Summer time

It's summer time and warmwater fishing on the North Shore of Boston has been fantastic. Visited a local trout pond and discovered an abundant and healthy resident centrarchid population; the angling was outstanding too. And all of it in a beautiful place only ~15 minutes from Ichthyographic central. Supposedly holdover and stocked trout in the fall; its on baby.

Rotund L. macrochirus

Average M. slamoides, from "trout pond"

L gibbosus ready for a date

Using Google Earth, I found a series of 2 ponds 1.3 miles from my living room; Holly (my one year old and local fishing guide) and I took a little stroll (literally) and found another fantastic spot to catch all manner of finned quarry. Bank access and fly casting room in abundance too. 

L. macrochirus from secret neighborhood pond

I love summer, how about you?

A stranger in a strange land...

I've been out a few times over the last few weeks. Most of time has been spent trying to find good local waters; streams and/or ponds that I can visit when I have a free hour or two.

The Ipswich River is very close to my home and it receives a fair amount of press--both good and bad--from locals. Recent scouting trips have been underwhelming. The stream just doesn't seem to hold very high densities of fishes (at least in the upper sections). Now, I am not expecting ~500 trout/mile--in fact I am not really looking for trout per se--but I would like to find a wadeable stream/pond that holds decent numbers of centrarchids, esocids, and/or maybe a few sizable cyprinids (e.g., Semotilus and Cyprinus). I've landed a single Lepomis macrochirus and from the looks of things, the stream should hold Micropterus in abundance; where the latter are hiding is a mystery. And the lack of pickerel and minnows is a little more than disturbing...perhaps there are larger water quality issues here than I suspect.

The local pond in Breakheart Reservation is fishing well but has been invaded by weekend warriors. That latter is fine by me, but they set-up camp--with rod, bait bucket, and cooler--in most of the places where casting a fly rod is easy. And every time someone sees me fly fishing, I get that look like..."are you lost? you do know that trout aren't stocked here, right?" Really, I don't mind company while fishing, but two's company and three's a crowd...you know how the saying goes.

The carp flat in Lake Quannopowitt is also devoid of life. Holly and I spent the better part of an hour looking for Cyprinus carpio; we didn't see any. The lake used to have a reputation for holding large Esox niger, so I brought my 7 weight and a few trusty bait-fish patterns and made a few hundred casts in a very "pikey" looking cove...nada. We didn't see any centrarchids spawning in the shallows either; more of mysteries to consider.

Finally, I chose a overcast and windy day to head out to the Parker River. I launched the canoe at Thurlow street and paddled downstream to Crane Pond. I had heard stories of large pickerel and good populations of centrachids. That the stream is also stocked with trout, and might also have holdovers, was a plus.  Long story short, I managed to hook my first pickerel with fly rod, but lost the bugger at the gunnel. I managed to also catch a decent Perca flavescens and explored much of the pond and downs stream reaches (Hemlocks section) of the Parker. The fishing was really slow (no big surprise there, right?); the marsh and surrounding area reminded me of southern Louisiana.

Being in a new place should be exciting. A sense of adventure every time I head out to wet a line. I don't know what it is exactly, but I think I am a growing a little frustrated with the "newness". The poor quality of fishing near home and over crowding of decent spots is probably correlated with urbanization in Eastern Massachusetts. However, I lived smack-dab in the middle of New Orleans and had great freshwater and saltwater fishing 5 minutes from the house; go figure. My time is more limited now; my family is growing and I value spending time at home with my girls. I cant' and won't spend 2-3 days a week fishing, looking for those sweet spots. A lack of patience coupled with limited time makes for a unhappy me.

I am seriously considering heading to the coast and chasing Morone and Pomotamus on the fly; sound like a good idea? After all, the North Shore of Massachusetts has world-class fishing for these species. Gah, learning a new fishery can be a bitch... I see more "newness" in my future...

Time on the water, recently.

