Ambition

Yesterday was a good day off from the job, and the point of the previous post is relevant but seems to downplay ambition. I later felt as if I had denied its need. Of course, a day off spent relaxed can make me feel that way, but speaking for myself, life isn't easy and I hope I bring this life to a better self-establishment before I "retire." (I plan to keep on writing.) That's not likely, and if I don't earn enough royalties to finally let go of wage jobs, retirement will get me out of them anyway.

Many years ago at Hampshire College where all of us, students and faculty alike, labored under the motto "To know is not enough," attributed to ancient Athenian philosopher Aristotle, I received stellar evaluations for my first semester's work. Then I went to the shore for the summer, into my sixth year licensed as a commercial clammer, and felt a very deep affirmation for that work in the wild bays, the freedom of that self-employed lifestyle, and the depth of insight this life engendered. I went back for the fall semester and found myself completely at odds with the college program. In December, I took a leave of absence, booked an apartment in Beach Haven, struggled to decide whether or not to return to college...and after a month of back-and-forth, withdrew my enrollment. I did earn an Associate degree--Liberal Arts--at Raritan Valley Community College, 2006.

I had gone on clamming until 1993. When I returned to mainstream America, I had no degree, no regular employment to claim on a resume. Pretty much no more than a social security number. I asked myself what I had for any woman to feel any interest in dating me. One of my many notebooks bears the answer. "Language." She would have to be intellectual, of course. She would have to be this in any case. Actually, I found I had more than words, as my wife, Patricia, was attracted to my family's musical endeavor. My father is now Director Emeritus of the American Boychoir School.

Finding employment wasn't difficult. I built up a resume and by 2001 landed a good job in Operations with New Jersey's largest credit union. They eliminated my position in 2015, and since then, I've found work, but not corporate work as was my former job and I yet hope to find. It won't be a job involving long driving distance every day. Such jobs have vanished not only from the credit union I worked for.

I have to pay for the freedom I enjoyed in the past. Clamming paid well. But of course, it couldn't last, not in an honorable way fitting a man with the family background I have and the need of social connection a writer depends on. My dad was trenchantly emphatic. He wanted me out of clamming long before I left the Island. It's why I've worked wage jobs ever since. But better than pay for that freedom as if it were a sin, maybe it can yet inspire my best written work. And any of you who read this blog regularly, you know I express connection to the wilds and account for them not as something other than the real world, but as essential to what the real world is. I was deep into the wilds before I went to the shore, but those early years and the shore ensure days like yesterday relieve me of job hardship.  

River Respite

Last Thursday or Friday, I saw the local river--North Branch Raritan--flooded almost to the edge of its banks. Last year's drought is long gone. Today it flows clear and neither low nor high. I went over with my black Lab Sadie and my camera bag. I had thought last night of bringing my 2-weight fly rod, but I didn't wake up until 2:30, having stayed up last night until 6:00 a.m., writing. So this would be a shorter jaunt and that it was. I wore the Simms wading boots I love, got in the water and carefully negotiated my steps among stones, finding here and there an image to capture with the Nikon, which certainly should not take a dunking. I still managed to get over to the condo association pool for laps.

I recently visited posts from last year, particularly those about the river. I enjoyed catching little sunfish on that 2-weight. I caught a trout on June 21st over here at the AT&T stretch, the popular Zoo abandoned. Once the stocking trucks stop coming, the only other visitors I see, they pass through on the Hike & Bike Trail. Most of all, photography compelled me. And it did today, though I'm keeping the shots for my files. I hope to get a book of Raritan River System photography published 10 or 15 years from now.

I'm a dreamer, but I know something of how hard it is to convince people with the means to publish such a book...to actually do that. I believe the most important thing about dreams is the happiness they bestow in the present. You find they're not "dreams" (unreal), but life experiences without the clutter and hard edges of simple obvious stuff. To merely use experience valuable as an end in itself as means towards something "great" like a book's publication, is to miss the point of living.

My photo files aren't there just to serve my ambition. Once and awhile I enjoy viewing them.

Delaware River Smallmouth Bass: Summer Approaches

Summer Smallmouth Bass on the Delaware River

By Bruce Edward Litton

          During summers the past decade, I’ve taken my family float tripping on the Delaware River. Me, my son, his uncles, and also friends never failing to catch plenty of smallmouth bass. Warm water means smallmouths gorge on a smorgasbord of forage, including crayfish (especially molting), hellgrammites, other insect larvae, hatched insects, terrestrial insects, leeches, nematodes, other worms and a whole host of forage fish. Unlike summer largemouths, smallies fiercely hit lures or bait throughout the day, but if you’re keen on a big one over three pounds, the hour around sunrise and sunset makes a difference for wise old fish.

