Gave Bedminster Pond a Try

Open Water in North-Central Jersey

With Daylight Savings Time, I had time to fish after work today. Other days, I don't get off until 7:30. Thirty-nine degrees out when I arrived at Bedminster Pond before sunset, I had earlier thought that I seem to have always avoided fishing here when it's below 50. Sometimes a bass will hit a spinner when the water temp is down in the 40's. I thought of that shallow bottom absorbing abundant sunlight and warming a little better than the air temp. And then I got there and cast for a half hour or so.

Best moment involved a split second when my favorite rod, a St. Croix medium power, released vivid memory, the feeling of its effectiveness during the normal season, the pride I take in it when I'm regularly catching largemouths over three pounds. Actually, that memory came more from the years I fished the banks of certain ponds. Good ones where I can count on bass that big. Since I've been fishing lakes more in recent years, I probably catch more of my bass on my medium-heavy Speed Stick. 

I was just thinking at work today that when I retire, I want to fish especially one of those ponds I used to fish.

 

Light-weight spinner I built from component parts. The hollow nickel beads are light, but I managed 50-foot casts.

18-Inch Largemouth

Gave the KLG a Shot

The river ran a little high. I could see that, but someone told me 225 cubic feet per second. He said normal is about 175. Also told me the water temp was 45, which is up a notch from winter conditions. 

As a graph inclines, we're on the way up.

I had thought of trying a larger plug, but I kept with my one-inch Rapala Countdown. Not that it caught any trout, but I got a little more practice with it. I told my wife,  who I walked with, "A try at the fish is never wasted. Each teaches you." 

So that's it for trout until April 1. Unless you fish a spot like the Ken Lockwood Gorge, always open. I plan on trying for bass until then. 

You Could Hear Ice Melt Yesterday

Looking ahead now to trolling hybrids, the most exciting fishing I do. Doubtful my son will join me. He graduates Boston University on May 16, but probably stays up there until he begins study in the fall for a Master degree.

He recently had me read over an application essay for a summer job with a company in California. (He would work from Boston.) He did cutting edge work at artificial intelligence in the quest to better understand the Higg's boson, or as the subatomic particle is nicknamed, "the God Particle." That's in his favor for getting any job in his field. The quantum AI work he would do this summer is the Silicon Valley variety.

Will be interesting to see if he and I ever go for hybrids again. I kind of think we will.  

It is cold tonight and I'm not motivated to check the weather. I did put my ice fishing gear away for the season. You could hear the ice melt yesterday.

Aeroflex Pounded

Why it's called Aeroflex

I got word of access from the road, but I figured I would take the lazy man's approach and go on at the boat launch. 

Like so many dozens of others.

I can't remember ever seeing so many holes cut. Most of them were iced over, but man, these fish have taken pressure.

I hauled my sled straight out so as not to set up too close to guys to my right and left. I had to go back for stuff, because my Flexible Flyer just does not do the job in total. Later, I would call my wife, and she told me the obvious. Get the dimensions of a Jet Sled. Just maybe it will fit in the attic. 

The power auger cuts holes a whole lot better than before I sharpened the blades, but it still isn't up to what it was. Either I need to sharpen those blades better, or the shaft doesn't turn as fast as it used to. It's probably the blades. 

Ice was a foot thick and melting fast, temps climbing nearly to 50. I set five tip-ups in water 25 to 30 feet deep, and then walked towards shore and began cutting more holes. I remember a weedbed there from four years ago, where we had some topawater action just after sunset, though the pickerel were small. We had caught all of our good fish in the back of the lake. Today, I would gaze down lake and sort of wish I made it harder on myself.

The water did not drop off fast along this shoreline, but it did drop very quickly from six feet down to about 14 and on down into deeper water. I set my tip-ups in a line at 12 to 14 feet. I had set one in about 20, but I pulled it, because I found no evidence of weeds there.

Even the trout and salmon will cruise above residual weeds, by what I've gathered. Why not? Weeds attract life, and that's what they eat.

The entire area near the boat launch had been absolutely pounded. From in close all the way across, and I had slugged my stuff at least 400 yards down lake, maybe more. I never gave up entirely on a flag rising. I jigged a little, too. And among nearly a dozen other ice fishermen, one of them did catch a trout. There's good habitat and there are fish. 

I dumped the remainder of my shiners into a hole, and since I could fill the bucket with stuff, I did manage to haul everything without going back for a second round. 

Summer

 

Anyone Have Experience with Smart Chargers?

Gave myself a firm kick in the ass, because I discovered I had inadvertently unplugged my C-Tek Smart Battery Charger. I have a panel that serves all sorts of plugs I use in my study. I must have pulled the charger plug when trying to unplug my external photography monitor. I always unplug that after I use it. 

Charger could have been unplugged a day, or maybe a month. I keep the closed cell marine battery I use for my electric motor constantly on charge. When it slightly loses charge, the charger juices it back, so basically it's always fully charged. From what I read, that's what's best for it. I'm not very technical, so I don't remember specifics well enough to explain. 

Two-and-a-half years ago, I bought the same sort of Cabelas battery I previously owned. I used to just charge the old one before going out, and it lasted seven years. I bought the C-Tek for $107.00 and figure it's worth the money, if it adds a few years more than seven to the life of a $265.00 battery. I had to buy a new charger anyway, and that was a good thing, I think. 

Anyone have experience with smart chargers? Any stories of long-lived batteries? Please tell the story in the comments section below, if you do.

Don't Sit Down, It's Time to Dig Another One

I phoned Stanhope Bait & Boat before I left, sure the hours would be the same, and they were--Saturday and Sunday only. I really wanted to ice fish, and I thought if she was open, I might swing by and then head over to Budd Lake. Oliver Round had to quarantine, so our plans to ice fish Tilcon were dashed. Also, I woke two hours late this morning, having set my alarm for pm by mistake. I had to go over to Autosport Honda to get plates put on and pick up the registration. No way would I go all the way over to The Sporting Life--just as well, because I later found they closed at 2. And not Dow's, either. 

So I headed over to Round Valley in a nasty mood for yet another photo shoot. (And still need yet another because it seems I need to focus shift on a narrower aperture setting. In all that brilliant sunlight, it was hopeless trying to see images on the camera's display.) Before I left, I had a quiet moment when I told myself I would go over there and get taken out of the wretchedness.

It did take awhile. You go in and do your damn working-class job day after day and it changes you. Makes you bitter and depressed (anger turned inward). All day long you do little mundane tasks when you're the kind of person to do things that require much more intelligence. You tried to get a better job, but they required a degree. 

As I might have said before, one outing, even a short one like today's, beats a full week of all that nonsense saturated by music like Taylor Swift. 

Home, home again. (I like to be here, when I can.) I felt the certainty--on Sunday, I'm ice fishing. My brother Rick is also quarantined. Brian is going through back treatment and might not be able to go. If not, I'm going to Budd or Aeroflex. Reports from Budd speak of 10 inches and even with the mild weather and some rain, it should still be safe. 

 

Round Valley Ramp Plowed

Didn't see any boats out, but the ramp is ploughed.

Spent time in the Ranger Cove area, and I enjoyed walking more than photography, which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the shooting. True, though. I didn't find time to get a series of focus-stacked shots of the North Tower. 

I'll just have to go back and get the shots.