weeks 7 and 8 wham and bam!

For week 7 I waited until Saturday to go fishing. Hard to believe I could wait so long. But I woke up early and made a run up to Amos lake on the promise that I would be back by 10:30-11:00. When I got there the road was plowed but the lot and the ramp were not. I drove through the ruts and around the circle where other vehicles had gone. Near the end of the circle I decided to try to park on top of the snow. I rammed the car into the snow bank and got stuck fast. I felt dumb because now in addition to getting home by 11:00 I had to get my car unstuck. so I decided to leave the car and get on the ice! I set up north of the peninsula and had my first and only flag of the day almost immediately it was a nice 3# pickerel. A respectable catch on any day it was my only catch for the week. At around 9:30 I called AAA and they sent a guy to help me pull the car out. He showed up at 10:00 and another guy helped me push my car out of the snow. I got back home by 11:00
That afternoon I went back to marine consignment and returned the broken fish finder I bought two weeks ago. The owner of the store offered to let me try and find another one in the pile of electronics. I found a Lowrance Eagle Silent 61 and a matching transducer. I took them up to the counter and the guy said you can just take that one and we are square. Only paid $25! I said thanks and went on my way.
KK and I went to the New Bedford whaling museum and looked around at the new exhibit about Melville and paintings in the collection. Had dinner in Newport, great day!
Next morning, I had a few hours and I wanted to test out the new fish finder. I went to the pond across from the aquarium with nothing but the intention of seeing if the sonar worked and if I could see my jigs. At first I could just see bottom. It was kind of disappointing but after turning the sensitivity way up and messing with the noise suppression I was able to see my jig! how exciting. I even started catching fish. I pulled 5 largemouth of varying small sizes in about an hour. Called it a day and went to a party at a friends house. Two weeks of fishing done in two days!
Now all this fishing comes at a great cost. I am unable to find a job currently and I want to continue my important fishing work so I have to either cut back on fishing or get a sponsor. Any one interested? I offer sponsors weekly fishing reports with details about where, what times and how I caught fish as well as advertising space on my fishing sled. I will entertain any size of donation. Any interested parties are encouraged to leave comments, contact info or envelopes of money at my house. I will accomplish my goal of a fish a week for 2011 with your generous support.

week 6 the pike-rel

In a moment of uncharacteristic daring I skipped fishing sunday! It was Ok, I got my homework done and waited for the high pressure to pass. So monday I made an afternoon run to lantern hill pond. I found fresh tracks and new holes drilled. I redrilled 5 holes and set up before I could get the second trap out my first flag went off. I ran over and felt the tug but snapped the line. it felt big. I had three more flags while I set up and missed all three. I had a hot jigging spot though with bass and small gills. Around sunset I made my way off the slush.

Today was an Ice day where you miss class and nothing really seems to happen. There was a glaze of ice on everything, so it was probably for the best. I made a quick run to lantern hill to fish till 12:00. I was all set out by 10:00 and the wait began. Nothing but freezing rain sticking to everything for about an hour and a half. Then a flag goes up, I run and lose the fish, Reset and had a fish back on almost immediately. It was the same heavy feel as before. I played the fish to the hole with six runs. when I saw it I knew it was a new personal best pickerel. See for yourself. I guess it was around 5# and over 20 inches. I was quite happy. Also I went over to long pond for a look and noticed this weird scene. I didnt try the ice.

week three and apparently weeks 4 &5

SO, I have been fishing hard and havn't had much time to write. But all the news is good In the past two weeks I have fished at least 5 ponds and caught over 100 fish. I also had an interesting realization. This year started on a saturday the day I caught fish 1 on avery pond but it counts as a week in 2011 and I caught a fish any way. I also caught fish the next day too so I got that week as well.
Last week I started on a cold day at patchaug with Seth and Sully. those guys can fish we caught lots of pan fish and some pickerel. It was a lot of work to get on and off of the ice because some spots were unsafe but we made it. I think I saw a shooting star while I was on the way to the spot.

as I drive on the frigid roads there is steam coming out of the sewers and not another soul is on the road.

After my trip to patchaug I returned to lake hayward for the yellow perch with Jake C. we got out early enough but struggled for the first few hours so we kept moving our traps until we started catching perch. We also caught bass, pickerel and bluegills.

We stayed till dark and after the trip I showed jake and his parents how I clean fish in their kitchen sink.

the next trip was also with Jake but this time we went to avery pond and caught only 2 bluegills all day the next day was supposed to be the first day of classes and school was cancelled because of an ice storm. At least it will level some of the deep snow and make the ice thicker. Jake got an awesome shelter for his birthday it is nice to be inside a structure when its so windy outside.

After fishing I took Jake to margaritas and we got beer. jake is 21 this year



Jake called me up and asked if i wanted to meet he and Tom on brandigee lake in New London on Saturday, short trip. One bass on a tipup and nothing on the jigs.

It is getting really cold with temps like 8 and 3.

Yesterday I went to lantern hill pond I was hoping for some crappy but couldnt find them. Instead i got 5 big bluegills a yellow perch the biggest I have ever jigged, and a beautiful rainbow trout. The trout was delicious roasted the perch was on the dry side the 5 bluegills ended up in fish tacos tonight along with an extra bluegill from tonight.



A solid two weeks of fish and I have started school so now I will have to budget time more carefully so I can catch a fish every week.

This time of year you can find me huddled on the ice around 4:00pm pushing the sunset later and later each evening. spring is on its way and the season of plenty will be here soon.

week 2 Mission accomplished

Mondays trip to Hayward lake was a success with pickerel, yellow perch and largemouth bass. I gave all the fish to Jake and his parents, they gave me some fruit which I took home to Krystal.


The following day I met Seth and Jerry on Patchaug pond for some pike fishing.Before any fish were caught I was videotaping when i fell in the snow. I stood up and joined the group. As i stood there waiting to see if there was a fish I flicked my hands to get the snow off. In my haste I flicked my wedding ring off into the snow. Some quick thinking and a tense 5 mins later we found the ring by throwing water on the fresh snow.
Some impressive fish came out of the holes including a bass with spots on it and some large pike. I returned two days later and fished with Seth. Some of the ice was very sketchy and we had to do our best to avoid falling through at some spots. I read someones post on ct fisherman about the snow affecting the ice I hope its not too detrimental because there has been quite a bit of snow. May try again for pike on Saturday.

After all the accolades and awards and parade I received for my mission accomplishment( a fish a month) I have decided to up the ante. If a fish a month is easy enough then its a fish a week that I need for a challenge. 2011 has begun with a good start. I caught fish on the the first day of the year although regretably I was not in Costa Rica. I did catch fish and it was easier than I thought it would be. I decided to set out and look at 5 ponds to check on the ice conditions. and at the fourth pond I saw people ice fishing. I quickly threw together my set up and after about an hour I had caught my first yellow perch of 2011!
I went back to the same pond today and caught 5 more fish. 2 pumpkin seeds, a bluegill and 2 yellow perch. So Im off to a good start for a fish a week in 2011.

PS here are some pics of my ice fishing setup that i built myself.

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.