          A wide variety of river habitat holds Delaware smallmouths in quite abundant numbers, the average size about a pound, fish over two pounds fairly frequent, a bass over three pounds an unusual event, although until the state record seven-pound, two-ounce smallmouth came from Round Valley Reservoir, the record held at six-pounds, four-ounces from the Delaware. On occasion I hear stories of six-pound smallmouths getting caught. While plenty of bass come from shore or by wading, float tripping involves classic river outings. Primitive camping is allowed some places along the river, Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area permits available. If you don’t own a canoe or kayak, rental agencies exist, and arrangements for inflatable rafts work also, just be sure to bring a 10-pound mushroom anchor to make fishing more efficient.

          Floating for smallmouths involves pace. Anchoring allows thorough coverage of a promising spot, and catching as many as half a dozen bass before action fades happens frequently. Newcomers to floating should keep river mileage to a minimum and get a feel for how long they like to linger on spots. We’ve rafted as many as seven miles in about eight hours, taking a leisurely lunch onshore. A southerly wind, however, challenges headway especially for rafters but even canoeists. Typically, we take our time doing about half that distance I mentioned.

          The closest the river comes to real wilderness in New Jersey locates Sussex and Warren counties as perhaps the best smallmouth bass fishing, but Hunterdon and Mercer counties offer very good fishing for bronzebacks all the way down to Trenton. Introduced to the river’s fishing just north of Trenton during my middle teens, as soon as I earned my driver’s license, I started fishing with friends north of the Water Gap, but I fished successfully around Titusville, Lambertville, Bull’s Island and Byram in Mercer and Hunterdon also. In recent years, the Phillipsburg and Belvidere areas have proven their worth.

          Everywhere myriad river structures hold bass, but during the summer months, the best spots situate between the heads of strong rapids and deep holes or slow stretches well below the fast water. Current seams and eddies with depths of six to 10 feet complicated by boulders—smooth and jagged—give bass staging points to ambush forage awash in flow. Crankbaits such as the Storm Hot ‘n Tot, Flatmaster Tournament Series EBS, Bandit Mid-Range and Deep Diver among dozens of other choices all produce in a variety of colors, although for sunny days, I prefer chrome finish to provoke reaction strikes. Cast upstream and especially fish directly downward along seam edges, where bass anticipate forage coming to them.

          Very effective for the same sorts of spots and deep holes, jigs allow a subtler approach, and after I catch an eager bass or two on a crankbait, I like to grab a second rod and fish very close to the subsurface eddies and seams boulders create. These less obvious meanderings of current hold picky bass loyal to little lairs, and during the middle of the afternoon, the biggest bass may be least likely to lurch away from staging spots to charge a crankbait. Get a jig right on the nose and you may catch a reluctant taker. Berkeley Gulp! Leeches prove extremely effective as trailers for eighth to quarter-ounce leadheads.

          Thousands of boulders and rocks have space underneath them to protect bass either wary or eager to ambush. We’ve caught jet-black smallmouths from slow stretches two feet deep; from riffles and mid-size rapids; from seams and eddies and from the hidden mystery of deep holes. Each of these camouflaged fish shot out from darkness to take the lure. Slow stretches with just enough current flow to make the water surface look appealing often hold quite a few bass you can’t see because they hug the rocks or hide beneath.

          Many of the transitions between stretches you may float will be shallow. I’ve never lost the thrill of innocent surprise catching bass as we pass boulders left and right with barely enough water in the eddies behind to cover bass’s backs, and it seems as if every summer we catch a few of these fish with no thought to anchor. Rapala floaters will catch bass in shallows—whether of riffles, eddies behind rocks or of slow stretches---but as we rough and tumble quickly downstream towards slower water, we just toss eighth-ounce jigs about. And sometimes we don’t have to cast. We just pitch the lead behind a rock as we pass and pull the bass aboard. (These fish have always weighed a pound or less.)

