Power True to My Original Intention

So we got word from United Airlines that we can load 115 linear inches for the fee of a second bag. By all appearances, I can get not only the two stand-up rods in the tube, but also my son's 10-foot surf rod. My wife bought a suitcase in which my four-piece 7-weight fly rod fits. I'm all but certain the rods I want to bring will fit in the tube extended to 82 linear inches, but I haven't loaded it just yet . It's a matter of arranging butts and big guides at intervals, tying the rods together while padding them, and then placing a single unit into the tube.

In the meantime, I've read a lot of articles and watched plenty of videos. I get more from the reading. Yes, the main danger is a big amberjack or big grouper--any kind of fish that will dive for bottom, instead of run straight. In 2007, I caught an 11-pound barracuda on eight-pound test and the St. Croix five-and-a-half-foot always cropping up in photos I post with bass in them. Thirty-nine inches long, that barracuda streaked away in a straight line, until it stopped with little line left on the spool. You see a 10/0 Mustad O'Shaunessey photographed above, the likes to rig a big ballyhoo or hunk of cut bait. It symbolizes the original conviction of mine gained during the 2007 trip, which I wrote about in the previous post. Heavy 80-pound test rigs we will likely use on the pool cue rods. Not that I want to hook a 10-foot shark. Definitely not.

Maybe not so likely that we will use heavy rigs much. I've turned over a lot of options--too many--while reading and watching. But we have power true to my original inspiration.

We leave on January 12th. I will leave my laptop home and won't post about the fishing until after the 19th, the date of our return. My nerves went haywire today. I'm feeling calm at home, though, having done some prep work before writing this post. The more you know, the more complicated it all gets, and there's only so much time, beginning on the Tuesday, before we have to return the boat at 4 p.m. on the Thursday.

Would it have been better to just buy stand-up rods, the heavy reels, 80-pound test? Instead of learning anything else, to have just relaxed with bait under the boat? I can assure you, that would have been plenty less expensive, and we probably would have caught fish, too, but it's not all about relaxation or even the catch, but how the catch comes about. I enjoyed plenty of relaxation in 2012. It's possible I will never again come so close to how I felt while living at the shore for 13 years of my youth. Island Time. Those years do live on within, but instead of trying to recapture what was, this time in Florida, I'm interested in something else. And looking at all the things I have arranged to arm our approach, so long as wind doesn't hamper us getting out there, it certainly will be something else.

Jigging and Stand-Up Rods

Preparing to spool line on reels for Florida. Stripping monofilament to put on heavier. Had a blast in 2012 catching small fish on six-pound test, but besides a back-up reel, going to use no lighter than 10.

Conversation with Matt, realized something. When I bought the Trevala jigging rods, I felt taken aback by the light construction, but these rods are rated 50- to 100-pound test. However, watching videos, I learned they do explode if you lift the tip and muscle into a big fish.

In 2007, Matt and I went far out to sea in a 19-foot boat powered by 90 horsepower. There I hooked something tremendous. My 11-foot surf rod felt like a noodle, its heavy power totally decimated. The run seemed to last three seconds, yet the fish took more than a hundred yards of line. Sixty feet of that line came back frayed. The fish dove into coral and across it. One of the video guys spoke of amberjacks doing just that.

On the boat with the severed line, I swore from the bottom of my being that we would be back with tackle sufficient to hold such a fish.

So this is terrible. We're compromised. An amberjack as big would do the same. Except that I did discover stand-up rods, after a pier veteran told me our jigging rods with the light tips were useless for trolley rigging, because we need the pool cue heaviness to hold a fish from the pier pilings. I already phoned United Airlines once, because by linear inches, my rod tube is over the limit. I will call again on Thursday and ask if four more inches--I can extend it--won't affect the $50.00 fine we already have to pay. If not, we might be able to fit our stand-up rods. We have heavy-duty Penn Squall 60 reels loaded with 80-pound test to muscle really big and powerful fish.

(Anyone with any info on airline nonsense, please comment. Oliver, how did you do? Email if easier.)

Stand-up rods won't jig. No problem. My big one hit a rigged ballyhoo anyhow. Most of the fish we see on video, the fish that hit the butterfly jigs, are less than 10 pounds. Some of them maybe 30. Balls of fun for sure, and the jigging is methodical, but I don't shun bait by much of a margin, and if jigs won't hook a 50-pound fish, why not?

Or that is, if on jigging rods we can't lift its head out of coral anyway.

Bahia Honda Channel

It was a Cocktail, Lenny

Happy New Year!


Fairy Tale New York

Low Water Try for Lake Trout

Matt and I arrived at The Sporting Life 8:34 a.m., and I bought a dozen shiners. On the way over to the reservoir we checked on Zach Merchant's bait shop, which I had heard closed. It has closed. A minute after we parked in Lot 2, Fred Matero drove in.

