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 Bugs and Bass 2015 
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
07-20-15
The tide was out two hours when I got to the boat. Headed to the south shore to fish the oyster beds, The seventy nine degree water in open bay changed my mind. A rapid change of direction and the bow pointed to Fox Point.

Found sixty nine degree water in my first drift. This spot empties the Oyster River along a steep but shallow banking. The rocks are covered with seaweed, I call it Rock Weed. It floats and creates ambush spots for the striped bass.

As I neared the point where it drops off to thirty feet I placed the eel in the curl of the rip. I felt tap, tap and the fish took off. When the slack ran out and the circle hook set the bass came right out of the water.

I said out loud, "nice bass". Game on.

This bass had one thing in mind, the rock weed. Twice it brought me into the floating kelp in shallow water. It was man against fish.

Man won.

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That is the eel in the upper left hand corner. The bass taped out a very tired 33". Removed the circle hook and let it go. Took a while to revive it due to exhaustion and high water temps but I'd have spent an hour swishing that fish back and forth to complete the release of life.

Tried the shore along the reserve at deep dusk and had no takers.

The sunset over Durham and Newmarket made up for that.

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Adam's Point

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Newmarket

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Another good day on Great Bay.

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:08 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
07-22-15
Just fit under the trestle by an inch. There was enough water to cut the flats on my way to the Point. Had a big fish swirl on the skinny water in front of the boat at WOT. Little did I know this was telling me something.

You only get one chance.......at a big fish.

Put the eel in another curl of a rip as it passed over clumps of rock weed. Thought I hooked bottom until the rod telegraphed a couple tugs. Then I pulled the slime right out of its mouth. I let it drop and the bass hit again, and again and again. Each time as soon as I put pressure it dropped the bait. Tried a few more times without any bites. Shoot!

Over to the rip I got the bass on Monday and just as I was about to cast a big boil at the stern of the boat brought me to full attention. Threw the eel in but no bites. As I drifted past the rock weed on the steep banking a bass hit the eel.

Same thing happened again. As soon as any pressure was put from the line to the fish it spit the eel out. Again, again and again. Bummer!

No fish made the net tonight but any time I get goose bumps on a biting bass I consider it a successful Great Bay fishing trip.

Lots of little bait in the Squamscott. The water was like glass reflecting the half moon as the mini rises were everywhere. It could be small alewives or it could have been a worm hatch.

I think some big bass are paying Great Bay a visit. We'll try again Saturday.

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:09 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
08-01-15
The lobster crawl has settled down. Less lobsters today than traps. But still enough for a couple feeds. It is all about August and the rising water temps. Today 73 to 75 degree surface water temperature.

It is time for the off shore trappers to shine. June and early July favor the Bay's and river because we warm up quicker. August favors the the ocean going boats.

Did get one big surprise today. Not sure but I think it is a winter flounder from the small mouth. Approx. 13" long.
If I was a Fillet of Sole guy it would be oven ready by now. But I'm not. It lives.

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Another good day on Great Bay.

08-08-15
Checked the first trap and had a keeper lobster. That was NOT the way the rest of the tending went. Caught some shorts and an unfamiliar fish that slipped through the trap wire before I could steal its picture. Where I notched the berried female and released her next to the babe boat a month ago I believe I caught the same lobster. She was still holding all her eggs.

Caught another notched female in the river mouth. Swear I notched that one too. Only one more legal lobster made the cooler.

Saw loads of bait at the Point. Birds were diving on busting bass. Only one fisherman was chasing the action. Went back the same tide tonight and had one bite. Go figure?

The hot humid days of August are here. That is comparable to the ice covering the crab grounds of the Bering Sea. They need warmer weather, I need cooler weather. Puts fishing in limbo.

08-15-15
Shared fishing duties this morning with Hannah. She leaves for Cornell University Friday. She will be a freshman studying Agricultural Business. Told me she wants to come back and work in the families dairy business. She wanted to spend time on Great Bay in the boat I bought from her grandfather before she left. Central NY won't offer her a whiff of salt water.

