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isleomaniac

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  • About Me:
    Worm Hatch Inspector
  • Interests (Hobbies, favorite activities, etc.):
    fishing, diving, surfing, writing
  • What I do for a living:
    Retired

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  • Location
    Cape Cod

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  1. For white perch 3 or 4wt, and a shrimp fly, or orange explosion worm fly. Warm evenings, late 20 minutes before sunset in brackish salt ponds.
  2. Redington and Sage are now owned by Far Bank Enterprises. I contacted them by email and so they sent to me at no charge: two reel foot screws, and a replacement spool cap. I have used the reel once since I put it back together with red thread lock, and it stayed tight, nothing came loose.
  3. Here is a recipe for your fresh tomatoes: Millionaires bacon deluxe BLT Sprinkle garlic and onion powder on your sandwich bread to turn it into toasted garlic bread. Maybe add a slice of swiss or a sprinkle of parmesan cheese if you like. Spread some mashed sweet potato across the bread. Perhaps a slather of mayo next. Sprinkle some brown sugar on the bacon and drizzle some maple syrup across that. Put your $$$ bacon in there and close it up. Make a side dish of sliced cucumber and tomatoes with your favorite salad dressing. Coat your salad with parmesan cheese. Perhaps a few golden raisins for garnish and extra flavor. Desert: Homeade key lime pie or your favorite.
  4. Here is what I did for a no-cost DIY repair. Rummaged through my box of broken fly reels and pulled out a Pflueger and a Redington CD, and was able to remove 3 screws that did not come out easy. I had to heat up the reel foot with a torch a number of times before they would budge. I can't believe that the one screw that I was able to remove from the Pflueger actually fit, plus it was stainless steel. So, I used red thread locker in the hole and on the threads of the screws and put everything back together. I used the stainless screw for under the spool cap, without thread lock. It will be interesting to see how it holds up.
  5. Sorry, bad advice on my last post. If your screws are tight, leave them alone. Best not to monkey around there unless you actually have one loosen up on you like I did. On my next outing those screws loosened up on me pretty quickly, and like a dummy I kept using it until I lost one, and it dropped into the water. I will try to get a couple of replacement screws from Far Bank who now owns Redington etc. If I am able to do that, I will use a thread locker to keep them from loosening up again. Thread lock comes in blue or red. I think I will use the red so they will never loosen up again. That happened on the 7/8 reel, the other two reels, are 5/6, and they are tight. If I can't get replacement screws, I will be getting a new 7/8 reel, but not another Behemoth.
  6. Another issue to look out for on Behemoth reels. You might find that the reel might eventually start to loosen from the reel foot and wobble. To make the reel last longer, take the reel apart and remove the two screws each season or two, clean the threads on the screw and hole, and coat with an anti-corrosion oil, (I use ReelX). If one or both of the screws are corroded and you can't remove them, be careful not to strip the phillips head. You can apply gentle heat/tiny flame to the bottom and sides of the foot around the screw hole, and treat with penetrating oil to help free them up. Not sure if you can find replacement screws? If you do strip one and are able to eventually remove it, and after cleaning the threads, put it back in the foot and use a coping saw with a fine metal cutting blade, and carefully make a groove for a regular screwdriver. Then put it all back together. The screw under the cap is the same size. What I did was put the 2 good phillips heads back in the foot, and use the stripped/revamped screw for under the cap. I lost my cap, and so made one from an appropriate sized length of black washing machine hose, and capped that with a washer and screw, (sink faucet parts) and epoxied that into the top of the hose. The hose slides over the original cap threads.
  7. Mink? We now have minks on Cape Cod.
  8. I am wondering if the bass when they slowly died of some other cause and regurgitated worms, and that may be how the worms ended up in their gills? My second batch of hatches started May 6 thru May 9. I first noticed kills on 5/13, seems like they were older than one week, more like two weeks or more. The other question I might pose: that if the pollutants are on the bottom and settled in the mud, and that is where the worms live, would the worms then become toxic?
  9. Any accurate dates for the when the fish kills were first seen? That might offer some clues to help narrow down what actually happened.
  10. I measured 70° water temps in the backwaters on 4/14, and 4/15. On 4/29, and 4/30 we had over an inch of rain, and the normally green algae infested water had turned black on 5/1, and water temps dropped to 62°. By the time the officials took water samples later in May, well after the fish kills, any trace of algae blooms/low oxygen could have cleared up? Could not find rainfall records for mid-April. Just my 2 cents worth to add to the discussion. Also, the fish kills that I saw were in major waterfront over development salt ponds. I did not see any sign of fish kills in clean, clear water in undeveloped, (not one house), salt ponds.
