Tuesday, August 31, 2010

August 29, 2010 - Sunday - Stillwater Fishing

I'll be honest, I didn't sleep at all - sure I closed my eyes, but I woke up at least a dozen times to glance at the clock, each time it inched closer to when the alarm was set for. But I never made it, I never do - my eyes popped open at 4:15am and I decided that was close enough - turned off the alarm clock and got dressed in the dark. Pretty standard rituals for us guys who want to hit the waters not so close to home. Some of us do this every day just to get to work - I don't know how you do it Darren!

I pulled out of the driveway at 4:35am, the truck already fully packed the night before. Now it was time for the 2 hour journey to South Park. I hate making these trips alone - I usually need a second mate to blame the trip on (you know - "I went because Werms wanted to go"). I tried for about the first hour (almost all the way to Kenosha Pass) to talk myself into turning around, calling Scott and telling him I wasn't going to make it, then crawl back into bed with the wife. I tried, but no success. After Kenosha Pass I had decided that I was past the half way point, and it was going to be dawn soon - so the trip would get easier. It really didn't. Sure, I was awake, awake with anticipation of a good day - but in the back of my mind I was always thinking - what happens if I get skunked? It could happen.

I pulled into the North Boat Ramp at Spin at 6:35 - no sign of Scott and Scotty. Maybe they ain't coming. I'll kill'em. I call Scott's phone, and he answers - finally - bastard didn't pick up all Saturday when I wanted to know how the fishing was with Werm (yeah - where the hell is the report and pics??). He's right behind me - and we are pushing off from South Ramp - so I peel out and head to South. We pull into the lot together. Exchange handshakes and a couple quick barbs at Jr and before I know it we are on the water. It isn't cold, but it isn't warm. Wind is already up a little, not a good sign for the rest of the day.

We head straight to the other side of the lake - into a nice little cove area in the NW corner. Scotty starts dragging a big Club Sandwich trying to imitate a big ugly caddis skittering along the water. He manages one huge hit - but land nothing. We decide to hole up right next to a weed bed. It was quiet for a long time - Scott had two on, but lost them, Scotty had two on but lost them - I managed the only fish of the morning a nice 20 inch rainbow.





We decided to move south along the shoreline, not much to tell for the next couple of hours - lots of misses, no fish in the net. It appeared the fish were not in the shallows and we could see them on the fish finder when we moved from spot to spot in the deeper water. So we decided to hit a huge weed bed out on the middle. We anchored down and Scott hooked up right away - a nice fight, but soon the fish broke him off. It was not a good sign for the day - in fact I could see Scotty and I's day about to head for the shitter if Scott didn't land one of these big hits soon.

The phone rings....Werms! Dude - we got nothing - 1 fish and Scott is pissy, I gotta go. A few minutes later Scott's phone rings - it's the wife, she'd meeting us and is almost there, come pick her......wait, I have a fish, I have to go. Then bang - another fish pops off. We decide to go get Kelly at the dock. A quick trip in and a quick return right to the same spot. We need to get Scott into a fish or we might all die.

About 2 minutes later Scott is hooked up, and as I'm getting the camera ready to film Scott landing the fish I feel a tug and next think I know we have a double. These fish were twins (not technically, Scott's was a 1/2 inch bigger and a lot fatter) - and it was a nice break from losing fish. Maybe we were onto something.





I'm a big fan of harassing Jr, I mean the poor kid better get used to it. The problem is when the kid slams back to back 22 inchers in a matter of 15 minutes it makes it a lot tougher to pick on him. Don't feel too bad for him, the kid can dish out the shit too. Like father, like son.





Although we had some luck, we weren't exactly lighting it up, we spent about an hour and a half in the hole with not a ton more success after the initial few fish - so we decided to move to the bluffs. We never actually made it to the bluffs - Scott was watching the fish finder when we did about 100 mph over a ton of fish, so we scooted back to a nice shelf that looked promising. I don't have a whole lot more to say then WOW. We didn't "kill them" here, but we caught some of the biggest fish we have ever caught in here. Between the 3 of us we fished from about 12:30 to 3:30 and landed about 10 pigs. The largest being a 23 inch almost 5 lber by Scott and I had 23 incher that was slightly skinnier, here are some of the pics:







We lost a ton of good fish - I had on a nice looking colorful pink rainbow that I lost at the net. I missed a pig of Scott's when I hooked the top fly in the net on him (sorry bud). Scott also had a fish sink him - straight into the weeds. It stopped fighting and Scott was still hung up on the bottom - just waiting - he had to break it off. So strange. Lots of other unbuttons, but that is pretty typical day.

