This past week has seen some very strange weather, unpredictable to say the least. Lots of sun, lots of clouds, lots of rain, lots of thunder and lightning. High water, low water; cold water and warm. The weather seemed to change hourly and it was very difficult to plan any fishing activities more than a few hours ahead. Come to think of it, most of the past month has been like this, most of the summer, really. But, hey, it’s New England and, like it or not, the weather’s supposed to be like this. Nothing to do but grin and bear it, do what you can, and soldier on.
Sunday, August 3, Dave Skok and Scott Wessels of the Bear’s Den down in Taunton went on an overnight camping trip to Bumpkin Island. We had intended on leaving early in the afternoon but had to sit out a thunderstorm for a few hours before we could launch the canoes and kayaks from Hull and paddle over to the island. Once launched, we fished our way over the mussel beds and the gravel bar but caught nothing despite a favorable tide and low wind. This area, deep inside Hull Harbor, had been very good to me over the years, a fantastic place, really, but over the past two years, the storms had dramatically altered the structure, covered the mussel beds over with mud, and the area wasn’t nearly as inviting as it used to be. There was baitfish aplenty in the area but no fish feeding on them, none that I could see at any rate.
On Monday, we rose early at first light and fished around the island but again with no success. When the rising tide drove me off the gravel bar leading from Bumpkin to Sunset Point, I returned to my tent and slept for a few hours while Dave and Scott, much hardier souls than I, paddled the canoe over to Grape and Slate Islands and fished there for a few hours. Despite a valiant effort, they managed to raise only one striper and returned in the early afternoon to rest up a bit before breaking camp and heading off again to fish the dropping tide over the mussel beds. I set out ahead of them in Scott’s kayak, fishing the gravel bar rip and the mussel beds on the way back. As I had done on the previous evening so I did do on this one: nothing. Not a hit, not a swirl. And when I tipped the kayak trying to get out of it in about two feet of water I decided that this just wasn’t my day.
The next few days were rainy and windy, good days to tie but not to fish, and I used the time to get caught up on some fly orders, not fishing again until Thursday evening with my friend, Mel Harris. We went out of Crystal Cove in Winthrop on his 21′ Eastern and headed over to the airport flats. Nothing there, so we motored over to Deer Island Rip where rumors had it that there had been some large fish feeding on bunker just a few days before on the falling tide. Again nothing. Off then to Spectacle, Long Island, and Nix’s Mate and back again to the airport flats. Fish were showing up on the fish finder here and there but were holding deep. Deep-holding fish were of little interest to us; we were looking for surface-feeders and we kept looking. And kept finding nothing. After a few hours we decided to call it when it began to rain again. Seemed that all the recent turmoil in the weather patterns were affecting the fish too. I’m convinced that once the weather settles into a more steady pattern that the fishing will improve dramatically.
On Friday afternoon, August 8, my friend Peter Grover called, wanted to go fishing. Me, too, I said. But where? The salt water fishing had been slow and with all the rain a lot of my favorite fresh water places would most likely be murky. We finally settled on the Mystic Lakes in Medford, deep lakes unlikely to be affected by all the rain. We never made it up to the dam on the Lower Mystic as we’d planned because almost as soon as we drove into Medford, the skies began to darken and it began to look like a bad idea to be belly-boating out in the lake somewhat far from shore. We decide instead to fish the Upper Mystic River as it flowed out of Lower Mystic Lake, a stretch I had been wanting to fish for some time and one that allowed us to fish without moving very far from shore in case of a sudden storm descending.
At this spot, easily accessible, the river is only a hundred feet or so between the banks and is one of the prettiest and most fishable stretches of moving water you could possibly hope to find within ten miles of Boston. And it turned out to be one of the most productive stretches as well, giving up lots of small largemouth bass, perch, and bluegills–and one three-pound smallmouth caught on a Gurgler–in the short time we fished it, approximately forty-five minutes, before the rain and lightning drove us off the river. Foiled again by the weather but more than happy to have had the chance to fish a new stretch of water that will, I’m sure, yield up many hours of fishing pleasure in the coming days. I can hardly wait to return.
I did return, a few days later, on Saturday. What a difference a few days make! The storms of the past few days had raised the water level, increased the current flow and turned the water a murky brown. Also, since it was the first nice weekend day in what seems like weeks, the boaters were out in force. I would never have thought 30 foot yachts could navigate the river all the way up from the harbor–but they did, as well as jet skiers, kayaker, and canoeists–and me in my belly-boat, my friend Dave Skok in his canoe. I reminded myself to never fish here again on a weekend. The boat traffic slowed down and finally stopped around 6.30 pm; by this time Dave and I were fishing in the lake itself (Lower Mystic Lake). There were fish rising here and there, some seeming to be big fish, but the action stopped almost as soon as the sun went below the tree line. Still and all, we caught fish–smallmouth bass, white perch, and bluegills. Each of us broke off a large fish as well. Stripers? Possibly, since there is a holdover population in this lake, and there are millions of small herring here at this time.
