Fishing Report

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Sorry for the lack of reports, been hunting with the little time I have instead of fishing these days but still making random trips here and there. So not able to post much lately (but I could certainly use some pics & reports from you shy fisherman out there, send them over and help keep things interesting here). Here's a report from my last trip. Mike and his son headed up to NH to close up Mikes camp for the season, they picked me up and I tagged along for the ride and brought my rod. The plan was if one of the trout ponds on the way back were not frozen over yet we would fish a bit. It was a cold and raw day, our first shivering of the season. After Mike prepped up his camp to prevent his pipes from freezing and locked up the camp. We headed back home and on the way we stopped and pulled over to check out a trout pond and hoped for open water. Luckily this spring fed pond had not frozen over yet. I was going to reveal the spot but Mike asked that I keep it quiet. However don't fret, check out your state fish and game website and you'll probably be able to pull up a stocking list and find waters that contain these colorful fish near your home. Anyway we got into them good and between us all we caught a mixed bag of brown, brook and rainbow trout. I release most of my fish but this time I kept a few stocker trout that my wife cooked to perfection, they were delicious. The Mike's also did the same. Trout hit spoons, spinners and worms. With the temps being what they are it's doubtful any open water trips are going to happen anytime soon, in fact I have already dusted off my ice fishing gear. Look for ice fishing reports to come soon but cast not while you can the open water season is almost over for some and completely done for others. So take advantage if you can, tight lines!

Been a little while since I posted a report, between keeping up with yard work (damn leaves) and responsibilities and using most of what little time is left for bow hunting, my fishing has been very limited. I did make time though for another run to NY for a long weekend of trib fishing for jumbo trout. I spent a bit of time earlier this year fishing locally for the different varieties of (state stocked hatchery) trout available, I almost forgot what it was like to hook into wild trout measured by pounds and not inches. Myself and good friend Ray met up with a couple of friends of mine from Ohio at a camp in NY. Me and Ray got there a little earlier than the other guys on Friday and got to fish the afternoon thru the dusk. The water was stained so sight fishing was pretty much out of the question. We both drift fished and just continued to make drift after drift. Things started off very slow, after tying on egg sacs and experimenting with different flies, I finally found something that started working for me. I cant recall the name of the fly but it's basically white and resembles a small little fry. They were just slamming it, especially close to dusk. I got into some steelhead, a rainbow and a couple of browns. I also had a brown come unbuttoned probably around 10 lbs. I had caught trout ranging from 2.5 lbs to 7 lbs but no true NY giants. Ray did not do so well his 1st day but I cut him some slack, it was his 1st time drift fishing, as well as his 1st time trout fishing in NY. Ray was making constant drifts to what he thought might be a dark silhouette of a trout and he had basically given up on it. Since he gave up on the fish I asked if I could step in and make a drift, he said be my guest and he doubted seeing a hook up with that stubborn fish. On my first cast and drift the fish was hooked and ended up being one of the nicer steelhead of the day. As funny as that was I don't think It helped his confidence much but I reassured him he would do better the next day (and he did). We called it a day and grabbed dinner at a local restaurant/bar and then headed to camp. It was a new place I had never stayed at before. After unloading some of our stuff out of the truck and getting are gear ready for the next day. We then soon discovered that the little TV had no reception and the tap water was undrinkable and smelled of rotten eggs (from all the sulfur). So much for the hot shower and relaxing by the television. I then opted for some reading. Me and Ray realized that there were only 3 beds and one couch. My two other friends were on their way to camp. Me and Ray were exhausted from the lack of sleep, the 7 hour ride and from the days fishing. We were so wiped we could no longer force ourselves to stay awake to greet the other two guys. We each claimed a bed and chuckled on which of the two guys coming were going to get stuck with the couch. The next morning on day two everyone was up early and we all greeted each other and got caught up over coffee and breakfast. We then went right to business and made drift after drift, after drift. By the end of the day I had a few solid hook ups that came off and landed nothing (that's fishing), barely worth mentioning there was a foul hooked decrepit looking salmon that I did land but I'm not counting it. Ray did pretty well and landed two beautiful browns including his personal best. He also got a good legitimate hook up and landed a fresh 15 lb king salmon, by making drifts in a deep pool. Contrary to some of the snaggers we saw on the 1st day, goes to show you can get salmon to actually bite. They may not be feeding much during spawning but they will occasionally bite out aggression and to protect their beds. Larry got the skunk and did not get anything and Mark lost what he thinks would have been his biggest brown trout ever. I did see a glimpse of the fish breaking water before it came unbuttoned and it did look big. Mark though did manage to land a 7 lb brown and a plump rainbow around 5-6 lbs. Also Mark had a beautiful Coho Salmon about 10 lbs hooked on, I had forgotten my net and had to use his small diameter net with a nub of a handle on it and I was about an inch away from reaching the fish with the net before it came unhooked, I cursed his net and regretted forgetting mine. Day three all of us were up early again and were on the river claiming our spot before the sun was even up. Early on I landed a rainbow that hammered my egg sac and gave me a good little battle. Ray got skunked and so did Larry (except for a accidental foul hooked king salmon or two). Mark however for a bit seemed on fire with lots of hook ups, unfortunately most came unbuttoned but he did manage to land 2-3 steelhead, largest around 6-7 lbs. I took honors for landing the largest trout of the crew on this trip, when I hooked and landed a brown around 12-13 lbs but became humbled soon after when I netted a brown around 14 lbs for anther angler that I had met. I also netted some other steelhead and browns for some other anglers on the river who wanted a hand. Though not the heaviest run of trout I've seen, though if you worked at and stayed persistent most anglers saw some action. Most fish were caught legitimately with only a few unintentional foul hooked fish from our crew, also all fish were released. If everyone else on the river practiced the same think how much better an already incredible fishery would be! Anyway around noon we all called it quits, packed our trucks and hit the road for our long road trips home. The trip was a blast, with allot of ball busting and laughs within the crew and just fun all around and we all look forward to doing it again next year. Tight Lines!

P.S. Check out some of the video highlights from this trip on the Fishing Video's Page on this site and as always feel free to share with other anglers your successes by contributing your own report and pictures to this website.

With most of NH "CLOSED FOR THE SEASON", For fishing you do the best you can! The select few spots open all season are stocked with mostly Browns and Rainbows. Along with me and my cousin John were my sons Mike and Sam. I love to trout fish but the last 5 or so years, I have found a renewed interest in our New England jewels, the eastern brook trout. We fished or lake on Camp Deloia. We caught zero and with the wind chill in the 30's I figured we could go to a private pond which we had permission to fish. It always has some brookies in the 8"-12" size. This was our best choice, short of illegal out of season fishing at our "HOT SPOT". We caught 4 brookies in about 2 hours of fishing. The largest was around 13 inches and weighed 1 lb 3 ozs not bad. I had a great day just hanging out watching them fish. Sam ended up with the largest. I caught the largest male at 12" and 1 lb. We were pretty cold and not really prepared as we usually are or we would have caught more. Our main thing was to close up the camp so the pipes won't freeze. With any luck we will be able to get in at least one more trip up north before it snows and it's hard water time. "Take a kid fishing" Mike Deloia

Well when the leaves change to brilliant colors and the air turns from warm to cool and crisp. Thoughts of a autumn road trip come to mind. I prefer my leaf peeping with a rod at hand in upstate NY. So we were off for a 3 day trip. We had one guy back out but myself and the Mike's (my usual partners in crime) all headed out to fish one of the NY tribs for salmon, Oak Orchard. Though a little early yet we were hopeful of some bonus jumbo trout as well. The trip did not start off very well though when I got a speeding ticket in NY just a half hour away from our lodge. Then halfway into the first day of fishing I broke the tip off of my prized Abel 8wt fly rod, when a king broke off and the same happened to Mike the 2nd day when another king salmon that broke off too and snapped the tip off his borrowed noodle rod. On a good note the river was chuck full of salmon, on the flip side there were more anglers than I could ever remember in all my years of fishing on the river. So finding a little area for some solitude without being arm and arm with other anglers was virtually impossible. However we still had a blast hooking and landing plenty of King Salmon. As well as a couple of bonus trout that I landed (a steelhead and a brown). Making constant drifts with spawn sacks and flies was the ticket. We must have landed 23-25 Kings, also we had countless hookups that came off or we broke off. I can't ever remember a year were the spawning kings fought so well. We had some incredible battles. All fish were released except one little Mike wanted to try and eat. Funny watching the kid lug around a fish about his size all day, as we worked other pools the poor kid got more of a workout than he bargained for. However the next day little Mikey decided it would be easier and best to release all fish....LOL. We also met and hung out with some good people and fellow anglers that helped make the whole trip that much more memorable and fun. Look for the video of our little adventure in the video's page of this website. Planning on going back out to NY again November 7th, 8th & 9th. The salmon run should die down a bit and more trout should be in the river. This time the mission is not so much for kings as it is for football trophy trout. Stay tuned for next weeks report. Tight lines!

I met Mark and Larry (of Ohio) while up in NY fishing. Mark was kind enough to share with us some of their pics as well. We all hung out Saturday night and fished together Sunday morning before we all went our separate ways on our long road trips home. The guys did fairly well fly fishing and had some success. Hopefully boys we can do it all again real soon! Thanks for the submission, keep them coming.

Mark (from above report) took his son out, who landed this plump Lake Erie Steelhead. Good job little man!

Well after last weekend with Skylar and the great fishing, we thought we would try again. This time we brought Mike's friend Brendon along with us. Trout fishing ends October 15th on most lakes and rivers in NH. We knew this was our last chance to get into brookies this year at our spot. We can fish the lake at our camp. The brookies are tough to get at our place so we travel for them, Rainbows and Browns we have plenty of. The special thing about Brook trout is they belong in the northeast. Rainbows are from the west coast and Browns are from Germany and Scotland. Brookies were here long before the vikings landed here. Brook trout are what I think about when I think about the White Mountains and The Northwoods. I was hoping they were still hanging around where we were last weekend. We got on the road at 6am and hiked into our 'HOT SPOT' This is a Glacier Lake and stocked from the air!! When we arrived I was nervous I didn't see any surface activity!! We started with crawlers just like last time but nothing on the first cast. In fact nothing for a little while, then Mike caught one then Brendon caught one. We ended up with 6 Brookies for the morning. We went back for lunch and relax time. After lunch we headed back along with my wife Tina and my twin boys Sam and Skylar. We wanted to go leaf peeping and hiking and do some midday casting. We hiked all along the backside of the lake. When we saw a bunch of dead fall and full trees submerged it looked to good to pass up. Mike and Brendon were together Skylar and myself were about 100 feet from them. Tina and Sam hiked the trail. We ended up with 4 more brookies. As we walked the path I saw a small path but very steep, the 4 of us walked it slow down to the lake, after going through some brush, It opened up enough to cast. I was the first to go through with my polarized glasses I saw a large brookie feeding!! I could actually site fish for this one, This was to cool. I saw it was a colorful male as it went under a huge fallen tree and I lost site of him. Mike and Brendon were about 15 feet away and Brendon yells to Mike hey look at that big one!! Mike makes a great cast and hooks him. Mike lands a beautiful 12'+ Male Brookie it weighs in at 1.1 lbs on our digital scale this was the largest of the weekend. We end up with 11 for the day. This midday success changes our game plan. DAY 2. We go looking for moose the next morning then I take a 2 hour power nap. The 4 of us go out again. Tina and Sam go to town. We plan to meet them at the path entrance in 4 hours. Once again we hit the same spots. We were fast into them. Day 2 total 12 brookies for a grand total of 23 Brookies. Mike caught 11 Skylar caught 5 Brendon caught 3 The guide thats me caught 4 (even the guide gets to fish sometimes). All this in 8 hours of total fishing. We had 'THE BITE ON' Just before we left and landed 6 of 12 hookups in a 1/2 hour span. The funniest part was at one point a stepped on a large log that shifted and instead of taking a bath my left leg lunged out for another log that also shifted!! So her I was doing a split on 2 unstable logs!!! It took al my strength and groin muscles to pull them together to leap to one log then to shore!! Still not sure how I didn't fall in. I am still limping from it. What a great way to end the year. 23 Brookies 8-12 inches. Over 1/2 we were able to site fish. We did keep some for a meal at camp. The rest were released. Something I almost forgot to mention the lake has a population of bait fish we could see them the whole time we were fishing. At one point Skylar and I watched 3 Brookies come in and almost "PACK HUNT" a school of bait fish!! I actually saw the school separate and the Brookies were feeding on them by pushing the bait fish to the surface it was crazy!!! I caught one of the male brookies tossing a crawler into the school of bait fish!!! I have fished my whole life and never saw brookies do that before it was awsome!!!!!These brookie along with last weeks are the most Beautiful I have seen any place!!!!'TAKE A KID FISHING' Mike Deloia

