gone fishin

Manchester by the Sea - July 5, 2009

2009-07-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

Went out early at black and white beaches and kettle island. The wind was fierce. Too much wind to fly fish, but managed to take two (one in the 25 inch range) on a white sluggo.

Something stinks...

2009-06-14T09:05:00.000-07:00

...it's me, getting skunked this morning in Manchester! Went to Kettle (sp?) Island, my favorite hotspot in Manchester. There was no surface action and saw very little bait. I guess that's why it's called fishing, not catching.

Housatonic River in Connecticut - May 30 and 31

2009-05-31T18:10:00.000-07:00

Rekindled the annual GartnerGroup fishing extravaganza! We absolutely killed them on Saturday, w/ my boat landing 16 rainbows and browns. I caught a 16.5" rainbow and my boat-mate a 17". Almost all of the fish were caught on 18 and 20 micro midges. What great fun. The second day was a little slower for me, although I managed to salvage a bit of the day by landing a nice 14.5" rainbow at the last run. My boat-mate had a good day, landing at 6-7 nice fish.

Martha's Vineyard - Memorial Day weekend 2009

2009-05-31T18:05:00.000-07:00

Managed to catch my first striper of the year. A little schoolie, but a fish nonetheless! Caught it at the little bridge on an dead high-tide. I was there earlier during the transition, but unsuccessful. Struck out at Tashmoo and Vineyard Haven harbor. The next night I had another on, same place, same situation, but it popped off before I landed it. Went out to Lighthouse beach that night to try my luck. I was there during the low-to-high transition and it looked perfect, but unfortunately didn't produce. I caught both fish on striper crack, w/ intermediate line.

Two days in a row

2009-05-01T11:25:00.001-07:00

Friday, May 01, 2009:

I went back to the same stream, same pool as yesterday, w/ solid results, again! Three nice brook trout, two taken on bead-head green flashback nymph and the other on a stonefly. The biggest one was in the 10" range, which isn't bad given the size of Stony Brook in Weston.

All in all, a great day!

Trout fishing - game on!

2009-04-30T14:40:00.000-07:00

Took three today in an hour and a half at a small stream in Weston, MA. I missed a few hits, too. They were all bunch in one pool. All fish and hits were on nymphs, green flashback, weighted prince and small stonefly. Great start to the season!

P.S., I pulled a 12-inch brookie out of Walden this past weekend, worm fishing w/ the kids. There was action all over the place, along the wall between the boat ramp and the lifegaurd house. Most of the people were using powerbait, although one guy was killing them w/ yellow salmon eggs.

Getting back in the game

2009-03-30T19:02:00.000-07:00

I went silent for most of 2008, not because of lack of fly fishing, just a bit lazy keeping my blog up to date. This year, I pledge to keep it fresh!

Looking back, 2008 was not a total bust, although it was generally very tough fishing, consistent w/ many of the discussion groups that I follow. I fished a lot; caught some, but nothing notable. I fished consistently on the Vineyard through the summer. Surprisingly and maybe just bad timing, I never lit it up on Lobsterville. Coops definitely talked a big game there, but I considered it a disappointment. Interestingly, I had a lot of luck in early mornings (in the kayak and on shore) at State Beach, crusing up and down the shore, in mid-August! In the fall, I spent most of the time in the kayak, off of Manchester by Sea. I had some luck and a lot of frustration, when I'd sometimes in the middle of a blitz and unable to have them take any fly. The fall migratory blitzes didn't last long, though.

Here's to a better 2009! I'm confident that I'll make up for a mediocre 2008, especially in the blogging department.

Joppa Flats Newburyport - June 26, 2008

2008-06-27T08:50:00.000-07:00

Fished Joppa Flats late afternoon into the evening, from right before peak high tide to the start of the out-going tide. The flats at high tide were loaded w/ fish. We were on a boat and saw huge stripers rolling just under the surface and plenty breaking the surface. I had my fly and spinning rods w/ me and I threw everything at them (shrimp patterns, worms, striper crack, deceivers (all colors), sand eels, crabs, etc ... sluggos, yuzuri minnows and top-water plugs) w/ no results. It was very frustrating and it was completely unobvious what they were eating. We only saw a couple of hook-ups on other boats so nobody seemed to crack the code.