Sunday, August 10, I held a Striper Strategies class, with two students, John and Barry. The fishing was exceptionally slow. We wet our lines at numerous spots:–Deer Island, Court Road, Short Beach, and Belle Isle Creek–but got not a hit and saw no signs of fish. The water, both inside and outside, was still discolored from storms and because of the very weak tides didn’t clear up as I had hoped it would. As has happened just about every day for weeks now, we got dumped on by rain just as the class was ending. Still and all we had a lot of fun and learned a lot.
Monday, August 11
Stormy today (big surprise). Stayed home and tied flies.
Tuesday, August 12
Today, I fished with my friend Mel Harris aboard the Wind Knot 2. The wind was down and, despite a storm
earlier in the day, we were hoping for some action when we set off around 6 pm. Motoring around the inner harbor, we saw lots of baby bunker on the surface but nothing feeding on them except for a brief blitz of very small bluefish. Mel managed finally catch a very nice striper on a Gurgler but that was the extent of our action. I had only one hit myself
Wednesday, August 13
More rain in the offing today so I waited till late in the day, after the storms were likely to be over, and set out to explore some smaller ponds where I wouldn’t have to fish too far from shore–just in case. In keeping with my plan to fish at least one new place a week, I fished Brown’s Pond in Peabody, where I caught one largemouth bass and a few bluegills in about an hour or so. Brown’s is a pretty little pond, easily accessible and not heavily fished except by a few locals who mostly fish from shore. I also Fished Flax Pond in Lynn for about half an hour, in the cove near Pond Street, sent there by a woman at a local tackle shop where I had stopped to buy some leader material. She told me that it was a good place for large bass and it sure looked like a bassy cove but I managed to get only a few bluegills there. I should have explored it more but there were a lot of kids playing basketball at a court that abuts this cove and it was getting a bit too noisy for me so I called it early and decided to fish the last hour of daylight at Sluice Pond not far away. Maybe I might even catch a trout or two. Sluice is easily accessible from Kernwood Road off Rte 129 and I put in at the boat ramp to fish the cove. There were a few fish rising out in the middle that I thought might be trout but they turned out to be bass, which I found out when I tossed a small Gurgler at them. Nothing large, maybe a pound at the most. But in the half hour or so that I was there before dark descended I caught six or seven and had a lot of fun.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
More rain today in the afternoon. Didn’t think I’d be able to fish today but when my friend Peter Grover called around 4 pm, I said, Sure, let’s go. Somewhere. Anywhere. I had had it in mind to float the Upper Mystic River down to at last the Boston Street Bridge but Peter was held up in traffic and it took him almost two hours to drive from Milton to Winthrop and so we had to revise our plans; not time enough for a longish float. We decided to fish the Lower Mystic Lake, now becoming a favorite of ours it seems. The water was calm, relatively clear, and best of all devoid of boat traffic when we arrived around seven. As we drove along the Mystic Valley Parkway we could see quite a few fish rising, including some very large breaks out in the middle, possibly stripers feeding on the herring in the lake. The surface activity stopped, however, about ten minutes after we got in the water, just as the sun went below the trees, and just as we were maneuvering into an area of concentrated feeding activity. The cessation of surface activity at this time occurred also on the past two evenings I’ve fished this lake. I’m beginning to think that it’s related to the difficulty larger fish seem to have in seeing the small baitfish on the surface when the light is low. At just about the same time the sun sets below the trees, the lake’s surface becomes dimpled all over with small herring, happy herring; the surface looks like raindrops are falling but they’re herring dapping and flipping–and nothing is feeding on them (which is probably why they seem happy). I didn’t get a hit until about 7.50, when I picked up one small largemouth, 2 small smallmouths, and one smallmouth of about two pounds. And these were all close to shore, and all in one area. All on a Gurgler. I made a note to myself to get here some morning at first light to see what the action’s like at that time.
And that’s the news from Lake Woebegone, where all the fishermen are average and all the uncaught fish are above average. And someday it will stop raining.
It’s been a hot week, for both man and stripers. Despite rather weak tides(plus one foot and up low tides mostly) the fishing has been quite good in the Boston Harbor area, especially the Inner Harbor along the Winthrop/ Deer Island shore and on the flats near the airport.