A group of anglers drove up to New York and fished two days at the Douglaston Salmon Run on the Salmon River, 2 days in the upper fly zone and a half day at Sandy Creek. The crew managed to get the below 7.5 pound brown trout, that measured in at 23 inches long. Several other browns were also caught during the trip, including the largest around 10-11 lbs. Mike fish pictured below, a 23 pound salmon was much longer than the tape measure at hand, which prevented the fish from getting a accurate measure. Now there's a great problem to have, my fish is bigger than my tape measure, gotta love it. Many other salmon were also caught. In addition 2 steelhead were caught. Report received also mentioned that the crew had seen more Brown and Steelhead than they have in many years, that's certainly some encouraging news.

What a weekend of brookie fishing. I took my son Skylar to this remote spot in the Mountains of NH. We have this father and son weekend with each of my boys once a year. Skylar wanted to find some Moose to view and sneak in some brook trout fishing. Well we saw 7 moose 2 were young bulls along with 10 deer. We planed to go fishing in the early afternoon but lost the day with all the wildlife and foliage. This is the best time of year in the north NH, ME, VT to see the fall leaves change. I am torn as to which is more colorful a sugar maple in the fall or a male brookie in full spawning colors!!!! You tell me after looking at the photos. We got to our 'HOT SPOT' late but still landed a couple brookies before dark. The next morning we got up early packed and hit the road to look for moose and hit the spot again. Well the morning temp was 29 degrees way cold for a 7 year old. I thought for sure he would not want to do it. I was wrong, he said lets try it!! Skylar is still young and it can be tough for him to cast or set a hook, but when he tries his best he is not to bad. I want to keep him in the outdoors and fishing so we used worms for bait, I thought it would give him his best shot for success. I was right, on his first cast he hooked and lost a brookie. This was ok because he ended up with a grand total of 17 brookies in a total of 5 hours fishing. It was just one after another. His largest was just shy of 14' and 1lb 8oz the rest were between 6' and 12'. This is the largest brookie for Camp Deloia this year. He was so proud of himself. I can't describe how I feel as an outdoor parent how good it is to see your kids do well. Skylar had great weekend 1 on 1 with me. This was also my 2nd best (numbers) of brook trout in NH on one trip. If you have Kids and you do a little leg work on the computer and some in the field fishing you can keep your kids happy and bond a little more with them. Remember they are only little for a brief time make the most of it. I also had George swear to keep this spot secret. Sorry all you T.L.H.U. Readers!!! 'TAKE A KID FISHING'

Saturday early afternoon Bill met up with me to hit one of the local ponds that have already been stocked last week by the state for the fall trout season and boy it's feeling like fall, where did the summer go? Anyway between the recent stocked fish and the lakes ability to hold over some fish we were hopeful for a good day. However the howling winds of Saturday were not making things look to promising. However we persisted but did not have as much luck as we had hoped for. The fish finder was marking plenty of fish and when the wind settled for a few brief moments here and there the trout entertained us by the countless aerial leaps we witnessed. Most of the leaps the trout came clean out of the water, a few were even impressive in size. But when it was all said and done, Bill had landed 3 or so largemouth bass. I landed 2 bluegills, 3 bass, 2-3 crappie and 3 plump rainbows. We marked fish all over the water column and fished all over it but it was the shallow running baits (just under the surface) being flat-lined on a ultra-light that produced the 3 rainbows I landed. I wish I had brought my fly rod with floating line and matched the hatch, which might have produced a few more fish, the 5 wt fly rod I did bring with fast sinking line produced 0 trout. Not a great numbers day on the stockies but at least I managed a limit of them, which made for some good table fare. Sunday I was at it again but this time with my brother for some afternoon fishing again. Trying to rush out the door, once again I forgot my fly rod loaded with floating line but this time I also forgot my camera. I figured since I did not have a camera this would be the day myself or my brother would land a lunker. Not the case though it ended up being the same scenario as the day before, WORKING FOR THEM. I did a little experimenting to try to entice the trout but with no luck. I went back to the previous days tactics and between me and my brother we managed 3 hook ups. Though we didn't land a lunker to make me wish I had not forgotten my camera, one of the rainbows caught had some exceptional coloration. It had a bronze and yellowish appearance, was heavily spotted and had a maroon band. Not a big by any means but a real nice looking fish that would have made for a decent pic (oh well). Anyway it's fall and a great time to be outdoors and enjoy the crisp air and foliage, so get out there. Tight lines!

Angela landed her personal best largemouth bass of 5 lbs. Ironically she caught her 5 lb bass on 9/21 and gave birth a exact month later on 10/21, to a 9 lb 5oz baby. Congratulations Angela! Now all we need to do to juice up this story is to land a largemouth bass, as the same weight of your baby. Congrats again to the new addition to your family.

After not fishing last weekend it felt good to be back on the water again. Anyway my friend Mike earlier in the week suggested we get together and chase some trout and asked if I could take him to one of my favorite Cape Ponds, still loaded with hold over trout from the spring stockings. Since he's a close friend and we always have fun fishing together, I decided to do so but not before making him swear not to tell or take anyone to the spot where I was going to take him (LOL). Saturday finally came and I picked up Mike dark and early. So it's the last Saturday of the summer and it feels more like fall. I wondered if the trout would be near the top with the cooler temps we had been having or if they would be down deep. We trolled for them and experimented the entire water column, turns out most fish were deep, nothing on top and all fish caught were between 15 to 40 feet deep. Action was decent but I was worried for Mike I had landed 10 trout and he still did not land one. Mike is a decent fisherman himself and we both had the same set-up and lure, so I was a little confused as to what was going on. I was nervous he would not get into any fish but ironically I got into a little slump of no action and at that point Mike started to make a little come back and landed 4 straight trout. Later on I landed a couple more. Bringing the grand total to 16 trout. Other fish caught were yellow perch, smallmouth, sunfish and largemouth. About 35 percent of the trout were browns. some already beginning to show some fall spawning colors and the rest beautiful deeply pink banded rainbows. Unfortunately the pond did not give up a giant fish for us but did produce a couple of male browns of about 2 pounds I landed. That's ok though we'll just have to go back again sometime and try for a bigger one. As usual it was a good time fishing with Mike and we'll be doing it again real soon and looking forward to it.

Had so much fun chasing trout yesterday decided to do it again today. Got out around 2 pm solo and fished until 6 pm. It was a picture perfect day weather wise. Trolled again using leadcore and some deep diving baits. I landed 5 rainbow trout and some largemouth bass. All trout today fought exceptionally well and three of them went very aerial. Kept a limit of three for a fresh trout dinner. The wife cooked them up with a lemon and butter sauce, absolutely delicious. I'm pretty much a catch and release guy but nothing wrong with keeping a few small stockies time to time for the pan. Saw some trout rising and tried to work the top for them a bit but no luck, all trout caught were still down deep. Hope everyone had a good weekend - tight lines.

Here's a late mini-report from bill. Who didn't let the colder temps prevent him from some night hog bass hunting. Bill reported after catching the bass in the photo he continued fishing and hooked and almost landed a much bigger bass around 5 lbs or better, but as he reached to lip the bigger one the lure came un-buttoned from the largemouth and she was gone.

Faithful friend, reader and contributor sent us this report: We only had one day to get in the brook trout fishing. Sunday we had to drive to Rangeley to pick up our Labrador brook trout mounts. We had to meet well known Maine taxidermist Marc Godin at 9:00 at Rivers Edge, 3 hours north of our camp. With the cool nights and the maple trees starting to turn colors, trout start to turn into full spawning colors also. With our site set on Brookies in the Northwoods of NH, we have a spot that will produce a few monsters over 20' each year!! My son Mike and myself started fishing 6:00AM at 1st light. Our thought was to troll with a few select flies that always produce for us. The wind was our enemy it was very tough to get a steady troll but on our 2nd pass Mike hooked a nice brookie in full spawning color an honest 13' and just over a pound. We trolled for a couple more hours before I was into my 1st trout an 8' brookie. With the weather getting worse each hour we decided to give it a couple more hours. This turned out to be a good choice I caught 3 more small brookies on each pass. With the sky darkening We said just one more and we can call it quits. We trolled for another hour and decided to call it quits on this last pass. On this pass I hooked a nice 12' brookie not as fat or as colorful as Mikes. What a day 9 hours of fishing 5 brookies. With the wind and rain and just overall bad weather we still had a great day. We only saw one other trout caught so our hardcore attitude paid off. We also saw some great wildlife. A Bald eagle, beaver ,racoon, and merganser. Take a kid fishing, Mike Deloia

Headed out solo to a new spot I wanted to try in CT for some early afternoon to dusk fishing. When I got there it was overcast and I thought between that and the front coming in the bite would be good. I threw big swim baits, waking them and cranking down on them but nothing. Switched to some plastic worm finessing in some quieter coves and started catching some small bass. After getting the skunk out of the way I went back to throwing the big swim baits. I saw a wake of something huge (more likely a big pike) chase and attack some small fleeing fish by a point. I casted over in high hopes but nothing after working that area hard. Later on working the edge of a thick weed line I saw a small pike come straight up from the depths and smack my bait but he came unbuttoned a second later Ugh! Later on I worked another swim bait between some lily pads and got whacked by a nice 4 pound or so largemouth and that one after a few seconds came unbuttoned as well, what the @!%@ is how I felt! Two best fish of the trip lost and if that wasn't bad enough it started down pouring....hard! I said screw it and fished through the rain. I switched over to plastic worms again and started slaying the largemouth. They were all between dink size to a pound and a half. Nothing big and the rain was falling so hard that no way I was going to risk getting my new camera wet to take pictures of small bass. So sorry for not having any pics this week. Before leaving I had to take my shirt off and wring it out, soaked to the bone. Nothing great this week.

Sunday was a more serious day. Bill joined me again and before the sun was even up we were already beginning our journey toward the Cape. We hit two spots: Peter's Pond and Long Pond. First spot was Peter's, I got a smallmouth around 2 and a half LBS on the fly rod, a couple of rainbows and some yellow perch. Bill got his first rainbow of the season (better late than never) and we both had some missed hits. The fishing was a little slow so we decided to go somewhere else but before doing so we grabbed lunch and since we were so close we decided to visit the Sandwich Trout Hatchery (look for a video of this to come on the Video Page soon). This hatchery raises brown, rainbow, brook and is the only one in the state that produces the tiger's. A neat place to visit. When we were done we headed to Long Pond and we fished there until dusk. I managed a couple more rainbows and some white and yellow perch. Bill landed another rainbow and we both lost and missed some additional fish. All trout caught were down deep. Not a great trip by the area standards but some decent action was still had. It was a long but still enjoyable day and I think I filled my trout bug, for a while anyway. P.S. Posted yesterday morning in the Video's Page is a new summer rainbows video, some highlights on film of last weeks report, check it out.