We stopped at a favorite rip so I could toss an eel. Really didn't really think I'd get a bite in the 71 degree water until a big bass erupted on the eel on the first cast. Couldn't have been in two feet of water. Like a largemouth bass hitting an artificial frog in the lilly pads it was more show than hunger. I missed it. And of course it never bit again.

I'm losing faith on finding my missing trap. This is week four. Have looked at dead low and dead high. I hate it when that happens. I have my suspicions but most likely the buoy was hit by a propeller and cut the line. That reasoning makes me feel better towards the commercial guys buoy that showed up where my trap used to be. My hope, although slightly slim, is his trawl has my line and buoy under. This guys trawl is long. Couple hundred yards at least. When you started setting a trawl that has that length there is no steering clear of a single buoy in your way when you set. It is the risk I take and accept. Did I mention I hate losing a trap. :(

We did better today than last week. Hannah will have a seafood feed before settling down to dorm food. She is welcome to fish with me any time.

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:10 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
This article goes a long way in explaining why my lobster catch has dropped with the rising Bay temperatures.

http://www.weather.com/news....g-north

But don't get me wrong. Rising water temperature in Great Bay is a yearly occurrence. The average depth of Great Bay is 8.9 feet and made up mostly of mud flats. A 3PM low tide in a summer heat wave we are now experiencing with exposed flats can really suck up some heat which is then transferred to the returning ocean water on an incoming tide.

Went for a sweetheart cruise with the wife on Sunday. The surface water temp in the river at the dock was 81.9 degrees. At Adam's Point 3 miles away down to 71.3 degrees. Knowing these little things make me a better trapper.

We went into the Greenland section and shallowest portion of Great Bay. It was high tide so you can go anywhere. This point is the 12th green and 13th tee of the Portsmouth CC. Depth under the boat...5 feet. I golfed there a few weeks ago.

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This was by far the best start I have had to lobster trapping since the freshwater invasion of the Mother's Day Flood of 2006. The Bay was fresh water for a month. No salinity. For years after that I called it a desert.

The trapping turns around again after Labor Day with the cooling water temps. There is a whole other population that returns to shed their shells before winter. I used to trap into November. Brrrrr!

But now my traps are dry docked by the third week in September. Do you know why?

Cuz I love to hunt and eat partridge. And now I have the dogs to help!

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:11 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
08-19-15
Subtle Changes

Even with the river temps,

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the striped bass were calling me. So in Beverly Hills fashion I loaded up the boat and moved to Fox Point where I found 70 degree water.

On the ride out I cruised along with a flock of geese. My speedometer said 24 mph. They were not too far off the water so I felt part of the flock. That said they easily flew beyond me. And it looked like without much effort. Hint #1

The tide had turned outgoing a little more than I had wanted when I got to the fishing grounds. Tossed the eel in to what I call the Pinney drift. Two bites later a linesider was in the net.

The tide started cooking pretty fast. Hard to get your eel down in that turbulence so I moved off to another unnamed favorite drift where the trees now blocked the setting sun.

The action was fast and the bass were hungry. After three more stripers graced the net it was time to pack it up for the ride back to the dock. Hint #2

On my way across open bay just as magic time colored the western sky flocks and flocks of ducks could be seen on the skyline as the folded, tucked and landed in the water for the nights roost. Hint #3

I consider this my gateway and return from adventure.

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All those hints are telling me the season...it is a changing.
Flocks of geese,
The late summer striper bite as they fatten up for their trip back down the east coast,
And the flocks of ducks now with young old enough to travel coming into their favorite nightly resting area.

It won't be long. The boat and traps will be in the barn and Belle and I will be harassing our favorite game birds.

I love seacoast NH and our four distinct seasons.

So much to do.....so little time.

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:11 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
08-23-15
OTW at 0700. Rollers in the river are never good. A strong NE wind met me as I cleared the trestle. The incoming tide kept the waves just under white caps. The boat ran on top like a surfer. The wind in my face was the only nuisance.

Eight years ago today I shared a much better weather day on Great Bay with my friend, Dick Cummings. We all knew him as Dad.

