Daytime Bat

    A week and a half ago while carp fishing a Little Brown Bat came flying by and landed on the trunk of a tree right near us. It was mid-day but it was active. It made a great photographic opportunity. Hopefully it was not sick or if it was, it recovered

Don't take it for granted

This week I had a death in the family. One of my first cousins left us. To keep the privacy of my family, I won’t mention his name or get into specifics about his job. He was only 48 years old. He didn’t drink much, didn’t smoke and wasn’t overweight. As far as anyone knew, he didn’t have any medical conditions. He also had a medical degree. As you can imagine, his passing was a complete surprise to our entire family.

My cousin was extremely smart. He was very funny and had a great personality. He was caring, a great son, and a family man. He wrote a couple of books and loved to travel. We were not close. He lived in Lexington, MA, a town I visit on occasion because of the Revolutionary War history. Because of our mutual respect for history and the outdoors we should have been closer. He had qualities that I very much respect. He was very passionate about many things. As passionate as I am about fishing, he was about family history. Another quality that I appreciate was his lust for knowledge. He always learning and researching new things. His passing is certainly my loss as I could have learned and shared many stories from him.

I am happy to say he enjoyed life. He had a very successful career. He was smart and enjoyed living. He and his wife took a trip to Europe last year. They travelled quite a bit and went to Red Sox games. There is never anything good coming from a loss of a relative, but at least his family can take comfort in that he had a very happy life.

This of course made everyone in our family  question our own mortality. If death could happen to what we considered the brightest, most successful clean living one of us, who also happened to be in the medical field, then what does it say for everyone else. The common theme at the wake was “enjoy it now because you never know when your time is up”

Probably because my mom died so young, I have lived by the code for most of my life. I don’t abuse my body (smoke, drugs, or excessive drinking), however I don’t exercise as much as I should. I do try to enjoy everyday. I try not to sweat the small stuff and realize I can’t change the big stuff.

What I have always tried to do from a young age is to “live in the moment”. As I have said before, if I fish five days in a row, I don’t take them for granted. I fish so much because it is what I love to do. I don’t want to be in a senior center someday saying “ I loved being outside, why didn’t I do it more often”  I assume I will have regrets just like everyone else, I just want them to be small ones I can live with.

When I went on the big trip in 2010, I managed to fit 6 of the ten places I most want to visit on m

My best friend and I at the Grand Canyon

y bucket list on that trip. It was sort of irresponsible to go for almost two months. I was out of work and maybe the mature thing was to keep the money in the bank. I absolutely don’t regret going. The scenery and the animals were memories I will have branded in my memory (and on cd) for the rest of my life. DJ was fourteen. That is the perfect age to remember everything, but also strong enough to carry a backpack, hike ten miles, and still consider your dad your best friend. We had the best time ever.

I have realized I will never be rich. I work hard at my job, but I am not career oriented. I certainly “work to live”, not “live to work”. I am at peace with this. I spend a chunk of my workday (while washing windows or other mundane parts of my job) deciding where I will fish after work. I also blow a decent percentage of my paycheck on gas driving to fishing destinations. So if you come visit me at my house and you see the rip in the carpet at the front door, you will know that my carpet was not replaced because I used the money to go fly fishing in New Hampshire the week before.

This leads me to my other four spots on my travel bucket list (along with other new places I want to visit). I may never get to them. Because of fishing (and driving) every day, I am not saving as much of my disposable income as I probably should. Whenever I feel the need to get away, I go to New Hampshire for the weekend. So I accept that if I don’t get to Glacier National Park it is my own fault. I choose to fish everyday instead of being bored for a year to have a one week fantastic vacation.  Again, no regrets.

When I die, I want people to smile when they hear my passing. I want the first thing they think of to be “he loved his life”. I want them to remember how much we laughed. I want them to know my son was the most important person to be in my life. I want them to know I loved my parents very much. Instead of dwelling on their passing, I can smile about the good times and great childhhood.

There is no doubt that people will say “he loved to fish”. This is true of course. When they wonder why I would fish almost every day, try to understand that sitting in the house on a nice day feels like a complete waste of time to me. I can sit for hours and not catch a carp, but put me on my couch for ten minutes on a seventy degree day and I will get up and start pacing like a caged animal.  