Saturday was a half day from mid-afternoon until dusk. Bill joined me and the goal was some multi-species fishing (bass & trout) at Badacook Pond. Unfortunately the trout and salmon did not want to cooperate, so we switched gears for largemouth but even the bass bite started off really slow. As we got closer to the dusk the bite picked up and we started catching some largemouth's. I got a handful or so and Bill I believe got 2-3 bass. The bass in the pond seem to run mostly dinky size. It was a place I had previously fished for trout and salmon last year and thought it looked even better for targeting largemouth, guess I was wrong (always worth a shot to try). Though not a memorable trip by any means and a little disappointing it was still a good evening to spend outdoors. A osprey sighting ended up being the highlight of the trip.

Here's a submission that came in of some incredibly impressive 10 LB plus Labrador Brook Trout from Dale Farrell.
Check out more giant brook trout catches from Dale on the Brook Trout Page on this site. Thanks for the submission Dale, Great job, keep them coming!

We always try to spend as much time outdoors as we can as a family. However we all have different interests, my 3 boys will all hike But Mike loves it the most. We all like to go on wildlife viewing hikes and rides but Skylar likes that the most. When it comes to fishing Mikey will not leave the water, Sam and Skylar are bored after less than an hour. So Mike always catches the most. This weekend was no exception. We headed north to Camp Deloia In NH, along with my buddy Dave and his son Matt. We were hoping to catch some late summer trout. Our lake usually produces some trout. This is normally a tough time of year but our hopes were high after last weeks fishing. The 1st day we headed out with my canoe and a slow troll with rooster tails. I hooked up in less than 30 seconds!!! Dave netted a 17 inch 2lb Rainbow for me I thought wow what a week end this is going to be. Was I wrong, I didn't get another trout all weekend. To be honest we only caught 1 other trout. Matt had 3 or 4 hookups but only landed 1 another Rainbow around 15 inches. Mikey caught 5 or 6 bass plus a pickerel. Matt did catch a pickerel trolling, the action was very slow. The only positive thing was 4 or 5 other Fisherman on our lake got the big skunk. I guess we did ok after all. We did get to see more Moose and went looking for Moose antler sheds!! What we found were antlers in someone's shed!!! The 4 boys were just as happy. Keep your kids in the outdoors & Take a kid fishing. Mike Deloia

My brother had been asking me to take him trout fishing. Which I was happy to do but I wanted to put him on some good action, which meant hooking up with good numbers of trout. It's late August though and most of the nearby stocked put and take trout ponds have had the majority of the trout plucked out already from the past spring season or the now warm waters have done away with most of the trout, until the next upcoming fall stockings. We could fish some deep water and maybe do ok but I have a soft spot for my brother due partly to his autism and the rest his kind nature. So a road trip to one of the many great Cape Cod trout ponds was in order. Where trout seem to be plentiful year round. Friday night I had some friends over the house to enjoy a good campfire, some music, a few beers and some laughs. Unfortunately I did not make it to bed until 2:30 am, only to have to be up at 4:30 am (rough getting up). It was a 45 minute drive just to pick up my brother and then a additional hour and fifteen minutes to get to one of my favorite trout ponds. Due to the high gas prices I ended up staying away from the Cape all season. Not this time though and I hoped it would be worth it and my brother would have some fish tugging at his line. I'm glad to report it was worth it, the lack of sleep and the road trip paid off. We ended up landing around 12-15 trout and had some misses along the way. The catch mostly consisted of rainbows but there was one plump brown landed too. Also a yellow perch and my first fly rod bullhead catfish added to the catch. All fish were hooked down deep and sinking line on the fly rod and lead core line was mandatory. Only one trout was caught with straight mono on a spinning outfit with a deep diving lure attached. We started fishing around 7 am and decided to call it quits around 3 pm but decided to troll one more pass before ending the day. Which ended things on a good note, with me hooking the largest trout of the day a 3 lb 1 oz rainbow and my brother landing yet another colorful rainbow. The best part of the trip was watching my brother get excited and enjoying himself. Look for some video's of this trip to come soon on the New Videos page. Tight Lines!

We went up to our camp in NH for a week of vacation with a bunch of fishing thrown in. Our original plan was to go after some of the big bass that roam our lake at Camp Deloia. The 1st night our plan changed!! This was going to be a trout outing with bass as a back up. A neighbor was catching trout from shore in August!!!! We had a camp full of friends and my cousins. My son Mike and his friend Christian wanted to catch trout so off we went in my canoe on the first pass Christian hooked a big rainbow only we forgot the net!! I tried to line him in, no luck this big bow was way to heavy 17' or so and near 2 lbs the line snapped!! So we grabbed a net we did get the next one around 13 inches a nice bow to start the week. This was Christians 1st trout. We did family things the next day or so but Mikey kept at fishing and landed a couple bass and a perch. We also took the kids out for a moose outing and spotted 11 moose!! We went to a another area that is known to produce trout and caught 3 Rainbows 2 Browns 1 Brookie for our 1st NH Grand slam. The Kids all caught at least one. My cousins Daughter Molly caught her 1st Trout ever a nice 11 inch brookie. My son Skylar Nailed his 1st Brown ever. We also saw a water snake eating a toad!! All fishing stopped to check it out. Back at camp we squeaked in Another road trip to a remote pond about 2 miles in the woods but had no luck there (I will try it again). On the last night night Mikey wanted to give our lake another shot so we trolled out and the battery died. But we kept at it with a row troll and it worked, Mikey caught his 1st Brown (on our lake) And then topped it off with a Rainbow we also lost another bow right at the canoe. All and all it was a great week with a lot of 1st's. Keep those reels screaming. 'TAKE A KID FISHING' - Mike Deloia

Bill and Amanda decided to do more night fishing but this time instead of targeting largemouth bass, they changed things up a bit and decided to chase after a different species. This time the target was bullhead catfish instead. They had a good night full of action. Worms/crawlers off the bottom produced their fish.

Saturday got a very late start but decided to try for walleye, not the best time to go for them but gave it a shot and failed miserably. My friend Bill joined me and neither of us caught anything. We did not stay long though. I did hook a yellow perch and as I was fighting it from a distance it surfaced and when it did I thought it was a dinky fish. So I started reeling and horsing it in quickly. Not caring because again I thought it was small, once it got near the boat I attempted lifting the fish out of the water with my rod. The fish hung out of the water for a second or so and holy cow it was a giant (MA pin sized) yellow perch, Bill also excitedly commented on it's size. unfortunately it came unbuttoned and escaped as I attempted to bring it toward me to unhook it.

Sunday I thought I could make up for the fish I did not catch the previous day. My wife wanted to join me and off we went to Lake Mattawa. Soon after launching the boat me and my wife had a little spat..figures! Now I love my wife and we get along great most of the time but out of all the moments for this to happen. To make a long story short I managed a brown trout and a decent largemouth but due to the circumstances no pics were taken and due to the frustration the trip was cut extremely short. Been a while since I had a crappy fishing weekend, can't win them all. Sorry for the weak report.

P.S. After fishing Saturday me and Bill squeezed in a visit to the near by state trout hatchery, look for some video of this little trip to come soon on the New video's page. Also currently on the New video's page is a Pike video that's been recently added and a newly remade Tiger Trout video (with more footage). Also on the reviews page you can check out a movie trailer for: Fish Bum 1 - Mongolia - Water Wolf, that we will be posting a review on very soon in our Reviews Page.

This just in. UK lure angler Danny shows off some of his recent pike. Great fish and thanks for the submission.

Brian was fishing a lake somewhere in the Adirondack area. Trolling 250 grain fly line 4X-18', tapered leader, with a silver smelt streamer on his 6 wt fly rod. Fishing for Rainbows and Landlocked Salmon. When he first hooked up his first thought was a snag, until he felt the rod pumping and noticed the huge splash behind his canoe. When he finally caught a glimpse of this monster 6 LB smallmouth bass. He was disappointed, he had hoped it was a big bow or salmon instead.....LOL. Regardless a trophy 6LB smallmouth on a fly rod is an outstanding catch, great job. Brian also has his own website/journal. If you would like to check it out go to http://bestrainbowtroutphotos.com

Big Mike, Little Mike and myself had so much fun last Saturday night fishing, that we decided to do it again this week. We were also all hopeful that one of us would hook up with big bertha, a big bass that I hooked and lost last time out with them. Before meeting up with the Mike's I decided to get to the lake much earlier to do some afternoon fishing on my own. Before the Mike's got there around 7 pm, I had already landed 9-10 fish. The lake I was fishing has plenty of largemouth's and years ago there used to be a small population of smallmouth's that would occasionally make an appearance on the end of your line. None were caught last week or this time out. I worked an area really hard for them where they used to like to hang out and where I used to have some luck landing a few but not this time. However there were plenty of largemouth's and a couple of chain pickerel landed. Some years past there were never all that many smallmouth around to begin with so I assumed they all slowly vanished and were gone now. Though fun catching numbers of fish I was kind of disappointed at the quality. Though I did manage a couple of heavy 2 plus pound largemouth's the rest were all small (mostly around a pound or less). I had hoped the night would bring on some bigger nocturnal hogs (and big bertha came to mind again). Anyways the Mike's showed up and I picked them up in my boat from shore and off we went. I had mentioned to little Mike that there was a spot near by where I had pulled out a few fish including one of the 2 pounders from earlier today and if he would like to try to catch them I would take him there. He quickly agreed so I took him to the spot. He casted out a plastic worm Texas rig style into the spot and whack a heavy 1 plus LB bass. He looked up and asked me if that was the 2 pounder from earlier, I said no, so cast back in there again. So he did and instantly his rod had a serious bend to it and he was on. After fighting the fish out of some weeds and from underneath the boat it finally and slowly made it's way to the surface, while shaking it's head and revealing it's size. A heavy 3 LB largemouth or so. As I reached within a inch of it's lip to grab him the lure came out and he was gone. Little Mike was pretty disappointed and I felt bad for not being quick enough. What we didn't know at the time was that would be the biggest fish any of us would hook up with that night. Little Mike did cast back into the spot again and cought a 2 pounder. We were able to get a couple of pics but at that point after loosing a much bigger fish the excitement and attitude was mute, he did ask though if that was the one (the 2 lb I caught previously) and I said yes. We moved on and saw a small dead bass floating from some shore fishermen but something was different about it. So I grabbed it from the surface and realized it was a tiny smallmouth. Though sad that it was now dead, I felt better knowing they were still some here after all. There were schools of perch breaking the surface of the water and I casted into it and landed one of the predatory fish chasing them, a heavy pickerel. No pic though I was in a rush to cast back into the school in hopes of a giant. The Mike's down sized there baits and hooked into some of the yellow perch. It was now pitch black out and the boat traffic was gone.....aaaaagh peace! Unfortunately though the night bite was super slow, tossed out slammers and muskie jitter bugs. A few more largemouth's were caught but us but the highlight was when I was working a over sized muskie jitterbug and on a pause the plug got slammed hard and the fish went deep with force then came up jumping multiple times with authority. It was dark and I could not see the fish well and I said to the boys I have a feeling this one is a smallmouth. After landing it and shinning a light on it, sure enough it was. We continued on a bit I even tried fishing for some white catfish briefly but no luck. The bite shut down and we decided to call it quits early at 1:40 AM. Not one of our best trips but still fun.

