Monday, August 27, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
A Few Nights without the A/C
It has been some time since a solid post or since I've had a solid fishing outing... which has caused me to come down with a case of the writer's block. I needed something to snap me out of it and fortunately a CSA friend wrote me a nice note in reference to my Adirondacks posts. As we begin to near Summer's end, thoughts of crisp air mornings with fog coming off Adirondack lakes come to mind. The first turning of colors in the birch, maple, and aspen leaves, mark the beginning of the water foul migrations South to warmer climates. The nearing of Fall marks one of the greatest changes to witness as a resident of Northern states. To a fisherman, the temperatures might be cooling down, but the fishing is about to get red hot.
The cooling of the air, begins to extract the warmth of the water bodies. This time of year in the ADKs for me were some of the most lasting moments in pure natural beauty I've ever experienced. Driving to school, blue fog clouds shrouded mountain valleys and lakes with pillows of tiny water droplets. Each day the water would lose just a bit of warmth until eventually the lake would "turn" and mix into a stable cold mass of liquid. The month of September is probably one of my favorites to fish. The cooling air and water mark increased feeding patterns for fish. It is a time when a fisherman can catch many fish, and larger fish as well. The reasoning behind this is in the preparation for the winter and that the summer's heat has still left behind the year long vegetation growth as prime ambush points for predatory fish.
A few things I try to keep in mind during the fall fishing period is that the bait fish are big, to fish around structure such as weed beds (esp. the greenest parts), and to throw top-water baits! Of all the times of year to fish top water, Fall is the time. Buzzbaits, poppers, zara-spooks typically do not go unnoticed for bass and pike alike. Smallmouth bass can be brought up from deep water and to see them shoot into the air for a surface popper is incredible. Or casting a buzzbait across vegetation to entice bass or pike usually draws some dramatic water explosions.
9-11-2009: I was sitting in class, finishing up some Auto-CAD project and I heard someone mention fishing. My head popped up away from the computer screen and my buddy Jerry was talking about his fishing intentions for the weekend. I interrupted him and said, "My canoe is strapped up on my car right now, if you don't have a class after this I'm going right after we're outta here." Jerry didn't hesitate, "Yeah-man, I'm in, let's go!" Within an hour we were paddling to one of my favorite Pike spots on a lazy river to fish top-water for the toothy critters. We couldn't ask for a better day to be out fishing. The warm Fall afternoon sun on our backs felt awesome, little to no wind, and plenty of log jams, brush piles, weed growth, and other structure to fish. Jerry hooked and released the first Pike of the afternoon, and I was anticipating a great outing.
We covered the same area thoroughly with buzzbaits and spinner-baits with a couple follows from smaller fish and I started to doubt my first thoughts. Also, I was feeling like a terrible guide since inviting someone to your honey-hole and not producing good fish or any number of fish for that matter.
We did an about-face and paddled upstream to another location, I had Jerry casting to spots that were typically filled with good Pike. After about 20 minutes, we neared a bend in the river and Jerry's line fouled into a huge rat's nest. I decided to take a cast as his line needed surgery, and I figured someone has to cast and not catch anything. I cast to a small feeder stream against the bank where about 20' from the bank was a deeper hole with a mat of thick weeds. My buzz bait was chirpin' and chugging along and touched the weed-mat, stopped chattering, touched water again, made three chirps and then it happens....
So you are at someone's house as they are hosting a pool party, everything's fine and dandy. A drink in your hand as you carry-on conversation about so-and-so's new dog, and how stinking cute it is... and right when you couldn't be more bored, someone who was way-ahead of the drinking curve; falls in the pool.