I love the outdoors. I want it protected. If I had my way we would have another twenty national parks. I know people will talk about how much I love New Hampshire. They will talk about my love of hiking. Hopefully there will be a chuckle by those that cannot understand why I would rather sleep in a two person tent than a king size bed (absolutely true; if I win the lottery I will travel for weeks at a time, but I doubt I will ever see the inside of a motel room unless I’m with someone that insists)

So as you can see by the 1112 words so far, I have been thinking a lot about death because of my cousin. If I die tomorrow, then just smile for me. I have lived life to the fullest and have no regrets. If I live another forty years, I hope to make everyday as enjoyable and positive as I can.

There are two things we can all learn from my cousin even if you never met him:

1.      You never know when your time is up.

2.      Have as much fun as you can, ENJOY LIFE

 p.s.

The other four places on my bucket list:

Yosemite/ giant Sequoias

             The National Park on St Johns, Virgin Islands
             Glacier National Park
             San Juan Islands, Washington

 

p.s.s.

I will be seeing the inside of a motel room the second week of June since Laurie and I will be visiting Niagara Falls for five days.

 

Big Carpin' and a little Toggin'

22 pound carp

Thursday:

I went carp fishing with a friend of mine Thursday at a good spot for big mirror carp (where I got my 26 pounder). The sun was out and we didn’t know what to expect from the carp. We both knew there were lots of carp in the area, but that does not guarantee they will hit. We arrived at about 9:45. By ten o’clock I had my first runner. It was a twenty two pounder. We thought we might be in for a great day. Then the rods went silent for the next two hours.

After that we had a little rush of three carp in 90 minutes (that is hot and heavy in the carp fishing world). I caught another fish that weighed about 16 pounds.

Dave also got a sixteen pounder. However his other fish was much bigger. When he hooked it, he thought he had a good fish. Then seeing it in the water he thought low 20’s. Then it breached the surface and it looked like a gold finback whale. When he got it in, it weighed 28 pounds. That is the largest carp I have ever had the pleasure to net. We took a bunch of pictures with his new camera lens. They are the best carp fishing photos I have ever taken. I felt lucky to capture the moment of such a beautiful fish with such a nice camera.

He didn’t get any more hits after that. We fished for almost four hours. The number of fish caught was low, but I got my third twenty pound mirror in a week and Dave caught a 28 pounder, so, it sure as hell was a successful outing.

Friday:

I woke up without a plan. That is usually a bad thing since I usually mope around and waste time until I figure out something to do. That is exactly what I did. I got up about 7:30, ate breakfast and

First tautog

brushed my teeth…Then I went back to bed to “brainstorm” about what to do. About 9:30 I got up and at least started getting ready. I packed a lunch and was about to put the kayak on the car but saw the wind picking up so nixed that idea.

I put my carp gear back in the car and looked for my trout gear. I couldn’t find my trout tackle box, so I crossed that idea off the list.

I checked the tide and high was about 2 pm. So I put my 8 foot surf rod in the car and decided to try for a tautog. Catching a tatoug is on my “to do” list for 2013. I’m pretty sure I had never caught one. Most saltwater fishermen start by bottom fishing. I’ve only used chunks a couple times. As for using sea worms I think the last time I did that, I was under 14 years old. (I have used squid for scup a few times though) So for a lot of people catching tautog might be easy. For me it was a new challenge.

I bought some sea worms at Quaker Lane. They said the worms would be more effective this time of

Bait stealing choggie

year than crabs. I told them I was going to Beavertail and they said that was a good choice. At Beavertail I went down to the water and casted. As Beavertail goes, it wasn’t too rough, but the waves were still cresting in places at five feet. It wasn’t impossible to get near the water, but it was tough. After a half hour I went to Fort Wetherhill, where I knew it would be much calmer.

I casted out and repeatedly got my bait stripped off the hook. If I casted way out into the channel, I wouldn’t get anything. If I casted close, I didn’t get anything. In the middle area from forty feet to a hundred feet, by the time the bait hit the bottom it was gone.

Finally, I got lucky and set the hook and something actually pulled back. After a spirited fight, I landed a 14 inch tautog. I took some pics and let it go. Thinking that all these misses were small tautog, I went up to my car and got some size 6 freshwater hooks. I put one on with a piece of seaworm. With the smaller hook, I did catch fish. Unfortunately, they were not tautog but 4-6 inch choggies. They turned out to be the bait stealers. After half a dozen choggies, I was done. Theres nothing more boring than reeling in a four inch fish on a surf rod.

