thorn168

This past sunday I went out to Larry’s witness protection pond. The weather was overcast with drizzle later on. I got there late in the afternoon around 2pm and fished until about 5pm. This has been my best day fishing all summer. I mainly used Thomas buoyant spoons to catch most of the fish. I caught 6 yellow perch. 5 bluegills, 1 golden shiner .

I started out using a 7’ Shimano FXS spinning rod with a medium action, paired with a Shimano IX 2000 reel with 6lb Trout S.O.S Line. For terminal tackle I tied on a size 0 eagle claw ball bearing swivel using a Trilene knot.

This particular rod has a slow tip even though it is supposed to be medium action rod. This makes it a good trout dough rod but lacks the power to set the hook on heavy fish with hard mouths, i.e. LMBs.

It is because of this that I missed hooking into a Bass that attacked the spoon close to shore.

Ironically, this also makes this rod excellent at casting light weight lures such as the Blue Fox Vibrax minnow spin and Thomas double spin lures.

The first lure of the day was a Chartreuse Thomas buoyant spoon. On another trip to this same location this was the hot color but not today. So I changed that one out to a black spoon of the same type. Still no takers. So I changed that one out for the rainbow trout color Blue Fox Vibrax minnow spin. Bingo! I landed my first fish of the day which was a yellow perch. I unhooked it and returned it to the water. Right after that I hooked into a Medium sized golden shiner. They always put up good fight for their size and they are shiny and not so spiny, so I like catching them.

Then the bite died down.

Since dull colors where not so productive I put on copper buoyant and fished that for awhile. Moved down the shore a bit and put the Black buoyant on again. The back of this spoon has is yellow/Chartreuse color. I saw several fish attack it and miss. As it got close to shore I speed up the retrieve to cast it back out again which caused the spoon to jump out of the water and drop back in. That is when a Bass attacked it right from the shore line. However, because the rod tip is not stiff enough to set the hook on a strike like that the fish got away.

I kept fishing until I got a significant birds nest from casting light lures a long distance. Of course this happened while I had a lure with a treble hook out in the water. I pulled off about a 90 yards of 6lb line before I got to offending loop then I spent several minutes carefully untangling and reeling line back onto the reel. With the tangle was sorted out, I changed out the lure, which did not get hung up while I was dealing with the line, with a heavier Johnson’s silver minnow. The reason that I do this after a birds nest, is so that the line that was loose and loopy, gets cast out into the water and is reeled back onto the spool tight and even.

While I was doing this I hooked up with another perch the biggest one of the day.

Since I had two rods with me, I decided to work with my 6’.6” medium action eagle claw with a Shimano IX 4000 reel with 10# Trilene XL line (Fluorescent Blue/Clear). The backbone on this rod is truly medium, when I set the hook with this one it drives the hook home. The other interesting thing is that I don’t really lose all that much distance with this set up compared to the previous one. I also don’t have to worry about snapping the tip if I tie on heavier lures.

With this in mind, I put on a 3/4 oz Blue fox strobe spoon with a fire tiger finish. Fished that for awhile without success before replacing it with a 2/5 oz, Little Cleo with a Hammered Fire Gold finish. I spent a fair amount of time working out the best retrieves with these spoons to give them a fish tempting action. Once I tired of that I put on another Thomas buoyant, this time with a Black Dot Frog pattern. I caught three blue gills on this lure including a rather large one that was hooked on all three points of the treble. (This is my biggest gripe about treble hooks, catching a fish, especially a smaller fish on all three points complicates catch and release fishing.) I was able to successfully remove the hooks without injuring the fish too much. Patience and needle nose pliers are required for this sort of operation.

Since I did not want to continue catching blue gills I changed that lure for a Gold buoyant. I worked this lure up and down the shoreline for until I got tired of fishing. Then on the very last cast, I caught my sixth and final Yellow Perch of the day.

After several unsuccessful outings targeting stocked trout. I decided to go to my local honey hole and fly fish to get back my fishing mojo.

After assembling the rod and stringing up the line, I tied on barbless #8 Eagle Claw crappie hook that was already baited with a white Berkeley Powerbait honey worm that was worse for wear having already several handfuls of Bluegills and Pumpkinseeds.

I made a short cast close to shore, and as I was untangling some loopy line a bass attacked the little grub. Because I always have my forefinger securing the line to the cork fore grip, I instinctively set the hook with a flick of my wrist.