Holly and I have been out a few times in the last few weeks perfecting our new fly fishing/baby sitting method. To start, we upgraded from the BABYBJÖRN Comfort Carrier to a Kelty TC 2.0. The Kelty is much more comfortable and allows me more movement; I can now stoop over and pick pick up fish if needed. Casting is improved too, Holly is now behind me so her hands and feet no longer get "tangled" in the fly line. Overall, we are becoming quite the team and she routinely offers up an over-the-shoulder-high-five during our fishing sessions.

Kind of like Yoda on Luke's back?

We have spent most of our time chasing Micropterus and Lepomis on the local reservation pond (Breakheart Reservation). The banks are heavily wooded and I will admit that my roll-casts have gotten so much better. In addition to all of the centrarchids that we have managed to fool, I have seen two decent sized pickerel. I personally have never caught a pickerel by conventional means, this is definitely a species that I want to add my fly fishing list.

Pre-spawn Micropterus salmoides

Last week the Micropterus began spawning and the bite slowed considerably, however the larger Lepomis macrochirus invaded the shallows. We have had a blast with these pre-spawn Lepomis and have brought many to hand using flip-flop foam poppers and Jitterbees.

This nice male Lepomis machrochirus fell for a popper

Another male Lepomis machrochirus taken with a Jitterbee

Finally, Holly and I took the show on the road and did a little recon. The Ipswich River flows fairly close to home and it is stocked with trout in the spring and has a reputation for providing decent trout fishing through the summer. We found a park in North Reading, using Google Earth, that looked like it provided decent bank side fishing.

Micropterus dolomieu from the Ipswisch River

We didn't catch any trout but we did find a few small M. dolomieu and L. macrochirus willing to eat a small woolly bugger. These fish were found in a small backwater off the main channel along with a few Erimyzon and Notemigonus crysoleucas. 

Can't beat fishing (and catching) while also spending some quality time with my daughter. I am a lucky man!

Something old is something new

I am a newly minted father and my daughter, Holly, is now ten months old. She can't (really) walk yet and since I am mostly unemployed and provide most of the daycare, I've devised a method to baby-sit while fishing (brilliant, I know). 

It is a simple method really; she rides in the BABYBJÖRN Comfort Carrier and together we stalk the banks of local ponds and lakes looking for fish and fishy spots to cast. I get a lot of, "oooh that's so cute", and "is that your bait" from bystanders. I just grin, usually mumble an insult, and keep walking.


On our maiden voyage, we took a noon-day stroll around the local town lake which I had never fished before. The weather was (finally) nice and we were hoping to tempt a few early season centrarchids to bite.

Initially, we didn't see any sign of panfish, or much of anything really. This lake is fairly turbid, apparently due to a proliferation of suspended algae (Lake Quannapowitt). Since the lake is so shallow (e.g., avg. depth ~ 10') and it surrounded by so many, nicely groomed lawns (i.e., lots of fertilizer and  thus Nitrogen), moderate eutrophication is not surprising. 

Lake Quannapowitt looking North along the Carp flat

Anyway, we continued to walk and stalk, casting to fishy looking spots until up ahead, under the tree shown in the picture above, we saw a disturbance and what appeared to be a "fin" sticking out of the water...

...and this is where things started to get exciting.

Now, I lived in Louisiana for ~6 years and I spent a fair share of my time stalking benthic-oriented drum and sheepshead on mud bottomed flats. Disturbed water and fins sticking out of the water always indicated hungry and actively feeding fish.

This is, of course, a freshwater lake, so there a only a few freshwater species that might exhibit this behavior; I immediately thought carp and huddled down a bit so that I could get a closer to confirm my initial identification.

As I slowly approached my target, the broad, golden flank of Cyprinus carpio materialized in the murky water. Actually there were two carp feeding very close together and my heart beat a little faster.

I asked Holly, "you think they'll take a wooly bugger?"

Holly responded, "dahhh, doo, doo, bah, bah!"

"Yeah", I said, "I probably should switch to the Jitterbee, that water is pretty murky"

"Gah, Gah, yah, yah, hrmph" was the reply from Holly.

