It's late August and the Sox are still in First Place. I'm starting to contemplate the growing of a 2013 Playoff Beard (so successful in 2004 and 2007) to help their quest from last year's Worst Place finish to this year's targeted First Place finish. Good luck to all involved!
I've been back from our New Hampshire/Maine vacation for a few weeks now, and I've been either too busy or too brain-dead to report on it. But I was reminded of Worst-to-First turnarounds while fishing.
Maine has been very generous to me over the last decade-plus of striper fishing, and so when I received negative reports for the season from my local contacts upon arrival, I wasn't all that worried. I've always caught some stripers. I know from experience that I may have to suffer through a few consecutive slow tides, but sooner or later, the stripers and I will intersect. But conditions felt inexplicably dead for the first few sessions, and with vacation time dwindling, I started to wonder if it would be my Worst Season Ever. This was a short-term vacation and probably my only chance for the season; I was on the verge of blanking, and I knew it.
The only sign of a striper (or even suitable bait) in three days had been the mid-day sighting of a single (but very sizable) striper swimming under the dock. With the belief that a chance at such a fish was better than throwing in the towel, I tried some pleasant, relaxed, sun-lit, tide-centered fishing one afternoon. Mackerel made a sudden appearance to break up a slow start. Since the first one landed was too large to free-line, I chunked it and set it on the bottom. I was soon surprised by a confident take and run by what turned out to be a fine, 31-inch striper. The skunk was out of the box, and to be honest, Striper Quest 2013 was a success!
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| Rarely have I been more pleased to catch a fish... a long-anticipated 2013 Striper! |
Soon thereafter, another chunked bait (this time the mackerel's head) zipped out and I was tight to what I knew to be a very nice bass. She turned out to be 37 inches long, the biggest one I've ever taken from shore! In just a short time, I'd averted my worst striper season with a best-ever catch.
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| 37 inches of bulldogging stubbornness...my largest ever shore-bound striper. |
The good fishing held up through the evening. Marie joined me for a bit the next day and took care of the first fish all by herself. Her techniques were a little rusty, but losing the fish was worth it, just to experience her reaction to a fresh mackerel head being unexpectedly tossed at her face.
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| Fish on for Marie! |
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| Head-shake! |
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| The bait is thrown... |
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| ...and narrowly misses Marie! |
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| What a face! |
The evening continued with more opportunities, but few landed fish. The fish were simply too big and too wily to land from my shore-bound location on my light tackle of choice. While the season's final tally of fish landed was unusually low, their size made up for the lack of action. And I'll never complain about Personal Bests.
But perhaps the most memorable fishing of the week took place with my oldest daughter on the Connecticut River, while my other girls canoed nearby. Again, the fishing wasn't great, but I was able to share some fine memories and experiences. We also got a good view of what should have been my largest Connecticut River largemouth bass ever (over five pounds, easily), just before it threw my popper at the side of the canoe. The best part; I'd just told her the tale of my largest Connecticut River largemouth bass; caught 30 years ago or so, probably from within 10 feet from where I'd just encountered this lost fish. Ahhhhhh, fishing!
My next cast produced an acrobatic smallie. It was big enough to interesting, caught on a top-water from one of favorite bodies of water, with all my favorite girls. Giant Bass, Personal Bests and so forth are nice, but it doesn't really take too much to make me truly happy. And I'm glad I can recognize that.
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| Air-borne smallie! |
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| Boat-side antics! |
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| Numenon in hand; in many ways. |
