone else left). When I first showed up, I could smell fish - always a good sign. Best lure was the new Super Strike Heavy popper which worked awesome at cutting thru the wind and catching bluefish until another blue cut me off above my leader. The sinking version worked OK - not as good as the heavy. Around dusk, there were some stripers in the mix. I took the belly hook off, so I missed or dropped a bunch of fish - but still landed about 6 blues + 1 striper and lost about twice that many. Took home 3 blues for the smoker. 

The wind didn't really quit until Tuesday. I got out a few more times in the salt, but didn't do much until Tuesday. Did I mention the wind was brutal? And I was paddling my hobie since the drive is officially broken (getting it fixed now). I spent most of my time paddling the hobie against the wind and not too much time fishing.

Anyway, on Tuesday AM, the wind quit so I headed out for a quick trip before packing up the car for home. Flat calm when I launched around 6A to a dropping tide. Fishing was a little slow because the sun was already bright, but I got a keeper on a Shimano Waxwing Jr. (chart./white) which towed me around a bit and a few schoolies. There were lots of weeds in the water because of the minus tides and the waxwing came thru the junk pretty well. The double hook on the tail makes it easy to release fish, too.

May 19th 2013: Flounder fishing!

Fished with some friends on the South Shore (Mass) on Sun AM.  The forecast was for overcast skies and light SW winds in the morning.  It was bright blue skies, a few wispy clouds, and a building west wind.  Awesome.  Last year, there was tons of bait (sea herring, etc).  This year the bait is sparse and very small.  Unless more bait shows up, there's not much to hold the fish for more than a tide.  Anyway, there was some surface action early with schoolies.  We were on the tail end of it and I only managed 2 micros which taped together might not have reached 28".  By 10 AM, we were ready to pack it in.  And my hobie drive failed again.  Lots of fun paddling with a broken drive in a strong wind against the tide.  Good thing there were no sharks around because I think I must have looked like a wounded seal.

I had a few more hours to fish, so I stopped by Tomo's Tackle on the North Shore.  Joe was kind enough to lend a hex wrench to try and get the fin to stay put.  Nope.  2 min. is all it lasted once I hit the water.  But where else can you get seaworms and hobie help??  Thanks guys!  I appreciate the hex + the worms!  The flounder were biting even if the tide was almost dead low slack.  It took a while to find them, but I found a school of flounder (do flounder school?).  Most were good sized.  All of them were hooked in the corner of the mouth with a 1/0 u

p-eye shiner hook (aka croaker hook).  I kept fishing until one of the flounder bent the hook and then I limped back to the ramp and gave the rest of my worms to a family fishing from a dock.  Lots of bait on the northshore - saw some birds working and had a few stripers pop up on bait while fishing for flounder.  With a broken drive and a honking wind, I decided not to chase - but definitely lots of potential.  Saw at least 1 sail boat flip in the wind and get towed into shore by a bigger sail boat - wind was definitely strong out there.

Nice to be out in the salt again.  :D

May 5th 2013: Finding new hot spots!

Once again, I hate bass fishing on blue bird, high pressure days.  Sometimes I go for trout on those days, other time I like to break out google maps and the GPS and try to find access to new spots.  I've found some great spots already since moving to Southern NH last summer.  My batting average is about 0.500.  Some times I strike out, but I find a winner often enough to keep swinging - plus I just like exploring new fishing spots.

Here's how my Sunday afternoon went...

Pond 1.  Looked good from space (google maps satellite view) - nice weed beds + some good structure (rocks + trees).  After some sniffing around, I found a conservation area to park at (perfect!).  Sometimes legal parking is the main barrier to entry.  Now all I needed was a narrow slot to slide the kayak down within walking distance of the car.  One of the advantages of having a small kayak is that I can launch the 'yak in something as narrow as a storm drain washout.  But this particular pond was overgrown with brush, steep rock banks, water was down a good 5'....and I had visions of myself twisting an ankle, getting tangled up in thorns, and getting poison ivy...so I decided to pass.  It might be worth a shot during ice fishing season.

Pond 2.  Again, looked good from space - surrounded by weed beds + trees with an inlet from a swamp.  Access was down an old cart way which I used the kayak wheels on to get to the pond.  Nice and easy roll down the cart way.  The water was very dark - I'm guessing tannin stained from the swamp which can make the water acidic.  I did a lap around the pond with a jig, but didn't have any takers.  I didn't even see much in the way of fishy activity (swirls, bait, etc.).  Based on the weather, I decided to switch gears and try targeting panfish - but no luck there either.  Beautiful pond, easy access (with the wheels) - it might be worth another try when conditions are more favorable, but it won't be at the top of my list.

Pond 3.  This is a pond that I've fished before, so it wasn't really exploring - but I wanted to catch a fish.  As soon as I launched, I saw LM bass on beds.  The dreaded SPAWN has come to Southern NH....which means it's time for me to go north or switch over to salt.  Anyway, I caught 1 pickerel on a spinnerbait, shook it off next to the boat, and called it a day.

April 28th 2013: Trout fishing on the Cape!

I hate fishing for bass in the middle of the day - especially when it's blue skies, so I hit Nickerson for some trout. They stock the heck out of that place, so it's usually a good bet. I tried shallow, but only found a few trout. Most of them were out in the middle - just cruising around. Best lure was a tube + worm (no, not the surgical tubing) on the troll - basically a crappie tube tipped with a piece of real trout worm. Color didn't seem to matter. lb. test didn't matter either. The worm was important (just like salt). It also helped if I held the rods so I could troll a little deeper. I had a hard time making it across the pond because there were so many trout out there. I caught all rainbows, but a fly guy on shore got 2 browns.

Here's some pics...