I’ve been avoiding mid-day fishing and sticking to late afternoon/early evening hours, cooler and more comfortable and certainly more active, with low tides occuring in the latter part of the day/early evening. Luckily the winds have been lower than in the past few weeks and that has certainly helped. There are a lot of baitfish around right now, mostly pogies, some herring and small mackerel, but I haven’t seen much surface action when I’ve gone looking for it. Despite this I’ve been fishing Gurglers on the surface whenever the water’s surface has been calm and have been having some fantastic fishing, both in terms of numbers and size, although these have varied from place to place and tide to tide. For instance, on Wednesday, fishing from a boat near the airport, all of the fish were in the 32″-34″ range, with one fish I estimated at about 40″ although I never landed it. On Friday, fishing the same area the fish averaged about 23″-25″ with only one bigger one in the mix. On Wednesday the action was slower but the fish bigger; on Friday the action faster but the fish smaller. On Thursday I fished from shore along the inside of Deer Island in the evening and picked up six within about an hour and half, again all on Gurglers, nothing larger than 23″ though but lots of fun.
At this time of the year I stay up on the surface as often as I can, even if no fish are showing on top–which is usually the case– and only go deep only when I absolutely have to, which hasn’t been the case at all this week. Why bother dredging them up from the bottom when you can have the thrill of catching them on top? If you haven’t been “gurgling” much this summer, now is the time! (I recommend the white flatwing Striper Gurgler for the most consistent action;it’s large enough to draw up even deep-lying fish and has enough tail action to induce them to smash it.)
If you’ve been finding fishing a bit slow this summer you might want to confine your fishing hours to the low light periods. If they coincide with low tides so much the better. If the wind is light better yet. The tides will be improving (that is, getting stronger) as the week goes on and I expect the fishing to be even better than it has been the past few weeks.
After several really slow weeks, the striper fishing seems to be picking up, especially in theInner Harbor. This is what other anglers have been telling me and it seems to be so from my ownexperience today.
This evening (starting around 6 pm) I went out for a few hours to fish some of the Inner Harbor water that I hadn’t fished much recently. The wind was way down and the surface as calm as could be. Ideal for fishing a Gurglerand that is what I tied on and stayed with until it got dark.
The tide was relatively high (but soon to drop) and I fished fairly close to shore, choosing places where the wading was pleasant and where there was some structure or eel grass close in. My first stop was Donovan Beach in Winthrop, where I picked up four stripers, all between 24″ and 26″. Next stop was around the corner in Belle Isle Creek, where I picked up some more. Then, just to sample a few different places, it was on to Bayswater Road (near Strawberry Fields) in East Boston, where I picked up five more, all about the same size–24″-26″. I quit around dark, when the bugs began to “bug” me. All in all it was great fishing for a few hours. And I can’t help but think that it’s going to get better and better now that the weather seems to be settling down.
Catching up on my blog-writing tonight. Somehow the time just goes by so quickly!
I spent the Fourth of July weekend rather quietly, catching up on my tying for the most part and workingon Striper Strategies (which I hope to have ready fairly soon) until my fingers and eyes got tired. On the Fourthitself–after finishing several tying orders–I thought I’d reward myself with a little fishing–and exploring.
The ocean was rather roiled up after all the rain we’d been having so I headed up Route 1 in the late afternoon to check out two ponds in Saugus (a nearby town) that I had never fished. In fact, I didn’t even know where they were but Mapquest helped me out there and in about half an hour I reached the first pond, Pranker’s Pond, whichI walked into from the road. Pranker’s is a lovely little pond and according to a man I met there quite a good bass pond; what he didn’t tell me was that it was for Saugus residents only (in fact there was a sign on the path that I hadn’t noticed on the way in). Well, so much for Pranker’s Pond. The other pond was Hawkes Pond, justa few miles away. This too turned out to be a really beautiful but much larger pond, very fishy looking. Only trouble was it was part of a reservoir system; No Fishing/No Trespassing signs were everywhere.
It was now closing in on seven o’clock and I still hadn’t wet a line. What to do? I remembered a pond in the town of Lynnfield, only a few miles away, Pillings Pond. I had never fished this before but I had heard good reports and it seemed as good a bet as any in the little time I had left before dark.
I found my way to the pond and parked at a small parking area on Summer Street and launched my belly boat around 7.30 pm. The air temperature was now about 70 degrees, quite a drop from earlier in the day and there was no wind, the surface as calm as could be. The pond had recently been treated with weed-killer and there were lots of dead and dying weed in close to shore but I managed to kick my way through most of it and get out where the water was clearer and where it would be easier to fish a surface fly.
