Enter Monsters Of Fishing Blog – Page 4

A Monster Trip Booked-Spring 2010

Feb 112010

Now, long range planning has always been a challenge with us Monsters. There’s something instinctive about “hey what about next weekend we.…” and then we all start scrambling to clear schedules, family, work,…. and plan and pack and go. But, there are a few trips that have become annual “must do’s” and Monster sistah Kristen sees to it that we get some dates cleared well in advance for those. It might be a girl thing,….we’re not sure, but, it’s good because it always nails down a good fly-fishing trip the end of June. So, four days during the last weekend in June have been locked in. Two possible locations have been tabled and will be discussed, with one being decided on this weekend during the Smeltapolooza expedition. One is a Monster favorite, and the other location is fairly new to us but sounds intriguing. Research has been conducted, various knowledgeable sources have been vetted and debriefed, aerial satellite reconnaissance is ongoing…

Potential 2010 End of June Fly-Fishing drop-zone.

Long/lat coordinates have been left out just until this place passes muster– but feel free to guess for now. As a side note for a future discussion: Geeking out with technology. You cant replace good old inside information, but topos, sat maps and handheld GPS units can kick things up big time. This is panned out a bit but at full drill down, I found some jeep paths, a few good places to pitch the tents, some rapids with “holes” -with approach trails….a couple of bodies.. and properly equipped, could drive/walk with hand held guidance right to within a few meters of any targeted spot….just sayin….

Monsters of Fishing Board of Directors and our Mission Statement

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Feb 082010

Author: Dean.

As we build this site, and cover a myriad of topics from how we got there to “he/she was doing what” ?, we should introduce our governing body. We would also include our mission statement and goals as we “professionals” have done it, been there, and gotten the tee-shirt.

Mission Statment (see we already took care of the mission statment, aint got one yet)

This is the chairman of the board and our sys-op Boyd.

This man is one to watch out for. Boyd can be the quiet one in the group. One minute he is in the back or middle of the boat just as quiet as can be. We can be fishing on some pond or lake hugging the shore or pitching jigs or plastic into the weeds….the next minute when your back is turned, Boyd will dig deep in his tackle box, draw out the ugliest, nastiest, biggest “pos” you have ever in your life seen and cast that major monstrosity out in the middle of the freaking lake !!! Problem is…he usually brings in a hog of a fish !!! Boyd is also one of the camping masters of the group…(just ask him about his “condo” tent). This man, along with another to be mentioned later, can pack 4-6 plastic totes in his jeep, and be gone for at least 3 weeks, without resupply. Boyd should also be noted as a founding member of meeting room “G”

Troy

Here, Troy is calling to order MOF’s “Smeltapalooza 2009” Extravaganza. Leading this meeting, as you can see, required the proper tools as noted by the yellow cup. He is also one of the founding members of meeting room “G”. This man is also a master at setting someone up to get in trouble. We try to keep both eyes on this man at all times.

Jimmy

This is a man who owns more gear the LL Bean, Cabelas, and Kittery Trading Post combined. Jimmy also has the patients of a saint. I have seen him cajole, tease, and down right beg a fish out of a hole that no one would even think about fishing! He is also the top MOF chef. Never let it be said that when MOF hits the road, Jimmy aint got a tote/cooler(s) packed. Dont even think of asking Jimmy if he’s got a spare hot dog….Just sit down and watch the man do steaks over any flame with the greatest of skill. (ask Jimmy about the “rib-off”… the man took us hands down and did’nt even try) Jimmy is another camping master….must have 3-5 totes ready and on hand at all times…..

And now Kristen. Another meeting room “G” founder, and probably one of the most sane board of directors of MOF. We have to take a moment to say that if an angel did ever escape heaven, she came down to Maine to be our MOF angel. Kristen can put us to shame almost any day at any given time. I have personally come back to camp and said, “got 3 this afternoon”….to which she reveals she’s already caught 6-8…and “giggled”. Being married to Jimmy does present a problem at this point as, between Jimmy, Boyd, Troy, and myself we have bragged at catching 6-8 bass in a day, and then when confronted by Kristen, she’s got that many by herself. Jimmy then has to deal with the rest of us busting his chops.

And then there is me, Dean.

I’m the transplant of the group, from the great state of Georgia. (Go Dawgs) I came from bass and cat fishing. Trout were “stocked”. Until recently I did’nt know that you couldnt touch the water with your hands at end of Sebago lake (see the profile posting at the game warden site). I, being the junior member of meeting room “G”, get to sit at the outside of the table with the kids and those from “away”. I will be the “brewmeister” for Smeltapalooza 2010 (no guarentee that the MOF Amber Ale will be up to spec’s)

So that tells a bit about us and what we do.

The Smeltslayer Model 2010 prototype….

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Feb 062010

Smeltaplooza is a week away, and preparations are in full swing. All systems are GO,… shacks, hotel rooms, transportation logistics are all secured. Details of provisions, both solid and liquid, will gel in the next few days. In the mean time, I’ve tinkered with ideas for a new weapon to increase the odds of actually catching any significant number of the little smelt beasties, and have come up with the Smeltslayer 2010. This is the prototype that we’ll test next weekend. Developed after minutes of research and reflection on past experience, I am very optimistic. The technical details of the rig’s construction are complex, but I’ll summarize in brief: Use 4 really small jigs with glow-in-the-dark eyes and some legs or hairs on them (think tiny krill). Tie on jigs 14 inches apart and on 2 inch loops along six feet of clear line. Put a swivel on both ends. Put an ounce of lead on the bottom end and hook the top to your provided line. Bait with little pieces of bloodworm and put in water. Jig around. Reference picture below.

Results of the Smeltslayer 2010 will be posted following field trials next weekend……

My Fried Smelt Recipe…

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Jan 262010

Since there may be a big batch of smelts in our future with this years Smeltapolooza expedition drawing near, I dug out my fried smelt recipe so I can refresh my memory. And why not share because, isn’t that what this is all about?! So, here it is. You can write it down or copy and paste it and put it somewhere safe like me so you dont have to remember all the steps….

Ingredients:

A bunch of smelts.

Some flour.

Butter.

Clean and toss smelts in flour. Melt butter in hot frying pan. Throw smelts in and fry. Serve with a frosty beverage of your choice- Possibly a Monsters Of Fishing Brewing Company, Smeltapolooza 2010 Amber Ale—Oops, more to come on that from Dean….

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”

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.

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