Thursday, July 1, 2010

Back on Dry, Solid Land

Feels good to be home! Long day!

Back on Dry, Solid Land
Today started with a 3:45am wake up and on the road by 4:20.

Today's trip was to the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest body of water in Massachusetts by over 10X the next nearest sized lake. The Reservoir is just too enormous for small boats so Kayaks (Watchtower, I will take a pic of my rigged kayak next river trip!), canoes, and small boats under 10 feet are not allowed. Luckily the Reservoir is operated by the state and they rent 14 foot aluminum boats with a 20hp motor and a huge tank of gas for $45 for the whole day! What a deal!

As it is deep summer time and and the lake trout, salmon, and rainbows are all so deep as to be almost not catch able the reservoir was almost empty. I like that a lot! Plenty of room.

We saw Turkeys, Bald Eagles, Deer, and Martens on the islands. Great wildlife. Loons everywhere as well. But it is about the fishing.

Fishing was a little tough today due to heavy winds. On a lake this size the wind really gets channeled hard and not even 50 pounds between two anchors can keep a boat in place! Luckily I have developed drift fishing techniques for deep water smallmouth bass over the years which worked well today regardless of the wind.

I am feeling a bit wobbly and still feel like I am moving with the waves so I will make this short. I was able to locate some great fish (with help of the new Eagle 350c color fish sonar) and the wife and I had one of our better days even with the wind issues. We caught 25 fish between us and the wife, as usual, got the biggest which means I HAVE to go see the Twilight film "Eclipse" this weekend! Dang smallmouths!

Here is a good one I got early on, about 3 pounds:


The wife's first fish:

Not bad!

I got this guy and he was really long but did not feel too heavy. He fought heavy though!:

Great coloration.

My best of the day, a football shaped fatty over 4 pounds and he was a mean jumper! He got aerial 4 times. It was probably a female as the females are bigger, but whatever:

Nice fish!

We had lunch out of the wind in a quiet cove, but of course I saw some movement and it was a largemouth bass chasing shiners near shore so I had to catch him:

Besides the obvious difference (mouth size!) large and small mouth bass are very differently colored, as you can see.

Fish of the day? The wife's easy 5 pound plus bruiser brought up from 18 feet deep on a great rocky dropoff I found. Caught on a black 5 inch wacky rigged senko:

Monster smallie!

Do not be alarmed at the blood from the fish, the wife hooked him in the lower jaw near the tongue and that area will bleed a bit for a minute but with no damage long term to the fish (they have done studies).

A great day but I am tired out. Working anchors, tying hooks and rigs, fighting the wind, and driving the boat. It's like real work only fun!

Added:
An autumn overview of the Quabbin which shows the size and the beauty of the place:

Wow.

Have a good night.

14 comments:

watchtower said...

Awesome pics, I can't get over how beautiful the Quabbin reservoir looks.

The water looks incredibly clear there, not like the sloughs and creek inlets that I fish here with it's murky green color.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Watchtower,
It is a true gem, especially up here in Boston Metro. No kayak, but I will be going out on Saturday (if my back recovers; nobody told me this would happn when I was 25!!!) to the river and I can get that picture of the rigged set up.

I will add a pic of the Quabbin you HAVE to see to believe how pretty the "Gray Lady" is in Autumn.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Hellooooooo out there!

Dave in Denver said...

Great pics dude! That's heavy price to pay for losing a fishing contest to the wife. Dang. Here's what you do: before you head out to the movie, take a 1 1/2 vicadin and chase 'em down w/2 shots of Wild Turkey 101 proof. You'll love that movie LOL.

Where is this area in Mass. Looks really beautiful.

watchtower said...

The autumn Quabbin picture looks like it could have came out of 'Field & Stream', simply stunning!

GawainsGhost said...

That is some beautiful scenery. Not like down here, where it's all mesquite scrub desert. Good place for deer hunting though, and great fishing at Falcon Lake, the Laguna Madre and out in the Gulf. If you can avoid the Mexican drug cartel pirates, that is.

Anyway, there was an interesting article in the newspaper this morning about Ozzy Osbourne. Apparently, they're going to map his genome and try to figure out why he's still alive. They ought to try that with Keith Richards.

EconomicDisconnect said...

Dave,
Good advice, but we are going tomorrow morning at 11am so I usually wait till after 7pm to start with a drink, but maybe I will make an exception! The Quabbin is right in the middle of massachusetts, you can see the huge lake on any statellite pic of the state.

Watchtower,
Thought you would like that one!

Gawains,
I would be afraid to find out what Ozzy's DNA has to say......

EconomicDisconnect said...

I will actually have some econmic stuff up later as well as the usual Friday night show.

watchtower said...

GYSC
Is it too late to add a request for 'Friday Night Music Vids'?

If not, would you consider Billy Idol's live version of 'Blue Highway'?

Stevie Stevens imitates a motocycle on his guitar at the first, I thought it was pretty cool.

http://tinyurl.com/33c384b

EconomicDisconnect said...

Its possible!

CT-Hilltopper said...

Here's a request. Kind of off the beaten path, but here it is!

"Life During Wartime" by The Talking Heads.

It's great to see that both you and your wife got to go off and enjoy a fishing trip. So few women enjoy fishing.

She enjoys fishing and Depeche Mode. Your life must be pretty much complete. Thumbs up to your better half.

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