Good stuff found trolling around on the Costa website.
I know I have almost an entire fishing season at home to look forward to before I set off on this trip, but I'm already getting excited. Belize is gonna be friggin' awesome.
I've already gotten into tying some patterns for tarpon. I figure if I do 6-8 flies for tarpon, bones & permit per week between now & the trip, I'll have 'er beat & pretty much be set for life.
Tarpon Bunnies are the easiest pattern of life to tie, so I will have my quota of those tied up by next week before moving onto some Whistlers, Cockroaches, Seaducers, and whatever else people might recommend to me.
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Some technical updates: Instagram for Android came out! As such, my tumblr page, The Angler's Android & iPod, has now become shortened to The Angler's Android.
Lots of random pics of gear coming through the fly shop's doors, flies & other odds & ends are being posted to the tumblr page via Instagram, so check it out if you're so inclined.
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I haven't really put much thought into if/where I'll be fishing on opening day on April 15th. had thought I'd be away for work for most of April, including the first week or two of the season, but that hasn't happened yet.
Last year, the first two weeks were fairly unproductive, with rivers blown out due to spring runoff. This year: who knows? That stretch of insane 25°C temperatures for a week in mid-March took care of snowpack, and rivers are already subsiding from flood stage; by next Sunday, they could be quite clear & wadable.
Sea-run trout were being caught in the Nashwaak during the first week of the season of 2010 due to low runoff, perhaps we'll have a repeat of that.
Time/Date: 1010 AST, 20-Jun-11
Location: Fredericton, NB
(Can't see the pics or video in the post? Click here to see the full post)
Side note #1: I had to look up the date and the day of the week. No clue. I consider this a positive aspect of my life.
Side note #2: This is my first post in 6 days, which pushes the limit on how far I go between posts. But when it comes down to fishing or writing about fishing, well, you now know that outcome.
Tuesday, 14-Jun-11
3-day fishing result
I left for the coast just after supper, timing my arrival coincide with slack tide on the low. The moon was full on the 15th, so the already-intense Fundy tides were more intense for a few days last week.
With weather & water becoming a little warmer, I figured this was a good time to (try to) land my first striper from the salt.
Or not. I didn't see anything: no stripers, no baitfish, no birds. Nothing.
And anyone who says fly fishing the coast at night is easy is full of shit. I can't wait to try it again really soon.
Wednesday, 15-Jun-11
Bucky with a nice one
Back to my freshwater roots for sea-run brook trout & the possibility of early Atlantic salmon on the Miramichi.
We hit a couple pools, finding them high, fast, and tea-coloured.
Bucky got into a nice one; however, I had another date with that black & white bastard.
This skunkening was more my fault than the previous night: a strip-set on what would have been a nice trout was a little...over-aggressive...to say the least.
Later I rolled a nice-sized grilse (or huge sea-run trout) on a shrimp pattern but received no love on successive casts.
Side note #3: This was three skunkenings in a row. At no point did I feel like torching police cars or smashing windows of stores & looting.
Side note #3.1: The term 'skunkening' is my own. It is derived from skunked. I got the idea from the movie Your Highness, which used the expression 'the f**kening.'
Thursday, 16-Jun-11
A last-minute invite for a downtown fish for stripers/muskie/smallies resulted in the end of the skunkening.
I wasn't messing around; this is what I rigged up for an afternoon on Pat's vessel:
5wt TFO with WF-5F + small cork-bodied popper
8wt Redington CPX with WF-8I clear sink tip + size 2 Clouser
10wt Redington CPX with sinking-tip Striper line + big, eff-off muskie fly
The Clouser did it for me: nice smallie. Skunkening over. Video evidence exists, too.
Side note #4: As a highly experienced smallie-on-the-fly person, I can confidently state smallmouth bass take Clouser minnows 100% of the time. And if you take the previous sentence seriously, you are a complete jack ass.
Side note #5: Smallmouth bass on the fly rod have been my best surprise fish of 2011. It's a good time! I mean, they can hit hard or they can take subtle, they fight, they jump. Fun as hell.
Side note #6: I really, really need a 6wt fly rod, reel & line now...
It was at Rocky Brook Lodge, more famous for its swanky digs & salmon pools, but they also offer trout fishing on their (what I would assume to be stocked) lakes.
Side note #7: This place is really swanky. The manager, Manley Price, is a great guy, and it's staffed with some really friendly guys that probably know more about fly fishing than I will ever learn. Thing is, they don't act like it, which is even more awesome. But I couldn't find a website, so if you ever want to go there, leave a comment & I will get you the contact info.
It was strongly suggested by a few people to use spinning gear. I chose to ignore that suggestion.
Luckily, it was a prudent decision: when we arrived, all the loaner spinning gear we had been promised had gone missing through various means. So fly gear it was.
We weren't disappointed with the decision.
The first two fish were taken on a small black & white Clouser. Then I switched up to a #16 mayfly dry, which brought a lot to the boat. Once that got too soaked with fish slime to float, I changed to a #12 Stimulator.
And then it was on.
We boated a couple dozen. Each. In under four hours.
We released them all, but lost one to the psychopathic loon swimming around (& underneath) our row boat.
Side note #8: Those friggin' things are fast as hell under water. And a little scary.
Good times. Except for the loon.
A typical-sized offering
It's not a small trout; I just have GIANT HANDS!!!
Psychopathic stalker-loon
My weekend was spent relaxing with my beautiful girlfriend (she doesn't fish a lot). We went to see Super 8, which was pretty damn good (and fortunately not a two-hour ad for the motel chain).
I'm hoping to be chasing some St. John River fish within the next couple hours.
I'll try to not wait six days to write a report.
Side note #9: I remember saying I would try to keep my posts to 250 words when I started this. Yeah. Might try to do that again.