I’m pumped I got a tautog. I have no idea how it got to the seaworm before all those choggies. Tautog fight like hell. I can’t believe how much fight a 2 pound fish can give on a surf rod.  When I got it in, there was excitement and relief. I’m glad I can cross it off my “to do” list. I will probably fish for them after work today to finish up my sea worms. After that, I won’t be going back in the foreseeable future. If I had someone who knew what they were doing to go with, and they knew a consistent spot without choggies, I’d be in. However if I’m going to bottom fish alone, at least for now, it’s going to be for carp. Maybe this summer I’ll give them another shot 

With teeth like these, its a good thing they don't get very big

Another twenty pound mirror falls for my bait

I have been carp fishing a lot this week. Catching a personal best has gotten me fired up. I went striper fishing earlier in the week, but there has been a small window of bad evening tides. I’m sure fish could be caught, but since the tides were not ideal, I blatantly used that as an excuse to go carp fishing.

The last two nights I tried a spot I had never fished before. I knew it held carp but did not know anything else about it. It was on a river and shore access was quite good with a lot of shoreline. Also, I didn’t know the layout of the bottom. Was it deep? Would I get caught on the bottom on every cast? I went in blind and decided to figure it out on my own.

On Sunday night I hooked up with two carp. They were seven and fifteen pounds. I fished about 2 hours and was quite happy with the results. Also, I did not feel any hang ups on the bottom. So I thought it was a productive night.

On Monday I went back, I fished the same spot as the night before. After about 45 minutes I caught a very long but skinny five pounder. Hey, I’ll take it. Right after sunset as I was contemplating leaving I saw my rod bounce. I walked over to it. The line started to tighten up, but it was swimming off to the side. I set the hook. The fish took off on the longest run I have ever seen from a carp. I was afraid I would lose all my line so I started following down the bank. I also tightened my drag some, but it must have taken forty yards.

After the initial run it was a tug of war. I was using 8 foot surf rods and my reel was spooled with twenty pound Berkley Big Game. I knew I had a good fish. I also know that river fish are extremely strong compared to their lake living brothers. So I had no idea if I had a monster fish or one with a Napoleon complex.  After a few minutes I saw that it was fairly long but did not have that oversized “gut” some carp have. I got it in the net and I weighed it. Twenty pounds. This is the second twenty pound mirror I’ve gotten this week. Before this year, my largest mirror was seventeen.

Of course I let it go, and by that time it was dark enough to leave.  I am almost sad the tide is coming back around. Instead of going on an adventure this week on my days off, I might just carp fish morning till night. Even without twenty pound fish, I have really enjoyed carping this year much more than trout or largemouth bass fishing. I suppose if I have a really good night striper fishing this week, I’ll put carp on the back burner. If I don’t have a good striper night, I will be thinking “I could be carp fishing right now.”

 

A Fishing tribute to my mom

It seems like everything I have read this week was a tribute to someone’s mom. The Fisherman’s editorial this week was one, along with a couple other pieces I have read. I’m not writing this to be with the “in crowd”. After reading these essays, it got me thinking about my mother and our time fishing…so I write.

As many of you may know, my mother died when I just turned seventeen. She died on her birthday the summer between my junior and senior year of high school. Without question my mother was my best friend. I was without a doubt a mama’s boy. In February, the year that she passed she had a heart attack. That whole spring while she was recovering (so we thought) we’d spend hours talking about the Red Sox. Since she was stuck in the house, this was our main common interest.

Before that difficult year we shared a lot of great memories outdoors. Many nights we would go for a ride in the 1978 Suburban and look for animals around dusk. We’d drive by the farms in North Attleboro, Plainville and Cumberland. Rarely did we see any; occasionally we’d see a skunk. More often than not, we would just see the cows and horses. Looking back on it, the animals were not important. What was important was the bonding time between mother and son.

Although I wonder about the Nature vs. Nurture argument, there can be no doubt that my mom loved the outdoors and fishing. Whether I was destined to love fishing or it was ingrained in me by my mom, I am not sure. I do know we spent many days together fishing.

She took me fishing from the time I could hold a fishing pole. I caught my first fish at age three at a spot guaranteed to give up some sunfish.

One story she told me that I do not remember, but must have taught me a lifelong lesson was: When I was very young, we went fishing and my mom started catching fish. I got jealous and started being a little brat. My mom wanted me to know what it was like to lose so she continued catching tons of fish. Considering I don’t remember this, I must have been young and probably could not cast very well. After I whined about it, I don’t know if I took a slap to the ass ( yes I grew up with the occasional spanking and I don’t wake up with nightmares about my childhood) or if she let me cry myself to sleep. I do know ever since, I have learned not to be a sore loser. Lesson learned mom.