There were several groups of lily pads fairly close to shore and I decided to work these with a black Bass Gurgler, fishing the edges and the water nearby, plopping the fly down hard to attract attention then working it back to me slowly with short pauses. Within the first ten minutes or so I picked up a couple of 1 pound largemouth bass and a few very large bluegills. This was much better than I had hoped (my first impression of this pond was not very encouraging, actually, what with all the weed and murk in the water and the fact that the water was rather warm). Then, after going about fifteen minutes without a hit, a larger fish broke the surface in the middle of a group of lily pads about hundred feet away. I kicked my way over to within casting range and plopped the Gurgler down where I had seen it come up. And it came up again–this time for the Gurgler. I set the hook and off it went, bending my 5wt rod almost in two and tearing out line and backing as it sped off towards the middle of the pond. What the heck could it be? I wondered, thinking that it might be a large carp (I had seen one in the shallows earlier). I had only a 5x leader and was especially careful in playing the fish, maneuvering my belly boat when necessary to reducepressure. When it dived down into the weeds I thought I had lost it but then it was off again, this time with my leader trailing pounds of dead weed. When I finally tired the fish, just as it was getting dark, I reached down and picked off the weeds to see what it was that I had caught. It turned out to be a bass that I estimated at between five and six pounds, a fat and very handsome fish. What a thrill! And adding to this thrill was the fireworks display over on the other side of the pond that began while I was releasing the fish. Talk about timing! Truly a great way to celebrate the Fourth!
Despite my best intentions, I’ve been a bit remiss in my blog entries lately. May was an exceptionally busy month for fly orders and I spent a lot of my days tying up a storm and rewarding myself at the end of the day with a few hours of fishing whenever the weather allowed it (it was a very windy, cold month of May and early June wasn’t much better). And at the end of each day I was often much too tired to sit down at the computer and think of something interesting to write about. I did, however, take the time to keep my fishing log up-to-date and tonight–after a great day of striper fishing in the inner harbor–the thought occurred to me that this fishing log might be of interest to some of my readers. And here it is: my log (somewhat abbreviated) for the past three weeks. Hope you find it interesting.
Saturday, May 17
Sunny but very windy and cool. Decided not to fish for stripers but to fish for largemouth bass.
As part of my plan to add to my range of fishing knowledge one new fishing spot a week I drove to Brooks Pond in Medford, located on the Brooks Estate. A very pretty pond with lots of trees lining the banks and scattered lily pads here and there. Very bassy. It was lots of fun but difficult to wade; much of the shoreline is littered with deadfall which makes for slow going. I caught numerous bluegills and some bass, mostly small, around half a pound. Made a note to return here with a belly boat some day. Around 7.30 pm went to Mystic Lake (middle). Saw fish rising offshore but only caught one small bass before dark. Saw one larger fish break near shore but couldn’t get to it. I’ll have to return someday soon and explore these lakes further.
Sunday, May 18
Air temp: 65
Still windy on the coast with a lot of discolored water so in the late afternoon I went freshwater fishing instead. Went to Griswold Pond in Saugus. I’d never been there before but had read that they’d stocked it with trout. In any case I wanted to find out where it was. Got there around five and fished till dark. Wind died some around six and the light rain got lighter and then stopped. A pleasant place to fish, despite the largely suburban setting, and easily accessible. Lots of bluegills and about 7 largemouth bass (mostly small). All on a Gurgler or Hoverbugger. One crappie and one pickerel as well. Great fun. No trout, although I did see fish rising out in the middle that looked like they might be trout.
Monday, May 19
Low tide: 5.41 pm
Wind WSW 15-20
Air temp: 62
Since it was windy most of the day, I tied flies until about 3 pm. Had thought I might go to Horn Pond in Woburn but couldn’t raise Katie on the phone and decided to go for stripers instead, despite the wind. Went to the upper Belle Isle Creek around 4, which was out of the wind, and caught one, about 24” on a chart/white BMG. Action was slow so here so I got in the car and parked downstream on the edge of the marsh. Had very good fishing for about an hour until the tide went relatively slack. Caught 6/8 (meaning I landed 6 fish out of a total of 8 hits), the largest about 28”, all on a chartreuse BeastMaster General (BMG), including one while skittering. Made a mental note to fish this spot again on the low falling tide.
Wednesday, May 21
Low tide: 6.20 pm
Wind WSW 15-20
Air temp: 62
Fished with Mel on Belle Isle Creek. About three hours before low. No action until about 1 1/2 hours before low. Caught 3/6, nothing big. One about 21” the others about 16”. Had to quit just as the fishing was picking up because of rain and wind.
Friday, May 23
Fished a trout pond with Mel and Katie. Caught about fifteen trout, mostly rainbows and mostly on Hoverbuggers, some on White Soft Hackle Streamers. Most of the fish were between 12″-14″. Lots of fun.
Saturday, May 24
Windy most of day. And rain on and off. Again! Wind died and rain stopped in late afternoon so decided to fish for a few hours. Fished Belle Isle Creek area about two hours before low and caught 7/10, one about 29”, all on Chart/white BMG. Most of fair size, averaging about 21″. Dave joined me for a bit and took some photos in the lovely sunset.
