March Madness
I wish I had more to report, but its mid March and the weather has been locked in that 36-42 degree range that doesn’t really inspire great fishing. Apparently there is a good lake trout bite on Sebago, so hopefully we can try that out this weekend if the foot of snow we’re slated to receive gets downgraded to rain or a light dusting. In the meantime, I did manage to get out this past weekend on a local pond. A buddy and I took the canoe to the shallowest pond in the immediate area, hoping to find some willing fish participants. My goal was to catch some bass on artificials, but it quickly became apparent that the fish were not interested. I threw jigs, weightless worms, neg rigs, rattle baits, and even a spinner to try and illicit a bite but had no luck whatsoever.
Thankfully we had some leftover live shiners from ice fishing season, so we were able to scrape together a decent day. It’s amazing how hearty those fish are, especially if you change their water somewhat frequently and give them a little food. I go with tropical fish flakes in Tilapia flavor. Anyhow, we got on the pond at 10am and fought rain and a twenty knot southerly wind to a shallow cove that had some shelter from the incessant blow. The fish were few and far inbetween but we did manage four bass, a couple of pickerel, and a handful of pre-spawn yellow perch. The pond has a great population of black crappie, but we saw no sign of them. I think we are still a few weeks early for the fish to settle into spring patterns, but it was nice to get out and bend a rod considering our options are fairly limited right now.
Beyond that, we have a laundry list of projects to complete before the fishing heats up (I hate that phrase, if you read most publications’ fishing reports, the fishing always seems to be in some state of heating up and or red hot. Relax. Your talking about one pound largemouth in the Nashua river). I’ve been working on the SS MG, our 16ft boat that gets used from everything from salmon trolling (read: day drinking) to semi offshore cod trips. Hopefully the major work will be done this week so we can get the jigging rods out for some lakers.
Its also fly tying season, and the start of what I think will be a cool project for us. We hatched a plan to start a guide of all the flies that we think are necessary to fish most rivers in the Northeast. When I started to seriously fly fish about ten years ago, I waded through tons of books, videos, and articles trying to figure out which flies to use and when. Its amazing to me that with so much fly fishing information out there, there doesn’t seem to be a simple, organized outline of the different hatches of New England and which flies you need to keep on you to be well prepared. Even some of my favorite tyers and authors seem to mysteriously omit that knowledge. Our loose plan is to go through all the major bugs in our waterways, and pick a few flies in the nymphal, emerger, and dunn stages that should get you through most scenarios. That will be as much for our benefit as anyone’s.
As for my cohorts, their March fates are similar to Mine. Last I heard from him, my brother Declan snapped his 5 weight fly rod and had replaced it with a 30$ Walmart horror, convincing himself that it was in the spirit of not being elitist or some such nonsense. The brown trout fishing down in PA should be getting real good real soon (its heating up bro), so here’s hoping he figures his shit out. Noble Max is holding down the fort in Boston, gearing up for the early season bite on the Swift River in western Mass. Legend has it that he’s trying to develop a size 36 midge that’s invisible to the naked eye. We have a few trips planned in the next month. One will be for post spawn pike (on the fly?!) and the other will be our annual pilgrimage to Rhode Island for opening day of trout season. There is nothing better than presenting a BWO emerger on the fly next to a guy with a mickey mouse rod baited with cheese flavored powerbait. RI stocks beautiful rainbow trout in ponds that might otherwise only be home to leeches and creatures of urban legend that will drag you down to the muddy depths and eat you. Its truly a sight to behold. That’s all for now!
-Grady