Friday night and over the weekend Bill hit Badacook, Assabet River and the Nashua River for some bassing. Night time top water was the name of the game, as well as some finesse worming during the day. Plenty of bass caught including some heavy two pound plus fish each outing. On a couple of those trips Amanda joined Bill and got this largemouth on a ultra light rod with 4 pound test. She's fairly new to the sport but already has proven herself as a diehard by more than willing to stay up and fish all night and then switch tactics and fish into the morning. I know allot of guys who couldn't keep up with her. Great job guys.

Decided to do the night shift for an attempt at some nocturnal hog bass. Hit one of my old bass spots I have not fished in a few years. During the day the boat traffic, swimmers and jet skiers make it a nightmare to fish. But when things calm down in the evening the bite can sometimes be great. This time I had company, I brought my friend Mike and his son (little Mike). In addition to his oldest son, Mike also has 2 very young twins, a business to run and a wife. So with all that on his plate he does not get a chance to fish as often as he would like. Last time I fished with Mike was back in the spring for brook trout in NH. So it was nice to get him and his son out in my little boat. Before we started fishing we had a T-storm roll in and out and we hoped no more were coming. We could see the lighting off in the distance and we all worried that if it came our way our trip would get cut short. Luckily that did not happen. Around 11 PM or so a heavy fog rolled in and it was just pitch black and I believe this slowed the top water bite down a bit. We seemed to do better around houses, docks and area's that had lights on. We started around 8 PM and probably fished until around 2 AM. The final tally was 9 bass for me, 2 early on off plastic worms and 7 bass off waking slammers. My best bass of the night was around 2 plus lbs the rest were small and I could not believe they were hitting my large baits. Toward the end of the night I had what probably would have been my biggest bass of the season spit the hook out on me, that one hurt and was the one I came for (but Big Birtha eluded me yet again). Mike landed 2 bass both on musky jitter bugs which included the largest of the night, around 3 plus to 4 pounds. Little Mike also got two fish, his biggest around 3 lbs or so and I think his 2nd bass was caught on a spinner bait. The grand total of all fish caught was 12 bass0. In-between there were some hits and fish that missed the baits. Action was not great but decent and it was a good evening to spend outside. Had a good time as usual out with the Mike's.

Took Friday off from work and went out and had one of my best pike days with the rod. I had 6 hook ups and landed three of them. The other 3 fish spit the bait out. I had one on that was peeling drag with my rod bent beyond belief. The fish was powerful and I never even got to see it. Regardless of that loss I still managed a PB on the rod with one around 14 lbs. This pike actually jumped a few times like a salmon or trout would, they do this occasionally when the surface water is too warm for their liking. The pike are sensitive this time of year and they don't like the warm surface temps and stay down deep in cooler water but because of their metabolism and the need to feed at times they must come up to whack their prey. When hooked they don't want to deal with that warm surface water for very long. I managed to snap a quick pic or two of each pike and released all fish alive and well but not without some thought behind it. I have a giant fish cooler I use as a live well and also as a means of balancing the weight in my boat when I'm solo. I place ice into the cooler and then fill it about halfway or more with lake water. The ice melts fast and cools the water a bit and the cooler also keeps the water at a much more comfortable temperature to pike. When I get a pike at boat side I immediately place it in the cooler, set the self timer and then get a quick shot before release. I also look for cooler surface water and hold the pike down as deep as I can when releasing them. It's critical to move fast and get them back in as soon as possible. It's pretty pain staking to do all this and I'm not recommending it. I think until the surface water temperature cools off, if I go piking again I'll just take a quick snap shot of these hooked fish at boat side, right before quickly unhooking and releasing them. To big of a pain in the butt getting shots of holding pike when alone. You can almost see them go into a mild shock when you place them back into the lake but they pick up the pace a bit as they swim back into deeper cooler water. If your piking this time of year have a plan or get them unhooked and released as soon as possible. You don't want to risk killing these fine game fish. All pike on this trip were caught on slammers.

After talking with my buddy George on the 28th I got the urge to do some night bass fishing so with my son Mikey as my fishing partner we headed out to throw my favorite top water lure the Muskie Jitterbug those 6 inch Monsters throw some water going across the top. My personal best bass a 6lb 14oz hog came this way. A hot spell will get the big boys moving. So with the warm weather we have had lately we had high hopes. I like to fish beaches. I like the fact that all the weeds and sand kicked up all day will attract bait fish which then bring in the big night time bass. We got to our spot and fished for a couple of hours with only one hit, a small bass going after a big meal with no success. A local guy just hanging around said that the guy who we saw just leaving had a 6 lb bass in his bucket!! I had my doubts as to the actual size however I am sure it was large. Mikey was upset to hear this but I told him all that means is the big ones are out!! My first bass came around 9:00 a little guy about 12 inches we did a quick release and went back to fishing. Around 9:30 I had a big boil on the Jitterbug about 5 feet from shore and when I felt drag going out I knew I had a good bass on. I yelled for mike to grab the net but with the wind picking up he couldn't hear me so I beached the bass. Mikey was walking toward me and told me he would grab the camera and scale. I was pretty happy with the results 18 inches and 4 lbs on the digital scale. My best in the last couple years. That was the last bass of the night we called it quits just shy of midnight. Remember 'Take a kid fishing' - Mike Deloia

Headed back to last weeks spot, hoping for another chance at some pike hook ups. While driving I almost hit a 6 point buck in velvet, crossing the road. What a beautiful animal, the sighting got me fired up and excited about this upcoming bow season and gave me some ideas on some near by spots to scout. Anyway back to fishing, last week I had a big pike miss my bait, then a smaller one follow my slammer to the boat but not commit and then I had a hook up on a big pike that came unbuttoned. I did a bit better this week. I managed 3 pike hook ups and landed two of them. Figures of course though that the biggest and most aggressive pike came came unbuttoned. As soon as I got him near the boat he went bonkers, what a battle (that he won). The other two pike made up for the loss though. Tried to get a weight on the largest one but my digital scale decided not to function. Guesstimating the first pike went around 10-11 lbs and second around 12-13 lbs. Both gave good fights especially the 2nd pike that made several screaming runs. Look for some video's of these fish being released to come on the home page soon. I bought a tripod to be able to take easier self timer shots and video on my solo trips. First day using it while taking some pics of the 2nd pike the tripod slid and fell over the side and broke my digital camera that was mounted on it. Between the scale, camera and also a pair of polarized sun glasses that also broke, it's been an expensive day. I think I'll stick to putting the camera on top of my tackle box for the self timer pics as I used to do. On the bright side I now have a even better digital camera that I just purchased. Fished slammers today and a bucktail briefly, no hits on the bucktail. Started at 6 AM and cut out early around 3 PM. It was a great day to be out and nice to get into some big fish. Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Not able to fish the morning but headed out in the afternoon, solo. Chucked big swim baits only today and worked them hard. The first fish hooked and landed was a 5lb 2oz largemouth bass. I was pretty happy with that fish until I had a giant pike come up and take a whack at my bait and miss it. Later on I had another smaller pike follow my lure to the boat but no commitment. I was getting just a little irritated and things soon got worse, when later on in the afternoon I actually hooked into a huge pike and fought him for about 5 seconds and then he came unbuttoned. I estimated him around 15-17 pounds. It hurt a bit but what are ya gonna do. Over all I landed a good bass and got some great action and adrenaline pumping from the pike. Driving home I saw a bunch of deer in the fields. I truly enjoy being an outdoors man.

Me and my friend Bill decided to hit a pond that I thought would produce a good night bite for nocturnal hawg bass. The plan was to get together after work to fish the evening bite into the night but plans don't always go accordingly, do they. We finally get to the spot and get set up to launch and no sooner are we ready to hit the water, the rain and thunder hit us. Me and Bill patiently waited it out but by the time we got started it was dark and the evening dusk bite was gone. I waked some swim baits under the cover of darkness and praying not to hit any rocks or trees during my casts. Bill did the same with a jointed jitter bug. The night bite was off and a bit slow. I heard an explosion on the surface while working my bait and then felt the fish and set the hook. My first fish of the night was a very fat bass around 3 plus pounds. Bill had a miss or two but landed a bass around a pound or so. I worked some lily pads and got whacked hard. I fought a big bass to boat side. Me and Bill both reached to grab her and she came unbuttoned. She was a good bass of around 4-5 pounds. We both kept at it. Bill landed a couple of small bass and I got into another one myself around a pound and a half or so. We were planning on continuing fishing until the storm moved in again. The lighting and thunder sent us home early. Once again fishing with Bill was a good time and it's nice to fish with a fellow die hard.

Me and a friend got together for a few hours, to wet a line after work. My friend Dave lives on a private lake, also known as Dickinson Reservoir. He suggested we fish his lake and off we went. It was a perfect summer evening and I did not take the fishing to serious, I was out really to just relax and hangout. I tossed out some big swim baits and briefly a spinner bait but no luck. But working rubber worms produced about 5-6 largemouth bass for me and my buddy Dave had some misses working top water baits but landed a pickerel. Me and Dave plan on getting together again to get the big one next time. I'm surprising myself at how much bass fishing I have been doing lately. Saturday I won't be fishing to attend a good friends wedding but plan on getting out Sunday, I just have no idea yet what I'll be targeting or where I'm going yet. Good luck to all who make it out on the water this weekend and to those that do, feel free to share your photos and report with us.

It was the nicest day of the long weekend and the sun was out. I convinced my wife we should enjoy the afternoon and head out and get some sun, instead of working on the yard. I didn't have to bend her arm much to convince her. She pretty much spent her time tanning in the boat while I put some lines out trolling for trout. Swimmers where everywhere including out in the middle of the lake. I debated on if I should even troll and decided screw it and used the swimmers as an obstacle course. I figured if they could not give the fishermen some courtesy by not swimming in at least one area like the middle, why should I give them any. It sucked that I was not able to fish a lot of good spots due to the swimmers but within a few ours of fishing I did manage a limit on trout. I also had 4 come off, they just were not hitting the lures hard. What hurt a little was loosing what looked like a 18 inch, 2 pound or so rainbow at boat side. She spit the hook out before I could grab her, oh well. Another highlight was a trout I hooked that fought really well and pulled some drag, it took a while to get it to the boat and to get it up and into the net. It was a brown and the size of the trout surprised me, I was expecting a much larger fish (to the point I was disappointed). The brown was fat and stocky and had a big shoulder on her. She regurgitated a small half digested sunfish. Good to know some of these stocked trout are adapting to the lakes limited forage sources. While trolling for trout I also caught a decent accidental largemouth bass. We ended up leaving earlier than I would have liked, so we could get home and eat dinner and rest. After recapping the long weekend I managed to fish 3 days half heartedly, sleeping in all 3 days and leaving early all 3 days and still managed to land some numbers and decent quality fish, I deserved to have gotten skunked.....go figure!

I was up real late from a 4th of July party the night before and realized there was no way I was going to be able to get up early. While at the party I chatted with a friend of mine Bill who I never fished with before who wanted to hook up and fish sometime. So we made plans to fish together Saturday (the next day). Bill came down late Saturday morning (after we slept off our hangovers) and we decided to go bass fishing. Bill threw out some black power worms, rigged weightless, Texas rig style with a weed less hook. I wanted some numbers and some quality fish so I through out the slammer 50% of the time and the other 50% of the time I tossed out some senkos, wacky style. Between the 2 of us we must have caught 25-30 fish (including perch and pickerel). The three biggest were a 1lb 8oz bass Bill got, a 2 pounder I pulled out and the largest of all was a 4 pounder I landed that put up a pretty good fight. Bills a pretty good fishermen and we both seemed to catch about the same number of fish as each other. We had a good time, Bill is always welcomed in my boat. I'm sure we will hook up for some more trips very soon. Anyway we ended up cutting this trip a little short and probably missed a great dusk bite. Rushed back home to slap some ribs on the grill and have a beer and eat before it got too late.

