June 23rd and 26th on the North Shore

I was invited to go out on a boat in Joppa Flats in Newburyport Weds evening, catching the last couple hours of the incoming tide. There had to be 20 boats on the flats, including kayaks. And, I'm amazed that there haven't been any reported kayak accidents, as they were everywhere and were fishing up to 11pm, when it was very dark. I've fished very late in my kayak, but never when there are so many boats in the water.

The fishing was good. We ended up catching ~10 strippers between the three of us, none of keeper size. I threw a black and purple bronzino fly at them, to no avail. All the fish were caught on the bottom on mackerel (not my favorite way to fish).

I also took the kayak out to black and white beaches in Manchester by the Sea. The going was slow and the water was littered w/ seaweed. I saw a couple of backs come out of the water, but they weren't interested in my offering. When I took the kayak out of the water, I noticed some inch to inch and a half silver minnow-like bait. If I go again this week (which is highly likely), I'll switch flies to match.

Manchester By The Sea - June 13, 2010

Took the kayak out to black and white beaches early this morning. Due to last night's storm, the water was filled w/ seaweed. It was dead low tide when I started. I managed to catch a keeper trolling a white slugo along the rocks, getting it all the way to the boat and popping off when I reached down to pull it in. It was a really nice fish that took two decent runs. I ended up not throwing the fly at all, due to the seaweed.

Catskills - Willowemoc River, June 4-5, 2010

Went on my annual fly fishing weekend w/ the crew from GartnerGroup.

We stayed in a set of rundown cabins, run by the most eccentric woman. The up-side was that she owned a very large and private stretch of the river!

Throughout the two days, I caught several native brook trout and some stocked browns. The brook trout were mostly small, but fun and difficult to catch.

The most productive setup was a bright orange stimulator, w/ a nymph dropper, some bead-headed, some not. Several nymphs worked well, all of varying sizes and colors. The ones w/ green flash did best. The bigger ones worked best in the fast riffs, although smaller nymphs were productive, too.

The biggest fish was a 13" brown, caught at dusk on an emerger. I decided to switch to the emerger after noticing several fish swiping at the stimulator in close succession and missing, assuming that an evening hatch was taking / about to take place and the fish were moving to feeding positions on top. Emergers can be very productive during these times.

Martha's Vineyard - Memorial Day weekend 2010

A great weekend of fishing!

Hooked into a nice fish Saturday night at Vineyard Haven harbor.

Chartered a boat w/ the kids on Sunday and caught several very large bluefish. The kids had a ball. I hooked / landed several on the fly.

Later Sunday night, I went to Lobsterville to try the Bronzino fly, a new Enrico Puglisi fly that was tailor-made for the stripers there (and stripers, in general). I spent ~1.5 hours and caught two excellent fish, one in the 32-33" range and the other in the 27-28" range. The bigger fish made multiple runs and took considerable line. It was a great fight and took a good 10+ minutes to get that fish in. And, it was the fish's lucky day, as I let it go :-).

The next morning, I took the kids to the Edgartown dock, where the caught several Scup, some of decent size. The theme of the morning was 'do it all yourself', cast, set the hook and take the fish off.

It was truly a great weekend!