Got up at 4 AM this morning to catch the last of the outgoing on some northshore flats.I thought that I had it timed pretty well, but I forgot about the run-off from all the rain we had earlier and the big minus super moon tides that we're having today. Both combined to dirty up the water and deposit lots of grass, weeds and other assorted sea junk in the water. Some fish were relating to the "mats" in deeper water. I tried pulling some stripers out of there, but they wouldn't bite for me. I needed a punching rod.The flats have changed quite a bit since I was out last year. There's more sand for one thing. And places where there used to be a cut have all filled in. I couldn't even get out to where I wanted to fish at dead low, I had to take the long way around and stick to the channel. Used some deep water to pick my way past the breakers and tooled around in deep(er) water for a while. Not much going on except a harbor seal started to follow me around. Awesome.Once the incoming started pumping, I got up onto the flats and as soon as there was 1'-2' of water - the fish showed up! The dirty water slowed things down a bit, but I found a good group of fish and just hung in a back eddy for a while and caught a bunch. No birds working - just some fish grubbing up sand eels. I had 1 big girl about 20 lbs follow my lure and turn about 10' from the kayak. All the rest were schoolies on a 1/4 oz strike king flats jighead and zoom super fluke jr. (white).Going to the Cape for 10 days next week! Can't wait!Here's some pics...
I had a few hours to fish yesterday, so I thought that I'd try a new pond in Southern NH....It's basically a dammed up stream with a flowage area, another dam that you have to drag around and then the main pond which is about 100 acres. The main pond is covered in pads except for a stream channel near the dam. Cool area for a kayak.Only problem is that they dropped the water to work on the dam and there's not much water left. LOL.
It made me wonder how much water depth is needed to grow big fish? 5'? If there's 3' of ice some years, can the fish live in 2' for a few months? Must be tough. Anyway, there were fish around in the thickest, nastiest cover chasing the full-size King Daddy frog. I was throwing it way back in the thick stuff against steep shorelines. I couldn't even see the frog, so it was kind of hard to tell if I had a bite until the line started moving. Some of the thickest weeds/slop/brush that I've ever fished - it was almost like fishing on land. I kept wanting to stand up so I could see what I was doing.....but didn't feel like flipping in the bubble slime.Best fish that I landed was only about 2 lbs or so....very dark. Most of the fish took a Yum Mighty bug (bama bug color) that I'd huck in there after they missed the frog (or I missed the fish).Here's some pics...
Spent the weekend up in Maine fishing in the Sebago area with my uncles and some of their high school friends on a fishing trip. Their idea of a fishing trip is they get to eat and drink whatever they want without their wives bitching at them. Fishing is a really distant 2nd.I hit 5 ponds while we were there. In all ponds, I didn't see any fish on the beds. Most fish appeared to be spawned out and thin. Fishing was generally slow for Maine, but there were fish around. Best lures were a 4" Zoom Superfluke Jr (white) with 4/0 Owner Twistlock hook, 3" Shadalicious Swimbait with 4/0 weighted Owner Beast hook, 130 Whopper Plopper (fire tiger), 4.5" Yum MightBug (bama bug color) with Reaction Innovations BMF 5/0 hook and 1/8 oz screw-in tungsten weight, and a black/blue jig + trailer.At 1 pond, I'm fishing with the fluke and a big fish comes out of the brush near the culvert and pounds the fluke...I swing + miss. Cast back in with the jig and she takes it! I set the hook like a champ, stick the fish good, and off we go. Wait......why does this bass have spots? A big trout took my jig! Good thing I had a 25 lb fluoro leader! Not line shy at all. There was another big one in there, but I didn't feel like re-rigging for trout and it wouldn't eat the jig.Here's the brookie and some other pics...
