justification

Mission 2010 Compleeted I have accomplished a life goal yesterday. In the year 2010 I caught fish in all 12 months.
January: Stripers in the thames
february: bluegills and pickerel throught the ice on gardner lake
March: more Pickerel through the ice
April: Stripers at seaswirl and largemouth at various ponds
May:more Largemouth than I can remember and at least 100 stripers on the charter boat.
June: Massive #s of largemouth bluegill, Stripers and squid. Including a 50# striper on the charter boat
July: Stripers, tuna, Mahi, Albacore, LMB and bluegill
August:More stripers till your head comes off. LMB Personal best 5.8#
September: 54# striper and more LMB than i can count
October: Stripers and bluefish Porgy and Blackfish LMB Bluegill
November: Stripers around full moon SMB
December: Rainbow trout! so far...
Did it!

cast net disaster

Its only awesome to screw up royally when you have told a bystander kid and his father that you are going to catch a bunch of fish by throwing this cast net. This is exactly what I did the other day. I threw the net over what i thought was a school of bunker only to have it wrap itself on a barnicle encrusted rock and then get destroyed while i tried to pull it off! huge mess... Half of the weighted line pulled off completely and the closer lines cam off too. Well its a good experience to do this kind of repair.

The month of april

The month of April started with the flood that occured March 30. On the first there was still so much water around that there was no real possibility of fishing. But friday the 2nd I headed to Blue lake in North Stonington According to my photos i caught 21 bluegill, 1 calico, 1 yellow perch, a couple of pickerel and a large mouth bass. Saturday back on blue lake with Krystalcaught 1 large mouth, 2pickerel, and 4 sunfish. Monday the 5th I went fishing with Danny Ung and in the process of demonstrating the zara spook I caught a random largemouth in the salt estuary part of the Poquonock river. The 6thI caught my first mystic river striper of the year at the rt 1 bridge by seaswirl. I also noticed river herring at Latimer brook The next night I caught 7 stripers at the bridge to groton long point. Thursday the 9th the four mile river gave up 3 largemouth. the next three days I attended Mauras wedding in WashingtonDC the monday of my return I caught 15 stripers at seaswirl and glp. Friday the 16th 2 stripers saturday the 17th opening day i caught 5 trout at lower hewitts pond. the 18th 2 pickerel lantern and long. 19th 1 lmb at cutler middleschool pond. 4-20 4 lmb at the 4 mile river I remember thinking about every one getting high. that night I caught 1 striperthe next time I fished was the the 27th I pulled 2 bass from gorton pond.full moon on the 28th and on the 30th I caught 3 pickerel and a 3#lmb at whitfords pond? it was big.
so totals for the month were 25 sunfish, 27 stripers >6 pickerel, at least 10 trout and 14 largemouth bass. pics to follow soon.

the fish tank

Sometimes my feelings are so mercurial. I go from wanting to make this 10 ft sailfish trophy (more about this later) to wanting to build an aquarium. ADD makes all of this possible. I had a thought that the world will shift to take advantage of the inability to stay focused for very long.

I digress, Todays post is about the fish tank currently on display at Krystal's house. Three african clawed frogs in a 2 gallon tank. One a

lbino and two original flavor. They are currently suffering the inappropriately names of: Jacob (the larger dark skinned sh

irtless frog) Edward (the pasty one) and Bella (the female) totally embarassing!

They are interesting to watch and sometimes attack food. When they were fed today Jacob bit Edward on the front paw! Hopefully when spring rolls around I will be able to get some video of the three of them tearing apart a w

orm. But any way I am attaching pics so you can experience their ferocity on the internet.

Thank you KK for having this tank it keeps me sane in the cold dark winter days.

Norwich "fishing conundrum"

There is so much to figuring out a spot. For the last five years I have fished In winter in Norwich harbor. It has always been a difficult spot to fish. At my best I caught 4 stripers in one day. I have caught one or two here or there but never the numbers that I have heard reported; 50, 100 ,150 , more? Is this hyperbole? Or is it simply a situation that I have never come across. Where are these huge numbers? What is the key to success behind a 50 fish day? I need to figure what I am doing wrong.

There has to be a formula. I have heard and experienced that there are many factors that make fish bite. I have observed that timing following the monthly lunar cycle to be a major contributing factor to the activity of fish in both salt and fresh water. I know that bait selection is important if the fish are feeding on a particular type of bait then that is what needs to be presented to them if they are to be caught. Certain types of bait seem to work better in some situations than o

thers. Tide is important to catching fish under situations where tide is a factor. Norwich harbor is a tidal effected area. Weather is also an important factor when choosing a time to go fishing. An imminent sto

rm or drop in pressure or an overcast sky often sparks the feeding behavior of striped bass. Temperature f

luctuations also have an affect on the quality of fishing. Increases in temper

ature seem to be more favorable than consistent or downward turning temps. Time of day also has an a

ffect on fishing in that there seems to be a lot more fish willing to bite

at night or in the margins of the day. While midday can be productive it has to coincide with a plateau in temperature.

Trends in fishing always seem to come and go but the times where I am at my best are when I have done some research and look around myself to observe conditions that have a positive effect on fishing. I will continue to learn about the fishing of Norwich harbor and hopefully be blessed with an amazing fishing experience there.

The quest for a fish a month continues

2010 Could be the year? Things are starting off auspiciously.
Of course 1/1/10 was a skunk of a snook trip on the Rio Nosara.
Being skunked on my first trip of the year whet my apetite for cold weather fishing at home. My first opportunity was 1/10, on the seth river. it was exciting to catch a fish in cold water. a 6 inch brookie to be exact! The colors and the white fins I think he was a wild fish. Even though it was a small fish It made me feel fulfilled that I had caught fish in January!
I also took a short trip out to long pond with the ice auger. It was sunny and warm. I fished for about 30mins or until the ice I was sitting on felt soft and made a loud crack noise. I made haste as I exited the ice grabbing my belongings and heading for shore. I looked back and realized that I had not been far from shore although it felt far enough when I was on it. Its funny how my perspective of space is controled by my level of comfort whth the situation. If I was 25 feet out on the ice I felt like I was 100 feet.
My accomplishment for the month of January was the capture of a 2# 16-18" brown trout in the the big pool near 95 on Latimer brook. I doubted I would catch anything but I took a chance and it paid off. I will probably try again soon even though the ice has melted too much to go out on it any more.