Important! Don't Let Washington Bickering Stop the Sportsmens Act!

Partisan bickering is holding up the bi-partisan Sportsmens Act of 2012. Speak up now, or more land and waters will be closed for good, restrictions will be put in place, and we, outdoor enthusiasts who contribute over $90 BILLION $$$ to the economy AND the environment, will be left on the sidelines. I rarely mix fishing forums and politics, but here I have to speak out. Please go to Keep America Fishing and Act now. Keep American Fishing - Save the Sportsmens Act Both CT Senators have voted to move the bill forward, so send correspondence to Sen. Mitch McConnel, Republican minority leader at. If more people don't act, we may as well trade in our rods for binoculars, because we will all be reduced to bird and whale watching!

An Important Effort to Preserve Menhaden

Check it out and let your voices be heard! www.menhadendefenders.org

Veteran's Day on the Salmon River, NY

Made it up for a one day trip Sunday! Weather was fantastic, which brought everyone out to take advantage of that last chance before the cold. It was ridiculous. Saw tons of walk-ins in places you rarely see many, even during the crazy salmon runs. Fished up top in Altmar with Scott and my brother.

Scott Glazier, owner/guide of Tinker Tavern Lodge and Guide Service

With flows around 250cfs and about a million people, the steelies were there but really turned off. After a slow start below the schoolhouse, Doug hooked and landed his first and only fish.

Doug needs to work on his fish posing, but at t 320lbs., it's hard to make a fish look big.

The fish were stacked in a tight location, with one guy on a float rig able to take advantage. We were in an ideal position to run a center pin down this seam, but it would have screwed everyone on the opposite bank. I stuck to flies and rubber eggs all day. The good thing about drifting is that nobody walks in to the side we were fishing, and we worked pretty well with the guys across from us to stay out of each other's way. Hookups were just about non-existent, so we decided to jump ahead of the other drift boats, moving well down from town. It was literally elbow to elbow down through the trussel.

(photo from last year).

There is one line for drift boats to take, and once you commit, you're in. Some guy hooked a fish between the center truss and the right bank after we'd started in. Not sure why, but he tried to submerge his rod tip and line rather than using his 11 ft. rod to elevate the side so we might have had a chance of going under. Needless to say, he lost his fish. We could still hear him a half mile down the river. Word to the wise. No point in casting once a boat is approaching that line of white water. It's not going to stop. We got ahead of the other boats to a location that is inaccesible to walk-ins, and set up shop for the rest of the afternoon. The bite was still tough, and I only had five shots, landing one. However, that was 3-4 more than anyone else in the area. Doug never hooked another fish, but he was fishing with spinning gear which really limits the volume of casts and thus the percentages of getting a hookup. I had all of my hits in about a 5 sq. ft. strike zone. Even losing those fish is a pretty awesome experience. I had a few take 50 yard runs on me in seconds before flipping a few times and giving me the f you. The only thing I've fished that is as angry as these things would be tarpon. Think of an albie run with a sailfish tendency to go airborn. It's a blast. Cant wait to get back up in a few more weeks, onnce some snow has hit the ground, and the temperature dropped to chase away the crowds.

Hooked up again!

Notice the line slack. This is the "Oh, sh*t" momement that typically comes with fishing steelies. :D It takes a lot of these to produce one of the pics below.

Awesome catch and post in OTW.

http://www.onthewater.com/fishing/rhode-island-surfcaster-catches-58-pound-november-striper/

Field Test: Lamiglas Infinity Surf Rod

Field Test: Lamiglas Infinity Surf Rod

Bluefin Blues

For those few who fish for a living, or have careers and family lives that give them frequent opportunities to pursue big fish, another day blue water fishing is no big deal. For the rest of us, limited by jobs, family commitments, financial obligations that don't involve chasing fish, so on and so forth, those opportunities come few and far between, so we hope to make them count. At this point in my life, I get to fish offshore when the planets align. I know I'm spending money that should be spent on a myriad of other needs, and am grateful that the worst I get from my wife is a somewhat reproachful look as I inform her of my planned endeavor. Recently, I've come to accept that I might also suffer a bout of seasickness (this has been affecting me more and more).

