A little bass action.

So I have slowed my fishing obsession down a little in the last couple weeks.  There is no one reason for it but a bunch of them.  Even with this pull back I have had a chance to go do my favorite fishing of all, small mouth bass on the Housatonic river with a fly rod.  

First fish that was bigger then 8 inches (with a gurgler variation in its jaw)

A nice 13 inch fish weighing in at about a one pound.

This was me after that trip to the river.  Catching bass takes it out of ya.

 I have been fishing one time since then (the 4th of July week).  Yesterday I spend an entire day fishing and I haven't done that in a long time.  I fished a weed choked pond in town and had a blast.  Stuck mainly with the bait cast rod and a frog but made a few casts with the fly rod as well.  After the first dozen fish or so I stopped counting but kept having fun.  Most of these large mouth weighed in at a pound or two with one hitting the two and a half mark.  There were no lunkers but man was it fun and a funny thing happened I actually stopped fishing.  I hit that point where I was either tired enough, dehydrated enough, or just plan done fishing for a couple hours.  It was refreshing to fish like this.  No time constants, no other people around (it was Wednesday after all), and no weather to worry about.

cooky cutter bass but tons for fun on a frog

 Thanks for reading and hopefully I'll have a new adventure soon.


Bruce

Hints from my wife.

Sarah recently told me I'm not a good blogger. 

Well she's right - I'd rather be out on my adventures then writing about them. To add to my issues as a blogger, I don't have a computer I can relay on. This means I have to type my posts on my iPhone and that, my friends, is time consuming and annoying. Add 40 hours at bass pro and driving back and forth and I'm left splitting the rest of my time with my beautiful wife, house work and fishing. Some would say, "blog at night" and that's a great idea but around here you can striper fish at night.

To add to my lack of blogging, I've been largemouth fishing with some friends almost every Friday night. This group has re-ignited some of the fire I had for spin fishing, but has also oddly enough been my inspiration to learn bait casting. I gave up on bait casting years ago after making backlashes that could have been homes for squirrels. Now that it's mid June the bait caster and the fly rod are the only two rods I need on a bass pond.

My spring was full of trips to the trout stream. Before work, after work, morning, noon, evenings, trout fishing even happened during social hour of church one day(might have been a bad idea). There was a addition to my trout fishing set up this year. I put new line on my old Orvid Battenkill and retired my old Orvis Clear water and bought a TFO Finesse (I'll try to review the line and the rod at some point).

The last two last two thing that have consumed me lately have been my new kayak, and surf fishing for striped bass! That's right we bought two kayaks in April and I have used mine at least once a week ever since! Sarah, being the great wife she is, said it only made sense that I buy one already set up for fishing. These kayaks are a lot of fun, not only to fish from but it's also nice to just bob along in sometimes too.

Stripers - I thought I wouldn't fall to them this fast, but I did. It's a sickness it really is. I caught fish with Skinny Water Charters captain Jim Barr on cinder worm flies. Then started fishing with a coworker using both surf gear and fly rod. With my coworker Marc we mainly night fish. We have fished both rivers and beaches. We have used plugs, flies, and live bait and have had success with all three. A couple of all nighters getting skunked and a couple nights chasing the wrong tide, paid off two weeks ago when we caught close to twenty fish. They were not monsters and we had a blast. Never having eaten striper I took two home to grill, but probably left 8 keeper sized fish go. Most of the time he and I catch and release but just like with trout I will keep a fish every now and then especially if it isnt going to live. Needless to say I'm hooked on striper fishing now and really hope to get into them again soon.

I've thought about shutting my blog down lately but I think I just need to focus and force myself to write. Maybe I'll get my lovely wife to guest post soon. I think that will inspire me to write. Speaking of inspiration, Sarah caught her first fish ever the other night. Dropped the bait to the bottom felt the strike, set the hook and reeled it in all on her own! This is very exciting folks, very exciting.