Woke up at 4:00 in the morning to fish and then noticed it was pouring rain. I thought to myself screw it and went back to bed. Slept in and and when I woke up it was just a mild drizzle that eventually turned to just overcast, conditions finally looked good. I got a very late start and decided to fish semi-local. I was originally going to take a 1 hour road trip to CT, early in the morning for some pike fishing but decided to chase largemouth bass closer by instead. After a quick lunch I was on the water around at the crack of noon (shame on me). I was targeting big fish only (pretty much), by throwing out large swim baits. It was all or nothing this day. I did very briefly throw a spinner bait which produced a pickerel. Anyway I noticed tons of bluegills all over the surface of the pond and most were out in the middle. So I decided not to just fish the shore and structure but to also cover some of the open water away from shore. After a couple of hours chucking a slammer I got whacked and finally produced a good fish. A 5 pound largemouth bass. I was solo so I stacked my camera on my tackle box hoping for a good angle on some of the self timer shots. I managed a few ok shots but not the best pics. Afterwards the fish was immediately released to fight another day. First time out this year targeting bass exclusively, so I thought not bad. However it was the only bass of the day. It didn't help that I also had to cut things short by leaving early as well to make it to a 4th of July barbecue party. Would have been a great evening to fish.

When I think of prime musky fishing I think of Canada, the Midwest or even the St. Lawrence river in NY but unfortunately right now I don't have the budget or the time for such a far away prime destination. Still I have been wanting to do a musky trip for a long time and decided it was time now and looked into other closer to home musky opportunities and found some good lakes in NY that are well managed for muskies. After some research and a few phone calls I narrowed it down to one location, that was much closer than I had anticipated (a little under 4 hours to be exact). Which meant a much more reasonable drive (cheaper and met my budget) than the other previously mentioned locations. I have never gone after pure bred muskies, nor had any luck with the very few hybrid muskies left in MA, who has halted there stocking program some years back and unless by miracle they begin to stock fish again in the future, All the tiger muskies left will soon deplete themselves, since tigers are sterile and cannot reproduce. There are no pure muskies in MA, which has brought me and my friend Ray on our road trip to NY in hopes of the fish of ten thousand casts. Being that myself and Ray have no experience fishing for musky or any intimate knowledge of the lake I chose. We decided to hire a local guide to take us out. The guide had a reputation for catching muskies. The money spent on doing so was worth the knowledge and well spent. We walked away learning some tricks and techniques (some we would have never thought to do) that we can apply on our future musky trips, when fishing on or own and with confidence. However the guide we used as knowledgeable as he was (on musky fishing) I will not endorse his service or mention his name, nor the lake he guides on. Simply because, well frankly he was a serious tool and the rudest guide I have ever met. I'm pretty much easy going and like and get along with most other fishermen but this guy...wow! You just would not believe the crap that the guide kept pumping out of his mouth for 9 hours each day for two days. I decided on the drive home never to use him again or endorse him and to just take the knowledge we learned from this experience and apply it on our future trips. Anyway back to the fishing, day 1 the guide said conditions could not be more perfect and that we were going to get into the muskies no problem and he kept telling us what a great musky guide he was and how he was the best on the lake. After he was done petting himself on the shoulder the end result after 9 hours of fishing with this egotistical guide was zero muskies. The fact that we caught no muskies the first day...well thats just fishing sometimes....right!, especially musky fishing but come on, I dont need to hear about how good you think you are or your prejudice propaganda and politics. Day 2 we met back up with the guide early morning feeling a little less confident but it was a new day and we went at it with some hope. I noticed the drag was set really tight, too tight with almost no drag unless we hooked a whale (literally). Mid morning we got our first hit and the guide grabbed the rod from the rod holder and lost it (yeah)? Early afternoon I was fishing a popular musky bait, a black buck tail, holding the rod IN MY HAND while we trolled the bait right over a weed line and whack, I landed a very hard to get and rare tiger musky. The guide mentioned how so few are caught. I was pumped and after some snap shots were quickly taken back out she went, released to fight another day. The fish was absolutely gorgeous with those green tiger stripes and I will be doing a fiberglass replica of her in the future for sure. About 2 hours later my rod in the rod holder went off and Ray grabbed it (sort of) and what he had on was a giant pure strain musky that the guide estimated at 48 inches long, a true beast. The musky got real close to the boat after being practically forced in with no play, with 80 pound power pro line and as I mentioned before practically no drag, well the muskellunge then took a lunge and the hook ripped right out (I told you the drag was set to tight on his rods Ray). So two days of fishing at 9 hours each day straight, equaling 18 hours for 3 hits, all that for one fish landing but thats musky fishing. Its tough and requires lots of patience and time but the end result when successful always makes it worth it. I do plan on going back again on my own (which will make it that much more enjoyable) and I cant wait to get into my first pure strain musky. The addiction has started.

Not allot of information provided on this submission but this fat rainbow trout was caught over the weekend and was taken from the Winooski River in Vermont.

Joe caught this brown trout out of a river in Ireland.
The brown was 24 inches long and weighed 5 pounds and 12 ounces. The trout was caught using a Fly Rod with 3X tippet and the fight took 25 minutes before the fish could be landed.

Decided to chase some big pike and bass with swim baits. This time I chose a different spot than last week though. I had previously ice fished for trophy pike the last couple of years on this lake but had never done any open water fishing at this spot. It had been on my list this season and I was curious how it would fish open water wise. So off I went on yet another road trip to CT. This spot was even further away than last weeks spot. I got there and immediately began chucking big swim baits. Funny how other fishermen look at you strangely when they notice you loudly smacking the surface with large striper looking sized plugs. If they only knew how well they work sometimes. However on this occasion this was not the case. Tossing these large baits all morning and early part of the afternoon only produced one hook set on a bass. She was a big quality sized bass I estimate at 5-6 pounds, that some how came unbuttoned (even with owner hooks on) during the battle. This loss hurt a bit. I also had a bass around 2-3 pounds follow my bait and then turn it's nose when the bait got toward the boat. The swim bait bite just was not happening. I then switched over to plastic worms, wacky style, just to remember what it was like to catch fish again. Even this style of fishing was a little slow but produced a pickerel and two small bass. Which ended up being all I caught for the day. I might have caught more numbers of puny fish had I not remained optimistic and switched back to the big swim baits for the rest of the afternoon and evening, again trying to get into something of decent size, which did not happen. I also briefly experimented with some giant in-line bucktail spinners in between but no luck on any big fish. Truly one of my most disappointing recent trips in weeks, but that's fishing, especially pike fishing. Had I landed what might have been a 6 lb largemouth, I doubt I would have been so disappointed. I'll be back out soon enough chasing those toothy critters again.

Here's a report below from friend and reader Mike Deloia: Great day just to get outdoors. Hit a couple local ponds from shore Mike and Skylar had a great morning caught 6 bass no monsters but in the hands of a kid they look huge. Top it off with a snapping turtle catch. All parents should get the kids outside away from the computer and video games. I love it when my boys ask 'PLEASE TAKE ME FISHING' dont be selfish give them some time outside with you. Dont let the video games watch your kids. TAKE A KID FISHING!!!

Friend and reader Bob Bishop and company took a trip recently to fish the famed West Branch of the Ausable River in Wilmington and Jay, NY. Over the first 2 day period many, many brown trout were caught including the nine largest going between 16-18 inches, not a bad size class to say the least. They also fished the Saranac River in Clayville, during their time fishing the same location on the Saranac, they estimated catching between 600-700 fish. That's allot of river action folks, that kept these boys busy. By the end of the third day about 1 in 3 fish landed were fish that had been caught and released the prior days, as their mouths were beginning to show some wear and tear. Just goes to show catch and release does work. Included in this mix were also roughly 20-30 Browns and Rainbows in the 12-14” range caught here. Just prior to the guys 4 day trip was a tournament that took place, that the state generously stocked for and word has it that some huge, giant trout (measured in pounds) were also released, for those lucky enough to hook into one of those rare beasts. The river contains both wild and stocked fish. Fish caught on this trip were done so by drifting meal worms on 2 lb test line. My memory might be failing me but I believe some might have also been caught on flies and one brook trout was also reported to be caught, that was thought to be a wild fish. All fish were caught and released. Looks like a great and fun trip, nice job guys!

Couldn't fish last weekend, I was out of state, in FL for the whole week. Helping prep, pack and move my mother and brother to MA. I don't know what was worse packing and lifting all those boxes or the 2 day road trip up the coast with my brothers car. Regardless I was happy to be home and get all that over and done with. I was even more happy to be back before the weekend to get a chance to fish again. Saturday morning I was not sure where or what I was going to fish for. I had done so much trout fishing I wanted to chase something else and something big. I have a small boat with only a electric motor (can't get my old 4 horse 72 mercury gas outboard running again, due to not being able to find parts) and was skeptical on hitting any big water until I find parts or buy another gas outboard but said screw it and decided to chase pike. Got to the lake and the battery and motor ended up working just fine. Fishing was extremely slow. I was casting a double cowgirl inline spinner and various MS Slammer swim baits. Toward mid morning out of no where came a pike following my slammer. I speeded up the action a bit and put a little curve on the retrieve and whack this decent pike hit right at boat side and made several runs before being landed. The fish was definitely caught before and had a ripped up jaw, it was so badly torn that my orange fish grippers and boca grip kept sliding off the slit on the jaw. Clearly if who ever caught the fish prior had some pliers and was a little more careful unhooking the fish it would have had less damage to it. I wish everyone were as careful as possible when releasing fish. Anyway after some quick camera shots I ended up not weighing or measuring the fish, so that I could get her back in the water more quickly. She was really long but skinny, probably attributed to her torn up jaw. She looked like she was a 10 pound plus pike to me but if she had some girth to her, she would have been a true beast. This was my first open water pike trip of this season and it was nice to be successful the first time out with a decent one. Tight lines all!

I was out of state taking care of some family matters all week and not able to fish, therefore no report from me this week. Luckily though during my absence I received a report from my friend Ray (the pellet man), who was kind enough to share with us some pics. Ray knows of a spot he likes to keep secret, where almost every year a couple of golden (palomino rainbow) trout are thrown in the mix with the other trout, during it's early spring stocking by a private hatchery. Saturday during a hot heat wave of 90 plus degrees. Ray headed to his secret spot in hopes of catching holdover trout, though he was doubtful he would connect from shore with any trout with the high temps. His plan B was to fish for big magnum sized bluegills (over a pound), which this pond contains. However he did not have to resort to his plan B. While casting out a spinner Ray got whacked and was pleasantly surprised by this averaged sized but Rare and Gorgeous Golden (Palomino Rainbow) Trout. Ray was very happy and pumped about this catch that it made his trout season. Can't say I blame him, congratulations buddy!

Our friends out west Mike Shaw (creator of the MS slammer swim baits) and his son just returned recently from a trip to the Flaming Gorge and were kind enough to share with us a report and some pics. All the fish were caught in shallow water 30 to 40 feet, in 60 to 70 feet water. Mikes big fish of the trip went 30 lbs and his sons went 31 lbs. Holy Lake Trout or as they say out west Holy Mackinaw. These lakers are so big they were hitting slammers. If that's not enough for ya, Mike reported that Sunday he lost one at the boat in the 40 lb range and is hoping to be able to chase that fish again next week. Great report Mike, Keep them coming!

