Downpours and Redemption

Typically I have my fishing game pretty tight for the fishing I mostly engage in, trout and carp.  That doesn't mean I have off days but this year I have two off months.  On the water I've been sloppy and inaccurate with my casts, either too fast or slow with my hook sets and generally out of sync with the demands needed to connect with fish.  Generally it's been an ugly funk whenever I've been on the water. 

Given the warm temps, carp was on the menu and the opportunity to tighten up my game presented itself.  On the water I focused on moving slowly and quietly, moving into position carefully and crucially making the first cast the right cast .  I found that too much fly movement spooked the carp so little or no fly movement was the key.  What unfolded was a magical two hours of only messing up two fish, one to lining and one to hooking a stick near the fish.  All the others were spot on presentations and hook sets.  In my journey on water I saw tons of Killdeer, a water snake hunting in the shallows, three or so dozen Cedar Waxwings working the bugs over a riffle, an Osprey, an immature Bald Eagle, a Red Tailed Hawk, plus Eastern Kingbirds, Crows and the typical assortment of resident birds.  Then came the thunderstorms and bad light that ended the magical afternoon of redemption. 

Casting Practice

Apparently I came down with a case of Muskie fever.  I had a day to fish and this time of year offers an adventuring angler numerous quality options, maybe too many.  Several of these options held my attention, but the ghosts of those huge tigers pulled me away from the salt, fall trout, or salmon etc.  The only problem was that no one told the tigers to show up.  I fished hard for 10 of the 11 hours I was on the water.  I  worked the structure,  fished cover, fished near bait all for chance to entice a tiger to eat my fly.

The disheartening part of the day was that I never saw any signs of them. The prior week there were boils, a couple of fish jumping and even a two swimming on the surface with their heads out of the water.  None of this was evident on this day.

I did manage to take some shots of me casting.  Casting large 7-8" flies even with an 9 or 11 wt all day means one really needs to be spot on with one's gear and technique.  In terms of gear one needs to have properly lined rods in order to throw half chickens out there with any kind of distance.  Technique wise you better know how to double haul and not be sloppy in your casting or else one will quickly burn out and not be able to put in the time that maybe necessary to land a fish.

                                           

                                          The deep bend of a good forward stroke. 

                                                                      Letting it fly.

                               One of the flies I was slinging all day. 

Tiger Time

Two years ago, my bud Matt and I did two days of muskie fishing.  For each of us it was our first attempt at Esox masquinongy aka Muskie.  Well we were hoping for a return trip to the salt this past weekend, but high winds and seas negated that as an option. While we were in search of an outing we decided to try to fish for Tiger Muskie aka norlungel, a sterile cross between a Muskie and a northern pike that inhabits several bodies of water in upstate NY.  Research was done flies were tied and many casts were made.  Our novice butts managed to each land one tiger and we had several other follows including one that was the size of my leg, a true knee knocker.

                                            Gearing up before launching the boat.

 Early in the game Matt hooked this beast of a largemouth, the biggest one I've ever seen.

                                                 My little tiger, with great colors

                                                                       The release

   Matt admiring his tiger.  He was ready to pack it in, until he had a follow that had him make a few more casts.  He was rewarded for his efforts.  They are some cool looking fish, I wish they lived a little closer to home. Now they live in my dreams.

Right place right time take two

For 6-10 weeks most falls, False Albacore visit the coast from Cape Cod to NJ and beyond.  Some years and as well as days are better than others.  That being said,  the last couple of falls have not coincided with lots of hard tails being hooked in my boat.  However, a recent trip to the coast reversed this trend as we managed to pick away most of the day and ended up with a solid number of fish being landed.  many of the takes took place close to the boat which made for some great visual images that were captured by my brain, but not my camera.  I find it so hard to put down the rod when there are fish nearby.  Here are some pics when I managed to put the rod down.

 

Carpin

Summer is here and carp are on the fishing menu.  As a former hard core trout bum, I have to say I really look forward to carp fishing.  They are maddeningly difficult at times and hard to figure out.  In my neck of the woods we're always truing to find clear water spots to sight fish and with all the rain this year that has been a challenge. There is nothing better mid summer than wet wading and stalking the flats like a heron in search of old rubber lips.  I hooked a beauty the other day  by far my best carp only to break it off.  12# flouro is no match for a dirigible.  Hopefully there will be more photos to come.  Got some good video of a carping taking a dry fly but that will have to wait a bit. 

  Carp and the rod I use to chase them with.

 Soft hackles have joined my arsenal of late.

 Playing the game

 Annoying bycatch!