Till next post


Bruce

Bad blogger

I have been a bad blogger lately. Not really a bad fishermen but a bad blogger. I haven't been taking pictures on the water and I haven't been posting on here obviously. I haven't been dreaming and scheming of how to sell flies or make a buck to write a blog. I have been working, trying to see my wife in the midst of our conflicting schedules and fishing a lot. Try everyday last week for as little as 30 minutes and as much at 9 hours.


I have found time to clean the house and do some yard work but just enough so it's not too ugly. That being said with all my successes on the water I don't ever want to do yard work. Here are some photos of catches in the past two weeks.

I promise I will write a full story on the fish in the last two photos before Sunday!!!

Bruce

Lots of excitement!

This is a quick photo preview of some up coming blog posts!

Stay toned for some full stories.

A Gift

So my brother is in the coast guard and was at "A" school for the past couple months. He has since graduated and moved back to work on the same ship he was on before. This time he has a new job on the boat and won't be the low man on the totumpole. I wasn't able to make it to his graduation this time and that really bummed my out. So I started tying flies.

You see my brother has done something I have been dreaming and reading about now for a couple years. He did it with a spinning rod I think (correct me of I'm wrong there Jay)? I never got all the details but I've seen the pictures and I'm jealous. 

He has caught a lake run steelhead in the skinny waters of a woodland stream. He has since bought an 8wt fly rod and an Allen reel to try and catch one with.

So I gave him a box of flies to try and catch a couple of these monsters with. Nothing too special, some egg patterns, some loop eggs, a couple jumbo johns, and some streamers. This coming fall I hope to get out to NY and chase these big fish myself. Hopefully this spring my bro can tell me what patterns work best.

So formally congrats Jason and put these flies to good use bud!

Bruce

Brookies

Brook trout from the stream in town. They are all really healthy looking and I think a couple of them might even be native. Okay I'm keeping this short so enjoy the pictures and I'll post again soon.

Bruce

Pond Fishin

So in southeast Massachusetts we do not have a lot of stream and river trout fishing. This, for me, was (and is) somewhat of a let down. I love stream and river fishing for trout. It makes sense to me and it is what I grew up with. All that being said I have decided to go with it and learn to pond fish for trout and also look to the salt for some completely new fishing experiences.

The ponds are all being stocked now and with the unseasonably warm weather the local pond fish are waking up as well. So in the past week I have landed 6 different kinds of fish. About a week ago I caught some bass, bluegill and trout one evening after work.

The next four days after that I landed close to a hundred bluegill and pumpkinseed sunnies, a pickerel, a couple more bass and just last night caught about 6 crappies.

So, all in all, pond fishing is okay and I really love catching lots of different fish. I guess that means pond fishing will work out for me.

Bruce

Catch Up Post

This is a short update on the status of me and my outdoor adventures.  With this nice weather I have been eating lunch fast so I can walk around the cranberry bog for fresh air and exercise.  Also I have been going to the gym a couple times a week.  Thats my life these days fast pace and not a lot of time at the end of the week.

Oh and there is the fishing and fly tying obsession.  Let me tell ya it is only getting worse.  On the fly fishing front I have been getting out more and more these days.  I caught my first couple bluegills last week and a baby bass as well.  The state has started stocking the waters and I am impatiently waiting for either the local streams to be stocked or the stripers to come in.  Also I plan to go west on Monday and fish the states' only tailwater (there will be a full post on that trip Tuesday or Wednesday).

Baby bass

Now on to the fly tying end of the world.  So along with doing a lot of tying these days I have been trying to organize my tying area.  I had some organization before but felt the need to really do an overhaul.  With some day dreaming and help from Jesse (a church member and friend with a full wood shop in his basement) I made a couple blocks to organize tools, threads, and adhesives.

This if the before picture of my desk.

A couple caddis for the season

I have been tying salmon and steelhead flies lately most of them for my brother who will be returning to WI just in time for the spring steelhead run.  Also I am going to be trying my hand at landlocked salmon this week. 

the after shot of the same desk

Close up shot of my new organization, note the threads.  

So to keep it short, I'm closing the laptop and going to sleep.

Keep a look out, with the nicer weather I will be having more and more adventures which will mean more and more blog posts.


Bruce