My mom used a cheap baitcasting reel without a levelwind. She said it was what she grew up using. My mom’s idea of fishing was to sit on a shoreline drowning worms on the bottom. She could patiently sit for hours and if she didn’t get anything it was okay. She was quite content with this style of fishing (she would have made an excellent carp fishermen, because we spend a lot of time waiting for that one fish).

This is the one thing that I would have disagreed with my mom about. Although I am okay with the occasional skunking, I try to do everything in my power to find them and catch them. I always want to catch new species or learn new techniques. It’s quite clear there is a line between loving fishing (mom) and being obsessed with it (me). She also had two sons to raise and a husband to cook supper for. So obviously fishing was a hobby not a priority.

I often wonder how much fun we would have had fishing after I got older. She would be 68 if she were alive today. In the 20 years since her passing what could we have accomplished together? She never caught a fish on a lure. When she went saltwater fishing, she used sea worms on the bottom. In her life she caught two trout.

It would have been awesome to be the teacher and repay her for all the time I was the student. I would have loved to show her how to catch stripers. It would have been amazing to photograph my five foot tall mother holding a twenty pound carp. I would have gotten so much enjoyment watching her catch new species or learn new ways to catch them. She would have liked it too.

The last couple years of fishing together we started using shiners for bass. Before that I am not kidding…worms on the bottom. We had some success. One summer after I started using lures, we were at Herring Pond in Bourne. There were pickerel in the shrubs along the shoreline. I caught a couple on topwater lures and I told my mom to try. She kept casting the lure near the shrubs but the pickerel wouldn’t touch it. She’d give me my rod back and I’d catch one. This went on for an hour, she couldn’t get one and as soon as I’d get my rod back I would catch one. It was like she was jinxed that day. By the end we were both laughing so hard, we almost peed ourselves.  Although it makes for a funny story it does have a lesson. She was open to catching fish in other ways she just needed someone to show her. I wish I would have gotten the chance.

She was a great mom and was taken from her husband and two sons much too early. However I was very fortunate to have known her for seventeen years. Because of her, I am completely an outdoors person. She taught me valuable life lessons. She answered all my questions and we had some great conversations. Although she had more sicknesses than anyone I ever met, she never complained. She was the toughest person I ever knew. Conversely, if I sniffled in the middle of the night, she would worry herself silly that I might be coming down with something.  She was a kinder friendlier person than I am, although I inherited my loner attitude from her.  Where ever you are, Happy Mother’s Day mom, I love you.

Proud to be an American, prouder to be Mary Pacelli’s son

Nick

Personal Best Carp Today!

Went carp fishing today at a lake known for large mirror carp. I sat through three hours of rain (five hours total) and landed two fish.  The first fish was a fifteen pounder. This may be the only time in my life to be disappointed by a fifteen pounder.  Also it gave a terrible fight, surprisingly.

An hour later I hooked what I could tell what was a big fish. It fought nobly. Once it saw the net it took off and made three or four runs. It took about ten or so minutes to land it. I weighed it three times it was a legitimate twenty six pounds. It beat my old personal best by two pounds and my mirror carp best by nine. What a beautiful fish.
 I caught both fish on unflavored field corn fished behind an oatmeal-bread- cornmeal method ball.

 Here are a couple pictures of it.

Carolina on my Mind

Every year during Rhode Island’s Free Fishing Weekend, the DEM puts about 100 golden trout in one pond in the state. This year, the chosen pond is Carolina Trout Pond in Richmond. I took Saturday off from work in the hopes of getting one. I did not see any goldens caught. The entire time I was there, fifty people lined the shoreline. I only saw about fifteen trout caught. I managed two browns about a foot long.

Really wanting another shot at a golden trout, I went back again tonight Monday.  I saw one golden trout caught by a teenager. It was roughly five pounds. What a beautiful fish. I did not land any goldens, but I did manage ten trout. I caught seven bows and three browns. They were caught on Powerbait, Roostertail, and a casting bubble/fly. I got two that were about 17 inches. There were about ten other guys fishing and I saw about five other trout caught including the golden trout.

My days off this week are Wednesday and Thursday. I decided to go down to Carolina again. I arrived about 10 am. I went back to the spot that I had the most luck on Monday. It is away from the crowd but weedy. I used Powerbait on one rod and and alternated my other rod between lures and a casting bubble fly combo.  Right away I caught a rainbow on Powerbait. For the next couple hours I could only hits on the Powerbait. Then it started to rain. The crowd left the less weedy section of the pond.