          In contrast to sun-heated shallows, the best deep holes on the river drop off from steep shale ledges. Some of these underwater cliffs develop concave shapes from current erosion, and bass position in the shade. Casting a jig right against the rock face and allowing it to fall to bottom may result in a hit on the drop, so keep the line taut enough to feel the tick if it happens, but not so tight that the descent angles the jig back towards you. If the distance cast were the same as the depth below, a tight line would mean the jig coming to rest on bottom directly under the rod. You want to fish against the wall all the way down, which requires an open bail and index finger control.

          Like jigs, Senko-style worms catch so many bass, it’s possible to fish nothing else all day. Light colors with sun, dark when overcast, fat-bodied Senkos five inches long cast far and get gobbled. Almost all of the river structures serve them. Some of the holes reach great depths and quarter-ounce or heavier jigs can plumb the very bottom, but Senkos sink fast unweighted and will prove effective as deep as about 15 feet. Casting far upstream of a deep belly and allowing current to carry the worm into the hole is a deadly imitation of forage at the mercy of the river’s sweep. Line control in such situations is not a straight affair, but by keeping six-pound test monofilament loosely taut, you’ll know when a bass takes. Just make sure to reel line and use the rod tip to judge a tight hookset.

         Longer six to seven-foot, medium power rods cast further than shorter rods of the same strength, though with some loss of accuracy. For crankbaits, a fast action tip is needed, which also helps with feel when fishing jigs and to work topwater plugs during the memorable magic hours early and late.

Overview of South Branch Raritan River 

Overview of North Branch Raritan River Fishing                 

      

            

Aeroflex Lake Bass and Pickerel

Pickerel struck plastic worm as Matt reeled it back for another cast.

For how long I've planned on fishing Aeroflex Lake with my son, I don't exactly remember, but I probably had this trip in mind last August as we fished Tilcon. Today was slow progress punctuated by exclamations for two nice bass and a pickerel, and we never felt as if committing to this patient business of trying to get worms in front of bass was any mistaken waste of time. During this first time either of us have come here, I told Matt that if I could, I would fish every lake and pond in the New Jersey Highlands, because each is a unique formation which would interest me.

Aeroflex is New Jersey's deepest natural lake at 110 feet. One hundred three surface acres, the lake is long and rather narrow. Water clarity allows visibility down to about 12 feet, and every shoreline edge we explored featured a variety of aquatic vegetation. Pads are pretty abundant, and I tried slithering a weedless worm over some of them, though we caught our bass 15 to 20 feet deep. Out and away from pad edges along the western side under shade.

These shorelines drop off very quickly into very deep water. We trolled around exploring depths, seeing if any salmon would mark under us. At one point, we must have situated 50 feet from shore--96-foot depth under the canoe. Surface temperature at 80 degrees, I thought it probably impossible any salmon would come up for a Phoebe near the surface. We didn't succeed at marking any salmon or trout and got back at the bass pretty soon.

When the sun went down, we motored to extensive shallows we took note of shortly after launching. Weedless Booyah Pad Crashers got through the thick, but drew no interest until we worked onward along edges and into the mess towards the ramp. We missed more than half a dozen hits, just as many from pickerel as bass, but these fish were small. Having switched to a Rebel Pop-R and managing to keep it from grabbing weeds, I almost hooked a pickerel that probably would have measured no more than 16 inches.

 Matt's was about 16 inches.

Measured 18 inches. (The Mountain Lake bass of recent post must have been at least 19 inches.)

Slow Worming

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/06/nice-bass-at-mountain-lake.html

Whirling on the Water

Have meant to stop by Shannon's Fly Shop in Califon for a couple months. Placed a call last week, to be sure they had summer issues of The Drake, but my short essay on Salmon River steelhead fishing isn't appearing as yet. Sixty-three degrees posted as the water temperature at the bridge this morning, I asked about trout fishing. "There's a lot of fish in the river." People have been doing well. I was told it's been down to 50 there recent nights. I bought a couple of RS-2 size 20's. A Rainbow Warrior in stock wasn't the "neon bug" as I referred to Jesse's home-tied beauty. I'll await one just as good before I buy.

