18-Inch Largemouth

So I got the mild afternoon I hoped for, slipping out the front door without thought of anyone or anything else, driving up the highway to Bedminster Pond. Once again, a bass hit the Savko Bucktail Spinner on the first cast, small like most of the eight I caught, not quite nine inches, but the big one felt like a snag at first, then rolling towards the surface, roiling outward a big boil, me a little nervous about my drag setting for a moment, but then reassured that the cold water made the fish lethargic enough not to break the six-pound test, feeling how good it is to begin the year with a largemouth over three pounds.

There's a lot of bass in that pond, which becomes thoroughly weeded-in by May. I missed hits from other small fish, all of them I pulled in would have measured nine inches or a little less, besides one about 10 1/2 inches, but the big one goes to show there's probably a real lunker or two under the surface of these five or six acres.

No one else fished, but when I pulled up, a conservation officer underwent the process of busting a party with fishing rods and no licenses.

I lowered my window and interrupted him, "Can I ask you a question?"

"Yeah."

"Would I be fishing too close to the river in that far corner?"

"It's no issue to me."

"Thanks."

Sunlight still fell on it when I began, a chop on the surface at the northeast end taking most of the afternoon's warming. On down the shoreline, fishing was good, too.

I tried the northwestern corner, too, on my way out, though it seemed too deep and cold to harbor any bass, but this is when I best felt my usual defenses coming down, and the wild world breaking back through to me, which it never fails to do when I give it a chance. All of our hopes and possibilities begin in nature.

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2013/09/four-pound-smallmouth-bass-south-branch.html

Warbling

This post comes quickly on the heels of the former I posted earlier in the day. It's very early in the morning now. About Bedminster Pond, there's another pond up the highway further I've never been to, though I'm told the hike into it is pretty far and the fishing declining steeply compared to former years. I wanted to fish there with Mike Maxwell last spring, who had fished it a year or two before, and Fred chimed in about the place, fishing it during the fall for one bass, if I recall rightly (he can fill me in), but I'm still curious about it.

Ancillary to this fishery going south, apparently, I hear the Paulinskill Lake, not the lake closer to Newton, the lake close to the Delaware River, may vanish entirely, as the Columbia Dam is targeted for removal. I'm thinking of fishing that lake this summer, putting the squareback on it. Someone told me about a six-pound largemouth caught there; Fred knows where to launch, I'm sure I recall rightly. Big bass like that... Every year, I hope for a largemouth as big or bigger than the lunker I caught at Round Valley four years ago, slightly better than five pounds, but I don't hope too much, because it never seems to happen, although I lost one two years ago of about five pounds on Spruce Run Reservoir.

Steve Vullo says he and I will fish late in April, and I have my hopes this will work out. Vullo certainly does offer me the chance, if indeed we go, of boating a really big bass, because this man knows where to find them. Notice that the small lakes and large ponds I report on result in plenty of largemouths better than three pounds, but these two lunkers I just told you about came from reservoirs. That's where Vullo fishes too, the big reservoirs especially.

Spring is here, despite this wintry weather. I felt surprised at warbler calls--worm eating warblers, I think, first to arrive each year--in a tree canopy while walking Sadie this afternoon. Then I looked at the pond and saw some brown algae scum on the surface. Water temperature, however, has not been out of the 40's. Just as if spring changes happen anyway, despite this cold. Maple buds are big and red, too.

Checked on a post...was it 2013 or 2012? Pretty sure 2012. Yes. Proves I've known Fred going on six years, not five; wow, time does move along. That initiating event in Lakehurst was a whalloping good time, involving no less than mystical connection at nighttime success with largemouths on topwater plugs. Two of those bass almost seemed to leap into my kayak, they were so revved at chasing my plug, clear out of the water.

Hankering to Get Out

Another day off and this wintry weather still persists. Not only is it chilly today, besides some days forecast for the mid 50's, the 10-day forecast well into April offers no relief. At least trout will hit, but I wouldn't mind trying Bedminster Pond, and I went online inquiring about Pompton Lake last night, as its northern pike have me a little fascinated. I've been up there, but never fished it before. Other possibilities came to mind last night, too. Over the course of the past decade, my son and I together, especially, have hit a lot of the waters here in the state's northern tier, some places to the south, too, but a lot remains yet to explore, and I don't want to die feeling I didn't get around to more. I recalled Mike Maxwell and I going to Mountain Lake last June, a new place for both of us, and the memory of pulling into lake view and circling the 138 acres, I believe is the amount, is very, very appealing. We caught nice bass, too, sighted a musky.

It's a real world out there I haven't visited in a while.

Fred Matero and I have kept a running dialogue for what, five years now, about places to fish in this northern tier. He's gone where I haven't yet, and vice versa. I never forget telling him about Hoffman Park and giving the pond a thumbs down, but he went and tried it anyway, catching a four-pound largemouth! Noel Sell and I do the same, and Oliver Round has secrets plenty about little wild trout streams.

The world is Nada without engaging its geography. And so, we do.