Once the hook was set, the fight was on! I must say this fish was surprisingly strong. He immediately, dove to the bottom and headed for the weeds. I used the rod to repeatedly steer the fish away and out into the open water. I let the fish run for a bit to take up the slack. Once I put tension on him again he made several furious figure eights before jumping three times. But my Bluegill dulled hook held fast in his mouth.

Then when I reached down to get my net to land him, he went right into the weeds and tangled up the line. Undaunted by this complication I proceeded to use the net part weeds, untangle the line and capture the fish.

He wasn't a very big fish (as you can see in the photo) but he had lots of moxie. If you look closely you can see the hook and lure sticking out of his mouth.

Anyway, after a quick photo, I returned him to the water from which he came.

I did not catch any more bass after that but I did catch my fill of bluegills and at least three golden shiners.

Golden shiners as some of the fiercest fish to catch on a fly rod. They attack the bait like a snapper blue and have all of the head shaking savagery of trout.

It felt good to get my fish catching mojo back.

Sunday May 4th Brookline Reservoir

I went to the Brookline Reservoir hoping to catch my limit of stocked rainbow trout. As I drive up to the reservoir notice a lot of cars parked along the road. It turns out this Sunday was the Brookline community fishing fest. The tent was set up with about 50-70 loaner rods & reels and they where giving away free bait. This is definitely not my idea of an ideal fishing scenario. However, steadfast in my resolve to catch some stockies I unpacked my gear and headed out to my spot of choice.

I must have gotten on the water just before 9am. It was a partly cloudy day with occasional gusts of wind. I baited up my hooks and cast out my lines and waited for the fish to bite. About 10 feet away from my set up on my right was a young asian boy casting left handed side arm with his mother and sister watching. He was really having a hard time casting lefty as a right handed person. I watched this anxiously for awhile until the first fish attacked my bait. I set the hook and played the fish. I put the fish into bucket, rebait the hook and cast the line out again. More fishing families arrive and it is getting pretty crowded. Off to my left is a family with brand new zebco 202 rod & reel combo. The dad asks me if I have a scissors, I lend him my nail clippers so that he can string up the line on his new rod. About 10 minutes later my rod tip starts bouncing again and it is fish on with trout number two. He is a nice 12 incher. At this point I idle one of my rods since I already have a baited line in the water and I now have two fish. I am surprised that with all of the young anglers whipping the water with bobbers and bait that the trout are still attacking my bait just 10 feet away. While I wait, I finally, advise the young asian kid and his family to move off to his left so that he can cast using his right hand instead of his left. They take my advise and now the young man makes several successful casts that allow him to at least get into the bluegill zone. Off to my left the young father and this young son are struggling with a defective bobber. Every time the he tries to make a cast the damn red&white round bobber slides all the way down to the hook. As I am observing this my rod starts bouncing again with another fish on it. I set the hook on this fish and bring him in. He joins the other two fish and I begin to pack up my gear as I now have my limit of trout.

Went out yesterday evening with my 6wt fly rod to spend a little quality time fly fishing from shore. I started off with a #10 yellow stimulator and and hooked with a couple of gills feeding on mosquitos on the waters surface. I like the way the stimulator pulses in the water, after it get water logged and ceases to be a "dry fly". I changed over to my old standby of a number 10 eagle claw bait holder hook and a Berkeley Power bait honey worm (Yellow).

I worked the worm like a weightless jig and hooked up with over a dozen gills heavy just off the spawn. These gills where loaded! Then I had the good fortune to catch two very large golden shiners. They where jumbos! I had forgotten just how much I enjoy catching golden shiners on the fly rod.

Golden shiners attack the bait and fight like a trout.

I fished until sunset then packed up and went home...happy.

I have been saving this trip for many months knowing that when the weather cooled off the hard core bass fisherman would be desperate for a good fish story.

For most of the summer I was using my spinning rods, to better understand how to fish using braid and heavy spoons for big fish. I have to admit that muskiebigfish inspired me to explore the big fish big gear angle. Now I have a rod and reel all set up to target northerns, lakers, salmon and carp. (yeah I know carp do not go for spoons but if I want to bait fish…)

While this a IS a story about a big fish…I did not use a spinning rod to catch it. Instead I used my 8 weight fly rod.

