We got slimy with a little help from our friends... Slimy Sculpin Fish # 32

This whole finding new species of fish is getting to be a real challenge, so we asked for help and once again NH Fish and Game has come to the rescue.
NH Fish and Game biologists inventory the fish in NH waters by electrofishing and collecting the fish. Once the ID the fish and take some scale samples they release them back to the river. The good news, they collect locations of all the fish they catch.

Zoe Scouting for Sculpins

We asked for the locations of the Slimy Sculpin and were able to quickly find our fish.

Sammy trying to figure out why we're in the water

We found our fish in a tiny brook on Artists Falls Road in North Conway. It was exactly where it was supposed to be! Clay brought his kids there the day before to check it out.

The Hot Spot (dozens of sculpin in one place)

 Slimy sculpin are a surprisingly common fish in NH they are rarely encountered by fishermen, probably because they are usually smaller than three inches long and live under rocks.

We found a couple of websites with great information on micro-fishing and  non traditional fishing and we asked NH Fish and Game for advice. The plan was to walk the river, roll over some rocks and see if anything swims out. Once they do follow them to their new hiding space and drop a worm on a #20 hook into the hole and see what happens.

It worked, but getting the fish to bite to some effort, but we bounced the worm on their heads until they were annoyed and fish on! Anyone have a good sculpin recipe?

Bacon Wrapped Togue

We noticed that we've gotten a little behind on sharing our cooking experience, so here is a quick easy recipe for bacon wrapped lake trout.

Ingredients:
1. Lake trout, filleted and washed
2. Bacon
3. Salt, pepper and garlic

Cut the fillets into 3 inch strips and season with salt, pepper and garlic.

 Cut the bacon strips and half and roll them around the trout.

 Heat a cast iron skillet on high and place the trout rolls on the pan, turn them over when the bacon is crispy.

Remove them from the heat when they are done and enjoy!
Remember bacon makes everything taste better!

We went to Jackson, and all we got was this little fish, number 31 Blacknose Dace

When I breeze into that city, people gonna stoop and bow. (Hah!)
All them women gonna make me, teach 'em what they don't know how,
I'm goin' to Jackson, you turn-a loose-a my coat.
'Cos I'm goin' to Jackson.
"Goodbye," that's all she wrote.

We headed to Jackson and caught a fish that would make Johnny Cash proud, or a maybe a little embarrassed.  How should we know, we don't know him!

Either way we headed up to the Ellis River in search of something new, and before too long we had the next new thing. Fish number 31-Blacknose Dace (Rhinichthys atratulus)

(

We also caught a handful of brook trout and some bluegill, but the excitement came as we tied on a number 20 hook with a tiny piece of worm. 

These dace were as aggressive a fish as we've ever seen, they were in a feeding frenzy, so once we found them they were happy to eat! Check back to see how we prepared this little minnow!

The Hunt for Mr. Stripy- The Banded Sunfish

We were contacted by one of our fans, Ken Potter of Portsmouth; he wanted to fish with us for his birthday present. Imagine that...we're someone's birthday present! Well Happy Birthday Ken!

Ken really wanted to be deputized into the quest so it was decided that we would hunt for the banded sunfish. After some research and discussions with NH Fish and Game we narrowed the fishing spots down to a few bodies of water in the seacoast region.

Before heading out we met with Peter Tilton, owner of the Defiant Lobster company, which not only sells lobster and clams but is an excellent bait shop. Peter recommended we fish the Hampton Ice Pond. His advice, fish in the weeds, small hooks and watch out for the little horned pout!

So that's what we did! The pond was absolutely beautiful!

Ken fishing in the weeds

The fishing was terrific

Ken and his pumpkinseed

Ken and Bluegill

The Golden Shiners here were huge

Brown Bullheads attacking mid-day!

we must've caught 30 of these little bullheads

We thought we had stripy here but the forked tail is a give away!

Ken spent a good deal of the day unhooking little cats

Little Bluegill

We caught dozens of fish.

But Mr. Stripy eluded us, if you've caught a banded sunfish, drop us a line and let us know what you did. But we haven't given up. Mr. Stripy you will be ours, oh yes you will!

Old Man Groves of the Sea: Fish #30 Lake Trout

We were invited by Salmon Patrol Charters to go for fish number 30, the Lake Trout.
This would be our first time having an actual fishing guide take us out. And it was awesome!

Clay's dad, Bob Groves, came for the adventure and was deputized into the quest.

We met Jay and Gary at 4:45 am in Gilford on  lake Winnipesaukee and came with enough coffee to get us through the morning.After a brief introduction we set out.

By 5:15 we had our first fish, we let the old man try to land it, he is used to fishing for king salmon with no barbs on the hooks, so he reeled as fast as he could and quickly lost the fish. Clay tried his luck with the next fish and lost that too. We were starting to feel like amateurs!

An hour later, after losing 3 more fish, we landed our first fish of the day, a land locked Atlantic Salmon. Since we've already eaten this species it was quickly released.

This Salmon had a serious speech impediment

Jay and Old Man Groves with their Rainbow

Old man Groves had another fish on and it wasn't a Salmon, we were getting excited! But bummer it was an 18inch rainbow trout, what a disappointment!

8:15 we finally got into the Lakers, now in NH they need to be 18inches long to keep them, so we caught about 8 of them before Old man Groves caught the keeper and got deputized into our quest.

The Quest fish with his new friend

These fish are eating machines

A big thank you to Salmon Patrol Charters (NH Guide Services) for taking us out, these guys are terrific and know a lot about how to have a good time while fishing. We highly recommend them if you are looking for a guide.