Adventures in the ADKS: Part III

Pike ambush from Saranac R. vegetation.

Throughout the fall of 2007 I fished the Saranac River almost exclusively from a canoe or kayak by myself.  Each outting I would cover a new section in order to uncover what fish were holding in each area.  The river's beauty was unlike any river I had fished before.  The rivers of connecticut are typically strewn with granite or quartz gravel and host very different types of vegetation than the saranac river.  The Saranac has a mix of boulders on occasion, but most of the upper portion for the first seven miles has a sandy/silt covered bottom as it is not a very fast moving river.  It makes a cut through cedar and grass meadows with mixtures of birch, beech and maple trees along its bank.  Along the edges of the river, an extremely bright green aquatic plant that looks like Christmas ribbon grow in large groups that bend and flutter with the flow of the current.  These same plants would prove to hold an incredible amount of baitfish and provide ambush points for my quarry.

Fish your lure all the way back to the boat!

The fall of 2007 remained hot with clear skies well into October, when rain storms pushed their way in dropped the air temps and took hold into November where it changed quickly to snow.  Being that the school semester began the first week of September, the pleasant weather provided about eight amazing weeks of sunshine filled exploration.  From the point where Josh and I had stopped fishing in my previsous post about the ADKS, the river holds an abundance of good sized smallmouth bass and Northern Pike.  During my trips it was not uncommon to see muskrats, turtles, deer, herons, king fishers, and bald eagles.  Launching from Rte 3 just outside of saranac lake either by the pine street bridge park, or along the side of the road from a gravel turnoff there was a large amount of flat water and generally slow moving currents to fish.  

Kayak Thrash

The area of the river from Pine Street to the fish and game club on route 3 is stacked with pike mostly in the 5-10 lb. class.  The fish would hold in deeper pools, along banks with brush cover, along weed lines, at drop offs, and under fall downs and floating mats of brush.  Essentially any type of structure that provided camoflauge and cover from the sun.  The most effective baits I used were spinner baits, buzz baits, and surface poppers.  Diving lures worked as well, such as Rapala's X-rap, however I would invariably end up cleaning off the lures from vegetation as much as I was fishing.  My primary baits were the buzz baits because they run on the surface and provide a lot of excitement when the fish rocket out of cover to take them.

Some of the things I learned while fishing solo from a canoe or kayak is that boat positioning is both critical and frustrating.  It is critical because if you position yourself along a weed edge line, a single cast can cover that line while casting parallel to shore.  However that same cast can be difficult to hook a fish downstream of your boat while the boat is also being push downstream.  When the fish strikes you have to be ready for the hook set making sure there is no slack in your line.  I used braided lines with steel leaders since they offer much less stretch than monofilaments, and since most of the time I was moving toward the fish during the strike I would have to really set the hook to get it to sink into the fish.  The best pattern I found was a gold blade buzzbait with a silver blade paired with a trailer hook and a Gary yamamoto shad bait fitted between the two hooks to "fatten" up the bait's profile.  I highly recommend a trailer hook while river fishing because the bait moves more erratically due to river currents, and most of the time all of my fish were hooked by the trailer hook only.  At the most productive areas where I could cast to multiple "fishy" looking spots I would anchor with a short rope length.  This would do two things, first it helped during hooksets because the boat was no longer moving towards the fish, and secondly the boat would swing like a pendulum in the currents offering different angles for each cast.

October Pike

In the area by the game club there is a deep pool immediatly following the bridge that accesses the sanitary department located opposite Rte 3.  After that pool the river makes a quick switch back bend where the water shallows up into a huge vegetated flat.  On the south side of the river where it makes this bend, there are standing reeds, lily pads, and other aqautic plants that tended to hold the largest fish.  The very first time I approached this spot I missed the same fish several times and it was huge.  Twice I watched as my buzzbait shot into the air as the fish had hit so hard.  On a third cast I felt the full weigh of the fish on my rod, unanchored my canoe floated across the top of the fish.  I could see my line in the fish's mouth as it made "death rolls" against the river bottom much like an alligator does to tear prey apart.  After four rolls I saw my lure emerge from its mouth without a fish attached to it.  It appeared as if the fish had the lure pinched flat inside its mouth without ever making hook point contact despite me setting it hard three times.  I sat down with adrenaline coursing through my body as I realized I had lost a fish potentially around 15+lbs.  Determined to catch this fish, I returned on three subsequent weekends tossing three different lures, a large salt water Atom popper, large spoon, and the same buzzbait.  All of which the fish hit and missed leaving me feeling like this fish was a fisherman's worst nightmare.

