Boston
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Region

June 18th, 2004

Good Trips Gone Bad

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It occurs to me that over the years, I've probably experienced just about every possible means of screwing up a fishing trip. From literally dropping a boat off a trailer while doing 70 mph down the highway, to getting my the index finger on my stripping hand smashed in a door on the first day of a weeklong trip to Florida. I've gone on trips with guys who really only wanted to drink rum and play poker (or chase strippers, not stripers...) and I've seen guides that ought to have been institutionalized.

Now I've got nothing against rum, in fact, some might say it's made me the man I am today. But let's face facts, some people have different priorities. For me, fishing comes first. I'll also admit to having had no end of fun with hungover buddies, especially when I used to tuna fish (hey buddy, time to cut up some more chunk bait). That said, I'd rather not hear about the hangover. Whining should stop at the dock, and better yet, at the door of the house, before you get in the car with me.

So what other ways can you screw up a trip? Here's a list of just a few...

• Leave the crank handle for the trailer winch in the garage. It's always fun cranking the boat on the trailer with vice grips.
• Stick your fully assembled fly rod in your backpack as you hike down to Gay Head, so it sticks up 7'over your head. Forget to duck under trees. If two pieces is good, then three must be better.
• Leave everything on the roof of the car and drive off...rod, reel and fly vest (okay, I haven't done this one, but watch the forums, we get 4 or more posts a year about guys looking for their gear).
• Try taking along a wife/girlfriend/etc. who really has no interest in fishing. It's a nice varient to the kids constant refrain of "are we there yet?" - "Can we go yet?"
• Even worse...take along a buddies wife who has no interest in fishing. As I said before, whining should stop at the dock.
• Forget to wear sunscreen on the first day of a weeklong trip. That purple-ish, rare steak color looks really good in the photos later. Plus the memory of the pain and sleepless nights, and days spent huddling in a corner of some motel room will last for years.
• As the old line in Cannonball Run goes, "What's behind me does not matter." But in fly fishing, you've generally got a guide, a buddy or worse, your wife, standing in the boat behind you. You have not lived until you've had to remove a hook from your wife or girlfriend. Trust me.
• Running out of gas, in the tow vehicle, or worse in the boat. Boat fuel guages are notorious for not working well, if at all. Also, many of us forget that the last 1/4 tank of fuel probably won't come smoothly out of the tank in any kind of sea at all. In the truck, you may forget that you're not going to get the same gas mileage you'd normally get. Hence, that one tank trip often takes 1.5 tanks. If you don't watch the guage, you're in for an interesting time at the side of the road.
• Spend a boatload of money traveling a long way away and don't bother hiring a guide for a couple hundred bucks. After all, who'd want to ruin a fishing trip by actually catching fish?
• Sleep late and quit early. Even worse, don't go out at all. Let's face it, if you aren't out fishing, you might as well be working.

There are oh so many other ways. I've started a thread on the RT New England Forum where you can share yours. In fact, I think that I could probably do a list of 10 different ways for every week for the rest of the season.

Did I tell you about the time I showed up at the trout stream and found I had left my reel bag at the house?

On to the reports...

Don't forget to send me your own reports, and until next week...

Tight Lines!

Mark Cahill

Boston Harbor

Capt. Wayne Frieden of Reel Dream Charters reports:

June 17, 2004: Fished the incoming tide last evening and found swirling bass feeding on what might be crab larvae or a worm hatch. Very difficult to get the fish to eat a soft plastic bait although we had many follows and some strikes.

This morning I had the pleasure of taking Kevin McGrath from Atlanta out fly fishing for stripers for only his second time. It was a warm and beautiful morning with no wind to speak of. Just about everywhere we stopped we found small pods of bass under sporadic bird action that lasted only moments. Again we found bass swirling around in the bay but only managed one small fish before they literally disappeared. Best action was fishing a rip off one of the islands and a flat near the airport. Kevin took a handful of fish up to 28" on an 8 wt. using a chartreuse/white and grey/lavender half & half's and had a great time doing it!

June 14, 2004: John Austin, his 6 year old son Jake, and John's friend Rhey Plumley joined me for a two day fishing charter this past weekend. The weather was fantastic but the fishing still remained on the slow side. Both John and Rhey chose to fly fish while young Jake was a pro with the spinning rod. In fact, Jake outfished his Dad and Rhey on Saturday morning. Rhey managed to fool a beautiful 14# linesider on a lavendar and gray half & half on the same morning. John just about equaled Rhey's fish on Sunday with the very same fly! Although the quantity of fish caught and released was down, the quality was unsurpassed.

