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Fishing 2020

JimG.

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I left NH for the first time in over 2 months today to open up my summer cottage on Cape Cod. Strolled to the end of the street to a schoolies striper fest. 12-24 inch fish were hitting anything on the surface. To bad it wasn't me, as I didn't have equipment ready. Tomorrow.

Same in LI sound my buddy Rich's boat went in yesterday and of course it's raining today.

Going to the NYC reservoirs tomorrow looking for black bass and walleye.
 

JimG.

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Went out in the rowboat on Sodom reservoir on 5/24. Got out at 1pm and fished areas close to the boat spot the first 2.5 hours. Landed 2 good sized smallmouths. Rowed back for Mike at 3:30 and we fished extensively until about 8pm. Mike landed a couple of smallmouths and about a dozen yellow perch. I landed 3 more 15" or so smallmouths but lost a big smallmouth at the small island late in the day. Fish went berserk on me and jumped and tail walked all over before getting off. That was one pissed off fish.
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I enjoy fishing for smallmouths more than most other fish. It's a fish with real attitude and great fight. That was a good first day of bass fishing for the year, better than most.
 

JimG.

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Back out on 6/8 fishing for bass on the reservoir. Largemouths were active and biting at a variety of plastic worms and crankbaits.

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Smallmouths were another matter. Starting the bass season with a typically picky attitude. Fished the mounds in the eastern cove and hooked 2 smallies both of which barely took the lure and then got off. Then that deep water pattern shut down and the smallmouths stopped biting. As the sun started to lose intensity at about 6:30 I spotted the surface action picking up. At the small island the smallmouth surface action got almost ridiculous as they were rising everywhere. But I couldn't hook the fish, they weren't really biting at the lure just kind of attacking it without biting. Exciting and very frustrating. Twice I threw casts that landed on the water followed closely by smallmouths launching out of the water without even moving towards the lure. Never did land one.

That behavior will stop as the weather warms up more.
 

JimG.

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6/12 first day out this season on Rye Lake. Steve and I caught some perfect weather and good bass fishing. Smallmouths were aggressive with the warmer weather, so aggressive you had to hook them as soon as they took the worm or they would swallow the hook. Caught a few nice largemouths as well. Nothing really big, so no pics. But it was a fun day with constant fish action and good overall numbers. The two of us together must have boated 35-40 bass.

Heading out in the morning tomorrow with Mike on the EB.
 

JimG.

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6/14 on the EB with Mike. A very similar day to Friday but at least 10 degrees cooler. And that did not help the bass fishing. But the white and yellow perch were biting so we did have some action. I also managed to boat the only bass of the day, a very nice 4 lbs. smallmouth:

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We fished the 6:30am to noon slot and I would not be surprised if the afternoon fishing was better as it got warmer. Summer is upon us.
 

JimG.

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6/19 EB solo. Sunny and warm. Constant and gusty S-SE wind. Caught 1 13" largemouth and an almost impossibly small 3" sunny. S-SE wind just no good for fishing the EB efficiently. A lot of good rowing work. Only good thing about that wind is that it blew me directly back to the boat spot at the end of my day at 8.

I made a large positive deposit into the good fishing karma bank yesterday that will pay off at some future date.
 

JimG.

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6/26-RL with Steve. A duplicate of our trip 2 weeks ago, good action and about 35 fish boated between the two of us.

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The troll home
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7/5-EB solo. A carbon copy of my trip 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately. 1 small largemouth and 1 sunny boated. Hot, sunny, and still. I think there is a measure of organic pollution affecting the EB this time of the year. There are housing subdivisions upstream of the mouth of the East Branch entering the reservoir. Those folks love their green lawns and chemical fertilizers. All of which runs off into the river/res. The water in the EB is green in color and full of muck on the surface. Bad for fishing. We need a lot more rain to help dilute that problem.
 

180

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actually rain exasperates the runoff from the homes. We find on our lake the the less rain the better the water as everything settles
 

JimG.

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actually rain exasperates the runoff from the homes. We find on our lake the the less rain the better the water as everything settles

I see what you're saying. There are two other small creeks that feed the reservoir where there is no development. The real problem is that the East Branch is a NYC reservoir and not one of the bigger ones so its' level fluctuates often. It has been dropping rapidly in the last month. Without rain it drops even faster exacerbating the problem. And while heavy rain probably does increase the runoff from the main river those other creeks make up for that and more with fertilizer free runoff.
 

JimG.

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7/17-RL with Steve.

Weird day. Cloudy and cool all morning and early afternoon. Cloudy the whole ride down to Rye Lake. Blazing sun and heat the second we put the boat in the water. Blazing sun and heat the whole time we fish up until about 8:00. I make the comment that since the clouds screwed us by disappearing while we fished we should head back in because those clouds will come back to rain on us. We get back to the boat spot and the drizzle begins. I closed my trunk and got into my car just as the downpour was unleashed followed by lightening and thunder. Always an adventure.

We did OK and caught some bass so it was a good trip. Tough to sit in the sun and heat. Time to spend some early morning time fishing.
 

JimG.

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Nice largemouth.

I know there are nice ones in Kirk lake, good deep water near your property too.
 

JimG.

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7/24-RL with Steve and Mike. 10 degrees cooler and much more comfortable.

