Martha's Vineyard - September 1, 2011

Went to the Little Bridge ~9pm, at the end of the falling tide. I ended up catching three nice stripers, two in the mid-20"s and one in the solid mid-30"s, the biggest striper that I've ever caught on a fly rod. The mid-30" was the last one caught. I was fishing the inside of the bridge. When the big fish hit the fly, it immediate took off like a lightning bolt to the other side of the bridge and halfway down jetty, stripping line of the reel at will. At one point, it actually burned my hand when it was stripping the line! Given the slight current going out and the strength of the fish, I knew that it wouldn't be easy getting back to my side of the bridge, so I crawled under to get on the fish's side of the bridge. Thankfully, it was low tide, otherwise I would have been screwed. I ended up fighting the fish for quite a while longer, basically at a stalemate. Then, I decided to move further down the channel and after about 10+ more minutes, I finally landed the fish. What an absolute beauty! After hooting and hollering for a bit (of course, I was the only one who could hear, since there was no one around), I gave the fish a kiss and let another keeper go. Good luck, MyBiggestFishOnAFlyRodToDate.

June 26 - Ammonoosuc River, Lower Falls

As part of a day trip to New Hampshire to look at houses, I snuck off to the Lower Falls w/ the boys for a little trout fishing. The pool just below the Falls is just jammed w/ trout. The kids were using worms and hooking up consistently. I decided to move to the opposite side of the pool, away from the trail that leads to it, and fly fished w/ a double-nymph setup. Multiple fish were visibly working in the current, grabbing anything that seemed to be coming along. I ended up hooking up almost at will w/ the nymphing setup. All the fish were brook trout, some of decent size. It was great, until the warden showed up (and I didn't have a day license!).

Lower Ammonoosuc Falls, Carroll, NH - Sunday June 19, 2011

Fished the Lower Falls for the first time.

We arrived around 3:30 and were able to spend about an hour and a half fishing.

The scenery and weather were phenomenal.

There were a couple of people fishing in the large pool at the bottom of the Falls, so I decided to fish the run just beyond the pool's tailout. I caught a brookie and a very nice rainbow on the first few casts. I fished two-nymph setup, both w/ green flash. The brookie took the smaller dropper nymph and the rainbow the march larger.

The run below the tailout is ~50+ yards long, emptying into a second large pool. I ended up moving downstream to the second pool pretty quickly, getting no action on the double-nymph setup. I noticed a lot of surface action in the shade and decided to switch to a small BWO dry fly. It ended up being a good move, as I was consistently getting a strike on almost every drift. They were small fish, all brookies, but a lot of fun! I'm convinced that if I'd stayed through last light, the bigger fish would have moved in. I wish I could have stayed, maybe next time.

What a great way to spend Father's Day!

Martha's Vineyard - Memorial Day weekend 2011

Had a great weekend w/ the family. Took the kids fishing at Edgartown lighthouse beach and Menemsha. Ended up catching several scup at the lighthouse (at the tip casting beyond the dropoff) and taugtog (sp?) at Menemsha (in the channel).

I ended up going fly fishing one night, hitting my favorite spots on the out-going tide. Although I only fished the little bridge, they've completely renovated both the big and little bridges, taking away all the pilings. I was concerned that the fishing wouldn't be good, w/ little to no ambush spots for the stripers. I was proven somewhat wrong, taking a 28" on a half-and-half. The fight started off light, making me think it was on the smaller size, but then it went into a full on tug-of-war. Not a bad way to start the season!

Manchester By The Sea - September 27, 2010

A friend and I and our two kids went out w/ a guide yesterday. We went out of Beverly harbor, going north to Manchester, up to Kettle Island.

The goal for the day was to put the kids on a big fish, which we accomplished (a 33" striper!).

We ended up only landing two fish. I caught a schoolie-sized striper.

The guide had us working top-water plugs. I had two other stripers take a swipe at the plug, to no avail. The 33" was taken on a live mackerel.

My goal was to learn something new about the area, which is that I have given up on Graves Island too quickly (Graves Island is to the right of black and white beaches, closer to Singing Beach). There was some bird activity and that's where I picked up the schoolie-sized striper. The place to focus on is between the island and the beach. It's shallow w/ rocks, giving a lot of cover. The guide suggested a black and purple puglisi fly, on a shooting head line. Since I landed one and had another swat at a top-water plug, my suggestion is a gurgler fly, on a floating or intermediate (recommended by Orvis in recent article) line. Also, I recommend working the beach, too.

Martha's Vineyard - September 12, 2010

I decided to sign up for my first Martha's Vineyard Striper and Bluefish Derby, which started this morning at 12:01am and runs for six weeks. We went the weigh station yesterday to look at the grand prizes, an Eastern boat for the shore and a pickup for the boat winners. Someone was touching the boat and I told them, "feel free to touch my boat, but don't scratch it!".

I got up at 3:30am and went straight to Lobsterville Beach. Nothing doing there and I noticed a lot of vehicles coming from the Lobsterville side of Menemsha. I hadn't fished the West Basin in several years, but figured it was worth a shot, especially given the long drive.

The channel was overflowing w/ bait and bass were slamming the surface. After putting in my time there, w/ no luck competing against so much natural bait, I went to the Basin, on the outside of the jetty. I ended up hooking up one, a smallish one, but at least I broke the ice.

By the time I left at ~6:30am, the fisherman were lining up along the beach. My guess is in hopes of the albies (false albacore) showing up. There were several kayaks cruising the outside of the jetties and beach, too.

I visited Coop's Bait and Tackle yesterday to sign up. Someone had just come in to deliver his 'special' flies for the derby. I got a good look at them (all the same) before he scurried them away and fortunately I have some flies that are very similar, in color, size and profile (the same fly I broke the ice w/).

Unfortunately, I have to go back to work tomorrow, but I'll be here next Friday to give it try #2! The boat will be mine.

The Big One, by David Kinney

I'm halfway through a fun book describing Martha's Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby that takes place annually on the Island. Kinney participates in and befriends several regulars, who take him out fishing w/ them. It's a fast and fun read, so far. I highly recommend picking it up, if you're into reading fishing stories.

Manchester By The Sea - September 6, 2010

Headed out around 5am today to Black and White beaches. There was no surface activity, but managed to pull in two trolling a Slug Go. One was of decent size, around 25".

I'm expecting the fish activity to increase significantly in the upcoming weeks, given the temperature drop we've been having.