Martha's Vineyard - Thursday, June 19, 2008

2008-06-23T03:07:00.000-07:00

I did my usual slog through Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven, hitting my favorite spots on State Beach, Lake Tashmoo and Vineyard Haven harbor. It was slow going for most of the evening, seeing no rises and very little bait, until my last (return) stop at the Little Bridge. As I went over the bridge to park, I distinctively heard the tell-tale splash of a fish hitting bait at the surface underneath me. It was late and I was running out of steam, but quickly managed to land two decent size fish (and missed another ... must have grabbed the tail of the fly). Both fish were caught w/ the infamous "striper crack" fly on intermediate line.

June 15, 2008 - Manchester

2008-06-15T17:19:00.000-07:00

Went to black and white beach this morning early. It was dead low when I got there, but about to start the turn. 'Dead' is the operative word, though, as there was no surface action and only a small amount of visible bait. I was in the kayak and covered a good distant, all for naught.

Zero G 9-weight Tip-flex

2008-05-27T08:19:00.000-07:00

After waiting for the Zero G 2-piece 9 weight tip-flex to go on sale from Orvis, it finally happened a couple of months back. I was fairly confident that it would, given that Orvis has been putting so much marketing into the Helios version and they're, like everyone else, getting out of the 2-piece game (a bad decision from my perspective ... I much prefer less pieces than the easier-t0-travel-with trend of the 4+ piece phenomenon.).

I had my first chance to break in the new rod this past weekend and it is a great piece of hardware. I especially like the switch to a tip flex. My other rod is a T3 9-weight mid-flex 2-piece which is an excellent rod, too, but I really like the stiffness of the tip-flex and the power it generated. The downside is that an equivalent fish felt substantially larger on the mid-flex rod than the tip-flex, but I'm not going back :-).

Martha's Vineyard - Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-27T07:40:00.000-07:00

I spent a few nights fishing there this weekend.

In general, it was slow, but I did manage to catch a few fish.

The first night was brief (I arrived late) and consisted of a stint at Vineyard Haven harbor and the little bridge. The harbor had a decent number of sand eels and I managed to take one small striper on a black deceiver. I also had a significant strike at the little bridge on a white deceiver.

The second night was a bust. I definitely put in my time and the tides were against me, running into a slack tides everywhere ... tashmoo, VH harbor, East beach and the little bridge.

The last night I decided to go to Lobsterville. A good decision, based on a visit to Coop's earlier in the day, although he did say it was hit or miss. I took a couple of nice fish, including one in the 26 inch range. Both fish were taken on a black deceiver, which I switched to after trying a floating sand eel and other small bait imitations.

I didn't see any notable surface action at Lobsterville, but you can tell that it's about to explode!

Manchester - October 6, 2007

2007-10-06T08:10:00.000-07:00

The fishing was tough this morning. My brother and I went out in kayaks before dawn and fished for two to three hours. There was only one short burst where fish broke the surface, maybe five minutes. Other than that, all was quiet.

There were a lot of kayaks on the water today. And, kayak etiquette seems to have gone by the wayside. I was fishing around one of the little islands and three other kayaks converged on me, not more than twenty yards from where I was. I would understand if I was on fish, but I was just prospecting. It was very frustrating, especially because I watched them coming towards me from a half-mile away. It's a big ocean guys!

Hopefully I'll have better luck next time (fishing that is :-)).

Manchester - September 14, 2007

2007-09-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I went out early this morning in the kayak in Manchester. The weather was cool, around the mid-50s, and the ocean was calm. At this time of year, it doesn't begin to get light out until around 6:00 A.M.

The action was fast and furious, as the fish (stripers) were pretty much everywhere. Before it started to get light, a smallish black deceiver on intermediate line was producing well. As the light set in, the fish continued to break the surface consistently, but the fish stopped hitting the deceiver. I switched over to a small white/gold baitfish imitation that produced some fish.

Unfortunately, worked (and parental duties) called and I had to cut it off.

The biggest fish taken was in the 24-25 inch range.

Sept 7 - Manchester harbor

2007-09-08T04:09:00.000-07:00

Decided to play a little hooky w/ a couple of my colleagues yesterday and went out on one of their boats. We were cruising outside of the mouth of Manchester harbor, between the harbor and around Misery island. Not long after mid-afternoon, we found consistently feeding stripers. There were several pods of fish breaking the surface.

It took a couple of lure changes to figure out what work, but eventually hooked up w/ a few 20 - 22 inch fish on a Yozuri floating minnow.

All-in-all, a great day (although, as always, I'd prefer to fly fish :-)).

August 25, 2007 - MV

2007-08-26T04:27:00.000-07:00

I kayaked from the Edgartown side of State Beach to the big bridge and back. It was a little hairy, the fog was thick and the wind was blowing out hard. At one point I let myself get too far out and thankfully there were plenty of cars going along the beach road to allow me to see how to get back.