  11. 5/16/23 Worm hatch #15: Today's outing was also windy, but it didn't seem to be as strong as yesterday. Probably because I was dressed in windbreakers, with waders and a raincoat, covered up from head to toe. The worms began to appear a 6:30 again, and the first swirls began at 6:45. There were fewer worms today, so the hookups came easily, as more stripers came in to join the last supper. The new splice I put in this morning to repair my broken fly line held up, and this evening turned out to be my best, with an 11 fish outing. The hatch at this spot lasted for 4 days, and helped to salvage my season in which I didn't do very well, with a total of only 41 fish, compared to last years total of 149. I made a couple of errors this season, and the weather and start times threw me a couple of curves and strike outs. However, after today's outing, I feel happy and satisfied. This might be my last worm adventure this year, so I will leave you with this note: "Follow your rainbow, the sun is a pot of gold, and the elusive worm hatch is sometimes an attainable goal." Woody Mills
  12. 5/15/23 Worm Hatch #14: Today it was windy with a cloud cover in the late afternoon, and the gulls were swooping and diving over the cove looking for something and so was I. I had arrived early today so I wouldn't miss anything, and to perhaps get first crack at the very first swirls, when the bass would most likely be in the mood to eat. So, after a picnic dinner with an open view across the salt pond, I was able to keep and eye on things from my car. I took a water temperature to find it at 66° and the gulls seemed to now be picking off early worms at the surface? So, I put my waders on which would help as a windbreaker to get ready just in case. I saw the first worm at 5:40, so that was a good sign. I sat down on a boat and waited patiently in the lee of the bluff, with the scent of wild black cherry blossoms to keep me company. I went back and forth between two coves, now checking each one every 15 minutes. Finally, it was 6:30, which is the usual start time for this location. It was now or never, so I headed over to the point where the gulls were active, and sure enough, stripers were just starting to swirl. However, I would be casting into the teeth of a 25mph SW wind, and yes hatches do happen on a windy day. I cast as far as I could in between gusts with my 9wt and began getting solid hookups. In an hour, I was able to catch the usual 6 fish even in the wind. The 6th one was about 28 inches, since I landed it near one of the fish kills, I composed a picture with one dead, and one alive to be set free quickly. While fussing with my fly line it broke easily, so I was lucky to land that one. I had a spare 8wt rod with a spliced fly line, lets see if that would hold up on the 7th fish? Nope! Well, now I know that I need two new fly lines. Very happy with this invigorating outing. By then it was 8pm, so I headed back to the car and glad to finally get out of the wind. It is getting near the end of my hatch season, and I will try for at least one more tomorrow.
  13. 5/14/23 Worm Hatch #13: Todays hatch was already in progress when I arrived at the cove at 5:30. I had only put in 15 minutes of casting when things tapered off and the fish disappeared except for a few stragglers which had lockjaw. On the way back to the car, I found another major hatch going on in the next cove, with good numbers of fish that also were not in the mood to hit. I got lucky and was at least able to catch one fish. There have been reports in my area of major fish kills. I saw evidence of that today, and counted 10 dead stripers in a small area. Multiply that over the whole salt pond, plus the many estuaries on the south side of the Cape where eutrophication levels are unacceptable, and we have a major problem. The same thing has taken place over the last couple of seasons, and does not bode well for the future. For more information on the subject go to: https://capecodwaters.org/overview/
  14. 5/13/23 Worm Hatch #12: If my calculations were right, I expected to find a hatch today at 6:30, but arrived a little early just in case. I walked over to a cove to check the water temperature, and saw a flock of gulls on the water, a good sign, and sure enough, a couple of fish were just starting to swirl at 5:45. This spot was happening 9 days sooner than the previous year. If I had gone by dates, I would have missed it. As I was starting to cast towards swirling stripers, two noisy young guys in kayaks were heading toward me, and as they got closer, I hooked into my first fish that made a big splash. So, I went into a feign-nothing-on mode, and pointed my rod toward the water so they wouldn't see a bend in it. They passed right by swirling fish, and as they passed by me on the point, they asked me if I was catching anything? I just shook my head no, while still gently playing a good-sized fish. I worked the fish to the opposite side of the point so they wouldn't see me land it, a nice thick 26-inch fish. The lead loud-mouth yelled to his buddy that the stripers were sure to be way out deeper near the other side of the pond, and thankfully they headed away. I repositioned myself behind a high spot on the point, so they couldn't see me catching and landing fish. I landed and released 6 fish in an hour, by then the swirls started to taper off. As I had number 7 on, the kayakers were heading back yelling and screaming the whole way, but none-the-wiser about what I had lucked into. This was an easy and most excellent outing with some nice sized fly rod fish from 25 to 27 inches, with no one else around.
  15. Well, I didn't score yesterday, but my wife Ellie May Clampit sure did, taking out the varmints with a bb gun.
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