Sunday, May 25
Went freshwater fishing with Peter Grover. We belly-boated Griswold Pond in Saugus for about an hour and a half in the late afternoon. Bright sun. Caught one rainbow (c.12”) and many small bass and bluegills, some pickerel also. At 6pm we drove back to Revere, met friend Dave, and canoed over to the opposite bank of the Pines River. Action slow until about two hours before low. Caught 8/10, largest about 26”. Most around 16”-17”. All on Chart/white BM or BMG. Wind picking up again.
Monday, Memorial Day
Didn’t fish. Shoulder too sore. Very windy anyway. Stayed home and tied flies.
Tuesday, May 27
Fished with Iain for a while today, around 6 pm. Stormy on and off. And windy. Fished Belle Isle Creek. Very murky. Nothing. Went outside to fish the gravel bar for about half an hour. Had only one hit. Small. Had dinner at Royal then went to the Pines for some late fishing. Not many fish around and no bait. Did catch five, though, in the hour I fished; nothing big, mostly 17″ or so.
Wednesday, May 28
Didn’t fish. Stayed in and tied flies, filled orders. Still windy.
Thursday, May 29
Planned to go striper fishing but it was too windy, lots of whitecaps inside and outside. Thought I’d take a break from tying and go trout fishing in Saugus for an hour or two but there was a big fire up in Peabody and the traffic was backed up 12 miles along Route 1. Decided to stay home and finish up some orders and then fish the Pines with Mike around ten pm. Caught 10/12 in a little over an hour. Lot of small fish showing up.
Friday, May 30
Had best fishing yet at Griswold Pond. Surface calm. Fish rising. Caught a two-pound bass and had a much larger one on for quite awhile; towed me around a bit in my belly boat. Broke off as I was about to land it. A VERY large bass. Looked to be about five or six pounds. Also broke off another larger fish just at dark; think, though, that it was a pickerel. Caught many bluegills and crappies as well. All fish caught on Bass Gurglers.
Saturday, May 31
Fished Griswold Lake again. Very different from last night. Windy and cooler. Mid-60’s. Water seemed about ten degrees cooler than yesterday. Little surface action. Caught 1 pickerel, several small bass, and some bluegills and crappies. Got off the water just before it the sky opened up and the rain began to fall.
Sunday, June 1
Bright and Sunny
Wind: NNW 15-25
Had a large Striper Strategies class today. 5 guys. Fishing very slow everywhere we went. Muddy up in Belle Isle. Windy everywhere along the Inner Harbor shore. Eventually went to the mouth of the Pines, where the wind was at our backs. I caught three and one fellow caught another. Tough fishing. Had to leave Pines just when fishing was picking up. Tried gravel bar at the end of the class. No fish, just one hit. Outside water still very cold. Still and all, it was a good class, with five very keen “students”.
Monday, June 2
Didn’t fish. Weather lousy. Again ! Stayed in and worked on orders.
Tuesday, June 3
Still very windy along shore. Went to Griswold Lake for a couple of hours. Fishing just ok. Caught a few 1/2 pound bass and lots of crappie and bluegills. A real joy, though, to be out on the water in a belly boat. I had almost forgotten how much fun floating can be. Good exercise for my legs, too.
Thursday June 5
Day overcast, cool, and windy. In late afternoon fished Sluice Pond and Floating Bridge Ponds in Lynn with Dale. Caught numerous small 1/2 pound bass and bluegills. No trout or salmon, which we’d hoped for in Sluice Pond. Fished only an hour in each place, towards dark. I hadn’t fished Sluice in fifty years; had forgotten how built up along the shore it was. A bit disappointing, really.
Friday, June 6
Fished for an hour with Dave and Phil near Short Beach in Beachmont. Dave has been taking some large fish there in the past two days but there were few around tonight on the falling tide. Lots of bait though. Left early because I was cold and my shoulder was aching. Dave only caught one about 20”.
Sunday, June 8
Fished Putnamville Reservoir with Dale in late afternoon. Sun bright. Couldn’t remember the way in to P’ville from Route 1 so we launched our belly boats off Rte 38. Lots of people out fishing today. Most of the best coves for bass had anglers fishing in them when we arrived. Had to paddle quite a distance up the shoreline to get away from them. Flipped our way almost up to the island and picked up fish all along the way. Caught one three pound bass in the shallows on a Bass Gurgler and several large bluegills. I’ve been using a larger Gurgler (size 4, long shank) to discourage the smaller bluegills. Fishing was best on the way back, when the sun had set a bit and the other fishermen had gone. Picked up eight more bass, though none was larger than a pound. Still, lots of fun. Must find the way in to P’ville from Rte 1 someday; am really interested in fishing around the island and the opposite shore.