9/11/01 Remembered

As a freshman in college, I felt on top of the world.  Only one week into my first semester at Eastern Connecticut State University, I was in love with college.  High school was cool, you got to see your friends every day, you had some work to do, or at least to procrastinate, and then you went home.  In college you got more of the same, but were able to expand immensely if you chose, in terms of friends, fun, and the education would push you past your comfort zone, testing your ability to think, deconstruct, reconstruct, and persuade.  Most of what and how we think is based on our environment.  Our environment controls the how of how we see the world and the people around us.  Living in New England is a general statement because not all of its states act in the same way.  Some parts do, mostly the cities, but growing up in Connecticut is seems as if there is no stop button to push.  From my experience, Connecticut’s lifestyle is fast paced, get up, get ready quickly, get to work as fast as possible, do your work faster than it comes in, or work longer hours to keep up with the pace, drive home even faster, eat your dinner before someone else does, then repeat.

The day the world slowed down, I was not thinking about fishing.  I was walking to class quickly so I had time to buy a coffee before my writing lab.  The usual scene in the lobby of Webb hall is about a half a dozen students are buying coffee as a half a dozen more are piling into the stair well or impatiently waiting for the elevator to get to class.  On this day, I opened the door to a mob of people all staring at the television mounted on the wall above the elevator.  The scenario on the television was a shot of the world trade center's twin towers with smoke billowing out of both of the towers.  The muted TV displayed subtitles indicating that two planes had crashed into the towers, the details had not yet emerged.  All I knew was that the holes in the buildings were large and that I had to tell someone.  I walked up the first flight of stairs trying to process how a plane could fly into a building even by accident.  Other students flew past me in a hurry to get to class on time.  I turned the corner out of the stair well and took another look at the same TV but the angle was weird and I continued to class. 

About a minute before the proverbial “bell” rang I walked directly to my professor and asked if she had seen what had just happened.  Dr. M. asked what happened, and I said, “Two planes have flown into the twin towers of the world trade center in New York City.”  I added, “It seems like someone did this on purpose.”  My professor dismissed what I was trying to say for the moment to begin class, but there was a stir in the classroom from the students that was beyond anyone’s control.  The phone rang and Dr. M answered to receive the message that confirmed what I had said a few minutes before.  Our class was dismissed but it wasn’t an official school closure.  While I was packing my backpack up, I noticed Dr. M who was usually strong and steadfast, sit down in the chair by a desk in the room and begin to weep.  That image was burned into my mind, as the towers in New York were burning in flames.

Today we commemorate those who were lost in the attacks, and those whose lives were forever changed.  We stand strong in the unity of our country and our people.  On the darkest of days in our countries history, our people see through it by the light of our freedom, strength, and perseverance.

Post-Irene

Sunday, September 4th 2011

Downed power lines like these were
the scene on many roadways

Many crews of linemen and women right now are still repairing the mess of downed power lines after Hurricane/Tropical Storm Irene crossed Connecticut last Sunday.  Our power was restored Thursday night, and our cable and internet was back up earlier today.  We placed a call in to Comcast just to get our names on whatever list was being populated in regards to the restoration of services, and the representative told us that our service was not down but that the Comcast relay point in our town was without power; meaning that the entire town had no service.  Aside from political issues of which people get power first, the work is being done, and bit by bit the electricity and communication services are being restored. 



CT River waters flood,
tainted with silt and debris



The myriad of complaints on Facebook are almost comical when you think of what happened.  We are lucky that this storm was not the same severity of the Irene that hit the Carolinas, nor was it the storm that dumped 15 plus inches of rain in Vermont and New Hampshire.  Yes there were people in Connecticut who could not get out of their homes due to blocked roads of tangled trees and power lines, and yes people took matters into their own hands to remove the debris due to lack of response from authorities. 

The greatest lesson is to be prepared.  In two homes we had filled our bathtubs with water to flush toilets, the one we stayed in and the one we left vacant.  Everything that was outside was brought in or tied down.  Flashlights, battery operated everything was gathered together including an AM/FM radio.  Parking positions were comtemplated, made, then changed again as the winds started showing signs of weakness in nearby trees.  We vacated our apartment to stay in a house that we perceived as more secure.  By Sunday afternoon after most of the storm had passed, the damage was more than I expected.  Trees that had once stood over a hundred feet tall had been halved or brought entirely to the ground.  Stories of shoreline structures and beaches washed away from the storm surge coupled by an unfortunately high hightide.  Returning to the apartment to access the damage, I laughed at one 12 foot long branch that came down from about six feet up a maple tree.  The apartment was definately a safer option for shelter, yet a thousand feet down the street looked like bombs had been dropped from planes. 

 

Peaceful skies after the storm



I did not know what to expect for Monday with the looming obligation of work.  My boss finally called me at 6:40am as he was already at a jobsite an hour and a half from our office.  I was on a search for an open coffee shop, something I needed to sooth my confusion with familiarity.  All week I worked in the field, taking different routes to work to gain an idea of what was destroyed and what remained.  The work helped pass the time more than anything else, because it seemed counter-intuitive to stress your body in a situation where people have limited resources.  The overwhelming feeling of disconnection from what is happening outside of Connecticut dominated my mind for most of the week.  Calls placed to friends and family were reassuring as they reported damages but thankfully nothing severe.  By Thursday night it was time to go fishing and try to relax and excape the feeling of uncertainty the storm left behind.  

Trying to reconnect