Running Ape

The cape, where a place that has had live music in Saturday nights since the 50s or 60s still causes locals to write to the paper about how it is ruining the character of the Cape. This was five years ago and in Harwich I believe (think I read it on the real cape blog).

What a cape/Masshole thing to do...

The bag was my Dad’s. He gave it to me a few weeks ago it is great for boat fishing. My son likes to sit up front and read if the fishing is slow.

I’ve fly fished on and off for years. The only times I’ve stopped are due to shoulder injury, time constraints, or wind practicality. Having kids has greatly limited my time for fly fishing the last few years, so much of the time I’ve just used the 8’ surf rod out of convenience. In 2021 I have not picked up a spinning rod other than to hand it to a kid. At this point I can catch something decent from shore without too much effort on a spinning rod almost all the time. From boats and kayaks it is even better odds. Everything I want to know about spin fishing so feel like I know at this point, lures, lines, retrieves, etc. In addition, I’ve applied almost all of that knowledge and used it to catch fish. If it is too windy to cast, I will pick up the spinning rod. However, despite having fly fished since I was nine, there are tons of things I don’t know, for example dry fly fishing is totally foreign to me, I’ve caught a few tiny brookies and sunfish on dries. Other than casual schoolie, shad, and snapper blue fishing I’ve not caught much in the salt. This year I hope to add local bottom fish to the mix, try for weakfish and maybe some fast species. I’ve never caught a decent blue on a fly. Each time I hit a pond, fly fishing it feels new even if I’ve lure fished it dozens of times prior. Trout and smallmouth waters feel fresh and mysterious. Streams are places of great challenge to try stalking skills on spooky trout. Finally, flies are even deadlier than soft plastics. I catch fish in pressured city ponds with flies where I know I’d be lucky to get a single hit in plastic. Trout that ignore spinners on 4lb trash streamers on 2x.

I can’t remember if I posted these here or not but this cheap little skiff I built has provided lots of fun the las few weeks.

They are cool pets. My aunt lives on a lake which has quite a few. Much more personable than your average mute swan for example....

Hey get some trout magnet jigs and the old snapper blue rigs with the tear drop casting bubble and little crystal flash fly (or make one). Use a trout rod 6’-6’6” and 4 lb mono to get a good fight. Save up your time off for the early fall. Go drive jetty to jetty or beach to beach in August and September. Eventually you find massive schools of little jacks, needlefish, blue runners. Pm me in the right time of year and I may have some leads for you. Right now you might get some pollock and sculpins from socks on the south or north shore.

I believe the top one is a juvenile almaco Jack.

I’ve read some horrible things lately about long term effects of catching Covid, yet what is bothering me more is vaccine hesitation. There is so much resistance to getting vaccinated right now.

Mushrooming=Almost as much fun as hunting

Could make all kinds of innuendo laden cougar jokes right now-but won’t. I wish the state would find some trout with heat resistant genes like those from northern Mexico, southern Italy, etc.

Twelve months of fishing=madness, then eventual burnout.

Cool!

A combination of warmer water, otters, fishing pressure, cormorants, more pumping of ground water which lowers flow and raises temps, and nitrogen load all seem to be conspiring against us. Also the loss of Hemlocks due to adelgids are contributing to warmer trout streams. Fishing is cool/retro/trendy. Lots of folks have been out at it the last 5-10 years. I’m hoping it becomes uncool again shortly. I’ve taken up fly fishing after a 7 year (mostly) break, not one fish on a spinning rod this year. If I go warm water fishing I have the entire place to myself. Trout ponds tend to get crowded, even on weekdays. I fished a warm water pond Saturday, caught a dozen fish in 40 minutes. I missed at least as many. In two weeks the bass will be on surface flies. It’s an easy choice. That being said, stream trout have a special place in my heart, so after the stocky chasers are done, there will be some May and June pilgrimages to rivers where one can fish alone.

It literally is.