Monday, June 9
Hot—96 inland. Next few days are supposed to be scorchers. It wasn’t so hot up on the north shore however; towards sunset the temp was only about 70.
Fished with Peter Grover at Crystal Lake, W Peabody and Devil’s Dishfull in Lynnfield.Fishing was good for big bluegills at CL but most of the best bass water was covered with pollen. Caught only one small bass—two large crappies. Water lilies are starting to bloom and there were many yellow jonquil-like flowers along the shore that I hadn’t noticed last time I was there. Around 7 Peter and I went to Devil’s Dishfull and fished it from a belly boat for the first time. Hadn’t fished DD in almost fifty years and was pleasantly surprised. Really quite a pretty pond. Caught 9 bass, largest about 2 pounds, most about 1/2 pound. Some large bluegills. All on Bass Gurglers. Pete caught a nice fat pickerel.
Can’t believe how much I’m enjoying belly-boating these days. I used to do it more frequently but got away from it a bit when I got more heavily into striper and salt water fishing. I now look forward to “shoving off” almost as much as I do the fishing. A welcome and relaxing contrast to slogging through mud and fighting the wind and waves along the ocean shorefront.
Sports Illustrated magazine has recently archived some of their past articles and my friend and webmaster Mike Quigley found an article written about me back in 1982. It doesn’t have any photos but still makes for interesting reading. Some of you may remember it but for those of you have never read it here’s a link:
The striper fishing along the shores of the inner harbor in Winthrop has slowed down a bit over the past few days, probably because of the offshore storms, which have really roiled up the water in some places and have made the outside shore relatively unfishable unless you can cast a flyrod
while riding a surfboard.
I fished a few hours each day and each day I caught fish, but they were widely spaced, one every twenty minutes or so. There was one stretch when I went almost an hour without a hit, this in an area that had been producing well on this stage of the tide only a few days before. I’ve had some surface action with a Gurgler but it’s been very spotty; the most consistent producer has been a chartreuse and white BeastMaster, which is very visible in the murky water. I think, though, that once the weather settles a bit, the fishing will certainly pick up. Looking at my records from last year, the fishing didn’t become consistently good until May 20th; maybe it’ll be the same this year. One thing’s for sure; the water temperature must rise by a few degrees before things really turn on. The temperature’s been up and down this past week but for the most part it’s averaged a chilly 50 degrees in most of the places I’ve fished. Brrrr!
Stripers have been appearing in good numbers (and sizes) all up and down the northeast coast for several days now along with good numbers of baitfish: herring and silversides for the most part.
It seems like you can almost predict the date: May 8. Depending on weather of course. My logs from the past ten years show that one or two days before and after May 8 you can expect the stripers to be in the warmer parts of the harbor and in most of the estuaries. So get out your gear and head to your favorite striper spot and expect some good action, especially around the lower stages of the tide. If you have only six hours to fish and are wading, try to be on the water three hours into the drop until about three hours after the rise. You can, of course, find good fishing at other times but the fish are more concentrated when the water is lower–and of course it’s easier to access most fishable spots at this time.
I’ve only been out twice in the past few days (the weather hasn’t been all that cooperative; wind, cold, rain, etc. but the two times I’ve been out I’ve been successful. And thrilled to bits to catch the first (for me) stripers of the season.
Here’s a brief rundown of the past few days, my life in capsule form, so to speak.
Saturday, May 10
I had to cancel my first Striper Strategies class of the season because of a predicted storm (which never came, by the way; however it WAS cold and windy) and I stayed in to tie flies and catch up on orders and watch the weather forecasts, hoping that the next day would be warm enough to fish. I was impatient to get back on the water, especially since the night before I had done well fishing for stripers “under the lights”.
Sunday May 11 warmed up more than expected and turned out to be a really interesting day, actually a great day for fishing–at least until the wind picked up. I started fishing a little later than planned (couldn’t get up early enough to fish the dropping tide) and arrived at one of my favorite spots in the inner harbor about half and hour into the rise. It was my first visit of the season and for the first half hour I didn’t get a hit. It wasn’t until about an hour into the rise that the fish started showing up. The water was exceptionally clear considering how roiled up the outside water was and the fly I was fishing–a chartreuse/white BeastMaster–almost glowed beneath the surface. Most of the fish hit close to the surface, within a foot or two, and I was able to see almost every take. The fishing, to be honest, wasn’t fast, one fish about every fifteen casts, but what a thrill! The smallest was about 21″ and the largest 32,” a real beauty! I caught seven in all–this in about an hour and a half. I would have fished longer but the wind was picking up and my hands were getting cold; my shoulder was beginning to bother me as well. Not only that but I had a plan to fish for largemouth bass later in the afternoon and I wanted to get home and take a nap so that I wasn’t completely exhausted for the evening fishing.