That is the sound this fish made. So incredibly close and unexpected, you get the simple pump of full adrenaline coursing through your veins as your buzzbait seemingly hovers in the air at eye level. As the bait touches down, like breathing your are reeling in the slack line, you look over at Dr. Jerry Rats-Nest and realize you need to cast again. All you can think is how do I manage that when I can't move my arms or breathe? After three seconds, which in dog years is about a year, you then manage a shitty cast almost directly on top of where the whatever fish just got a 1.0 from all the diving judges based on the huge splash. But just as you think you've blown it completely, drunk Jonny from the pool party gets out of the swimming pool and falls right back in... there is a God! And the weight of the fish sends the timing vibration up through the line into your hands and you drive the hook home. The fish begins a run as the braided light slices through the aquatic vegetation. The fish turns around and comes straight to the boat when I get my first look and all I could see is the buzzbait in the corner of the mouth... but no time to think about that as the fish tears upriver, slows, turns and comes back down to the boat. I attempt to get a boga in the pike's mouth and as I let it pinch close, the pike does one of their infamous death-rolls and breaks free of the grip. Still hooked Jerry yells, "I'll get it, you fight the fish." Another run, drag peels out as I had only angered the fish. I bring the now tired fish back to the canoe's side and Jerry goes to work. My knees were just about to give out from adrenaline as Jerry hoists the fish over the gunwale as he says, "Matt! Matt, this fish is huge!" All I can work out is "I'm shaking," and Jerry goes, "Me too and I didn't catch the fish." Jerry handed the fish off to me and dug out my camera. The full weight pulling down on my arm was awesome to feel.
Jerry stretched a tape measure across the fish and used up the 36 inches that the tape had, oh-man math! So he held his finger on the fish and I measured the last 6 inches to make 42". I picked up the fish one last time to thank it and set it free, after about 30 seconds the fish was swimming in my hands before I let go. I said thank you to Jerry for fishing with me and being there to get the fish in the canoe, and he said "No, thank you! What an awesome birthday."
From other outings, the buzz bait has been one of my fav's. Pictured above is one of my mutilated buzzbaits after a pike attack.
Here another Pike falls to the buzz bait.
Here, another fall-bite Pike hit on a buzz-bait.
Here, a Lake Champlain Pike falls to a spinner bait while fishing weed-beds off a gravel point.
As I said earlier in this post, fall is a great time for good fish and it is not limited to Pike alone. My friend Evan and I fished a lake in CT in early fall two years ago and consistently caught some big largemouth bass also on buzzbaits. We called it the magic hour, as all of the largest fish came in the hour or so around sunset.
Above, a Lake Champlain Largemouth fell to the same technique during the same hour or so of light.
Another species I have targeted in the fall has been Salmon. As far as CT goes, that game is limited to the DEP stockings of Broodstock salmon. The endeavor of fishing for Broodstocks has been incredibly frustrating, and other times rewarding. As usual the good outweighs the bad, and my friends and I have gone back for them each fall.
The Salmon have been more of a Thanksgiving fall bite fish, especially after a rain and the water clouds up.
But for now, keep thoughts of Fall close as we are also moving into the period of the Striped-Bass migration as this will be the first year I will be trying my luck in the fall surf instead of the fall streams and lakes.
Good luck, see you out there! -M
The cooling of the air, begins to extract the warmth of the water bodies. This time of year in the ADKs for me were some of the most lasting moments in pure natural beauty I've ever experienced. Driving to school, blue fog clouds shrouded mountain valleys and lakes with pillows of tiny water droplets. Each day the water would lose just a bit of warmth until eventually the lake would "turn" and mix into a stable cold mass of liquid. The month of September is probably one of my favorites to fish. The cooling air and water mark increased feeding patterns for fish. It is a time when a fisherman can catch many fish, and larger fish as well. The reasoning behind this is in the preparation for the winter and that the summer's heat has still left behind the year long vegetation growth as prime ambush points for predatory fish.
A few things I try to keep in mind during the fall fishing period is that the bait fish are big, to fish around structure such as weed beds (esp. the greenest parts), and to throw top-water baits! Of all the times of year to fish top water, Fall is the time. Buzzbaits, poppers, zara-spooks typically do not go unnoticed for bass and pike alike. Smallmouth bass can be brought up from deep water and to see them shoot into the air for a surface popper is incredible. Or casting a buzzbait across vegetation to entice bass or pike usually draws some dramatic water explosions.
9-11-2009: I was sitting in class, finishing up some Auto-CAD project and I heard someone mention fishing. My head popped up away from the computer screen and my buddy Jerry was talking about his fishing intentions for the weekend. I interrupted him and said, "My canoe is strapped up on my car right now, if you don't have a class after this I'm going right after we're outta here." Jerry didn't hesitate, "Yeah-man, I'm in, let's go!" Within an hour we were paddling to one of my favorite Pike spots on a lazy river to fish top-water for the toothy critters. We couldn't ask for a better day to be out fishing. The warm Fall afternoon sun on our backs felt awesome, little to no wind, and plenty of log jams, brush piles, weed growth, and other structure to fish. Jerry hooked and released the first Pike of the afternoon, and I was anticipating a great outing.
