Tested Neoprene Waders

For Christmas, my wife got me a pair of Hisea neoprene chest waders, and I went over to the river this afternoon to test them. I'm happy to report they are dry, warm, and very comfortable. I had heard so much bad-mouthing about the comfort of neoprene, but these feel very appropriate for cold weather. My only complaint is minor. The boots, although they are 600-gram thinsulate and warm, are not up to doing a lot of walking, and having also tested a wading staff today was a good thing, because the boots don't grip rocks very well. I will be applying my Korkers cleats to them.

Focus Stacking at Round Valley

At Round Valley I did a photo shoot for little more than hour, having realized, as I approached Lot 2, that I hadn't been here since September with Fred. Whole other world now, and it wasn't crowded. 

I had to get over here and shoot before January, because that's about when my camera's warranty expires, and I had trouble with a function new to me. Focus shift allows the camera to shoot a series, say of five or six, but it can be a hundred or more, at differing focus points along the continuum you select. So if I select five shots, I put the focus point on an object in the foreground. The first shot takes that focus, and so on evenly spaced to the deepest range of what's in the frame. The camera was malfunctioning. I would select five shots and get only, say, three. Nikon determined I needed a firmware update. I did that, and from my porch, the camera seemed OK. But I wanted to make sure at Round Valley where there's more range. All seems OK. 

I came home to begin to learn--I think--that my Lightroom 6 will stack each series of photos, but not merge them. I will figure this out when I get time. Meanwhile, the photo series are in a folder. The photo above I simply shot at f5.6 with my 70-200mm lens by putting the focus point near the sandbar. It's a good photo, but what focus stacking does or should do is result in an image sharp in the foreground, middle ground, and background. Which is not always desired, but can be.

The photo at bottom is about the green rock. I noticed a number of them, giving away some copper in Round Valley's geological survey.

 

Sept

Looking to Ice

I had hoped to be writing about temperatures promising for ice fishing by now, but although it's pretty chilly, it's not cold enough yet, which isn't to say there'll be very little ice again this winter. Who knows. The photo above is from January 2019 when we did get out on four inches covering Budd Lake. 

Why do I bother posting about ice fishing when nothing's promising? Reconsider that. The time of year is promising; the 10-day online forecast is not everything. Even though it seems silly, in a way, to put image and word out to honor the possibility, by doing that I psyche myself a little, which means that when it does happen--and if it doesn't happen this winter, it will eventually--I will be better prepared.

So if you ice fish, here's to you, too.

 

Giving Up on Salmon for Pickerel

Matt and I had salmon in mind at Tilcon. We motored up lake, trying to at least get somewhat out of the wind. There we drifted live shiners over 30-35 foot depths close to the surface. Neither of us have ever caught a salmon in New Jersey, although both of us have got hit by them. Today would convince me I really know little about how to go about catching them.

Where we began, I figured salmon might be up near the surface over that deep water, but I sighted the stickups you can see in the photo above. I let the squareback get us near them so Matt could lay the first cast there for any pickerel. It was a seductive move.

To the right of those stickups, there's a pocket where we've caught a lot of bass during the summers. I had that mellow sense of possibility enveloping me. We began working the pocket thoroughly. I had to pretty much keep the electric on in reverse because of the wind, and I did not like shutting it off, because I've read that it's not having an electric on that spooks fish, but turning it off and on. (There must be a way to add an additional setting to electric motors, which doesn't engage the prop, but makes a similar noise...it would have to be an electronic recording of the sound, though it wouldn't emit the same vibrations, so perhaps it wouldn't work.) Anyhow, I did have to turn it off and on, some, but that didn't matter to the pickerel that took my shiner. The fish weighing nearly two pounds, I lost it right at the side of the boat as Matt was about to net it.

And from thereon, we tried for pickerel. 

We really didn't think of bass, though of course they were a possible catch, especially with the water temp at a balmy 49. I told Matt that from what I've heard, salmon cruise along the shorelines this time of year, so we figured...well? 

I found it hard to imagine salmon and weeds together.