I chose the 8 wt because I was tired of lugging around a lot of heavy fishing gear. On this day in particular I decided to go minimalist. Just the rod, reel, flybox and catch all bag with the fishing net in it. I did forget one thing…the nail clippers that I use to cut and trim the leader.

Not wanting to drive all the way back to my house just for that; I decided to make this trip a one fly trip and proceeded to tie on a black muddler on a number 6 hook.

It was late morning. The sky was blue and generally cloudless. There was a slight breeze blowing the leaves of the trees down by the water's edge. I put on my polarized sunglasses so that I could see into the water. The water was stained the color of a strong iced tea. A pale dragonfly sunned itself on a leafy weed growing along the shore. The surface of the water was smooth and dark.

I took a deep breath and began pulling line out off the reel to prepare for my first cast. I lifted the line in front of me and flung it back and then forward and back again. I slung the line overhead several times before laying it down in the water about 15 feet away.

The fly floated on the surface film like bug, a big ugly bug. The kind of bug that a large mouth bass might find irritating. A stupid bug that doesn't know how to keep itself from falling into the water, where it floats like a stoned drunk, futilely beating its wings trying to escape the clinging water upon which it floats, spinning in a circle.

I worked that fly like a puppeteer dancing it across the surface like a epileptic ballerina. I spoke to the fish in the water like a jaded streetwalker, "bite me you bastard, bite me!".

Then a couple of men walking by asked me if I had caught anything yet. I gave them the evil eye which they couldn't see because of my sunglasses and said: " not yet."

With the sun at my back I realized that I was casting too much of a shadow upon the water. So I moved under the shade of an over hanging tree. With my sunglasses still on I made a weak cast into the water just in front of me. I let the fly just sit there for 10 seconds. Then I saw him.

I saw the unmistakable wake of a fish as it approached the fly. At first I thought the fish was a carp because of the way the fish looked in shade with my sunglasses on and the way in which the fish just sipped the fly into its mouth.

As soon as I saw the fly disappear into its mouth I set the hook firmly.

The fish feeling the sting of my hook took off like a dog after a rabbit. He swam right toward some entangling weeds. Using my right forefinger to secure the line I lifted the rod high to steer the fish away from that hazard. Then he jumped high trying to shake the hook and after splash down he ran back toward the weeds again. Again I lifted the rod high and steered him away and again the jumped and tried to shake the hook. Then he swam away in a different direction so I gave him some line. When I stopped giving him line he jumped again. After that he dove deep and thrashed strongly against the ever present pull of my hook and line. After several tense minutes of fighting him I was able to bring him under control.

I grabbed my net and landed him. To my surprise he was the biggest Larry I have caught yet in this state a nice 5 pound bass.

I quickly removed the hook and took a quick photo of him in the net, ( I don't like holding fish by the lower jaw because it might fatally injure them.) and let him go to fight another day.

Catching that fish really made my day. I was especially happy because I caught him on fly rod.

Folks I can't emphasize enough just how exciting it is to catch fish but especially big fish on a fly rod.

I finally got a pair of polarized sun glasses for fishing. Wearing these glasses are like having x-ray vision. I got see how the fish where interacting with my lures.

I saw a yellow perch chase down my thomas's buoyant spoon. I also got to see a large mouth investigate one of my honey worms that was getting attacked by bluegills.

While I did get several hits I was unable to hook up with anything on this trip. But that is Ok because I got to see how the fish where interacting with the lures I was casting.

I got a chance to go fishing this 4th of July. Since all of my spinning rods & reels are packed up I headed out to my local pond with my fly rod, flies and my trusty Berkley honey worms. I was on the water some time after noon and I tied on #10 eagle claw bait holder hook with a yellow honey worm. This is usually a very productive set up for catching bluegills but not on the 4th. I caught only one average sized gill with this set up. So I open up the fly box and select a size 6 green woolly bugger. I make several casts with this fly, when I notice swarms of minnows about the same size as my fly are schooled up in the shallows and they seem to be fleeing from larger fish feeding on them.

These minnows had black backs and my fly was greenish and slightly larger then the minnows. I keep casting the fly that I had on because I didn't want to waste time "matching the hatch". Turns out this was a good choice because my fly stuck out like sore thumb and since it looked like a wounded bait fish in the swarm of live ones the bass that attacked my fly was in for a surprise.