Oh, and our last fish of the day - by the pike slayer:



Not a knock'em dead day, but it was pretty damn good. The morning SUCKED! But the afternoon more than made up for it. About 15 fish boated - only 4 were smaller than 18 inches, 5 were at least 22 inches. Unreal.

Flies of the day were size 14 orange scuds and a size 14 damsel. I had some on chiro's but not consistently. Water temp was 62 in the AM and 65 when we left. Lots of big clouds, but partly sunny temps were about 72-75 degrees.

Thanks for the great trip Scott and Scotty and thanks for putting up with all of us Kelly!

FOTD - Roughfisher Scuds



Roughfisher has some nice looking scud on his site this AM. Great colors and great ties. These look like they would work great rolling on the bottom of the river.

Wish my scuds came out looking that nice (not to mention the photography!). Great ties Ruf!

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Caddis for Spinney

So I finally tied up some nice bugs - good enough to eat. I can't wait for Spinney on Sunday. I tied up a couple of emergers too - because if the trout are slamming the dries they will be cruising for emergers too! Let me know what you think.






Tuesday, August 17, 2010

GoPro Helmet Camera

For those of you who are interested in getting an "EXTREME" HD video/still camera, this is highly recommended. I got it about a month ago and love it - it takes amazing video and stills. Underwater it is just as good. I have taken it surfing, fishing, camping, to the pool, on my daughter's bike helmet, my inline hockey games, basically everywhere. Things works great.


GoPro Helmet HD Camera

My buddy here at work just bought one and took the below video of his drive into work on his motorcycle - this looks cool! Great video taken at 60 fps in 720p. Battery lasts 2.5 hours.

2009 Suzuki V-Strom DL1000 from Tim K. on Vimeo.

August 11, 2010 - Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island

Sorry it has taken me so long to post. I haven't exactly been tearing it up fishing, been busy with work, family stuff, and camping.

Anyways. The family and I did the every other year family get together trip to Narragansett, RI last week. The trip was awesome. Got there Friday around 6. The cottage we stayed at was super nice - just redone - way over done considering it is a cottage and college kids live there from Sept-May. But it was nice to have everything redone in the last month or so.

Saturday we decided to do some clamming at low tide. If anyone hasn't been clamming it is quite an experience - you go out to the mud flats and walk barefoot in the water and feel for "rocks" - those rocks are usually quohoags. You can sometimes use a rake to feel for these "rocks" - about 14 of us went out and got about 6 dozen clams over a couple of hours. I got a sweet sunburn on my ass from bending over so much.




On the way back, we decided to get some crabs for lunch - so we stopped at the boats that are docked in Narragansett Harbor - they were good, but not great.



Sunday Jen had friends down from college (and all their rug rats) - we decided we had already waited too long for lobster - so I splurged and bought 16 lobsters and Jen's Uncle Tony bought the big one - a 6.5 lber. We ate well.




Monday and Tuesday were mostly beach days, including one night at around 7:30 when all the old guys (me included) went out and body surfed the larger waves at high tide. Fun stuff. There was a tropical storm off the coast that caused some higher than normal waves.

Wednesday we did a little fishing before heading up to Boston for the afternoon to see my grandfather. We caught 5 flounder, all small, and a couple of seagulls. No, seriously, my sister in law caught the same seagull twice. She had very little weight on her line so when she cast the bait would take a few seconds to sink and the seagull would grab it - get the hook stuck in its beak and then start flying away - to no avail. After a minute or so the bird flipped the hook out. Funny though.





On the way to Boston we stopped off at the Bass Pro Shop in Foxborough next to the Patriots Stadium - had to get some Seagaur tippet. Got a cool photo of me and the kids with the Captn Hook bear chasing us (the bear was missing a few fingers on it's left paw!).



We hit Boston that night and I stopped and got my Poppy a nice lobster roll at Kelly's. Had a sweet fish sandwich and a scallop plate as well - worth every frickin' penny.

Thursday was again a beach day - just hung out and relaxed. Luckily we did steamers on Thursday night as an appetizer - these were ok as well (not great). This pile was not nearly enough to satisfy me.




Friday we had friends visit again, basically spent all day at the beach.

Saturday we were out of there at 10am and had a 5pm flight - home by 11:30pm.

That was the trip - not a lot of fishing, but still a good time. I dragged the 7wt down there and a bunch of Clouser's but never really had a chance to use them - used the rod on the flounder which was kind of fun.

We have a block party this weekend, then who knows what is up the following weekend - Spinney maybe?