Swamp Yankee

I can’t tell you how many bass I’ve caught on panfish jigs while targeting white perch and etc. I just caught what’s probably my PB river smallmouth yesterday on a 1/16oz crappie jig.

Latest fishing tale: I was fishing for crappie in my boat on the Quinebuag River is easternCT yesterday evening, just before sunset. Casting a tiny 1/16 oz. crappie jig on a light spinning rod,(see the pic below) the fish were really hammering it...white perch, sunfish, crappie, all small fish but plenty of them. A few smaller smallmouth bass, too. Then I hooked this beauty of a smallmouth bass and he went nuts. On my 5’3” Loomis mag-light rod with 6 pound test line it was all I could do to keep him hooked...but I did, and I got him on board and weighed him in at 3 pounds, 7 ounces - which is pretty d**n big for a Quinebaug river smallmouth. Holding the bass, still in the lip gripper but in the water now so it could breathe, with my free hand, I'm now trying to get my camera out of the zippered pocket in my fishing bag....and then the lip gripper slipped out of my hand.... @#$#@!!!! Not only did I fear I'd lost my fish, but also that this beautiful creature was now doomed to die of starvation with a plastic lip gripper in its mouth. Then, in 7 feet of water, mind you - I saw the white plastic lip gripper sitting on the gravel bottom of the river. Unable to tell whether it still had the bass attached as I could only see the white portion, I knew I had to try to get it back somehow. Since it was sitting still on the bottom, I figured the bass had escaped somehow, though I couldn't imagine how. I had to finaigle my boat into position and drop the jig back down into the water so as to hook the cord handle on the lip gripper and reel it back in. After several failed attempts, I finally caught the cord and to my relief, the fish was still attached! So, back into the boat he comes for a few quick snapshots, then back he goes into the river, free now, and swimming off hopefully with more injury to his dignity than anything else.

I’ve had a Sahara 500fd on my 5’3” Loomis Mag Light rod since I bought it... gotta be coming up on 10 years pretty soon. It’s performed flawlessly and has tamed all sorts of bass to as big as 4#, 8 oz. That’s my favorite set up, I use it primarily to fish weightless Zoom fluke Jr.s Texposed.

In my experience their magnum finesse worms seem every bit as irresistible to LMB as Yamamoto Senkos but they’re less expensive and a lot more durable. It’s kind of surprising as they don’t seem to have as much action... but I’ve taken lots of good bass on them since last summer.

After that, I’ve resolved never to go out fishing without a camera tucked into the bag. I don’t have a smartphone, so, it’s a small point-n-shoot digital camera. I did catch one yesterday evening but it was only 3#6oz. So... not photo worthy even though I did have the camera. Good fight on that one though... it took a Zoom Super Fluke Jr. I was fishing weightless on light line on my Loomis 5’4” Mag-Light rod. Heck of a tussle getting him in the boat... and he was a jumper, too

Well, my PB record was shattered yesterday morning when I weighed in a 5 pound, 10 ounce LMB. Different dead tree in the middle of the same stretch of water... a few hundred yards downstream from last week’s PB. Same time of day, Same rig - Zoom Magnum finesse worm in Watermelon Candy fished weightless, Texposed, on a Gamakatsu 3/0 EWG worm hook, 11 foot 15# Seaguar red label fluoro leader on Berkley Fireline Crystal, 15# running line. Same lack of camera. I hunted down my old digital, charged it up and tucked it into the bag. Now it’s there for each trip, even if, as I did yesterday, I’m only heading out for an hour or so of fishing on the boat.

I’ve been using spinning reels since the early 60s and never closed manually on a full bail spinning reel until I started using braid in the 2000s. Now it’s a constant habit, and, I believe, a good one to have. I have owned a number of manual pickup (Bail-less) spinning reels for surf fishing with mono in the 17lb + range. So I was certainly aware of doing it manually but never had the need.... until there was braid. Gotta snug that stuff up tight to the spool before you close the bail to avoid loops.

I haven’t been shooting it in a few years, but my CZ 452 Ultra Lux with the 28.6” barrel and Brno match peep sights is my favorite .22 rifle, ever. Can’t miss with that rifle! I briefly owned a few CZ/ Dan Wesson 1911’s as well. A Pointman 10mm, a Valor in .45 and a Guardian 9mm. That Valor, especially, was a gorgeous gun. Last was a CZ 85 Combat that never left the safe... then I sold it off to buy fishing gear

Caught my personal best LMB yesterday morning about 8:15. I weighed it at 5 pounds, 2 ounces. I was fishing a Zoom Magnum Finesse worm, watermelon candy, weightless on a 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG worm hook. I got the perfect cast in, maybe forty feet, bouncing the worm lightly off the branch of an old dead fallen tree right in the middle of the river. The bass was on it instantly and it was quite a fight to keep it out of the tangle of branches. No pics, sorry... nice fish though.... a good 6 ounces bigger than my previous PB and a very nice fish for the heavily pressured Aspinook Pond here in CT.