Hit a herring run pond on the south shore (MA) with some friends. We got a couple 4's - nothing huge. My 4-5 was on a Yum F2 Mighty Bug (black/red flake) pitched up into a herring run. When I fish herring runs on the Cape, I always throw in a topwater (spook or popper) and then follow-up with a crayfish type bait. Crayfish love herring runs. They sit there like little lobsters and grab the fry. Anyway, the bass love the crayfish almost as much (if not more) than the herring.2nd trip was supposed to be saltwater. Met up with my friend Ron and we hung out on the Powder Point bridge (in Duxbury, MA) for a while watching people fish chunks from the bridge and looking for birds and watching to see if the wind would quit (it didn't). After chit-chatting for a while, we decided to bail on saltwater. On the way home, I decided to hit a freshwater pond to get out of the wind and kill some time.It's 12N, windy, mostly sunny blue skies with some puffy clouds. I'm not expecting much, but at least I have my wheels with me. Drag the hobie in, dump it twice (i hate that @#$@#$ damn cart!) reload twice, keep going and start throwing the big SPRO King Daddy frog - missed a fish. Started paying attention and kept throwing the frog. Most fish were bumping the 1 oz frog - not really choking it (it's a big frog). So, I'd throw in a black/red flake Yum! Mighty Bug or Paca Craw with a 1/8 oz tungsten screw-in sinker + reaction innovations BMF 5/0 hook (love that hook!)....often the fish would take the creature/craw bait. Got a 4-15 on the mighty bug, then a 5-4, then a 6-3 on the SPRO frog (choked it - awesome hit!), and a 7-3(!) on the full size Paca Craw slathered in BANG! Craw scent dragged off the edge of some pads! The 7-3 was a real thick fish - beefy flanks. Not very fat or long, but good shoulders + flanks. Jaw had some weird dark discoloration - maybe just an old fish? After I got the 7-3, I packed it in. I didn't really think it would get any better, so I quit while I was ahead.Best 5 on the day went...7-3, 6-3, 5-4, 4-15, 4-5
Here's some pics...
Got to the Cape on Friday PM. Picked up my hobie drive and rudder after getting repaired at Sturgis Boat Works. Much cheaper to rebuild the drive than buying a whole new drive. Very nice crew there and now I'm back in business.5/31 PM: Windy as hell, SW 20+ - so I leave the newly fixed kayaks at home and take some casts at the beach. I took the skunk but saw a couple blues caught. Did I mention it was windy? Maybe another day of SW wind will blow in more fish...6/1 AM: Still windy - kayaks stayed in dry dock. From the looks of things, I missed the bite by about 20 minutes getting there after sunrise. Total slacker.6/1 PM: Still windy - so back to the beach. Tons of people fishing now - most who can cast against the wind are catching blues. I pick a spot away from everyone else and start hucking loaded pencils + poppers. I'm hooking blues on every other cast but the bastards are using my loaded lures to throw the hooks. That wasn't part of my plan. I took off the belly hook so it's even easier for them to throw the hook. Takes me about 6 fish lost to figure out what is happening. Wind is honking. Not a full-out gale with the street signs shaking, but enough to make the flags go straight out. I'm fishing with a 9' Tica rod + Pflueger Arbor reel with 30 lb Samurai braid and putting everything I have into each cast. That Pflueger reel does OK, but if I bump the reel at all the spool shuts and off goes my lure. The newer Shimano's are much better. Or if I slip a little, that Samarui braid cuts me on the cast - it casts great, tho. I'm used to fishing in kayak or surf fishing with the wind at my back. This surf fishing into the wind is a pain in ass - except the fish are here and it's too windy to do anything else.And then this guy comes along with about 10 lbs of gear strapped to his wading belt, an oversized Shimano surf reel that you can only get from Japan, a G-Loomis surf rod. [<--I made up at least half of that but I don't think I'm too far off]. Yup, that's my friend Roy. We say hello. He finds a spot. Makes a few casts and drags in a 20 lb striper. He's been there maybe 5 minutes. Meanwhile, everyone else is catching blues or nothing. I think a few people hurt their necks twisting them around as he dragged that fish past them. I saw a few of them do a full pirouette with their necks leading them around. Then he does it again. Unbelievable! Meanwhile, I'm losing lures, bluefish, and blood from the braid cutting my fingers. Somehow I got enough for the smoker, so I was happy.6/2 AM: On Sunday AM, I'd almost had enough of fishing into that damn wind and it was blowing even harder now. I got myself there early and had good fishing there for about 30 minutes until the bite slowed. Got some more blues for the smoker with the belly hook back on the plugs. One more cast off and I was done fishing for the day and focused on smoking fish and prepping for the grill.Didn't take many pics....but here's some blues going on the smoker...