I was sight fishing so I actually saw the fish attack the fly suspending in the water. As soon as I saw him take the fly I set the hook firmly. Every time I hook up with a keeper LMB on my fly rod the fight is intense! I have my 9' six weight fly rod in my right hand and the fly line in my left hand. The fish dove down and started taking up all the slack line in my hand. I transferred the weight of the fish to the rod so as not to break him off. I kept a steady pressure on the fish trying to steer him away from snags. The fish jumped three times trying to shake the hook off, fortunately my knots and leader held up to this abuse. I did my best to keep the fight as short as possible because the day was hot and I didn't want to stress the fish too much. After about 3 minutes of struggle I was able to land the fish using my net.

Wow! This fish looked and felt pretty big on the line and as you can see from the photo the fish is about as big as the length of the landing net. Since I did not have my scale or a tape with me, guess is that he is about 18-20 inches and about 2.5 pounds. You can probably see this in the photo, this fish has a wounded jaw. My fly was firmly hooked into the top of his bony mouth but as you can see on the left side the jaw has skin abrasions. The wounds did not seem fresh and there appears to be signs of healing.

So immediately after taking the photos and removing the hook from its mouth I put him back in the water from which he came to live another day.

I kept on fishing after this catch but only got another average sized pumpkin seed on the woolly bugger. I went home around 4pm because the heat and humidity got the better of me.

If you are looking for a different style of fishing, I highly recommend fly fishing as it is an exciting way to catch fish of all varieties. Catching an 8 inch golden shiner on the fly rod is about as exciting as catching a trout of the same size.

Finally wet a line in the famed crystal lake in newton. Crystal lake is aptly named because the water really is "Gin clear". I parked in the parking lot near the beach and walked around the western side of the lake to check out the fishing spots. The homes that abut the lake really make this public waterway very difficult to fish. In spite of all the rain that we have been having recently the water level in the lake is very low. I could see that the water level at least 10 feet from shore was only perhaps 10-12 inches deep. Which makes fishing from shore very challenging as there is very little structure to fish.

On this trip I brought two rods with me: a 6'.6" eagle claw medium action spinning rod that I got at Dick's last year for $9.99 and a new 9' Medium light eagle claw feather light rod that I got from Cabelas during their 42rods sale online. The 6 and a half rod was rigged and reading to go. The nine footer was broken down for transport.

Because of the water depth issue I needed to tie on a lure that could give me distance in my cast. So I tied on my trusty golden 1/8 oz Johnson's silver spoon which has the barb mashed down. Last year the first fish I caught with this lure was a pickerel from Chestnut hill res. In order to release that fish I had to mash down the barb on the lure, which was brand new out of the box. I put a 3 in orange Field & Stream twister tail grub as a trailer. The action of this lure is just incredible, its highly visible, the grub flutters on the fall and lure swims like a wounded baitfish. In fact I would recommend this lure for striper fishing as it is a predator magnet.

But I digress. So I get to this place where park benches are down below the roadway and there are some trees to by the water's edge. On the first bench is another fisherman, an old european guy who I have seen fishing around town before, he typically bait fishes with ultra light spinning gear using worms and bobbers. He mostly catches bluegills and pumpkinseeds which he keeps. I asked him: "Any Luck"? he nods yes, "Trout?", he nods no and opens up his plastic grocery bag to reveal about 6 or 8 bluegill on the small side.

So I walk over to the spot off to the left of him about 10-15 feet away and start casting my johnson's silver spoon. I am just fan casting to get the line wound up tighter on the reel so that I can change rods using the same reel (a Shimano IX 2000R). While I am doing this I hook up with a 14 inch pickerel. This fish was really feisty as he put up a reel good fight. So I land the fish which promptly help itself off my barbless hook, which is great BTW because I don't have to get bite by the toothy beast while trying to unhook it. So while the fish is flopping around and I am struggling to get a picture of it, this being my first fish out of Crystal Lake, Mr. Catch and keeps everything comes over and asks me: "You give me?" to which I reply, "let take a picture first".

After much fumbling around I take a picture of the fish. However, it looked small to me so I got out my measure tape and measure the fish to make sure it was legal to keep. Well it turned out to be an inch to short. I show him the tape measure and say: "This fish is 14 inches long in order to keep this fish it has to be 15 inches long. I have to put him back". He give me a dirty look shakes his head and walks away. After I put the fish back in the water it sulked for about half an hour recovering before it finally swam away.

