Boyd

Conference Room “G”

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Jan 212010
 

Some of the best laid plans in history have undoubtedly been hatched by people of like minds in gathering places where the hoisting of good drink served to seal the deal. For example: This country may have never come to be had it not been for some back room conversations in a watering hole called the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston, MA, which dates back to 1654, between folks like Samuel Adams, John Adams, Dr. Joseph Warren and others who we refer to today as the Sons of Liberty.

The Monsters Of Fishing might have such a place. Gritty McDuff’s is a brew pub in Portland Maine where many fishing adventures, and other adventures for that matter, have been planned. We Monsters are all member’s of the “Mug Club”– regulars with an investment in having their own mug, with certain privileges inherent therein. The point is, it is here where we can convene on occasion over some of the best hand crafted brew in the world, and free ourselves for just a few moments from all the other important things that we otherwise gladly devote our lives to,…and plan that next time when we’ll be breathing the air outside…wide open…and on the end of a line…… See you in Conference Room “G”

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Maine record brookie caught!

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Jan 162010
 

As of yesterday, Patrick Coan holds the Maine state record for the largest brookie ever caught. At just over nine pounds, he pulled it through the ice on Mousam Lake in Shapleigh. Now I dont know about you but, seeing a nine pound fish looming up through a ten inch hole in the ice, on the end of the line your haul’n on,….would go down as damn good fishing day in my book.   http://www.wcsh6.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=113438

Smeltapolooza 2010: Launch sequence initiated!

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Jan 122010
 

The Monsters Of Fishing annual tradition of Smeltapolooza is on, and the first and often most complicated step, is complete. That is, clearing a weekend that works for everyone. For the second year in a row the Monsters Of Fishing have managed to clear the same weekend for the overnight assault. This will again be……..Valentines Day weekend! Yes we all have spouses or significant other’s but, we are talking about Smeltapolooza here!  Now it’s just a matter of tying up some details. Renting the shacks, hotel rooms, taxi van from hotel to river and back (no operating heavy equipment on this outing), food selection, beverage stockpiling. There is no fishing equipment to bring with smelting. The lines are strung up in your shack, and bloodworms for bait are available there. This means valuable space and weight that might normally be taken up by fishing gear, is now available for important life support equipment like, larger coolers, and propane stoves for cooking various meat items (vegetables are strictly prohibited), footballs, and that inflatable doll someone always sneaks in……

We go up along some tributaries that run into the Kennebec River around Bowdoinham, Maine.  There are a bunch of shack operations with names like River Bend, Sonny’s, Chubby Leighton’s, Jim’s….etc. We do Jim’s most years for some reason.  Most smelting “Camps” are a row or two of shacks, ranging from a few to 20 or 30 of them, along the frozen edge of the rivers.  Little villages if you will, wired with electricity for a couple of light bulbs in each shack, and some bulbs spaced outside to see where you’re walking. You can fit 3, 4, maybe five people in a shack all depending on its size. There is a small woodstove and wood provided in each shack and it is possible to get it roasting hot inside, even if it’s zero outside. A few beat up metal folding chairs round out the furnishings….and that’s it. Two “race holes” have been cut inside the shack, one on either side. They are actually a rectangular slot about 16” or so wide that runs the length of the side of the shack. A board is hung from the ceiling over the race holes on both sides by bungee cords, and 15 or so lines with sinkers and hooks are wrapped up on each board waiting to be unwrapped, baited, and lowered into the hole. Bloodworms are cut into pieces and hooked on. At some point the lines might start moving. That’s when you yank the little smelt up. You fish for a 6 hour tide—either the incoming or outgoing.

Sometimes they say you can fill a five gallon bucket in a couple hours—-then sometimes the only time a line moves is when you take a stick, and while Dean is sitting, staring solemnly down at the still and quiet race hole, you slowly, and without detection, reach up and over his head and jiggle a line with your stick.  Sometimes it’s like he got hit with an electric shock of some kind and he starts grabbing at lines and hauling them up, all yelling and stuff, only to find them empty of course.  The number of times he can be suckered with this seems to be directly proportional to the number of empties in his corner. Trying to not bust out laughing is the hard part—especially when he gets suckered in for the eight or ninth time in a row…… I mean, come on!…..

More updates to follow as Smeltapolooza 2010 takes off.

Tasty Too!!

Dear NOAA. Recreational salt water fisherman are not stupid.