Saturday morning originally me and Ray were supposed to go to ME, for the free fishing weekend and chase an array of multi-species. The forecast though projected rain all day. Our local forecast just predicted some possible morning showers. Decided to stay local since we had the better forecast and put off ME. Decided to go back to the lake where I lost a giant salmon last week, due to my other buddy's poor net job. The hope of redemption is what brought me back but no luck with the salmon. Could not even work my salmon spots effectively, due to the wind. My electric motor just could not handle it. Unfortunately we had to settle for some quieter coves. Fishing was slow for half the morning. I found a new spot where the trout were stacked up and things started picking up. Ray hooked up with a woolly bugger but got sloppy fighting a good 2 lb plus Tiger and lost it near the boat by trying to force it in (I guess all that time playing with your pellet gun buddy got you rusty). We kept working the same area and I ended up with 2 decent tigers and 2-3 rainbows. Ray ended up landing a decent rainbow. The fish with exception to the tigers were biting softly, we got more hits than fish. In addition to the trout we also got into a bunch of sunfish and a couple of dink bass. The strangest catch of the day happened when I got a hard hit and set the hook, as I was fighting the fish it came off but when I reeled up my bait there was a giant eyeball attached to one of the hooks on my lure. I think it was an eye of a bass? First time I ever landed just part of a fish, would have loved to have landed the rest of it as well. With only one eye left I have to imagine that bass will be even harder to catch. If the size of the eyeball indicates the size of the fish, it was a beast.

Sunday the wife wanted to tan and enjoy the weather. So in the afternoon we headed out to a local spot. She tanned while I fished. Fishing was just painfully sloooow. I did manage a decent rainbow and had another come off. Though the lake does not have many large bass, I decided to switch over to largemouth fishing for some easier action and got a handful of small bass on a husky jerk bait.

I'm about ready to switch over to pike and target some large bass in the coming weeks. I'm declaring my trout season (pretty much) done.

Next weekend and maybe the following. I will not be fishing, instead I'll be taking care of some personal matters. I would like to keep the weekly posts going, So please feel free to submit your own report and pics to "thelocalhookup@yahoo.com", tight lines to ya!

Here's another Sunday report from reader and contributor Mike and his son. Did not get allot of info but Mike sent me this quick report. Him and his son squeezed in 3 hours of fishing at a local pond on Sunday and totaled 6 bass and a pickerel. They also had a turtle siting. They also mentioned it beat the hell out of staying in front of the tube. I'll second that.

My original plan for the day changed, I had a birthday party to attend so I could only go out in the morning and needed to stay local, so I could be back at a reasonable time. I pretty much almost had my fill of catching local stocker trout and was thinking about switching gears to bass and pike for the day but did not have the time needed to travel out of state to the waters I wanted to fish. After catching plenty of trout these past weeks, I was slightly board with it but still had a soft spot for some more tiger trout and I knew where I could find some (just didn't know if I would hook any). Anyway action was good and I caught plenty of fish on a variety of lures. Because of the variety of trout species I was catching and scoring a good size tiger. The day ended up being one of my more memorable trout days this season. Being memorial day weekend, I kept a limit of trout for the grill and carefully released the rest. I actually put in a hour more fishing than I should have trying to score a brook trout to complete a trout grand slam on the lake I was fishing, close but no cigar.

Yesterday toward the end of my morning of fishing, I talked to another angler who had landed a big salmon at the lake. I got a look at the fish from a distance. I took this as a sign that the salmon bite might be turning on. I decided since I had another free morning again to go back to the same lake today and this time target (MA brood stock) Atlantic salmon with some bigger offerings. My usual fishing partner gave me yet an even lamer last minute excuse, and once again bailed out on fishing with me Saturday. He did show interest in going with me today (after he got to sleep in, that is). Yeah! I invited another friend instead and it was nice to fish with someone who was actually eager to jump in the boat and fish. When I asked my friend Dave to join me Sunday morning he jumped at it. We both got up early to do so. Refreshing to fish with another die hard. Anyway fishing was slow but that's salmon fishing but around 11:30 am after already putting in what seemed like a long day. I had a rod out trolling with lead core and metal and it suddenly keeled over. I thought I was stuck on bottom that is until I could feel something pulling back, I knew I had a huge salmon on. The battle was on. I was nervous, my calcutta reel has seen better days and the drag was not the smoothest and the 6 lb fluorocarbon leader was also making me nervous. The fish swirled from a distance and was massive. After gaining line, loosing line and gaining line. I finally wore her out. I got her right at boat side and could almost reach out and touch her and got a close up view of the fish. It was a very healthy looking, long and bright silver hen salmon. Dave was right behind me standing with my big net in hand ready to scoop her up. I hooked (what I thought was a 15-16 lb salmon or bigger). She was finally so tired I was able to glide the monster into the net. She was so big only half of her went in. Once she slipped into the net I felt pumped and relieved and I was about to yell in celebration. But when she went into the net Dave did not lift the net straight up to drop her down deep into the mesh netting, instead he pulled the net to the side of the boat and she slipped right back out and took a massive thrust and broke my 6 lb line, taking my lure with her. After a few choice words to Dave and lot's of cursing, I settled down but was still heart broken. How can I do everything right and slide her into the net and still loose her? I had done everything I could to land her and gone. It was depressing, she was a true trophy. Dave felt so bad about his net job, he apologized a few times and seemed almost as upset as me. He said he was a shore fisherman and never uses a net. Dave is a good guy and a good fisherman, as a matter of fact he took the MA gold pin last year for catching the largest rainbow trout of the state for 2007. I'm not mad at Dave and he's always welcomed back in my boat (I'll just be self netting my own fish buddy). Loosing that fish ruined my whole weekend. That's fishing sometimes I guess.

New T.L.H.U Reader Bob has submitted these pics of his weighed and certified 3 pound 8 ounce Brook trout. This trophy was caught while shore fishing with a cast master. Bob also got into some smaller brookies as well, early Sunday morning. Great Job Bob! Send us your pics and report to: www.thelocalhookup@yahoo.com and find yourself gracing our website.

With gas prices being what they are has kept my angling fairly local but it was time for a road trip and long overdue. My buddy Mike has a camp up in NH, which happens to be an hour away from the white mountains (our target destination). Mike is a brook trout fanatic and it did not take allot of convincing on his part to get me to join him on this trip. We decided to crash at his camp Friday night and take the hour drive Saturday morning into the mountains. We spent the morning at a Fly Fishing only area and had tons of action. Then we broke the cardinal sin of fishing and left fish to find fish. We switched to another location for the afternoon, I guess the curiosity of a new spot got to us but was not as fruitful, we got fish but not nearly the numbers we were getting previously at our original spot. Sunday morning we closed up the camp and packed the truck and made the run back into the white mountains to do some more fly fishing and then hit the road in the afternoon back home to MA. Between myself and Mike we landed 28 brookies. The brook trout were beautiful looking and we caught fish of varies sizes. The largest ones we caught maxed out at 14-15 inches. Even the little ones with the par markings on them were pretty. The brookies were caught on a whole array of flies, including a white (smelt pattern) streamer and a black wooly bugger. Regardless of the fish the trip was well worth it just for the scenery and beauty. Now that I got all the trout species out of the way I think I can move on to other fish soon. Still trying to decide what I will be targeting this upcoming weekend. Have a report of your own? Don't be bashful send us your report and some pics and you might just see yourself right here on this page.

Last weekend I tried to get into some tigers but only managed rainbows and was a little disappointed. Thursday after work I decided to hit a spot on my way home from work and take a few casts from shore. I saw a trout smack a fly on the surface and I quickly casted to the ripple and not long after...Smack. My little ultra-light then began screaming. The fish was strong, aggressive and fought very well. When I landed it I was pleasantly surprised to see it was a gorgeous looking tiger. The fish was dark and had distinct and sharp teeth, a orange red band right above the belly and gold vermiculation markings running all along the side of the fish. What a beautiful hybrid. It was my first tiger trout of the season and would be one of a handful I would catch during the two days. The next day I had off from work to pack and prep and hit the road for my weekend trip to NH. I decided to fish another lake in the morning, with my boat, that I heard also got stocked with some tigers. Casting spoons I managed to get into some more tigers. The biggest went 17+ inches and was fat and healthy looking. Mixed in the bag with the tigers were also some rainbows.

Been to busy to fish during the week, working on my yard and lawn. But on the way home from work the last couple of days I have stopped at a local pond just to take a few casts and fish for about 10-15 minutes. Each time I threw out a mini rattletrap on my ultralight. Tuesday lost two that came unbuttoned but managed to land one decent brown afterwards and a tiny largemouth. One of the fish I had lost had some size to it and was peeling line off my spool. Never got to see it and it hurt. Hated to leave but did. Monday only one hookup but landed it, another brown. Ready for some serious fishing this Friday and weekend.

Been sick half the week and cooped up in the house but by Saturday I was not perfect yet but feeling better and finally had some energy again. Decided to carry on with my plan of fishing Saturday. Things were looking up but then like last week a good friend that was supposed to join me bailed out yet again, this time due to needing to buy parts for his pellet gun at Bass Pro??? To each their own I guess! No big deal but played it safe and made plans with another friend for the following weekend. Anyway I could not wait for some fresh air. Decided to change my original fishing destination plan. According to the Mass Wildlife website Tiger trout were stocked in a few locations in my district this past week. So I decided to give them a try and fish Comet pond. When I got there it was very windy and choppy. I talked to a handful of fishermen and between them only one rainbow was caught, both those things were not good signs. Decided to troll and play around with my new down rigger. Lost a couple of fish off the down rigger but landed a few rainbows flat-lining and a few more off of my lead core set up. Unfortunately none were tigers all fish were rainbows. Each time I hooked a fish I kept hoping for a tiger but no such luck. Too windy to take pictures and all the rainbows looked the same but I did take this quick video of the two last ones I kept alive in a cooler I was using as a live well (my temporary pets). No fish today were killed. I saw a loon and tried to get a decent shot but my camera did not do justice, sometimes it makes the subject matter look further away, I also saw a osprey dive down and miss a fish. To windy to try to take a camera shot while trying to control the boat. Did not get the target species but it was a ok day.

The wife wanted to spend the day with me on Sunday and I was pleasantly surprised when she requested I take her fishing....sweeeeet! After breakfast we hit the road and headed to Big Alum pond. Another pond that got a recent stocking of tiger trout and also held some nice bass. Though I like them I was tired of rainbows and wanted something different. I did more trolling to cover more water quickly to find tigers but we got the skunk on them. However we were crushing the rainbows. The wife was having fun and it was here first fishing trip of the season, so we kept at it. She ended up hooking a giant trout that was screaming drag and line off her reel but it broke off at boat side before we could get a good look at it. Out of all the trout we each caught some were plump and fat and nicer than the others. We kept one limit and released the rest after the first 3 fish were caught. The bigger ones that were caught later on were released back in the lake. I did get to break things up and do a little bass fishing mixed in, just to catch something different. Again not the target species I was after but I had a blast fishing with my wife.

A disappointing weekend, I was hoping to make it down to some of the Capes prime waters for a mixed bag of multi-species fishing. Which is about a 1.5-2 hour drive from my home. Saturday was supposed to be partly cloudy but it ended up being rainy, chilly and raw. I decided to hold off. Between the weather and the cost of gas being what it is. It was not worth making the drive out and best to wait for a better day. To top it off I had plans to fish with a friend of mine who called and turned into a Sally by bailing out on the trip due to the rain :-) I decided to do a solo mission and hitched the trailer and hit Walden Pond. Action was good and I caught plenty of trout. Seven to be exact within 2 plus hours but was disappointed in the size of the fish that the state had stocked this year, most of them were very small. Fish were caught on a whole assortment of lures. Spinners, flies and pin minnows to name a few. Better days to come though.