I got word from https://www.raritanheadwaters.org/  Raritan Headwaters Association by email, had forgotten the spring river and stream cleanup. I participated a few years ago, which proved to be a very nice morning, encourage any of you to do the same, or become citizen scientists through the stream monitoring program. Though I haven't done that, I do know it involves the side benefit of discovering macro-invertebrates, which fish feed on. Many of the streams have wild trout. In the email sent, there's an excellent photo of a spring peeper frog, mention of which I read before viewing, reminding me that I haven't heard a single one yet this early season, making this year the latest in all my New Jersey life to have heard any. And as I said--not yet!

Nickel, Dime, and Wider Time

Fred and I planned on fishing the Meadowlands for striped bass this coming Tuesday, until he found out he has to work, which might be a good thing, given the cold weather and the drive it takes to get there. We hope to go in April.

Reading Angler's Journal. Faraway places and not so far. Dorado in the Bolivian jungle interesting to contemplate, and to consider a lodge hundreds of miles from civilization back in the bush, locals from the forest holding guiding jobs and doing that with excellence, precision, and perfect English.

I think of the treats money can buy, but that doesn't denigrate so much nickel and dime fishing I do, nor the relative expanse of places like Hopatcong and Round Valley. Maybe I'll walk over to the pond on Monday and cast that bucktail spinner again, or else drive up the highway a mile to Bedminster Pond, but I think I'll wait until a really mild day for the latter. Fewer bass there, although the pond behind the units across the way suffered a fish kill not many years back. Ice thick, pond shallow.

We're away to Ocracoke, NC, in August. I'm on the fence--but leaning conservatively--about shelling out the money for an offshore charter. Boats travel a mere 10 miles or so to reach the Gulf Stream, so not a whole lot of a venture is spent getting there and back. Inlet fishing is excellent. But our biggest fish, so far, is a six- or seven-pound Sheepshead, and a six- or seven-pound cobia. On last occasion, big reds came in out during the time we visited, but on the day of our venture, we found none.

That's not to say catching 60 blues and Spanish mackerel on one of the charters wasn't a riot.

First Cast with the Bucktail Spinner

First cast with the bucktail spinner, given to me by Tom Savko, and a largemouth whacked it. I missed the hit. Sun was setting, a little of its presence yet on the shallows I cast, water warmed somewhat there, but I doubt the temperature got quite to the mid-40's. Temperature here in Bedminster at 4 pm was 46. The bass left a nice surface swirl after it vanished.

The blade is homemade. It's not a spinner crafted entirely by marketed components. And it works, an excellent choice for Bedminster Pond on a mild day. Last year, my son and I went there and fished for about 15 minutes, catching bass, but I lost a spinner I made during the 1970's for this purpose of slow shallow retrieve. Bedminster Pond is also shallow, and has residual weeds to retrieve over.

What fortune. Last year, after losing that spinner, I figured that fishing is done with, because I'm not going to make more...even though my mind has bugged me a little, as if I might. Along comes Tom Savko and solves that problem for me.

http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2018/03/bucktail-spinner.html

Day Off

Another day off, and maybe I will do that spinner fishing over here at the pond. Replied to one of The Fisherman editors, who let me know he has several openings for the Freshwater column, so I sent him ideas. And I went on NJ Freshwater Fishing.com, fascinated in the catch of a nice rainbow right over here in Far Hills, just before the stream closed until Opening Day. The guy used a really smart tactic. Just let current hold in place a tiny Rapala down pretty deep. I'm still trying to figure out how to catch early season trout on flies, and wistfully wish the season hadn't closed. Mike Maxwell tells me about Jesse Sullivan, who fly fishes trout all winter, averaging about one fish every 10 hours at them. Noel Sell was doing better than that, using Power Bait, during the mild weather of this recent February.

More snow on the way? To get bummed over lingering winter would be a dumb emotional strategy, when I know warmer weather inevitably comes very soon.

Now to work. On writing. This sort of work I love doing.

Walton and Charles

The Izaak Walton League of America is another of the many organizations reaching my inbox, and perusing the latest connection, I felt moved to ask, "So what do we do to protect our natural heritage"? I don't mean to suggest I have a ready answer, but if you like, you can click on the link I leave for you, at bottom.

And who was Izaak Walton? In the wide-ranging reading of outdoor literature I engage, I once came upon a line that humored me a little, that he's the classic (wrote The Compleat Angler) every angler knows about, but has never read. Of course, I've read his book, but I'm obsessed with words and ideas, and have to suck everything written into my head. That's impossible word by word, but I listen to Pink Floyd, too, and my favorite line from them, sung, "Breathe, breathe in the air."

To get to the dark side of the moon, you have to realize the globe was orbited, first.

Walton was English. But I like the League's American title best, even though Walton's quest for the king, Charles II, does not reflect well on current national politics. I'll leave you with that hint. Future book(s) of mine might be more forthcoming.


http://www.iwla.org/publications/conservation-currents/article/conservation-currents-march-2018/iwla-disappointed-in-president-s-conservation-budget-request