Our sport is called fishing, and that doesn't always guarantee catching. Despite my understanding of the nature of the pursuit and the chances of this trip actually being "The One," I can't help but get excited by the possibilities each and every time out. Thus I eagerly awaited my shot this fall to tackle some big bluefin on stand-up spinning gear. I fished bluefin for the first time two years ago, on a day where I landed 69" and 72" fish standing with heavier conventional gear. It was a blast, so when my buddy Mark asked me if I wanted to go lighter with spinning outfits, speed jigging and popping, I had to say yes. We were going to fish with Capt. Jack Sprengel of East Coast Charters, an angler recognized as one of the best at this type of fishing in the North East. We would go on a day of his choosing to optimize our chances of landing what some consider to be the apex sport fish.

After a long wait, Mark finally got the call from Jack, and we met up at 3:45am to put us on the water well before dawn out of Green Harbor Mass. Just a few days prior, Jack had put his guys on 8 fish, and conditions our day were almost identical. To up the odds, we were fishing in a pack, with one of Jack's mates running his smaller Contender and 2 other boats. Mr. Ron Z was out, and we were set to send his RonZ jigs down to hook some big tuna.

We ran across from Green Harbor to the east side of P-Town. Dawn broke to settling seas and birds in every direction. We began jogging, scanning the waters and sonar for signs of bluefin. We marked a pair on the bottom and let loose with metal butterfly jigs and RonZ soft plastics. No hits. Not to worry, the conditions looked promising. Several minke whales broke around us, and I saw a tuna erupt a few hundred yards off our starboard. I felt exhilarated and....queasy. You've got to be (expletive) me! The last few years I've been having occasional bouts of seasickness. Not good when fishing is your #1 hobby. Despite the calming seas, it appears this is going to be one of those days. I warn the guys that I'm going down, but let them know I'll be vertical the moment we mark fish.

The next several hours were spent slowly motoring down the Cape with no sign of bluefin. I was curled up in the bow on a cushion, half dozing and listening to the hum of the twin outboards. I could hear the conversations in the boat and over the radio, all focused on where these fish had gone, and couldn't really bring myself to get up. Eventually a call comes across that our scout boat, off on their own, has hooked into a bluefin. The rpm's pick up and soon were making a hard run to their location. This kicks in some adrenalin, and I'm back on my feet. We get to their location and begin marking bait. Turns are diving and we are working jigs. Problem is, we're not marking fish. They were there, and now gone.

As we near the end of the tide, conversations over the radio turn to heading towards home. We decide to continue working west of Truro with our ears open for reports on the way in. We hit another location with lots of bait and birds, but still no marks. We fish the last of a slack tide and begin our run back across to Green harbor. Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed. As a top notch captain, Jack was feeling it as well. Ten hours out with no fish, and seasickness to boot! The plain fact is, that's fishing, especially for a target like bluefin these days. As far as we could tell, Jack's mate running the Contender boated the only fish out there, a 44 incher. We covered 100 miles of water. The fish just weren't there.

So, I spent a lot of money, caught no fish, and spent a good portion of the day feeling too crappy to fully enjoy the time out with the guys on the boat. I could end this with, "That's fishing " However, Jack having promised us a shot and being the captain he is, will be taking us back out to have a go at that light tackle bluefin. Now I've got a reason to get all excited again! That's fishing.

Sobering Article

Most anybody stumbling across my site has probably read something about declining fish stocks. For those of us in CT, the following article is pretty sobering. Migratory Fish in Trouble chronicles some of the recent declines in the CT River watershed. It's worth a read.

My Favorite Time of Year!