Looking back at my records we checked twenty eight traps that day and put twenty three keeper lobster in the cooler. But what I remember most was the school of pogies we saw at the Adam's Point mooring field as we checked our last couple lobster traps.

My gill net was in the cuddy and a few drifts later me had a half dozen pieces of live bait. Not having a bait tank on board we put a couple each in five gallon buckets.

We went to Fox Point. When you fish live bait it is always good to know where the swimmer is at the end of your line. We'd been fishing for a few minutes when a bass started chasing a pogie on the surface. This was like ninety degrees off the direction Dick was holding his pole. As he reeled his slack up there was a huge splash where the pogie "used" to be.

As his line came taunt to the reel the drag started to sing. After an epic battle Dick had his first keeper striped bass.

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My pogie had different ideas and instead of playing on the surface it dove. There is something about a striper strike on live bait. You feel the fish start swimming for its life then-BAM.

I dedicate today's Great Bay bounty to you my friend. RIP. See you on the other side!

Celebration of Life
08-24-15
Our Dad would have been 86 years old today. In his last few good years we would always take a trip out into Great Bay in search of a striped bass or two to celebrate. Tonight Shawn and I did our best to keep that tradition alive.

Out to Fox Point we went and the bass didn't or should I say Dad didn't let us down. The bass were literally boiling. They were easy to find by the popping sounds and the amount of terns working over them.

Shawn had the touch as he came tight twice after slinging his slime into the crashing school of stripers. I had plenty of bites but just couldn't set the hook.

Sadly the waning daylight was our enemy anticipating the six mile journey back through open bay to the dock. We left the bass harassing bait all around us.

On our way through Adam's Point I just couldn't resist a few more casts to the Rock where last year on Bud's birthday I caught a keeper.

About the time Shawn reminded my of the fleeting daylight I got a bite and the fight was on. It wasn't a keeper but the memories of tonight sure were.

Shawn and I make a good hunting and fishing team. Thanks Dad for the genes.

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:12 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
08-30-15
Left the dock in darkness at 0500. By 0530 on our first drift, under the fading light of a full moon, Joe put this striper in the boat.

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Two more sub legal bass found the landing net. We counted over twelve seals at Sunk Ledge. No great whites in sight.

It was a good day on Great Bay!

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:12 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
09-03-15
The beautiful lady below is the reason I am able to live a dream. Today is my birthday and it was her idea to take the boat out on Great Bay and stop for lunch. We went to Lexie's Landing at Great Bay Marina.

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Monday will be our 30th wedding anniversary. I truly believe behind every good man......is a better woman.

Thank you Karen. I love you!

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:13 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015
09-12-15
Who needs a Seafood Festival when we have Great Bay?

Today the soft shell clam season opened. We are allowed one peck and one peck it was. Oyster season is also open. Nothing like picking them up off the bottom as you wade around.

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The saddest part today was pulling my lobster gear for the summer. but on a good note the last trap pulled held a keeper.

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Came off the water today with a triple double. The triple being six lobsters, a peck of soft shell clams and a feed of oysters. And it was double the fun as I got to share the flats with my good friend Joe Daley and the two ducks that swam past my boat when I returned to the dock.

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Time to take my fishing cap off and replace it with hunting headgear. Belle and I have some woodcock and partridge to harass come October 1.

Thanks for coming along.

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:13 pm
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King of Spring

Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 4:09 pm
Posts: 1305
Location: Seacoast NH
Post Re: Bugs and Bass 2015 is Over
09-19-15
Oh well the bassin' and buggin' may be over but the clammin' is just getting going. Second week.....

Second peck

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It was gorgeous out there this morning so when I got home I rounded up the wife and we went on a boat ride/fishing trip. The fishing was poor....

But the boat ride was FUN! It is all about the company you keep.

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Came back to the dock under a beautiful sunset.

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It was another GREAT day on Great Bay!

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09-20-15
This is what I was eating during the opening kickoff of the Patriots-Bills game.

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I heard the Patriots cheated again......

They let the air out of the Bills. :) Go Pats!

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Tue Oct 06, 2015 12:14 pm
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