Fred had told me he wanted to talk to Matt about the Higgs boson, the so-called God Particle. Matt, a junior at Boston University, is funded by that school to create algorithms to interpret experimental data about that particle. They did most of their talking when I disappeared from Ranger Cove towards the main launch, to an area of the reservoir I knew would be exposed, although even with the water level as low as it is, I felt surprised at how extensively exposed. I returned to them after 45 minutes of walking and shooting photographs.

I also felt pleasantly surprised at how well I met nature on its own terms. I get jaded, not only by my job, but by writing every night and keeping up with chores. If an author tells you it's easy to write a book, I suggest you question the quality of the work. But I do find it very enjoyable. To the degree that I often feel like I want to do nothing else. 

But out there at Round Valley today, I was reminded that being in nature is a very different experience. I was reminded of the same, to lesser degree, when I fished with Jesse Sullivan recently, but I had forgotten about it. 

I got the news a couple of weeks ago that lake trout were getting caught, so that's why I came with the shiners, along with high hopes that Matt would catch his first. I phoned Fred and asked if he wanted any, when Matt and I arrived at The Sporting Life, but he preferred his mealworms, marshmallows, and Power Bait.

Nine lines out, none took a hit in fives hours of fishing. But we did see a small trout caught across from us.

Fred and Matt 

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2016/02/shiners-for-lake-trout-why-not-power.html

Red Darts and Surveyers for Trout on a Chilly Day

The South Branch Raritan had come down enough from yesterday's rain for me to meet Jesse Sullivan at about 10:00 a.m. for some fly fishing. He told me Shannon's Fly Shop had recently stocked trout, from Hoffman's Crossing Road to further upstream than where we met at the park in Califon. The added possibility raised my hopes. Jesse had never before fished the stretches behind the park. I told him the water is slow.

"That's what I like to fish in the winter," he said.

"Then let's try it," I said.

He later made the point that slow metabolism and slow water go together. He does catch some trout, but it's tough this time of year. He uses an especially long four-weight rod designed for Euro-nymphing. It casts easily. It reminds me of a spey rod, though it doesn't have the power, and he doesn't need it on the little rivers of New Jersey. The rod is 10 feet, six inches long, and Jesse has a couple of pieces to lengthen the rod, to either 11 feet, or 11 feet, six inches, by attaching them to the butt section.

We fished Red Dart and Surveyer nymphs, which he had tied, under strike indictors. Neither of us got any strikes, but days ago Jesse caught a wild brown trout of about 10 inches in Ken Lockwood Gorge. By size, that fish is little compared to "Bubba" released by Shannon's, but a wild fish in the heavily stocked Gorge stands out. I don't know how big this year's "Bubba" brown is, but if I remember correctly, last winter's was about 12 pounds.

I stayed until after 1:00 p.m., leaving Jesse at a slow water hole in the Gorge. The temperature never rose above 32, but the cold bothered neither of us. It's a matter of dressing warmly. I wore a quality base layer, wool pants, and socks, so I never felt the chill of the water through my waders. On past occasions, I've felt that chill very distinctly.

https://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/03/trout-in-river-but-none-on-hook.html

More on Florida Coming Up

Viewed videos about butterfly jigging tonight, while enjoying a bourbon Fairy Tale New York my wife made. It was potent. Definitely allayed the anxiety I've felt for about two weeks now, feeling as if I'll blow our opportunity out to sea from Big Pine Key in mid-January. I wondered why I didn't spend more time with videos sooner, but I sort out all sorts of pressures on my time.

Can't promise you big posts after we get back, but I do know big fish are out there beyond the reef. I think it was an amberjack I hooked in 2007. A big one. One of the guys on one of the videos said they dive down into the coral and break off, unless you can hold them up from it, and that's exactly what my fish did, in very few seconds. I have never before felt a fish run so fast and with such power. It made my 11-foot, heavy-power surf rod feel like a noodle. As I reeled in the line, I measured about 60 feet of it frayed by coral.

Not taking my lap top. And since I shoot RAW images, it's all but useless to transfer them by wifi from my camera to my mobile device. I wouldn't do it anyhow...the jpg representation of the RAW file...because I prefer to develop images in Lightroom before I post them in this blog. An undeveloped jpg is not a truer image. I will be blogging about the trip after we get back.

Sharpening

Maybe I'm a sucker. Maybe I'm wise to try and preserve what I own.

Sorting through grinding stones online, I ended up phoning Sharpening Supplies and getting sold on a coarse/fine oil stone combo at $31.00 including tax and shipping. This demonstration on how to do it is so convincing, that once I had spent the time looking into the possibility, I didn't want to go back.

But when I checked Amazon for a blade protection bungee, I found blades for only $26.00 Prime. That made me think maybe I'm a sucker. After all, my original blades lasted five years. Just buy new blades whenever they wear out.

But really, I'm pissed I bought a pair not even two years ago and they're not working. Again, I fear the real reason isn't the blades, but the auger's transmission. Any case, I like the idea of maintaining what I own. Enough that I'm willing to give sharpening a try. And try and try. The post I linked to is authentically convincing that it can be done. I'm just not so sure I have the skill.

Which gives me an itch to try.