So now I decide to rig up my new 9 foot noodle rod and give it a spin. I am used to the length of the rod because I have a 9' fly rod which I fish on occasion. The reel seat on this rod leaves something to be desired. The reel seat is all cork which is nice but the hardware that secures the reel to the rod is awkward to use. It has 2 threaded lock rings with a rubber washer between them that is to secure the reel foot to the rod. The lock rings don't turn easily on the threads and the reel does not lock down as tightly as I think it should.

Anyway, once I get the reel on, I start to thread the line through the guides threading 10 # mono is a lot different then threading 6 weight fly line especially on a 9' rod with about 13 guides along its length. my first attempt failed as the line fell out of ever single guide when I lost my grip on it. (On a windy day I think this will prove to be a ball busting challenge.) I persist and I get the rig lined up.

This rod is designed to cast baits and lures in the 1/16 to the 1/2 oz range, so I put on a kastmaster clone that I have and proceed to make my first cast. The cast was a disappointing 25 yards. WTF? I know the 10 #mono I have on the reel is 2 pounds heavier then it's max line weight but 25 yards seriously. Hoping for a better result I change the kastmaster out for a thomas' buoyant spoon. Similar result. So I put on the the Johnson's silver minnow which improves to the distance of the cast somewhat but by as much as I think it should. Proper line weight matching really must make a difference I guess.

Before I broke down the rig I tied on my Blue fox minnow spin, which is a lure that I love but have trouble getting it to swim the way I thing it should. Lo and behold the length of the rod actually makes that lure swim 100% better then it does on a 6.6 rod.

So on this trip I only caught one fish but I learned a lot.

Tried to hook up with the stocked rainbows in Brookline res. I got some powerbait and rigged up a light weight c-rig on a single hook but I just ended up feeding the bait stealing fish.

I brought 2 rods one rigged up for the bait and wait and another for castings lures. This past Sunday was very warm sunny and windy. The water was very clear and the fishing pressure was remarkable. There where a lot of people fishing for trout with powerbait. The whole time I was there I did not see any one land a trout. However, on prior visits I did see other anglers catch their limit of fish in less them an hour using powerbait.

Between the fisherman, the predatory birds, bass and the pickerel I have a sinking feeling the the stocked fish are much depleted now.

I did get to fish with a young man who was fishing live worms for larry's. He had a 5' ultralight spinning combo with 4lb mono which feel is somewhat under powered for bass fishing. But he claimed he had caught some quality fish on his setup over at a privately stocked pond that he usually fishes at.

He ended up catching few blue gill and a 6 inch golden shiner.

The blue gills are now spawning so I think they where a factor in thwarting my efforts to catch a trout.

I caught 3 gills: One on a Thomas's buoyant, one on a green woolly bugger and one on a Berkeley honey worm. The gills where so aggressive that I almost caught one on a bomber A crankbait.

After I left Brookline a stopped by Bolloughs to try my luck before calling it a day...I almost got bit by the biggest snapping turtle I have ever seen. This thing was huge with a shell the size of a large frying pan and a head the size of a house cat. I am glad I did not hook up with him. I left there around sunset and went home.

Started the day off around 9:30am at Chestnut hill reservoir. I wanted to try some of the cold water tactics that I had been reading about so rigged up a casting bubble and tied on a big old fuzzy fly with a tin split shot to weigh it down. However, the wind made it difficult to cast this set up or get any real distance on the cast. So I changed out the fly for a honey worm on #10 hook. Then I started to work various different lures that might work in these conditions...still no action.

Then I walked over to pickerel cove and worked a purple bitsy bug jig with a orange curl tail grub trailer. On the third cast I felt a tap but missed the hook set. On the fifth cast I connected with a nice 18" 2lber pickerel. I swear that I have caught and released this fish before so after a couple of quick pics I returned him to the water.

After that I decided to head over to the Brookline reservoir to see if I could catch anything over there.

When I got there I headed over to the shallow end and started casting a copper thomas' buoyant spoon. That lure got the attention of trio of yellow perch who would follow it back to shore. I keep casting it until I caught one, a little 6 incher who got hooked on all three points of the treble. I hate when that happens, but I managed to unhook him without ripping his mouth off. I switched out the spoon for a pink & white beaver tail grub doused with some fish attractant. This got a lot more attention and I hooked up with a nice 10" perch with real attitude. I caught one more little one after that but then the cold and wind started to get to me.

So I went home.