Later in the afternoon, after my nap, my friend Dale Linder came by and we headed up to Putnamville Reservoir in Danvers/Topsfield. I hadn’t been there in fifty years and was looking forward to fishing for bass with a 5 weight rod. If you read my last blog entry you might remember that I’ve been looking over some of my log notes from fifty years ago. It was while doing this that I remembered Putnamville Reservoir and decided to revisit it, just for the fun of it–and maybe for the nostalgic element as well.
The fishing was about as good as I could have expected with the temperature in the low 50’s and the water colder than that. Wandering the shore line, I picked up bass wherever I found structure close to shore. They were all largemouth bass–though there are smallies here as well–and all eagerly hit the small Bass Gurgler I was fishing. None was large–the largest about a pound–but all were fun. Caught four bluegills and a pickerel as well. Dale was fishing a streamer and caught many more pickerel than bass. We didn’t have a lot of time to fish, a few hours, and it took a bit of hiking and wandering through the woods to discover some of the best places but in that short time I decided that it was a place I’d love to explore further, but I think I’ll wait until the water warms up a bit before heading up there again.
All in all it was a wonderful day of fishing. Stripers and largemouth bass. Who could ask for anything more? Well, maybe a trout or two thrown into the mix. But that’ll have to wait for another day.
In my last blog entry I mentioned that I’d been reading over some of my past fishing logs. Really interesting reading there (to me, anyway). I read that on this date fifty years ago I fished Crystal Lake in West Peabody, Mass. and caught 53 bluegills and four crappies. All on Wooly Worms, three of which I lost in the trees or on sunken logs (can’t remember why, but I used to keep a record of the number of flies lost also).
Before I went to bed last night, I got to thinking about this lake and the more I thought about it the more I wanted to revisit it, to see if the fishing there was as I remembered it. I fell asleep calling to mind pleasant scenes from fifty years ago: the trail that led off up the hill through the pines and away from the railroad tracks, up up and then down into the damp boggy depressions that seemed always full of skunk cabbage but now and then a lady’s slipper; the fallen trees that lined the edge of the lake and made casting difficult–but not impossible– in most places. And the bluegills, big and fat and full of spunk. Crappies,too.
When I woke up, it seemed the perfect day for bluegill fishing, sunny and warm, with little or no wind. I had some orders to fill but if I could finish them and get to the post office before two I’d have the whole afternoon, the best part of the day.
As it happened I had an order for some Bluegill Gurglers and after tying up them up for a fellow in Indiana I tied some up for myself and by three o’clock I was driving north on Route 1 towards West Peabody and Crystal Lake. I had hitchhiked up this highway many times to fish Crystal Lake but today I couldn’t remember which exit to take and ended up taking the Rte 114 exit, one exit past Lowell Street, which was the right one. I realized my mistake when I crossed the Ipswich River in Middleton. I was tempted to change my plan and fish the Ipswich instead but I had dreamt about bluegills and Crystal Lake all night and I was determined to stick with my original intention. I turned around, got back on Route 1, and this time took the right exit.
Fifty years is a long time. And, as we all know, much can change in fifty years. And so it was with Crystal Lake–or at least the surrounding area. Suburbia had grown up around it. Where there were fields, now there were houses and shopping centers–and much more traffic than back then–and the old railroad tracks had been ripped up. But the lake itself looked the same for the most part–although slightly smaller than I’d remembered–and as I pulled on my waders, I was happy to see bluegills swirling in the shallows, probably on their spawning beds. It was a good sign.
I walked a short way through some bushes and made my way out onto a ridge that I remembered from long ago, back when it was mostly gravel but now mostly mud and silt, and made my first cast to the edge of some lily pads. I let the fly settle, twitched it once, and was soon into the first of many bluegills, all about the size of my hand and all very fat. Almost every cast was rewarded with a fish and after catching thirty or so, I decided to try another spot. Not that this wasn’t a good spot; it was, but I was eager to revisit some of my other favorite spots along the farther shore.
I waded back to shore and then took off up and over the hill to where there were some down-fallen trees in the water. I would guess that these weren’t the same trees but they seemed to be in the same spot where I used to catch a lot of crappies and so I tossed the little Gurgler out into the water along the edge of the trees hoping that some crappies still lived there. Sure enough, they did. I caught seven on seven casts before they finally quit (or maybe there were only seven there). They weren’t large, maybe a quarter-pound or so–but they were fun. And it had been a long time since I had even seen a crappie.