I decided to move since I would have the less weedy section to myself. To make a long story short, I started catching fish on both the Powerbait and the casting bubble/fly. I could not convince any fish to chase any other lures. I tried spinners, spoons, shads, 1 inch grubs, and Rapalas. They would not touch them.  I ended up catching quite a few. Half were on the fly, the rest on Powerbait. Four were browns, the rest rainbows. The biggest was 17 inches. It was a fun day fishing.

In case you go:

Carolina trout pond is sort of shaped like an hour glass. There is a narrow section in the middle. The top of the pond is larger and longer than the smaller southern end. The southern part of the pond is shaped like an onion. The whole thing is probably about five acres.  It’s a skinny pond so with good casts the whole pond can be covered. There is no need to put any watercraft in.

The top of the pond is very weedy. There are open spots and casting a lure is possible. The southern end is clear. There are very few weeds. Because of this, the majority of fishermen fish this end and the narrow area. When I arrived at 10 am, there were eight retired guys fly fishing this small area.

I have a theory on why the trout will only hit flies and Powerbait. This pond is heavily pressured. You will never fish this pond alone. Fifteen minutes after the rain stopped Wednesday, three or four cars pulled in. I believe, the trout are so spooked and stressed; getting them to chase lures is difficult. On the other hand, Powerbait once casted sits quietly. Flies land quietly. Even though my casting bubble makes a lot of noise, it casts so far, that by the time it’s in front of a fishes face, the water is already quiet.

Lastly, the thought of catching a golden trout would seem like a good reason to make this trip. They are difficult to catch. I believe a lot of luck is going to required to catch one. There are so many other trout, it’s tough to weed through them to get a golden.  

 

Northern Water Snake

Was sitting near this guy in the rain. As soon as the sun came out, he found a rock to sun himself on

Narragansett Bay Tonight

After carp fishing all day and then eating supper, I went striper fishing. I met Dave in the Upper Bay. He got there before me and was on his back from scouting a number of spots. He had only caught one fish, but it was a keeper. We fished for a few minutes and decided the tide was low enough to fish a great low tide spot. We put on waders and walked into the water up to our thighs.

Within a few minutes both of us had landed a near keeper. I got mine on a bucktail jig and Dave on a Zoom fluke. After that we each caught a few more fish. They seemed to not be keying on any one lure. We had hits on the bucktail, zoom fluke, small swimmer, sand eel imitation and a Hogy.

The biggest news of the night was not how many we caught but how many fish were around. I had a bunch of misses and Dave had a few hits. We saw many fish swirling and splashing on the surface. We also saw school after school of menhaden. Although our biggest fish were just under keepers, we saw some fish that seemed much bigger. After a slow start things seem to be getting really hot in Narragansett Bay.

My friend Paul got a twenty pounder yesterday

While I was catching a sucker and a fallfish and Dave was putting on a clinic on how to land white suckers, our friend Paul landed a beautiful 20 pound mirror carp. The three of us went fishing on the Blackstone River in northern Rhode Island. It seemed like a very good day to go carp fishing. It didn’t work out that way. The only carp caught was by Paul. It was a great fish that put up a noble fight. After many pictures, it was set free.

As we were leaving Dave said to Paul “Well Paul you got the big one today” Paul is so humble he responded “ Yeah, I just wish we all could have gotten one” The amazing thing is he meant it!

King of the "Trash Fish"

My "trophy" white sucker

This post is simply an excuse to put some pictures of what many would call trash fish. Today I managed to catch a carp (not pictured about 7 pounds), a sucker and a fallfish. I managed to catch all three species today. I don’t care what I catch so when I caught fallfish and whites suckers while targeting carp, well, I was happy as a clam. That said, catching fallfish was fun, but dealing with them steal my bait made me realize why they can be referred to as “pests”

One of Dave's suckers



Fallfish

Animal Sightings

The fishing was only okay for April, but I saw some cool animals. On my day at Nickerson State Park I saw a loon and even cooler, I saw a big beautiful coyote. I got a couple pictures as it was trotting away. I was in the car and it crossed the street in front of me.

At the pickerel I pond I have been fishing, right along Route 1, there are a pair of otters living there. They are pretty inquisitive.  One of them has come up to me a couple times. I never realized how big river otters are. They are at least 3 feet long not including the tail. They are so graceful in the water. As with the coyote, I got some pictures but it’s not like they are going to become the cover of an Wild America calender.

It didn't end in April, I saw a mink and muskrat on the Blackstone River yesterday