 Eye see you

Target in sight but not willing to play.  In carpin, accuracy even in close and a gentle landing fly are crucial for success. 

They put a good bend in the rod. 

Fun with HDR

HDR or High Dynamic Range has been a fun toy for many photographers for a while.  I just recently acquired the ability to make these photos.  These photos are made by combining the same picture with 3 or more different exposures and combination them.  The results can be visually dramatic as the contrast between colors and light are extenuated.  It doesn't work well for all pictures but when it does work its great.  Here are three of mine that I like.

The Trip (day 4)

Our final day greeted us with overcast skies and no fog.  Yippee.   We headed out and found the birds and fish in the rips which were fueled into large standing waves by the stiff breeze.  My little whaler isn’t the best in these situations so even though we got a small bass we moved off for a drier fishing experience.  We ended up not being able to find any bass but we did find lots of Scup and then big powerful gator bluefish.  The wire leader we happened to have from the muskie made the day special.   

 Diner plate sized Scup

        Mr. Bluefish

               Matt with a big bluefish.  

The large blues fought incredibly hard and gave us cramps in our forearms.  As the tide started to ebb so did the fishing and we were greeted by the looming end of the trip.  In many ways it is the hardest part of the trip knowing that it is ending, that the magic of the last days will be lost to the thousands of mundane day to day things that need to get done in order to keep ones’ life rolling along.  This is quickly followed by talks of the next adventure. 

The trip (day 3)

The drive to the coast was uneventful.  When we got there we quickly launched the boat full of excitement.  As soon as we hit the outside of the river our spirits sank as we were greeted by a wall of fog.  Shit.  We pulled onto the nearby flats and tried to stalk the flats but the light sucked and the fog became even more dense.  After a while we moved off to a different spot by a small creek and some fish busted in the shallows.  I prodded my bud to cast and he looked at me doubtfully but cast anyway.  Halfway through his first cast he got his first striper albeit a small schoolie.   

                                                   My bud's first striper.

A few minutes later I got a hit and it was a small Sea Robin.  Interesting looking fish.

                                         Pec fin of a Sea Robin

 We ended up hanging out waiting for the fog to break and were eventually rewarded with a half mile of visibility.  We ran out to a good rip to try to get in some fishing.  As soon as we arrived we saw a couple of fish bust on top an encouraging sign.  This part is a little vague in my memory, maybe the result of the fog, but it seemed like we caught big stripers on every drift for an hour or so.  

                                                           Hooked up

                                      

                                         All the bass were big, this being the largest one. 

To say the least it was on and we had this popular place to ourselves.  After an hour or so the fog started to set in and we headed in. 

The Trip (day 2)

The next day found us on a different section of river.  Without knowing what lay ahead we eagerly set off armed with a little bit of knowledge and a lot more questions.  At the bottom of a large riffle the water deepened out and we found ourselves feeling the good vibes.  Sure as shit we got a follow by a big fish.  Again we anchored in the area and fished the hell out of the area with nothing to show for it.  At the bottom of the next riffle the water erupted twice but we got no Muskie love.  As we emerged from some islands there was a large house along the bank and a strangely sloped appendage on the side.  As we got closer it became clear that this was a huge 3 story water slide! 

                                            The "Redneck Yacht Club" and its killer slide.

 The sign behind the boat had it named the Redneck Yacht club.  Too f***ing funny.  The remainder of the float was empty except the occasional smallmouth.  We finished early and were in a bit of a pickle about what to do with the few hours we had left.  We could float the bottom section of yesterday’s water that we didn’t hit that hard or walk down to the where we knew there were two fish and have another go at them.   We finally decided to return to the spots of the morning.  At the head of the pool a bit above where we moved the fish this morning I got an explosive refusal on my first cast.  Two casts later the line came tight and fish number two was in the books.  

                                              Muskie number 2

 By this time my bud was getting disheartened while he had moved 4 fish and hooked one he hadn’t landed anything.  We’ve all been there and it sucks.  We headed down to the second spot and I felt good about his chances but didn’t say anything.   He fished it hard and nothing happened in the area where the fish was that morning.  It was going to be a long walk out and drive home but he keep fishing it through.  Then just like in a story his line came tight.  This one was big.   After a few nervous moments and a couple of minutes this beast came to shore.

                                          The beast.  It had about 8 1/4" fangs on either side of its lower jaw.  Would not want to be a fish in the receiving end of that. 

After high fives we hiked back to the car for the 4 hour drive home and a few hours of sleep before we headed south to the coast.   On the way home we stopped at a gas station and saw this strange set up across the street.  

                            Some kind of toilet bowl and bathtub flower arrangement