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Jan 112010
 

This is a tax,   https://www.countmyfish.noaa.gov/index.html  and it’s coming because  NOAA, and state fishery agencies can’t get the job done with the revenue they already get from us, and now, we recreational saltwater fisherman will be burdened unnecessarily as a result. I would love to know where the numbers thrown up by NOAA relating the impact recreational fisherman have on the oceans fisheries come from. It’s obviously a concoction by various legal, and PR entities enlisted to help justify the budgetary inefficiencies of federal ocean fishery management agencies. The cause is good, the focus ridiculous. The numbers are dismissible in my mind. 

Recreational fisherman, by and large, drop a few lines in the water on occasion, throw back most of what they catch, and some days catch nothing. We all know this. I expect these parameters were absent from any calculation. There is no way any rational person could conclude that recreational fishing serves as a statistically viable measure when it comes to ocean stock levels compared to data already gathered from commercial fishing landing counts. Sure, some fish are taken recreationally, but as a tool, it’s just statistically insignificant compared too commercial fishing whose takes are large, and highly measurable. This is not about lakes, rivers, and streams here that are more significantly impacted by recreational fishing, but about the ocean, and the fishing methods that significantly impact it and are already easily measured. 

The NOAA spin is laughable but understandable. The implications sad. New revenue streams are a quick fix for budgetary inefficiency. Too bad the recreational saltwater fisherman will have to pay in beyond what they already do, for the surveys that are already funded and could work properly. Shame on NOAA for their poorly veiled excuse. No one is going to give a phone survey (most will give their office phone number), and most will throw any mail survey in the recycle bin without opening it. And it’s only because we recreational saltwater fisherman are smart enough to know that we offer no new significant data. But NOAA knows this. The whole exercise is a PR effort that looks ridiculous to the intelligent fisherman—and anyone else thinking rationally. I registered, and will pay my $15 dollars a years in years to come….unless I can bludgeon some sense into my US and state legislators soon… to keep this boondoggle from going through, or at least to make my state exempt…which is possible.., and something we all should strive for. Lets protect and nurture the ocean’s fisheries, and lets do it by making the existing systems we have work properly. 

Just one MOF member’s opinion only, and not reflective (necessarily) of MOF as a whole.

Monster Tech Tip: Holding your spot.

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Jan 052010
 

Hopefully this Monster Tech Tips area will eventually become a great place to find posts and pieces about some of the more technical aspects of fishing, both discovered by the Monsters, and by any others wanting to share.  Now, there will be a little tongue and cheek stuff here too (that happens with us) but eventually lots of really useful stuff too.  So here’s one to start.

Monster Tech Tip: Finding a good hot spot when your out fishing is important, but equally important is being able to defend your position from other encroaching fishermen. Their added presence will only cause disturbances that will spook your fish. One of the key skills for doing this is being able to spot them as they approach, and then warding them off with dirty looks or a few well thrown rocks. They can be sneaky, so keen eyesight is critical. Below is a tool I developed to help you train your eyesight. It’s called “Spot The Redneck”.  As you scroll down, you will see a picture that could be a hot spot where you have planted yourself. Somewhere in the picture will be another fisherman trying to sneak in on you–the Redneck (Monster brother Dean filling in here). Try to spot him as quickly as you can. It won’t be easy, but he’s in there somewhere. Once you do, you will be on your way towards training your eyes to quickly spot potential intruders, and to defending your hot fishing spots effectively.

 

Smeltapolooza

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Jan 042010
 

 

Every winter some of us Monsters tackle the grueling expedition we’ve come to call Smeltapolooza.  The idea is to cram as many of us as possible into a small shack along the banks of a frozen river, along with enough food and beverages to survive for five or six hours, and attempt to pull 4-6  inch little fish through the ice. Now, this involves a keen understanding of tide times, moon sets, water temperatures and bait depths, which probobly explains why we tend to catch very little, but then, who really wants to catch the hundred or more of these  little things it would take to make a decent meal for the whole bunch. So,…Smeltapolooza lessons learned?…bring lots of food, and a pain reliever of your choice to supplement breakfast at the hotel the next morning. 

Big Eddy

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Dec 312009
 

Big Eddy   

 

The Golden Road out of Millinocket Maine is owned by the paper company, and pulp trucks come down it fast, loaded, and taking up their share of the middle. Up off  “the road” is a place called Big Eddy where the west branch of the Penobscot River pours through Ripogenus Gorge and curls back into a pool renowned for its salmon and trout. Mount Katahdin overlooks the place. There’s a group of us that heads out fishing from time to time, and we like this spot. There are many others we like too.  Some near, some far away. Fresh water and saltwater. Those fished, and those still to be discovered. This site, blog, whatever it’s called, is of course a way to share stuff about fishing. I also think that some of it will be…. simply about the fun we have being out there. 

Cheers, 

The Monsters Of Fishing

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