Finding a parking spot before I made the purchase, I noticed Rambo's Country Store, Choice Meats, and went in to have a peek at the selection. Since my job involves specialty meats, I felt the interest. Ever since I was three-years-old, when first I enjoyed lobster bisque, I've been interested in seafood. I was in the seafood business for 13 years as a commercial shellfisherman. I've never understood red meat as I do seafood, and I still don't. Nor will I ever understand red meat, not so as compared to this knowledge of seafood, which seems to have an uncanny inborn quality. My pitch to those who interviewed me for the job placed employment in seafood as best desired, and at least what they could offer me does involve some work in the seafood department. On up Califon's Main Street a short distance, a frame shop and impressive art works in the window arrangement. Of course, any of my regular readers has some understanding of me and art. This includes painting and drawing, though I've done little of either during the last two decades, and most of my drawing and painting I did as a 10-year-old not satisfied in the quality.

When Mike and I first fished Califon stretches in April, I wondered about smallmouth bass. Later, their presence in the river here was confirmed on Facebook. Today I parked above the dam in town, but found only one spot not marked private. Very shallow water not worth plying. I drove to Mike's favorite spot, found it shallower than seemed before at higher level, but worth casts. Something picked up my Senko-style worm that didn't feel like a sunfish. Here at this spot, I took some 20 minutes closely observing what I thought juvenile water striders at first. Bugs familiar to me, these tiny black whirling racers (not whirligig beetles). I've never before got on my knees and looked closely. I braced my shoulder by my left arm against the rock photographed bottom-most The insects seemed to propel about on the surface film by wings, but though I tried to make these "wings" out--my eyes are not 20/20 as during my youth--it seemed as though, no, it's amazingly in the legs and feet, if you want to call them feet.

At the municipal park, I wondered if driving to Neshanic a good idea, but today the thought of making that arduous hike upstream felt onerous, as did the upstream march to productive water above Three Bridges. Dart's Mill is easy. But the drive a long way south. I fished long enough to regain habitual ability to cast where I need a worm to go, but needed to get back to my car to check my messages, flip phone left in car. The usual Honda's in the shop. Shortly before 5:00 I placed a call for update.

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/04/califon-south-branch-rarital-rainbow.html

Bass Tip: Weightless Worms, Sticks

Bass in the Sticks

By Bruce Edward Litton

          Inspired by Oliver Shapiro’s book Fishing New Jersey: A Guide for Freshwater Anglers, I came to 18-acre Mount Hope Pond in Morris County. After weeks of virtually always catching one or two largemouths better than 2 ½ pounds, I decided to cross over the little spillway to try the western side. There I passed a fellow angler, asking him how the fishing went.

          “Just a little sunfish,” he said.

          “If you get back in the sticks and pitch plastic worms, you can catch bass,” I said.

          “Only early and late,” he said. His face suggested a tense air of authority.

          “I always come at noon,” I said, “and get them every time.”

          “Ah,” he dismissed me, “I’ll get them in Florida and avoid the ticks.”

          This happened years ago, and yet represents a perennial attitude that ensures bass will always be around for the sport. I sometimes see, while out fishing, ecology and economy merge. The bass on the ecological end of the spectrum, the attitudes of anglers on the economic side. Who among anglers wants to make difficult efforts—you can even get bedridden as a result---unless the kind who enjoys the rewards of a challenge? He can always brush off the ticks abundant in nature, from protective clothing he buys.

          Here in New Jersey rewards can be quite substantial. Since that day mentioned, I’ve caught dozens of bass better than three pounds, quite a few over four, one five, and all of this action in particular from May 1^st on through August by a deadly method. I will be specific about the approach in several ways, as if each is different, but all of the variances involve traditional-style plastic worms rigged weightless. Senko-type plastics, all the rage now, sink twice as fast and so in my opinion prove relatively ineffective.

          In the sticks, I use a 3/0 worm hook buried in the plastic, but instead of using a fluorocarbon leader—which sinks—I suggest 15-pound test monofilament, which doesn’t. In any case, consider a microswivel too much weight to connect the leader to 15-pound test quality braid. Use that braid, because its low diameter allows efficient pitches and casts. (Line test any less isn’t enough to pull a big bass out of thick cover.) Tie leader and braid by uni-to-uni splice, and employ a rod of at least medium power, which I’ve always found sufficient. Five-and-a-half feet is ideal for tight situations, and such a spinning rod also favors accuracy, since the tip is closer to the wrist than longer rods that cast farther.

          The exception is lake or reservoir fishing from a boat. Since it’s a good idea to keep the boat at some distance from the target if the water is clear, a seven-foot rod may be a better idea, although accuracy counts anywhere you can get a sense for exactly where a bass might be.