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Music time: when living a hero's life, you require a hero soundtrack. I think Explosions In The Sky provides that soundtrack. Even if you're just cleaning your bedroom (which, in some cultures, might be seen as heroic).
Time/Date: 1015, 02-May-11
Location (finally sunny & mild) Fredericton, NB
(This is a longer-than-normal post, with a longer-than-normal tune at the end. You might want to save time by listening & reading simultaneously)
After two weeks of fishing season, I finally got out fishing this past weekend. Two weeks of cold weather, freezing rain, snow, rain, wind, blown-out rivers...everything short of a meteor impact.
On Friday, my beautiful gf & I went 'adventuring' down to the Fundy Coast to scout out some locations in preparation of the arrival of Morone saxatilis, aka striped bass, aka stripers!
Migratory stripers arrive in late May, but I had an itch to test out new gear and wanted to finally look at places I've known only as points on Google Earth until then.
Our first stop, Lepreau Falls, was more touristy than fishing, but whatev...it was nice there.
After the waterfalls stop & some driving, I found a nice-looking spot with a sand bar, strong current, etc...perfect place to keep in mind for stripers in a few weeks...and also a perfect place to try out my new gear!
I won't bore you to death on the comedy of errors that lead to me getting ready to actually fish (it involved my gf asking, "What are you going to do when I'm not here to help you get dressed for fishing?" And we'll leave it at that.).
I tried out my new Redington waders & 8wt CPX rod, Lamson-Waterworks Litespeed reel, and my homemade stripping basket. All worked flawlessly...once I remembered how to dress myself...and to set the drag on the reel...and how to cast (5 months not casting is a long time).
After an hour or so of casting, we continued our adventure, which turned out to be a leisurely country drive throughout southern NB. When things were over, over 400km were driven, plus a couple (four, actually) cable ferry rides, and $75 worth of beef jerky were brought home.
(The beef jerky is from who we affectionately call The German Butcher but the actual business name is Elke's BBQ and they are AWESOME. They are located in Lower Cambridge, but go to the Fredericton Market each Saturday. Their web info is here, Facebook is here)
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Saturday evening was the annual Icebreaker dinner & auction in support of the Miramichi Salmon Association. Good times, good food, few good laughs were enjoyed.
Find out more about the Miramichi Salmon Association here.
We met at 4AM to head to the tournament, held at the Grand Falls Flowage. Thankfully Andrew was driving, as I would have taken us to Grand Falls, NB, about 5 hours drive the other way. Our day is best summarized in point form.
First, the facts:
This was our first competitive bass tournament. For both of us. In fact, this was my first time fishing for bass.
We had a borrowed boat. On water neither of us had fished before.
The morning was windy & cold as hell.
Andrew had to keep listening to me talk about fly fishing.
I caught the first keeper (at exactly 12") at 7:18AM, thinking, "This isn't gonna be too hard." I was wrong.
Next, the outcome:
We caught our limit!!! Well, Andrew caught out limit: 5 fish, 9.20 pounds. We culled (live-released) my first keeper of the day.
We were the only newbie team, and 8 teams ended up below us. One of which with a very expensive bass boat. That was alright!
We had a friggin' blast!
I brought fly gear with me, but, as it was Andrew's tournament, I vowed to not haul it out until the limit was caught. The wind of the morning would have made it messy anyway, so it worked out really good
My "firsts" list:
First fish of 2011
First bass ever...and 2nd/3rd/4th...
First bass on a fly rod...and 2nd, too!
First fish with my Redington CPX 8wt (a little overkill for bass fishing, but whatev...I wanted more casting practice with it)
All in all, a great time. I'm not ready to buy a bass boat by any means, but it was a cool experience to see how those "other guys" fish (i.e., the gear casters).
Thanks, Andrew!
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Explosions in the Sky, a band I've featured in 411#3 a few times already, released a new album last week, Take Care, Take Care, Take Care. Get it. It's good (iTunes here). The first track off it is below.
(Note: today is Election Day in Canada. No matter what your political stripe is, get out & vote. Just not for the Conservative Party of Canada, which was recently found in contempt of Parliament for hiding and/or falsifying information from your elected representatives. They are the first government in the Commonwealth to be found in contempt. They don't deserve your vote. Just sayin'.)
As I wrote last week (Going Stalin on Clutter), I had already crossed off clothing from the black list. The next item for this week was paper. Receipts. Instruction manuals. Geology journals. Books. Tax documents.
Books were easy. Any book I had no desire to read/re-read were donated to Stanley Public Library through Daisy (pseudonym), a.k.a., my roommate's gf and also conveniently the librarian at...Stanley Public Library. It works out well: books can go on the stacks or sold to raise funds for the library.
Instruction manuals were also easy: recycling bin. Everything can be found online nowadays.
High Plains Drifter, checking out the scene in Deadwood, SD
Geology journals mostly consisted of Gold Prospector and ICMJ's Prospector & Mining Journal back issues. These publications seemed important to me when I was running around with gold panning gear in the High Plains Drifter in the Western US back in Ought-Eight. But not so much at my current time & place. Gone!
Onto tax, student loan, receipts, bank statements, etc. I decided anything with my name, address or any sort of account number would get shredded. Six hours over the course of a few days later, I am finished. I almost fried the paper shredder.
Side note: Revenue Canada, please do not audit me. I will not retain my records anymore. Your tax laws coddle the balls of clutter, and I refuse to follow them. Next year I might scan them. Maybe.
After the purge on clothing and paper, my room is ~80% clutter-free. I now have approximately one laundry-load's worth of clothing to my name, which makes it really easy to decide what to wear. And my filing cabinet has the bare minimum of paper shit inside.
How about some music?
A band called Explosions in the Sky. I have 3 of their albums. All instrumental. All awesome.