I’m more than satisfied with my 14’ tin boat with its 15hp tiller control Mercury. Where I do most of my fishing, anything more than 12-15 mph is overkill, in my opinion. Fluctuating water levels because of a hydroelectric dam, lots of New England glacial boulders, plenty of storms and beavers dropping trees upstream, stump fields and logs floating under the surface...even that 15 mph is too fast in some of my favorite stretches. The river gets lots of bass tournaments with guys flying up and down the rivers at full speed. But the “ regulars” are pretty much all running 25hp or less. Even so, there are plenty of times when I just grab the oars and roll my rowing skiff down to the launch on its dolly. After all, the biggest bass I catch mostly come from a shallow stump field about 1/4 mile upstream from the launch.

Nice catch! How’d your buddy do with bird’s nests?

So far, my biggest river smallie was 2 lbs, 8 oz. Them river smallies are scrappy devils for sure.

When I was 4, my parents bought a house with a trout stream in the backyard. I’m 63 now and I’ve been obsessed with fishing ever since I was 4.

No... it’s hooked up to automatic charge all summer. Come November, I unplug the camper, disconnect the leads on the battery and the battery sits in its case on the camper frame all winter. Come spring, I connect the leads and crank out the bump out on battery power alone so the 10 year old battery is retaining enough juice over the winter to crank out something that weighs a few hundred pounds at least. I’ve never had to charge it or boost it to get it to crank out the bump out in spring. And it’s ten years old. And I’ve never done anything to maintain or even protect the battery other than leave it in its case, exposed, on the tongue of the trailer. But of course, I’ve probably doomed myself by discussing this. I’ve angered the RV gods and, no doubt, they’ll smite my butt next spring for my hubris

And it leaves no marks on the hull... unlike my hack: taping the tarp to the hull with Gorilla tape. ?

I know! When it’s all hooked up, the camper is plugged into metered electric. The battery charge is being topped off then from April till November. Knock on wood... it has yet to need a charge up before I extend the bump out each spring. I just reconnect it and hit the switch.... and the bump-out cranks out.

I didn’t realize this was a thing ... winter care for batteries. My 39’ camper has a 12’ x 3’ bump out that is extended each season by battery power alone. I’m still using the same deep cycle marine battery that was new when we bought the camper 10 years ago. I simply disconnect it in fall when we close up, and reconnect it in spring. It spends the entire winter on the trailer parked on our site. I haven’t even had to charge it yet... it just works when I open in the spring. Of course, I realize that by sharing this, I’ve doomed myself to all sorts of problems opening my camper next year

I cover mine for winter with a cheap plastic tarp tented over. I kill two birds with one stone by using my wife’s 12’ SOT kayak, upside down, propped up inside the boat to keep the tarp tented. I also leave just a little bit of an opening at either end so air can circulate in the boat, but rain and snow can’t get in. Before I put the tarp on I distribute maybe half a pound of mothballs inside the boat, some in each compartment. I’ve yet to find any signs of mice in the boat come springtime when I use mothballs. The camper, right next to the boat, also gets the mothball treatment. 10 years, no signs of mice when I open in spring.

Fast is a relative term when it comes to kayaks. This is my fastest kayak 17 foot long and 21 inches wide slicker than otter snot ...but it's wicked scary trying to fish from it Stand in it? Fuggedaboutit...it's tippy enough just sitting in it. In fact, I took the stock seat out of it and replaced it with a slim foam seat that brings my butt about 3/4" lower in the boat...made a big difference lowering the center of gravity that 3/4"

Good to know they’re easy to repair. Can your fins bend badly enough so that you can’t hoist the drive assembly out of its well while you’re on the water?

I doubt you can go any skinnier than my favorite bass boat. I should be more clear in my wording. Honestly, I was imagining what might happen if you pedaled over something unseen. I knew there were ways to run in water too shallow for pedaling, given you knew you were heading into such conditions, but I worried what might happen to the rig if you hit some unseen obstruction under water. If you were going fast, I imagine you could mess those fins up pretty badly. Hobie’s design change for kick up fins seems to address that.

That Compass looks like a nice boat! I see they came up with a kick-up fin design. I always wondered what pedal yakkers do when they get into skinny water. That always seemed to me to be the weakest part of the system.

Spoons, where to start? Start at 12 o’clock, directly above the dinner plate. Dessert spoon goes first, placed horizontally, handle to the right, next goes the dessert fork, handle to the left. At 3 o’clock to the plate, butter knife goes first, vertically, then the soup spoon, then the tea spoon. Hope this helps

In my experience, the kayaks that are stable enough that you can stand in them tend to be real dogs when it comes to paddling them.

I never buy anything over $10 besides gasoline for my truck and groceries for the camper without talking with my wife first... boat gas I tell her about, too. I would suggest to anyone in your position to talk to their wife about having a dedicated amount of money set aside to fund their hobbies. Explain that the best time to buy is off season during sales. Then keep your purchases within that budget. I try my best to pay for new gear with money raised by selling off old gear. But since I sometimes give my wife all the proceeds from the sale of something, (guitar, ukulele, banjo, boat, gun) she gives me some leeway for the most part.... when we can afford it. I feel for anybody whose spouse denies them a reasonable amount of money for the things they love to do when they’re bringing enough money in so that the expense does not cause hardship in the family. And if it does cause hardship, you ought not buy the stuff in the first place.