Well folks, I've been sitting around waiting for something really exciting or for some great fishing before posting, but it just hasn't happened. Don't get me wrong, the fishing has been really good, both on the LIS and the freshwater with some nice bass and early pike thrown in. I've had friends that have had season high trips for everything from bass to albies, stripers and tog, in the last few weeks. Problem is, my schedule and luck have both left me wanting. Fishing is always great, but catching consistently does involve fishing in the same manner. Spending time on the water is critical to understanding bite patterns, which change constantly. You can't expect to go out once every week or so and always rack 'em up. The best of days on paper can still produce a tough bite, and that has been my story throughout September. I followed up my last albie post with another trip that week, this time with Jack and my brother Doug. It was a tough day, following a previous evening that had been lit up. We worked HARD for a few stripers, an albie and some blues. Several boats ended up getting shut out fishing from Plum Gut all the way east of Watch Hill. Just one of those mornings. I rebounded a bit the following week on one of the Blackhawk night trips (as I write this, they are heading out on one of the three October trips...), scoring numerous bass including 3 bill pool winner $$$. A weekend later, and I'm again working to pick of a few largemouths while hoping for pike. All things considered, I still got to fish in September, just in-between all the other stuff like job, family, etc. The great thing about fishing is that the next trip and possible fish of a lifetime looms just over the horizon : )

PS - If anyone found a fishgrip attached to a bowfin floating in the old outflow, that would be mine! (Pictured just before droping the fish and grip in the drink!)

September Means Albies

Rosh Hashanah means one thing for me, a day off from teaching at Cheshire HS for some beautiful fall fishing. With Meriden schools still in session, I was kid free and my biggest concern was where to fish. Fortunately, Jack had called Friday with a cancellation, and wanted to know if I was interested in going out to chase some albies. I met up with Jack (Balint - The Fish Connection) and Mark at 5:45a.m. in Stonington, just as the sun was peeking over the horizon and the tide was beginning to really flow out past Watch Hill Point. The air was crisp and clear. We couldn't have dialed up a better fall day. It wasn't to long before we saw some singles and small groups of the distinctly green albies with their tuna tails breaking the surface. They were still pretty scattered, but Mark hooked up early and that screaming drag to me is as Puccini to an opera fan. Drifting back through the rip as Mark worked on his fish, we could see a large school really busting from our previous location. As soon as we could we motored back up, and I got a cast right into the school yielding my first albie of the season. At this point, I was thinking "game on," that this was going to be one of those days where we just crush them. Not to be. This was the last big blitz we saw, though schools roamed from Watch Hill east along the SoCo. I was tossing an unweighted white Zoom fluke, that just didn't seem to have the allure or casting distance of the soft plastic mark was throwing. I hate to admit that I can't recall the brand now, but will get in touch with him for that. I went on to have 2 more hits without a hookset the rest of the day, seeming to always be 10-20 yards out of range when a school popped up. Mark did better though, landing three more and losing two. There were certainly other options, as the striper fishing has really been good, but there were enough albies to keep us in the chase. Though not the non-stop action I had hoped for, it was still a great day on the water with two outstanding fishermen. I can't wait to get back out Friday with my "little" brother.

Heading out of Stonington at dawn.

Mark and Jack

Little green rocket

Albies????

Just a quick update from Labor Day Weekend. Sunday brought beautiful weather and good tides. I was looking forward to a day on the water. Loads of blues from 4-10lb. range to snappers on my fly rod. Went from Race Point at dawn, to East Point on Fishers, Stonington and down to Two-Tree and Millstone looking (hoping) for albies. I had 2 rods rigged and ready all day; one with a deadly dick and another with an unweighted pearl Zoom Fluke. No luck anywhere. :( It's only a matter of time.

On a completely unrelated note.... I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my new fishing partner, Gus! He is coming to us from Southern Jewel Animal Rescue/Last Chance Highway. You may have seen this organization on Animal Planet. Sam, the kids and I can't wait for his arrival Saturday. If you've ever thought about adopting a dog, please check out their website.