Based on the advice from my young gillie, I switched flies and checked my knots. Those fish were pushing 5 lbs.

"Dahh, dahh, dud, doo" Holly whispered.

"Yeah, yeah...I know, keep a low profile and put the fly about 2' in front of the closest fish", I replied quietly.

Sure enough, I put my first cast right in the sweet spot and the closest fish suddenly perked up and glided slowly over to the fly.

A very subtle twitch of the leader was all that was needed before I set the hook...

...exhilaration, now I'm solidly hooked to a surprised, and now very pissed-off, torpedo. Zing right, then left, accelerate straight out, and back. It was a good fight and after a few minutes, the beast allowed me to slide it near my feet on the bank. And this is the point at which my new method of baby sitting got a little complicated...

I could not bend over far enough to get a two-handed purchase on the fish; I had 18 lbs of "fishing guide" strapped to my chest. I also cursed myself for using 4X tippet, as the lip of the bank was to tall to slide the fish up on to the grass without breaking the line.

"So, what do you think Holly?"

"Gah, gah, daah, dahh, doo"

"Yeah, I should make a desperate, one-handed grab for the tail or maybe the operculum."

SNAP! the line broke as the fish surged away from my meaty paw, splashing both of us with murky water in indignation.

"Yahh, heee, heee, heee!!" screamed Holly in joy

"Twah, pftttt" I spat trying to get most of the algae stained water from my mouth.

"Well, that was fun...lets see if we can find any more "torpedos", I told my guide.

"Yah, Yah, Yah, Yah, hrmph" she replied excitedly.

South facing view of the Carp flat

We continued stalking and found a few more feeding carp. I hooked another nice fish of ~6 lbs, but lost it in similar fashion right at the bank; I think I might need to bring a long handled net.

The area that we were fishing is perfect for stalking carp. It is a shallow, broad, soft-to-hard bottomed flat that extends for several yards out into the lake. The area along the bank is a well groomed, flat lawn with safe and easy walking with your "guide". There are very few obstacles, besides joggers and dog walkers, to snag your backcast.

Even better, the carp population seems healthy and I saw few fish under 3 lbs. A return trip a few days later revealed even more carp but no takes since they were more interested in propagating the species than eating my imitations.

I love catching carp on the fly. I used to catch them with flies when I was a young child. When I lived in the Roanoke Valley (VA) I used to frequent a few urban ponds that were full of carp. When I was a guide, I would occasionally bring my clients, after a long day of trout fishing, to these ponds to hook and play 5+ lbs carp on 4 weight rods. It sometimes doubled my tip.

Besides discovering that my new method of baby sitting works (for the most part) I am super, duper excited about having a healthy population of unmolested carp (I have never see anyone fishing here) within 5 minutes of my door.

See, something old is something new....

...until you actually do some catchin'

Its been a while since I felt the pull of a fish; nearly 1.5 years if my calculations are correct. This year I have been hell-bent on returning to some normalcy of fishing, throwing caution to the wind for the first time since moving to New England and purchasing a fishing license prior to the (almost annual) trip to Maine.

Showing off my roll-casting skills to my wife and daughter

There's a pond not far from the house, located in a local reservation. We walk with the dogs and kid there year round. Its been ice-free for about a month now and while I was on a routine dog walk last week, I saw a pod or two fish swimming in a shallow, dark bottomed cove. I returned this week to see midges galore and dimples across the surface. And wouldn't you know, Micropterus can get all excited when teensy-weensy's are popping off! 

Mr Bucket-mouth in the flesh, objects may appear smaller...

I'd like to go into detail about how they were sipping crippled emerges and required near perfect 30' roll-casts....but I'd be telling a story. But hey, it beats fishin' and not catchin'. In addition to that fish breaking my fish-less slump, it also suggested that something "more toothy" might inhabit my local pond. The battle scars along its flank a pretty good sign that something Esox might be in my future...