We covered the same area thoroughly with buzzbaits and spinner-baits with a couple follows from smaller fish and I started to doubt my first thoughts. Also, I was feeling like a terrible guide since inviting someone to your honey-hole and not producing good fish or any number of fish for that matter.
We did an about-face and paddled upstream to another location, I had Jerry casting to spots that were typically filled with good Pike. After about 20 minutes, we neared a bend in the river and Jerry's line fouled into a huge rat's nest. I decided to take a cast as his line needed surgery, and I figured someone has to cast and not catch anything. I cast to a small feeder stream against the bank where about 20' from the bank was a deeper hole with a mat of thick weeds. My buzz bait was chirpin' and chugging along and touched the weed-mat, stopped chattering, touched water again, made three chirps and then it happens....
So you are at someone's house as they are hosting a pool party, everything's fine and dandy. A drink in your hand as you carry-on conversation about so-and-so's new dog, and how stinking cute it is... and right when you couldn't be more bored, someone who was way-ahead of the drinking curve; falls in the pool.
That is the sound this fish made. So incredibly close and unexpected, you get the simple pump of full adrenaline coursing through your veins as your buzzbait seemingly hovers in the air at eye level. As the bait touches down, like breathing your are reeling in the slack line, you look over at Dr. Jerry Rats-Nest and realize you need to cast again. All you can think is how do I manage that when I can't move my arms or breathe? After three seconds, which in dog years is about a year, you then manage a shitty cast almost directly on top of where the whatever fish just got a 1.0 from all the diving judges based on the huge splash. But just as you think you've blown it completely, drunk Jonny from the pool party gets out of the swimming pool and falls right back in... there is a God! And the weight of the fish sends the timing vibration up through the line into your hands and you drive the hook home. The fish begins a run as the braided light slices through the aquatic vegetation. The fish turns around and comes straight to the boat when I get my first look and all I could see is the buzzbait in the corner of the mouth... but no time to think about that as the fish tears upriver, slows, turns and comes back down to the boat. I attempt to get a boga in the pike's mouth and as I let it pinch close, the pike does one of their infamous death-rolls and breaks free of the grip. Still hooked Jerry yells, "I'll get it, you fight the fish." Another run, drag peels out as I had only angered the fish. I bring the now tired fish back to the canoe's side and Jerry goes to work. My knees were just about to give out from adrenaline as Jerry hoists the fish over the gunwale as he says, "Matt! Matt, this fish is huge!" All I can work out is "I'm shaking," and Jerry goes, "Me too and I didn't catch the fish." Jerry handed the fish off to me and dug out my camera. The full weight pulling down on my arm was awesome to feel.
Jerry stretched a tape measure across the fish and used up the 36 inches that the tape had, oh-man math! So he held his finger on the fish and I measured the last 6 inches to make 42". I picked up the fish one last time to thank it and set it free, after about 30 seconds the fish was swimming in my hands before I let go. I said thank you to Jerry for fishing with me and being there to get the fish in the canoe, and he said "No, thank you! What an awesome birthday."
As I said earlier in this post, fall is a great time for good fish and it is not limited to Pike alone. My friend Evan and I fished a lake in CT in early fall two years ago and consistently caught some big largemouth bass also on buzzbaits. We called it the magic hour, as all of the largest fish came in the hour or so around sunset.
Above, a Lake Champlain Largemouth fell to the same technique during the same hour or so of light.
Another species I have targeted in the fall has been Salmon. As far as CT goes, that game is limited to the DEP stockings of Broodstock salmon. The endeavor of fishing for Broodstocks has been incredibly frustrating, and other times rewarding. As usual the good outweighs the bad, and my friends and I have gone back for them each fall.
But for now, keep thoughts of Fall close as we are also moving into the period of the Striped-Bass migration as this will be the first year I will be trying my luck in the fall surf instead of the fall streams and lakes.
Good luck, see you out there! -M
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
GEOFISH Trailer
If you haven't seen this yet, it's rediculous... if you have, it's rediculous, watch it again!
GEOFISH Trailer
GEOFISH Trailer
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