Another pickerel nabbed one of my shiners. I had the half-assed idea of setting the hook quickly, because I used a 15-pound test fluorocarbon leader, not wire. (Chances are good a pickerel won't bite through that test of abrasion resistant fluorocarbon, anyhow.) I reeled in the head of my shiner. Matt began talking about pickerel taking a shiner in the middle, head and tail at each side of its mouth, before it stops and turns the shiner head first to swallow it. I've known all about that for almost 50 years, but had disregarded it foolishly today.

And less than an hour later, Matt set the hook too soon on another pickerel. He reeled in the head of his shiner.  

One would hope a pickerel is big enough to have a mouth that engulfs a shiner whole.

Trolling

 

Truly the Work of a Heretic

Just want to tell you I've managed, by my reading about the publishing industry, to keep hope alive for the trout book redone as how-to with experience to support the advice. The hybrid book described in the post linked to below has no hope for a commercial publisher. It's neither how-to nor memoir; it's both, and yet it even functions more like a collection of essays, rather than a memoir, which by definition has a story arc. Some might say my book does have a story arc--it's just not well-defined as chronological. It is that way by design, though I am certain further revision yet would improve on the structure.

I remain proud of the book as is. It's in safekeeping. When I do work on a memoir inspired by it, I will be creating something different. I love how the trout book uniquely combines how-to with profound spiritual disclosure. How it shows that fishing for stocked trout--with a spinning rod--can lead to the very heart of Western Civilization's value. That's what the book does. And stockers and a spinning rod!? Truly the work of a heretic! 

Which makes it exciting for me. I know. You might not give a shit.

A word about the previous post linked to. Where I write that the majority who would not read the book rules out the few who would, I'm on loose ground. They don't really rule it out. They simply would have no interest and since a publisher couldn't profit, it is of course entirely reasonable he doesn't publish it. No, and the real situation is the book's value. Not its worthlessness. What this means is that if I want badly enough the few who would read it to do so, then I have to pay the price of self-publication. 

Also, further reading reveals that self-publication with an ISBN shouldn't negatively affect subsequent publication attempts. So my rather snide remark about money making it a publisher's business to marginalize me for low sales of a self-published book seems erroneous, and besides, the remark almost comes off as a sneer at money as such. I believe money well-earned is never evil. Of course it isn't. It's nothing more than a measure of value.

Book Post 

The Wrong Way to Hold a Fish

Ever since Andy Still criticized me for holding the bass in the photo that way, I've always held them either straight up and down, or have supported the body underneath by my other hand. It's really best to support the fish with two hands; even when held straight--lipping a bass, for instance--the strain might cause the fish damage.

But to bend the neck--no, don't do that. Think of the strain of all that body weight on the neck. Will a fish survive it? Maybe not.

In any event, the bass photographed probably died, because it was a bleeder. I did release it, hoping the bleeding would stop. 

Saffin Pond

Three Fall Rainbow Trout

Mark uses a centerpin rod and reel, allowing his float to navigate into pockets and around boulders, sometimes floating a hundred feet or more downstream of where he stands. He keeps the reel set on freespool until a trout comes to the net, when he engages the clicker.  When he moves on to position elsewhere on the river, he engages the bear claw, which locks the reel so the rig doesn't come loose as he walks. Free-spooling a slip float is the technique, fingers ready to immediately hold the reel in place so the hook gets set.

He caught two trout on Blue Goo egg sacks he bought while fishing the Oswego River in New York recently. He also ties his own sacks. Sometimes he uses a single salmon egg, a nighcrawler, a pink Gulp worm, or a plastic bead. A third trout for him today came on a single pink Mike's Atlas Shrimp egg. All three were about 14, maybe 15 inches long. The rig is identical to a steelhead rig. A half dozen or so split shots trail down the line in descending order by weight. A plastic bead sits underneath the float, one at the top between the float and a stopper. He buys the beads at Michael's. Much less expensive than at tackle shops or online.

I fly cast a black and a copper woolly bugger, catching nothing and getting no hits.

I got to see some more of New Jersey, traveling roads familiar to me elsewhere, but not where I drove today. I had made a left where I was supposed to go right, putting more than 10 extra miles on my odometer, but now I've seen countryside I might never have seen. It's not a good thing to take too much for granted.  The river is always there, but the fox we saw was an event not quite like any other involving a fox we'll see.

Mark told me about a tree in the river no longer there, too. It created an eddy and bowled out the bottom a bit. The river's always becoming a new version of itself.  

Chub

NJ Trout