I decided to hug the shore a little more, staying between the beach and at most twenty-to-thirty yards outside of the buoys.

About halfway to the bridge there were fish jumping everywhere. They were either bonito or bluefish. My fly was snapped off by whatever they were along the shore. I caught a nice bluefish at the bridge. All fish and hits were on a black deceiver on shooting-head line.

Overall, a great experience, aside from the fog and wind.

August 24, 2007 - MV

2007-08-24T18:41:00.000-07:00

The fishing the past few days has been tough. The best results have been in the morning at my favorite State Beach spots, although I have been skunked, too. A floating sand eel on intermediate line has produced fish.

Thursday morning, August 16, 2007 MV

2007-08-16T04:08:00.000-07:00

The water's super warm.

I went out around 5:00 to my favorite spot along State Beach. There were fish breaking the surface, but surprisingly the Striper Crack wasn't producing ... a rare occurrence. I persisted to no avail and then decided to switch it up. I put on a floating sand eel and let it drift inside. I hooked and landed two immediately, with one of decent size (22 - 24 inches). The same rig may be the best way to start tomorrow's hunt.

Saw an awesome sunrise, too!

Tuesday, August 14, 2007 on MV

2007-08-16T03:59:00.000-07:00

I went out on a guided boat to the shoals between MV and Nantucket.

The first shoal that we fished only produced a couple of strikes (and landings). We stayed for about a half an hour before the guide decided to move on to the next shoal. Good thing that we did! The next shoal was loaded w/ bluefish. In every wave that was breaking on the shoal, you could see eight or more darting bluefish. And that's only the fish that you could see and there were waves breaking all around the shoals. We literally caught a bluefish every cast for three and a half hours. There were so few casts where we did not hook up that the misses were insignificant. All of the fish were in the 5-7 lb range, with a few bigger (and smaller) ones. I was hauling them in on spin tackle and a fly road (I switched to spin tackle once in a while only because the person I was with had to come to my side of the boat to land the fish). In total, the person I was with and I caught approximately 80 blues. Unbelievable!

Memorial Day Weekend 2007 on MV

2007-05-31T06:58:00.000-07:00

I did the usual route each night, including my favorite spot on State Beach and Lake Tashmoo. Although, I added Vineyard Haven harbor to my route after going there w/ the kids during the day and noticing several spots that looked very promising. Thankfully for my Friday night fishing tour that I did, as I landed a solid 26" striper that saved my night. The following night I landed several at Lake Tashmoo and twice as many on State Beach. All were schoolies, including the smallest striper of my life (must have been 10"), except for one that was solidly in the mid 20 inches. The bigger fish was great fun, as it attacked the fly when it hit it at the surface. The best luck that night at State Beach happened at the very end of the out going tide. All of the fish were taken on the striper crack fly.

October, North Shore

2006-10-24T17:19:00.000-07:00

The north shore of Boston is teeming with fish, stripers and bluefish. I went to Singing Beach one evening and killed them. After having no luck right in front of the entrance and all the way to the left rocks, I decided to move further down the beach to the right, halfway between the entrance and the end of the beach. I hooked up on-average every third cast. Nothing big, but fun just the same. All fish were taken on a half-and-half, with a clouser head and large hackle (not the Orvis kind of h-and-h).

August 18, 2006 MV

2006-08-18T20:16:00.000-07:00

Caught another keeper tonight, 30+ inches. This fish was taken at the exact spot as the previous keeper on the same sand eel imitation and medium line.

Both keepers this week were caught on an out-going tide, my favorite tide to fish along State Beach.

August 15 MV

2006-08-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

Landed a keeper this evening, 29 inches. Caught the fish on a sand eel imitation (a.k.a., striper crack). The fish gave a great fight and took line a couple of times.

I had a good feeling about today, as it rained all day and was on the cool side. The skies cleared in the afternoon and all was calm.

August 14 on MV

2006-08-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

The fishing has been a little spotty of late. Lake Tashmoo is loaded w/ bait. I was there early morning and there were plenty of very large stripers at the mouth of the channel. With all the bait, the fish are tough to catch. My favorite spot along State Beach has been consistent, but no keepers.

Early August on MV

2006-08-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

The action's fairly consistent at night, but no keepers (yet!). I caught a half a dozen small'ish stripers on Saturday night, at my favorite spot on State Beach. The action at Lake Tashmoo and East Beach is non-existant.

Two of the fish last night were approaching keeper size, mid-20 inches.

All of the fish were caught on a sand eel.