The shoreline was more brushy and timber-strewn than I’d remembered but it was possible to wade out a bit away from the shore and if I was careful I could cast parallel to the shore or with a roll cast hit some of the lily pads out toward the middle. As I edged my way along the shore I noticed some fish movement beneath some overhanging bushes, movement that looked to be made by a fish larger than the bluegills and crappies I’d been catching. Turned out it was. A largemouth bass, about three pounds, a beauty! What a surprise! I had never caught one in this lake when I was a kid. Maybe they were there but you couldn’t prove it by me. Working my way along this part of the shoreline I picked up three more by flicking my Gurgler in and under the overhanging brush.
By now the sun was beginning to set and I was getting tired from all the sloshing through mud and tiptoeing around and over fallen trees and branches and decided to call it a day. And what a day it was, even better than it was fifty years ago. My total for the day was– I still keep count and still keep records–was 77 bluegills, 4 bass, and 7 crappies. All on the Bluegill Gurgler. I lost three flies to trees. But found some old memories. And created a few new ones to recall. Can’t ask more of a day than that.
While biding my time and counting down the days until the stripers return–within the week now, I reckon–I decided to flip through the pages of some of my past fishing logs tonight, to see if the past held anything in store for me, so to speak.
I don’t know about you but I’ve been a compulsive record-keeper ever since I was a kid, at least when it comes to fishing logs. Looking back to the very first one–a small notepad complete with clipped-off anal fins of trout attached to the pages–I see that I’ve now been tying flies for over fifty years!
I knew that I had been at it for a long time, but fifty years? It seems like just yesterday that I was sitting between Ted Williams and Jack Sharkey at the old Sportsman’s Show at Mechanics Hall in Boston and Ted was teaching me to tie my very first fly (it was a Yellow Wooly Worm, by the way). That was certainly a great moment in my life, one that turned out to be in a way a defining moment as well, since in the years that have followed I’ve not strayed very far from my vise and for much of this time I’ve supported myself (if somewhat inadequately at times) by tying flies. So it’s fifty years now along that road and, although it’s been rocky every now and then, I wouldn’t trade my life for anyone’s. I may be poor in the pocket book but I’m the richest man I know when it comes to friends and to memories.
Speaking of memories, and looking again at my very first fishing log, I see that on May 4, 1958, also a Sunday, I fished Fish Brook in Topsfield, Mass. and caught four brown trout, all on Wooly Worms (yellow, size 8). A photo taken later that day in my backyard is pasted into the notebook confirming this. Back then I kept most of the trout I caught until I read an article that convinced me to release them back into the water–BUT before doing this to clip off the anal fin to save as a record of the fish caught. According to the writer the fish didn’t really need the anal fin, could get along quite well without it. It never occurred to me to wonder about the truth of this or what the trout thought about it but–after fifty years– my notebook is still bulging with dried-out anal fins. Brookies, browns, and rainbows. Times have changed, haven’t they?
One the things that hasn’t really changed all that much is the music I listen to when I’m tying flies, which is pretty much the same as the music I listened to back when I first started tying. Oldies, they’re called now. But back then they were new. I can, if I close my eyes, still see myself at my bedroom table tying flies to the music of the day. In 1958 it would have been songs like The Purple People Eater by Sheb Wooley, Witch Doctor by David Seville, All I Have to Do is Dream by the Everly Brothers, and Tequila by The Champs. The flies I was tying back then were on the whole very simple ones: Wooly Worms, Trueblood Nymphs, Bivisibles, Black Ghosts and Mickey Finns. These are the flies mentioned most frequently in my “log” from that year. Not mentioned is the fact that my first flies were tied not in a vise but were held in place by the jaws of a micrometer. I used two micrometers to accomplish this; one to clamp the other to the table top and one to actually grip the hook by screwing down the micrometer as tight as I could. Needless to say, these micrometers were never quite accurate again and my grandfather, whose micrometers they were, was more than a bit upset about this but, good sport that he was, he gave me some money to buy a real–but very simple– fly tying vise (it cost $1.67 and came from Herter’s; I still have the order form). Later I would graduate to a Thompson A, which held the hooks quite a bit better than did the one for $1.67.
I was going to write a longer piece about the many differences between now and then, about the trends and advances in fly tying that have taken placed during those fifty years, but I see by the clock on the wall that it’s almost three a.m. and I just realized that it’s not 1958 any more and I’m not 15 and I’m getting tired and so I’ll have to put this off and save it for another blog entry at some later date. But, you can bet your boots that it won’t be fifty years from now. Or will it?
Catching up on my blog-writing tonight. Somehow the time just goes by so quickly!
A Blast from the Past!
The striper fishing along the shores of the inner harbor in Winthrop has slowed down a bit over the past few days, probably because of the offshore storms, which have really roiled up the water in some places and have made the outside shore relatively unfishable unless you can cast a flyrod
While biding my time and counting down the days until the stripers return–within the week now, I reckon–I decided to flip through the pages of some of my past fishing logs tonight, to see if the past held anything in store for me, so to speak.
Welcome to 