          Two things to keep in mind, and then a third will be discussed. The amount of brush in the water, as well as fallen treetrunks, stumps, and overhangs varies from place to place. I fish five ponds of 12 to 25 acres with some variety of these characteristics and they all differ. I also fish Lake Hopatcong, which adds docks to the equation. Docks are not quite the same as natural wood structure, but close. The second factor just as important as wood in the water is the shadowline on sunny days. Unless you’re fishing a shoreline with the sun directly on it and no brush overhanging water close enough to create shadow, cast the worm into the sunlit water at shadow’s edge. Bass hiding in the shade see the worm in high definition and easily swim to take the slow-sinking, alluring offering.

          Thirdly, as early as May weeds have already grown pretty dense. In fact, some ponds notorious for weeding-in already have become forbidding. But for our purposes, consider clear water and weeds growing up from the bottom as deep as 12 feet combined with sticks. Baitfish and other forage use this nutrient-dense cover as habitat, and you can bet big female bass will inhabit the same.

          Combinations of sticks and weeds prove very good. They add relationships between shadow and light, and you can find a spot to rely on for as long as the sun’s out. At least some of the time. If action ceases after a few visits, maybe wait a couple of years and try again. Nature is a relationship. Put too much pressure on one part—it will give, but not in your direction. Respect the spot, leave it alone, and when you return later, it may once again respond to your wishes.

          Bass live as acutely sensitive creatures in other ways than feeling put upon by lure after lure coming their way and experiencing the disorientation of getting hooked. Water temperatures remain optimal into early June and even later in deep reservoirs; spinnerbaits and plugs can be effective all day, although subtle plastics certainly work too, and I use these more natural-seeming offerings most frequently. By sometime later in June, however, people who fish bass generally believe the game gets played early or late—otherwise forget it. My experience begs to differ, because the record shows results. Contrary to popular belief, I catch bass in the afternoons all the way through August, a month that can present tough bass fishing but not always. I mentioned sensitivity, why?

          The key is to understand the metabolism of cold-blooded creatures. Optimal water temps for bass in the middle 70’s mean they’re most physically active at these levels. But as water temperatures climb into the 80’s, while chases after fish forage do slow, bass burn the most calories. Rather than shoot around lakes like rockets, they slow down to conserve as many calories as possible. And yet something about them must be moving at fever pitch with metabolic rate at top speed.

          Think of all the forage in the water during summer. Much more than winter. Subaquatic insects, nematodes, amphibians, reptiles, leeches. Much of this forage is very easy prey, and bass simply flex jaws to suck in a passing leech, for one example. You can bet they do. All day. In sunlit heat or clouds and rain, summer bass have a real need for calories easily gained. With all this opportunity, you can also be sure that with this metabolic overdrive, their senses are more sensitive and alert than ever to whatever tidbit happens by.

         Pitch a bass a nice big but very slow-sinking, easy-to-get seven or eight-inch plastic worm, and the likelihood is very good the fish takes. To do it right, eschew twister-tails, don’t even buy worms with fluttery fluke-tails; just straight worms with no frills but garlic scent work for me. Summer bass hover about so hyper-alert there’s no need to attract them with a lot of nonsense; save the flash for other times. I use a thin-bodied worm, but the length suggests a nice addition for those needed calories.

         You don’t have to fish before breakfast or after dinner to catch bass from June onwards.

                    

Genes Useless without an Environment

I know four of my readers are not on Facebook (Hey, Lenny, what's up!? I will get back over there.), and I imagine maybe more aren't either. Other night, I reported: "Senior Awards Ceremony at Bernards High School tonight. Trish and I are very happy Matt won the Distinguished Math Student Award, the Chemistry Department Award, the Das Family Science Scholarship, and a President's Award for Academic Excellence."

Loads of celebration over this, and I pass it along because without Matt, this blog could not exist. He was a very bright young mind at Mendham Country Day School when, aged four, he insisted on fishing Sunrise Lake three, four times a week after I picked him up. A true subversive like all true anglers, nevertheless, Matt takes star academic honors, and part of the reason, undeniably, is because he fishes. That's the deepest secret about us subversives: a wild mind is more intelligent than a domicile. Matter of choice more than genes. Genes useless without an environment.

So instead of resenting the absurd world we live in today, just go out, take sunshine, and let it into this world dying for some light. The way the 5th Dimension's vocalist hits the word moon I will never forget, but man, the madness of the 60's is only upon us now, because back then, they really knew it was just that!