Good friend & T.L.H.U reader Mike Deloia just got back from his trip and has given us a report below, wish I could have made this trip buddy. Fishing for the King of fish The Wild Atlantic salmon. If you have never done it you really must give it a shot. I booked this trip a year ago along with my 11 year old son Mike, Harvey Packed and Jeff Hinnman both from Eustis Maine and Scott Wessels owner of the Bears Den fly shop in Taunton. We were after these spring run Legends. These salmon average 30-35 inches. A large salmon will go 40-43 inches. on a rare chance one will top 44 inches the largest I know of will hit 48'!!!! Most hardcore Atlantic Salmon junkies are looking for a 50' (GOOD LUCK).These are (in my opinion) the most powerful fresh water fish (pound for pound) in North America. This is fly fishing only casting or trolling. These salmon will take you well into your backing and on occasion a 1/2 mile or more down river and thats the truth!! I had my largest a 45 incher 6 years ago take me 150ft into my backing and another 90ft of fly line with it. It took me 45 minutes to net!!! This is my 5th time fishing the world famous Miramichi river. It takes about 10 hours to get to Country Haven lodge. Just do it!!!! Day 1 Once there we were told that we would not be fishing the next day due to very high water!! This was a huge let down for all of us. We made the best of a bad situation and went looking for wildlife to photograph. Day 2 Salmon time we Trolled for about 3 hours when Mike hooked into his 1st salmon and got a taste of power the first run slammed the reel handle into his knuckles at 34 degree air temps That hurts!!! He passed the rod to me to land the salmon after a 20 minute fight we boated a 35 inch hen. After lunch we were back at it Mike was ok the 2nd time around. We landed 5 more salmon 30-37 inches( The 37' salmon weighed 13lbs 12oz on a digital scale) Mike had one jump(clear water) 12 times we counted each jump. We were doing the best of all 10 anglers at the lodge. That would change. Day 3 We were at it again we landed 4 of 6 hookups Mike lost 2 I landed 3. Mikes salmon was what I was after. All these trips I wanted a big kype jawed male. The hens out number the bucks 9.5-1!!! Mike landed a 36' Buck with a massive head 9' gill plate to jaw tip!!! 14+lb range. That afternoon I was shut out Mike landed 2 more salmon. Harvey was on fire he had 16 HOOKUPS and landed 8 of those!!!! in just 4 hours. After the end of the 2nd day we were all about even with numbers of salmon caught except Harvey he landed something like 15 salmon total!!!The trip was great and the river incredible this is one of natures gifts to us. A true wild salmon right in the same place nature put them. Remember the ancestors of these salmon we caught swam when Saber tooth Cats and Dire Wolfs walked the Earth!!! We need to protect this famed run of salmon so our grand children can enjoy them. Tight lines, Keep those reels screaming.

Thought this was interesting and unusual. Within less than a week I managed to catch my largest and smallest pickerel ever. This micro 2+" pickerel hit my 1/16 rooster tail and both it's lips were completely impaled by one of the hooks on the treble. How his tiny little mouth was even able to hook itself baffles me. Removing the hook for catch and release felt more like micro surgery :-)

Got out a little yesterday after work in the cold, rainy and raw weather.
The cold front really brought down the fish bite and surface activity. I showed up hoping that the pretty Golden Palomino Trout would make another appearance, in hopes of getting another shot at her but unfortunately she was a no show and was probably hunkered down hiding somewhere. I only fished for a hour plus and managed a few Steelbows, including one of the better ones I've seen, a 14 plus incher. Not a giant by any means but compared to the rest of the steelbows that were stocked in the pond it was one of the better ones.

Me and my good friend Ray decided to do some multi-species fishing. The lake we fished is known for producing occasional big pickerel, trout and very elusive Tiger Musky. The morning started off very slow but we anticipated it being that way, not exactly a numbers place. Searched the warmer shallows hoping to spot and connect with a tiger Musky but no luck. Saw a few trout rises though (not many) and we fished for those on and off a bit. Later on in the morning I felt a heavy whack on my little 5 wt fly rod. I thought maybe I was stuck but then started feeling some head shakes and then my drag started screaming. The battle was on, by the way the fish was fighting I couldn't figure out what it was, all I knew is that it felt heavy and big. The anticipation was killing me and I needed to know what was on the other end, I was taking my time and not trying to horse the fish in or tighten the drag anymore. I fought it for (what felt like) 15-20 minutes. When it surfaced all I could see was the profile of the back and it was dark and judging from the size I thought maybe a Tiger musky but I was not sure, it made another run and my Buddy said he saw the stripes on the side and that I had a musky on. My heart started racing even more. I've been wanting to catch one for years. The fish comes toward the boat again and still I only see the back. Ray reaches as far as he can with the net to reach it but the handle is just to short, so I grab it out of his hand and lunged the net beneath the fish and lifted it. When I finally look at the fish I realize it's not a musky but a gator sized chain pickerel. I look at Ray and jokingly tell him thanks for almost giving me a heart attack ya liar. I had some serious mixed feelings. I was disappointed that it was not a Tiger and yet on the other hand happy to have caught a MA pin sized trophy (native) chain pickerel. We weighed her on both Rays scale and my digital scale. My scale had read 5 lbs even and Rays scale had read 5+. After that catch we just fished for a little while longer and Ray connected with a pretty looking rainbow and I connected soon after with a white perch.

For the afternoon we decided to shift gears and leave the lake and hit another spot for some shore fishing. We headed to public pond that had held a derby in the morning. The pond had been stocked with (what I call) Steel Bows (a hybrid of a steel head and domestic rainbow trout) by a private hatchery. Technically a steelhead and rainbow are the same. Steelhead are migratory and rainbows are not. This time of year pure steelhead take on a full silver look with a dark chrome blue back and have a slender and aerodynamic look to them. Where rainbows are stockier and generally fully spotted with a pink band. I must have caught over 30 of the things on my ultra-light. Ray did ok on them too and really worked them fly fishing. Apparently there were still plenty of fish left after the derby. They hit various spinners and metal, that they could fit in there little mouths. They were not large but scrappy as all hell. They fight much harder and are even more aerial and heavier head shakers than the regular bows. They looked like little miniature versions of NY steelhead that I've seen. In addition to the steelbows. These little silver rockets were cool looking and a blast. Fun to have an opportunity to fish for something slightly different. we also got into a handful of plump rainbows. A great day of action.

Could only get out in the afternoon, me and Ray again could not help ourselves and decided to leave the boat at home and do some more shore fishing for Steelbows. We got into lots of them again. Also we managed some bonus rainbows and I had a golden (palomino) trout spit my hook out.

Lunch time browns: I love trout fishing but I was getting a little board with the rainbows. Only because those were pretty much the only trout I have been catching so far this early part of spring, which is partly due to rainbows being pretty much the only trout stocked in my district so far. (I wish I lived in the Cape district, somewhere near Sandwich). Bring on the Tigers, browns and brookies. Anyway I took a late break from work and grabbed lunch at a close by sub shop from work. I decided to pull over and eat it at a nearby state park. As luck would have it the stock truck showed up and dumped a bunch of brown trout, with just a speckling of rainbows. Finally some variety I thought. I grabbed the rod of course and casted in anticipation of a much desired brown trout. I get a hit and set the hook and guess what the first fish was, a rainbow. Call me spoiled but I was disappointed. I continued casting and luckily browns were hitting my baits non-stop. I must of caught 30 or more browns and could have landed more. But regrettably I had to painfully wrap up and head back to work but before doing so, just one more cast. Sure enough I hooked another fish and what was it, you guessed it another rainbow. I still have a few fish to cook up from last week (love trout) but my mother requested some so I kept my limit of 3 trout but carefully released around 30 trout (or something like that, lost count). If you live in the Hopkinton or Ashland area hit the reservoirs if you want browns (or rainbows). They hit a variety of metal and spinners. Mixed in the bag also were a few very small largemouth bass and a bluegill, a sign of things heating up for sure. Oh yeah at some point I guess I should finish my lunch. Tight lines!

Sunday I decided to stay local and hit one of my honey hole spots. I needed to catch fish this time and feel redeemed. I had confidence in the area and this particular water not only held recent stockers but it also contains some decent hold-over trout and some good pan fish. My friend Ray joined me again. This time we took my canoe, so we would have no problems reaching any fish :-). Ray got into a small bass with his first cast. I briefly got into a school of large perch (a nice change of pace). We then trolled using a variety of baits for trout. The end result was 4 landed rainbows for Ray and 4 landed rainbows for myself. Ray lost a good 2+lb bow at boat side and I had a big rainbow break off my 4 lb line during it's aerial jumps. The trout from a long distance, clearing the water looked big and the splash loud. This fish dwarfed Ray's lost fish. Bad enough to loose such a nice fish but for it to take my hard to find lure with it was just insult to injury (one of the occasional draw backs to light lines). We also each had some misses. Weird how every time I would catch a fish, Ray would then shortly after catch a fish too, it almost felt like the day had been scripted. We each took a limit of trout and released all other fish. A sunny and beautiful day on the water.

The original plan for Saturday was to head down the Cape and hit some of the kettle ponds to target trout, salmon and bass. But Friday evening after hearing about the Jaycees derby. I decided to change plans and check that out instead. The trout stocked where Gold (palomino's), brook, rainbow, tiger, brown and steelhead (yes...steelhead! sorta, a hybrid cross of a steelhead/rainbow). In addition to those fish (stocked by a private hatchery) the state also stocked some rainbows. It sounded to good to pass up. I drove up with my buddy Ray and when we got their I bumped into Roy (MA angler of the year) and chatted. I also watched the prizes get handed out and the smiles on the kids faces (thumbs up to the organizers). By 10:30 the derby was over and the pond was open to all. I then met one of the organizers of the derby Todd (from NEF). We all then started fishing (Myself, Ray, Todd and Roy). The morning started off tough for us. Roy got a fish or two and Todd, me and Ray nothing. By mid afternoon it was hot and the fishing very slow. Me, Ray and Roy took a break and grabbed some drinks and burgers. Afterwards we got back to business and fished until dark. Roy had the magic touch and the right rod setup to make those long distance casts, needed in order to reach the trout and caught many (including a gold and a steelhead). I had a small ultra light rod with no back bone and most times could barely reach near the honey spot. Between that and just plain bad luck, for once I actually got skunked on the trout (bad enough to get the skunk but in front of your friends...ouch!). Ray had 4+ hookups and landed two average rainbows but lost a bow probably around 3 pounds right by the shore line. Todd got into some, including one of the few gold's. Spoons and cast masters seemed to be the dominant artificial baits, the trout were willing to hit. Unfortunately that day for all none of the really big (5-7 lb trophy) trout were caught.

