Herring Therapy.....Fish Number 37!

Herring Therapy

The herring are running in Exeter, NH! We love this time of year when the alewives return from the sea to visit the town.  There are two species of migratory herring in New Hampshire: alewife and bluebacked herring.  In Exeter the run is primarily alewife. Honestly we can't tell the difference, but we have faith in the odds and are going to claim that we caught an alewife.  Collectively they are called river herring.

It has been a long time since we added a fish to our list.  The last time was in February when Clay caught a northern pike through the ice in Hanover, NH.  

The alewife is fish number 37 in The Quest

Counting the alewife in our freshwater effort is only slightly cheating.  We caught it near the head of tide in the Squamscott River, just before it turns into the Exeter River. At that point the water is essentially fresh.  The fish was on her way upstream to lay her eggs on freshwater plants and rocks.  Also herring are stocked in Bow Lake in New Hampshire, far from the ocean.  These freshwater examples in the Granite State is good enough for us to count it. 

The alewife is the official mascot of Exeter, NH.   Appearing in the town seal.

It was a female. Has anyone heard of eating herring roe?  Probably not much different than  shad roe. 

Herring were easy to see in the shallows

There were plenty of other anglers there, like this Herring Gull

Camping With Zoe

Managed to get a little one on one time with my kid Zoe this weekend.
Not a big story to tell but I thought I would share it anyway.

Made Zoe cook her own supper

We went camping on a piece of property I own on Pequawket Pond in Albany NH.

Zoe and I had a blast, the plan was to fish well into dark and try to catch a huge American Eel (I have caught 3 foot eels there before)

But Zoe is 5 so we didn't make it past 8, had a great time anyway and Zoe caught a nice yellow perch.

Flying Bucket Mouths

Hey Kids, wow it's been a long time since we've last blogged and we miss you too!

Yesterday I (Clay) was poking around the North Country Angler fly shop in North Conway and talking to Bill the owner. I mentioned that I have not done nearly enough fly fishing. He asked me what I was fishing for next and I said I think I want to catch some rock bass on my way to work in the morning so he sold me a couple of flies. I don't remember what they were called!

 So this morning on my way to work I stopped in Center Harbor and tied on the fly and went to after the fish. I bounced this fly all over the rocks that usually produce large goggle eyes and saw nothing.

 Then to my right just a few few from the dock I was fishing from I saw a couple of Large Mouth Bass sitting on their spawning bed.

Look closely for the bucket mouths

 I am not a romantic person so I had no trouble deciding to break up their tryst for my entertainment. So I started bouncing these flies around their heads. They completely ignored me because they were in the throws of passion. But I kept going, and going until finally they had enough and lashed out at my fly in anger. FISH ON!

 I have never caught a large fish on a fly before, or even a small trout, I was so happy to be fighting this fish and I had no clue what I was doing. After a 5 minute battle I wrestled this fish out of the water, took a few pictures and a minute later he was back with his best girl doing naughty fish things. If you have never caught a bass on a fly before I think you should give it a shot. It was one of the most fun fish I have ever caught!