Boyd catches himself and declares “ouch!, but I’m a keeper….”

 Monster Tech Tips, Trips, Uncategorized, Videos  No Responses »
May 282012
 

I’ll cover that at the end. But first…

Take one Memorial day weekend, add a beautiful weather forecast, and a bad case of cabin fever, and it all added up to the obvious. Time to get the season’s first flies in the water with a trip to Maine’s Moosehead Lake region and the Kennebec River’s East Outlet and the Moose River. Monsters Jimmy, Kristen, myself, and rising pledge Karen were in attendance.

 

Both rivers are controlled by dams, and the mild winter and early spring meant water levels were already moderate and waters nicely wadeable. That, the holiday weekend, and perfect 70’s weather brought out a lot of fisherman. It also meant that nymphs in the morning, streamers during the day and dry fly’s in the early evening all could all be employed.

There is a lot of pressure on these two spots, and at times, nearly a dozen or more fisherman were within view up and down the river/s. I came up skunked for the weekend. There were plenty of hard strikes, and lots of visuals of fish coming up to the fly for a look in a pool and then backing off—a few clearly in the 18” or more range . Kristen and Karen both hooked up a couple of times with strong pole benders only to have hooks thrown or to break off. Jimmy bagged a brookie. Given the number of lines in the water we encountered over the day and a half there, surprisingly few were having success. There were plenty of occasions to bump into other fisherman and compare notes and it seemed nearly everyone was coming up empty either handed or, a very few,  with one…

 

But,…. there was this one couple. We watched them work the middle of the East Outlet out on the upper reaches of a ridge of river bottom that runs down the middle for a stretch below the dam. Wading out to the middle over a bar to access the middle was quite easy farther down, and plenty of people were out there working the channels on both sides. But, while I was fishing right at the dam, I watched these two work their way up closer to the dam to where they were fighting pretty swift water at thigh depth and greater.  Two casts, move, two casts, move, two casts, move….. each move being a laborious struggle against the current. They covered a lot of real estate, moving constantly with great effort…a few casts then move. They hooked up, brought some in, released and moved.

That's a moose outside your window Karen...

I bumped into them later in the day further down the river and asked how they did, mentioning that they had exhausted me just watching them plow through so much territory in rapid deep water earlier up above. 18 hookups and 5 salmon brought to hand and released, all in the 18″ range was their tally.  His advice?…..for that spot anyway, cast and move, cast and move…   I went back up later and got out a ways out to where they had been working in the middle, but without a wading staff?…  I backed off before getting out to where they had been battling the current… and the big fish.

Karen's Moose

That being said, we learn from every outing, about specific spots, and return.  Oh yes, and the part about catching myself?..

While I was fishing the Moose River, a side gust of wind took a back cast askew and brought my Joe’s Smelt slamming into the knuckle area on my right pinkie finger. Slammed it right in down to the knuckle bone way past the barb,…actually down to the curve of the hook’s shank. I gave the “line around the hook’s curve and yank it out” technique a quick try but it was in sideways and I couldn’t really depress the shank of the hook down against anything (see following video) so, had to do the “advance the hook all the way through” technique and snip off the barb and drag it back out. Keep those hooks sharp people because,…pushing that through any significant amount of flesh is not fun and the sharper the better. Here a good video demonstrating both techniques. Good for minor hookings but for anything major, in something you can’t live without, seek a doctor instead.

Next trip….  Rangely area in 15 days. Stay tuned. Some say it’s the Good Life

Fishin with Google Earth

 Monster Tech Tips, Uncategorized  No Responses »
May 082010
 

 

The Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Fisheries Division must have a few techno-geeks looking for ways to enhance the fishing planning process for the region. And that’s an awesome thing. Thank you.

If anyone doesnt have Google Earth downloaded on their computer or GPS unit then just do it. Now, what the Division here did was take Google Earth and  build a custom area with all kind of mapping overlays for everything from fishing stocking programs, bait and tackle shops, ponds and lakes filtered by fish species if you want, with depths, stocking information, native species info, specific regs,  boat ramps, you name it… not to mention the standard Google Earth overlay selections for bounderies, roads…etc. and mapping and directions. 

Just click on the image above and it will take you to the site. There is a link to download Google Earth if you need it and a link to launch it if you already have it.  When you launch, (give it a minute–Google Earth is big),  it will ride you right on in to Maine. On the left are the overlay options. Try checking off, for example, “Ponds and Lakes” (wait a few seconds for that to drop down), then select say “Brook Trout” or multiple selections if you want.  The map will populate.  Then, click on any pond or lake marker for more info. The layer selections are numerous.

In any case,  the whole thing seems like a pretty good tool to add to the–hand scrawled map and directions on a piece of torn off twelve pack cardboard from the guy last night method—although not a complete substitute.

Monster Tech Tip!…Grasping Fish Finder Technology

 Monster Tech Tips  No Responses »
Feb 282010
 

Now the Monsters Of Fishing are not ones to shy away from using technology to maximize the fish to hook ratio. Yes, we still subscribe to the tried and true traditional methods of cloud observation, the Farmers Almanac, the Butt Pucker at Seeing the Perfect Cover-to-Sunslant-Guage, or the Throw Enough Crap at Them Until Something Sticks technique. However, there’s nothing wrong with side scan sonar, military chipped up GPS, and underwater high-def video.

Having said that, I felt no embarrassment going to the basement and fishing trough my totes, and dusting off my best fish-finder to make sure it would be ready for the end of June Rangeley trip.

I particularly like that it’s laden with features like the one foot graduated depth scale, and an “On-Off” knob. I know that the hard core old timers are likely to give me some disgusted looks for being so lazy employing sophisticated electronics to the art of fishing but…….comon!…this baby’s sweet!

The Smeltslayer Model 2010 prototype….

 Monster Tech Tips, Smeltaplooza, Uncategorized  No Responses »
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……

Monster Tech Tip: Holding your spot.

 Monster Tech Tips, Uncategorized  No Responses »
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.