Left for work a little early this morning, when doing so I always drive past Bartlett pond. The pond is very small and has a brook that feeds into it. The pond is to shallow to support trout through the summer but makes for a nice and near by put and take fishery. Since I had my ultra light rod in the truck and had a little extra time before work, I made a compulsive decision to take a few casts from shore. So I turned back around and pulled in. It was stocked Wednesday with a fresh batch of rainbows and happen to be warm and beautiful this morning, how could I resist. No hits on the first few casts. I walked over to what looked like some deeper water and where I saw some rises. I was throwing a rooster tail out and after a few more casts wham! But she came off, then another hit and that one came off and again. Even though I did not land any of them and I was feeling slightly frustrated it was fun watching them chase and smack the bait. I decided not to set the hook when I felt them and suddenly I started landing fish (weird but whatever works..right). I landed 4 rainbows back to back and kept 3 for tomorrows new grill recipe. I hated to have to leave when the fish were biting so well but time was running out and I had to get to work. I live minutes away and drove back home to ice the fish down for cleaning after work. I also washed up quickly and headed back to work. Looking forward to fishing all day tomorrow, me and one of my buddies are planning on hitting one of the cape ponds for some hopefully bigger fish. Good luck to all this weekend whatever your fishing for!

Wanted to fish a bit today after work, unfortunately I did not have much daylight left. By the time I loaded up the canoe and gear, unloaded and launched at a near by lake. I had about an hour before dark to fish. I told myself probably not worth it to have gone through all this effort for so little time but was glad I did. Today I trolled looking for fish using a variety of surface baits. The trout started rising as the sun began to set and feeding ferociously on flies. Within that hour I landed a real nice rainbow that put up a great battle. I temporarily put it on a stinger so I could keep it alive while digging out the camera to get the shot below. Unfortunately I was alone and no one with me to snap a better pic. (I should invest in a tripod for my camera and learn how to use the self timer, agh...maybe someday) Anyway the rainbow was to nice to kill and this lake is deep enough to support holdover fish, so I let her go. I got a smaller one shortly after as I was making my way back to shore in the dark (a recent stocker), that one I kept for dinner and then soon after lost another by boat side. It was nice to get a taste of pleasant weather and squeeze a little fishing in during the week, unfortunately my neglected yard is paying the price for it.

The weather folks were wrong again...Ugh! Heavy rain was reported for all day Saturday. I thought fishing was going to be a wash-out. I figured I'd just work on some projects I had put off around the house. Sure enough when I woke up it was beautiful and I had missed out on what would have been a great morning to fish. I should have learned my lesson from previous forecasts. Though I was not planning on it, I decided to fish. I was able to organize my gear, hitch the trailer and get to the lake for some afternoon fishing. Since once again I was limited on time and wanted some action, I decided to chase some (stocked) rainbow trout, semi-locally. While looking for fish the sun broke and I actually shed down to a T-shirt at last, I thought and the warmth felt great. I found a spot where the trout were bubbling on the surface feeding on the 1st hatch of flies but when the wind would roll in occasionally, they stopped feeding but when the water turned back to glass again they would commence feeding. I did not have anything on me to match the hatch. No fly rod just a ultra light rod casting a variety of small rebels just under the surface produced a couple of fish. One barely fought and the other rainbow jumped 4-5 times before it made it's way to my net, a good fighter. I was anticipating much more action to come. Unfortunately some clouds then rolled in and the temps dropped a bit, the light jacket came back on. Not a big deal I thought until it started thundering and lightening and then heavy down pours followed. I decided to play it safe and head back in. Figures I finally find some feeding fish and I had to cut things short. Oh well! Wanted to go Sunday but had a family function to attend. Weekends are just too short. Not a great report this week but that's how things go sometimes.

Saturday: I was only able to get out in the late afternoon. I grabbed my canoe and headed out for a solo mission and decided to chase some trout. I struggled in one of my local prime trout spots. Fished until almost dark and only managed to get a limit of 3 rainbows, it was extremely slowwwww. This spot is usually a big producer for me. All trout were caught on count down rapala's. I had all day to fish Sunday and anticipated another limit. So I put the fish on ice and putt off cleaning them until the next day, hoping to add another limit to clean with them Sunday. I love eating (stocker) trout and was looking forward to Sunday's fish fry. As slow as it was still feels good to be out on the open water.

Sunday: was my chance to fish for the whole day but when I woke up I was disappointed to see that it was cold, rainy, windy and just plain raw outside, yet again. I was bummed, the forecast said it was supposed to be sunny and clear. I ended going back to bed and sleeping in and having a long leisurely breakfast with the wife before finally heading out. By the time I was packed up and ready to go it was already around 2 pm. The target of the day were rainbows. I wanted some numbers today. I had a few choice spots I wanted to hit that were all about 35 minutes away from my home. I decided due to a late start I'd stay local and take a chance and a gamble at one of my secondary spots 10 minutes away instead. In which paid off handsomely. This was a fairly new spot I had found early last summer and had done okay with last year and hoped it would be a better spring producer. When I got to the spot the wind had picked up and once I unloaded my canoe and gear (of course) it had begun raining again. I started to lower my expectations. My hands were numb and I had no energy to cast, so I opted for trolling. I found fish in two spots all between 22-24 feet down and worked those areas. I put out a 5 wt fly rod with sinking line with a favorite fly of mine attached. Within a couple of hours or so of fishing, I landed 7 trout and a slab bluegill. The bite was still on but I decided to cut it short. Wanted to head back home warm up and clean and prep up all the trout for the wife to cook up. No big fish this weekend but it was great to get into some action after a slow and boring day on Saturday.

I got a call from my good friend Mike Friday night and he mentioned wanting to fish locally Saturday Morning for some trout. When I pulled up to the lake with my boat to meet Mike. I was pleasantly surprised when Mike brought his son Mike Jr. Though I was pumped to be able to fish out of my boat again versus on a slab of ice. My friends did not share my enthusiasm. It was cold, windy and raw. I felt pretty acclimated to the weather with all the ice fishing I had done some weeks prior but unfortunately my friends were not but braved out the miserable conditions for about 3-4 hours. The end result in that time frame was 1 rainbow trout caught by Mike Jr. and 2 rainbows I had caught on my fly rod, using sinking line to get to those buggers. We had about 6 or so missed hits between all of us as well. I dropped my friends off and continued to fish and did some trolling and managed a couple of more rainbows. Better weather is to come and the bite will continue to get better. Man it felt good to be back outside again.

Friday best for the day was a 11lb9oz fish that Dan landed. Big Mark also scored a good one. Saturday due to the snow storm I showed up later than I wanted to and when I got there Joe had already landed a 12lb5oz fish and also the group next to the crew (Kris) scored a beautiful 8lb even bass. Pat & Joe's scale both came up 8lbs even. The bass was released to fight another day. Ron Carr with his artic jigging rod landed two nice pike, best was 8lb14oz. Man I really missed out on seeing some great fish being caught. Of course when I got there in the morning the bite had completely slowed down except for Jarrod who couldn't keep the pickerel off. Finally, hours later yours truly got a flag. I set the hook and fought it a bit but the fish ended up getting wrapped and stuck on a stump and was lost. I felt pretty disgusted about it but minutes later after re-baiting the tip up, it went up again and this time I was able to pluck a decent one out of the hole. I was not planning on fishing Sunday but wound up with my afternoon clear and decided to fish but ended up with the skunk but Pat and Ron kept busy and worked some pan fish jiging. To see all the photos of the long weekend, go to newenglandfishing.com

Got a late start thanks to the abundant snow fall. I didn't want my wife who was leaving for work later in the morning to trip or have problems backing out of the yard. So I shoveled and also cleaned the cars off before leaving. I debated even going since my buddy had called and mentioned he may not show up and he was the one who was supposed to provide me with the big pike bait. I only had small crap bait on me but I thought screw it and went. The day only produced a small pickerel for me. Out of the rest of the crew at the lake, Pat landed a couple of small pike and Joe got one before I had arrived.

I should have known it was gonna be a bad day from the start, when I woke up with a massive hangover (stupid move on my part). On my way down driving on the highway to CT Saturday morning, to meet up with the (NEF) pike'n crew, I ended up loosing control of my truck when a front wheel bent outward I could have gotten killed or worse hurt someone else. To make a long story short I wound up spending what was to be my fishing day waiting for a tow truck and then repairs to be made. I also ended up spending some money as well, about $1,600.00. Horrible Saturday. Sunday stayed local (by force) but was lucky enough to get a friend to join me and drive to a local rod and gun club to partake in a trout derby. Wanted to get there earlier but ended up hitting a couple of unexpected snags and was not able to claim a good spot in time. Since all the limited deep water spots were taken I ended up in some very shallow water (about 1.5-2 feet) and decided to switch gears and bass fish instead with some larger bait. It was a good move and saved my day from being skunked. I ended up with 2 decent largemouths.

Saturday....nothing! No one caught anything within the pike'n crew. GOT THE SKUNK! Following day Sunday hit Chauncy for Tiger Musky with the same unfortunate results. That's fishin, those who chase pike and musky know it's all part of the game but I did manage one very small pickerel, barely worth a mention, in fact didn't waste my time in going through the effort of pulling the camera out for it. I will be back out again Saturday, thank god for the cold spell.

Slow day all around. The pike'n crew didn't nearly do as well as previous weeks. One of the guys Ted got a couple of decent fish around 10-12 lbs but I was not able to snap any pics, thats it. As for me I didn't get the skunk but I only got this little guy. Still a pike though and better than nothing.

Another slow day. Big Dan got a 6-7 pounder. I had a good fish on and blew it and never got a second chance. That was it for us. Me and big Dan separated from the pack and went elsewhere, which turned out to be a bad move. However one of the other guys of the pike'n crew got his Northern of a life time a 24 plus. Biggest one I have ever seen. Congrats Ron!

I caught a estimated 12-13 pound pike (did not weigh it) and I was tickled pink and would have still been happy if that had been it. In about an hour or less I got another flag. I ran to it and realized I almost got spooled. The fish was coming at me and when I finally picked up the slack line and got to the fish I jerked back as hard as I could and set the hook, the tug of war was on. Felt awesome to hand-line such a large fish in through such a small hole, my jaw dropped when we weighed it and it hit 18 pounds. My target was a 15 and here I was looking at a 18. Piking can be slow but on that day the crew did well. A good number of pike had been caught. What a day! I almost kept the 18 pounder for the wall but Dan talked some sense in me and out of respect for the guy, I eventually did the right thing and back she went in. Both fish were caught and released. I will wait for a 20 lb fish before considering keeping one or just get a replica done up someday. Some great action.

Well here's some proof that I report the good, bad and ugly. I'll I caught on this trip was a small pickerel and got the skunk on the pike and yet again the 15 pounder has eluded me. It was still an amazing day. I fished with a big crew today. I saw the biggest pike I've ever seen up close a 15lb 6oz that taped out at 37 3/4" that my buddy big Dan caught. Jarrod and skimo got there 1st ever pike thru the ice. Total for the day 7 pike and a boat load of pickerel. 6 of the pike where in the 6 to 8 1/2 lb range.

No giants, The 15 pounder has eluded me again. I landed a small pike and a pickerel. Felt good to be on the hard water again.

Hit Comet Pond. No big fish and no numbers. I got 2 rainbows and my buddy got a small bass. The fish finder was marking everything down deep, so we fished leadcore for the few fish we got. As I was just letting some line out a big fish came up and tried smacking my bait and missed, tried to entice it again but no luck. I only saw the shadow of it and the profile was a good size salmon or trout. After that happened I tried some surface baits but no luck with them. Tough time my reels and eyelets were freezing up. Really cold day with some snow at the end but it beat sitting home bored.

Me and Ray went local today and decided to go for salmon since I had barely fished much for the Atlantic broodies this year I wanted to get one and cross it of the 2007 wish list. It was another freezing day but luckily sunny. We felt lethargic and decided to troll. Had a couple of good hits on the rod holders but none stayed on long enough to set the hook on. Ray got the skunk and I got a decent salmon. The Atlantic fought very well (not a giant but I will take it). Felt good to land the target species we were after.