We each caught at least a half dozen bass. Mostly 12" and smaller. Biggest of the day was about 16". Fishing was a lot like my last 2 trips to Rye lake. The brutally hot July weather has really warmed the water up, driving bigger fish deep. Now you have to get your lure through the smaller fish down there too. The next 3 day blowtorch isn't going to help.

Targeting midweek for a 5:00am trip. See if that helps activate the big boys.
 
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fullsend7

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So since ski season 19-20 got shut down I decided to do some wading and fishing on 3/21. After passing the main parking area which was packed and seeing fly fishermen fishing shoulder to shoulder near the spillway of the East Branch in the bathtub I drove to my more secluded spot at Brady's bend. Nobody there. Parked and wadered up. Had to bushwack downstream to my favorite pool there has been no trimming of pathways yet so it was more like bramble busting and getting to the water required planning.
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Once I got in to the pool I had targeted it had of course changed over the winter with many snags and logs moved around. My favorite cast was very difficult to line up with a fallen tree guarding the shoreline area I was aiming at. So of course I lost a spinner snagging it on the tree. There are few spots to wade out to the best casts; most of this pool is very deep.
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This is downstream from the pool. I casted and casted a variety of spinners and Rapalas and didn't get a bite. Nothing has been stocked yet but I was glad for that because if I had gotten a bite it would probably have been a nice fish. Anyway after 3 hours I worked my way back to my pool. And of course I had to push it lining that cast up. I kept walking out towards the center of the pool on a spit of hard bottom...and my next step was into mud quicksand and I was in up to my knees in a flash. So without hesitation I became a swimmer and was lucky that enough of my torso was above water still and my buoyancy popped my legs out from the mud and I swam to shore.
My neoprene waders are tight so very little water got in and my legs, upper torso and in fact my waders were still dry. But my arms and shoulders got soaked and man that water was COLD. Thusly my fishing day ended.

Always an adventure and I had a great time.

Nice spot! I've always found the best fishing holes are the hardest ones to get to. I also kind of like it when I have to do some hiking and bushwacking just to get to my spot. Makes it more of an adventure that way. And yeah, if you're gonna attempt to fish in March, you can pretty much be guaranteed that the water is gonna be cold. Looks like a fun day!
 

JimG.

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8/15-EB with Karl. Took a few weeks off to get away from the heat wave. Today was very pleasant and a great day to be out on the lake.

But the fishing was exactly the same as my last few trips to the EB or RL. We each caught a few fish and we each caught a few bass among those fish but nothing of good size. Biggest bass was about 14". So I'm glad I took the break (we were busy getting my youngest son ready to go off to college anyway) from fishing because I didn't miss anything.

Glad to get out again and hoping the fishing picks up as we head towards Fall.
 

JimG.

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fishing has been crap lately.....

Hot and dry...not a good combo for fishing.

The fish are there but down deep; makes it tough to zero in on bigger fish.

My plan to get a pedal kayak and make hay on Sylvan Lake went by the wayside this year because of the pandemic. People have been crowding into Sylvan Lake every day; parking lot more crowded than I've ever seen and the lake is filthy with rowboats, kayaks, and paddleboards. People are even showing up early am to snag a spot. The pedal kayak was going to get me away from crowds. Guess not, at least not this summer.
 

JimG.

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8/19-RL with Steve.

Beautiful Wednesday to be out fishing. Sunny with some clouds and high 70's. The res is full. Weedbeds in full bloom. Went straight to the buoy at the first weedbed maze. I caught 2 smallmouths in the first 15 minutes both surface hits on the Big-O. Steve hooked a largemouth on the worm. Good start.

We spent the afternoon and evening rowing from one weedbed to the next. There were a few bass at every one mostly on the deep water side. Nothing huge all 12-16". After the 2 quick surface hits the Big-O stopped working so I switched to the worm. We caught and hooked a lot of fish. The best part of the trip was at sunset. We went back to the first weedbeds we fished and the action was stellar until dark. Bass were really moving in from the depths to hunt the weeds. Caught fish right back to the boat spot. First good after dark action of the season.

Hope the good fishing continues now looking forward to September.
 

Richard Lineback

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Hi there!
Hope in a month or so to head off to Spain. Last year I had a great time in Benidorm. I really hope that this year despite all these circumstances my friends and will be able to visit the Costa Blanca area. They say that fishing there is second to none. Moreover great renting conditions (I am talking about awesome value for money offers https://virtoproperty.com/info/renting-property-in-spain) are one more advantage to head off to Benidorm. Will gladly check it :)
 
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JimG.

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8/28-RL with Steve.

As a change of pace we got on to the water and the weather was clear and sunny but it clouded up about 45 minutes after we pushed off. As soon as the clouds appeared the fishing went nuts. In the next 3 hours I caught a bass every fifth cast or so. Nothing bigger than 16" but amazing sustained action. Then at about 7:00 the clouds thickened foreshadowing the approaching storms from the SW. At that point the fishing turned off like a spigot. The pressure gradient that was developing messes up the fish and they stop biting.

So we headed back to the boat spot and performed another miraculous escape from downpours. We were on the road at 8:00 in the midst of sheets of rain. We're getting pretty good at that.
 
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