Dryfly had this report from his Wed. night trip:

Boston Harbor 6/16 pm 6/17 am

Hit the Graves first, east wind made it difficult so left there, anchored up at Deer Island and fished the rip for a bit, buddy hit one but broke off, nothing else doing, nobody else catching, moved inside to the river mouths and finally found some fish, broke off a fish whose head i could not turn or lift, probably juding by the leader got chafed on some bottom structure, other fish seemed to wait until the the fly was right at the boat to hit, unexpected strikes resulted in 4 lost fish for 2 of us, eventually put one mid-20 incher in the boat before calling it a night.
Hit the harbor @ 4:30 this am, no fish where we found them last night, nothing showing off logan, out to the roaring bulls to fish the rocks on a not preferred dead low tide, had one striper follow fly to the boat and just sort of hang around after that but not interested in eating. nothing else there or deer island till 7:15 when headed home.
All in all Boston Harbor continues to be frustrating. the fish are there however they do not seem interested in chasing a fly. hopefully the dropbacks will get out of the rivers soon in bulk and start things popping again.

Slappy reports:

6/16 Haba--fish moving again

Despite fishing this morning I am already at my desk "working."
It was pre-dawn harbor shore fishing. I just had to fish to the low tide--I love those sunrise lows. When I first arrived the current was moving and the fish were active. 7 of 11 fish were legal size, with two 36" fish--overall the legals were bigger than the usual 28"-30" that us shorebound anglers usually get. There was a considerable amount of bait moving around--schools of herring feeding (not being chased). Only a couple of fish seen chasing bait (of course, since it was dark, I may have missed a lot). Fish came on big plastics and 1 on the fly (8" herring pattern, spinning rod).

The fish were much more active than last week, we should be heading for a good weekend of fishing!

South Shore

The word on the south shore is things have slowed down.  Still some nice fish around, but you're going to be working harder for them.  Bluefish have moved in off the beaches, so you should be able to find some nice daylight activity.  I think the stripers have moved into their summer pattern.  Early mornings, evenings on the water, spend the day with the kids, working, etc.  The rocks of Cohasset are picking up, with decent catches of schoolies.  Gotta figure there will be some bigger fish in there as well.

Edsly42 had this report:

North River Mouth

I fished the mouth tonight. Last 1.5 of low first 1.5 hr of rising. Thousands of small 1-1 1/2" sandeels, clouds of em with splashes but couldnt get hits til the tide turned around. Once it started to come back in it was fast action w/ fish to the mid 20" range. strinpers splashing everywhere terns diving mostly on tiny sandeels. Did see a tightly packed school of what looked like sandeels but twice as big as the other ones in a circle in shallow further into one of the shallow basins but didnt see any stripers on them. There is a ton of small bait out there now.
ed

Bassbuster reports:

Fishing Report 6/12, 6/13

Fished Duxbury Bay Sat. morning with my second oldest (6) managed 1 bite and 1 fish, just barely keeper at the bottom on the channel in 3hrs. Had my second oldest with me a he did a great job bringing in a chunky 30 incher which he decided to let go to get bigger for next week. Weather men a little off on the 5-10 N wind as it was howling.
Ran across the bay, close to the Path early Sunday where fish had been previously, yet finnicky. Left dock @ 05:30, w/my brothers cell phone firmly deposited in the drink while boarding. Long run was beginning to be questioned while approaching the spot to find it all to ourselves. We were hoping for top water action instead of jigs and bunker spoons, when the place lit up with big slaps of quality stripers (all keeperr size and larger) then later med to big blues. Switched to poppers and consistent action for 1 1/2 hrs. It was great having the fish all to ourselves for a couple of hours. They weren't to picky on color, yellow/green, blue / gray and red/white all produced, with R&W and bigger tin taking the largest. It was awsome to see 6 to 7 big stripers racing to get to the lure first. Once they went down we trolled over at Billingsgate a couple of passes for one keeper in the Fleet before calling it a morning.
Two great days on the water, one with fish and one with one of my fishing buddies. 

North Shore

The Parker/Essex River is fishing well with more keeper fish coming. The macks off Gloucester have headed north north. Some of the nice stripers that were chasing them are still around, though.

The Merrimack River

Capt. Charles Crue from Channel Edge Charters reports: