Another Epic Pike Failure, and people still want to fish with us!

We headed back to the Connecticut River to hunt Northern Pike again. This was our 9th trip after this trophy.
As you can tell from our title, we failed again.

This is from our last pike outing. a 25 inch failure!

I met with Stephanie from Canaan in Hanover, faithful fans will remember her from our failed Halloween Pirate Pike Adventure. She was looking for more abuse from this animal.

We got on the ice at 2pm, drilled some holes, and fished.

The rig was simple, a 1/0 hook, attached to a 12" wire leader and attached to a tip up. We hooked a live 8inch white sucker behind the head and let it swim free under the ice.

Stephanie wanted to mix things up so she used a few golden shiners. She may have been the smart one here, she did catch the only fish of the day. But it was not a pike, it was a nice yellow perch.

Abi the wonder dog was planning on eating that perch

We put our time in waiting for a bite, and despite a hit and run flaaag and Stephanie hooking a pike while jigging and failing to land it. Nothing really happened.

We were hoping to see more of this!

So as the sun set, we packed up and hiked back to the car, our heads hung low and we drove home.

The next shot at Pike will be Jericho Lake, Berlin. Word has it that you can keep one that is 20". So we'll give it a shot.

Clayfest on Ice!

We headed to one of our favorite little ponds in Conway.
Pequawket Pond!

Abi the Wonder Dog waits for her fish

This is a great place for bringing kids fishing because the fishing is fast and furious!
Since it was Clayfest, I (Clay) decided to take my family with us for the day.

Grady lands the first fish of the day

Zoe releases her fish

So Zoe invited her friends Grady and Max and we fished our hearts out.
Well the kids fished for ten minutes, they each caught a fish and then played hid and seek around the portable shanty. So the grown ups got to do some fishing. We caught more than 30 fish in a couple hours and had a great time!

Max wants to make a hole

Kiss the fish!

When ice fishing with kids, bring lots to do and extra help.
Mumsy Nelson (My mother-in-law) My wife were there to help out.

HOT DOG!

Grady loves dogs!

Max clearing the hole

The cold doesn't keep Sammy from eating her dog!

We brought a grill and cooked hot dogs and made hot cocoa. It was a great day!

I had a dream

On Martin Luther King Day 2012,  I had a dream of catching another fish for the Quest: a banded sunfish. Clay was up north damaging his internal organs while sledding with his kids, so I ventured out solo to

Ice Pond in Hampton where NH Fish and Game had documented the existence of banded sunfish a few years earlier. The ice was about 4 inches thick but clear. The water was moving up and down in the hole as I walked around, but I never felt in danger.  The deepest spot I found was 4 feet 3 ".  I figured if I fell through. I would simply stand up.

The ice was clear, but the water was stained brown like tea.  This picture shows bits of roots that I suspect had been nibbled by muskrat or beaver. The marshmallow-like blobs are air bubbles frozen in the ice.

The banded sunfish eluded me again. I fished in 2 and 4 feet of water.  I did not even get a nibble from the many bluegill and pumpkinseeds I know live there. Perhaps the ice was too clear which made the fish too spooked to bite. 

Even my favorite jigging rod could not conjure a banded sunfish. 

A cold looking beaver lodge may have held fish in a deep channel near by, but it also harbored patches of  thin ice. 

So no fish for my effort, but I will end with a good MLK quote:

Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
MLK would have made a good angler.  - D

Friday the 13th Northern Pike fish number 35.5!

This was our sixth time targeting Northern Pike...

 Brandon Zeoli who, a NH Trophy Angler,  invited us to come to his super secret pike spot on the CT river and we jumped at the chance.

On the way to the River we stopped into AJ's Bait and Tackle in Meredith for a little advice, Alan's advice, buy bigger bait, use 12" steal leaders and a 1/0 hook. So we gave Alan some more money and he gave us a nice pile of suckers about 8inches long! Big Bait-Big Fish

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When Clay arrived on the ice Brandon and his friend Randy from Maryland were already on the ice fishing and the holes were already drilled! We love it when things are easy!

As soon as Clay said hello, Brandon had a flag! Fish on! A few seconds later an 18 inch Northern Pike was on the ice. The keeper size of these fish is 28" so we took some pics and let it go

We changed the background to keep the secret spot secret!

Clay couldn't wait to get his bait in the water, so he hooked a large sucker behind the head and started lowering the line down. As soon as the sucker hit the water a large fish swam past the hole and sucked down the sucker! Fish on! Clay set the hook so hard the fish came right up out of the water and onto the ice!

fishing with buffalo?

No we weren't fishing at the beach...

We thought we had our fish, so we took some pictures and scrounged up a tap measure...25 inches, three inches too short. We're calling it a success and fish number 35.5, but we still need to catch a keeper so we can see what these trophies taste like. Once we do we can call it 36 so half a success anyway!

We have a feature article in Wildlife Journal!

We've had a great year and have gotten a lot of attention, we're happy to announce that our latest article is a feature in New Hampshire's Wildlife Journal!

Let us know what you think!

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

Late year Carp fishing!

We headed out yesterday with fellow anglers and bloggers, Nick and Todd.
Nick writes the Southern New England Outdoor and Nature Site and Todd writes the blog Trout Undiscovered. Both blogs are terrific and worth following, Todd and Nick are very knowledgeable anglers.

Wow now that's a good looking group of anglers!

Nick is an avid carp angler and showed us great technique called the method for catching these shy fish.

We decided to head to Bow NH to fish the warm waters of PSNH's coal burning power plant.

We found this nifty duck blind

The paddle from the boat launch was an easy half mile upstream and the warm water was obvious. You could see the contrast in water color and temperature.

So we slowly entered the warmer water and Todd spotted a large carp immediately and our spirits were lifted.

We tied off the to the shore and steadied out canoes, baited our area and cast out. This is where the wait began...
Dave casted out a worm on a jig pretty early on and caught a little small mouth bass.

Four hours later and several moves later we were still waiting. Earlier in the day when we saw the first carp we remarked that it was surprising how few anglers target these fish.

After sitting in a cold canoe for that time we now had a better understanding of why people don't fish for them. Hopefully when we finally catch one we'll be as addicted to carp fishing as Nick... maybe we should try fishing for them on a warm day!

Despite not catching our target fish, we had a great time and can't wait to fish with these guys again. We laughed and told fishing stories all day long. A big thanks for the company, because alone this would have really sucked!

We haven't given up and will make another few attempts this winter.

Catch-M-All's guide to Ice Safety!

We're all anxious to get out on the ice and catch some fish, but before you head out please make sure you're safe!
We borrowed some of this language from NH Fish and Game's Ice Safety website.

Never assume ice is safe, always test it for yourself!
Yesterday we were out on Pequawket pond in Conway fishing on six solid inches of ice.

Zoe looks deflated in her over-sized  winter clothes

Last night it was warm and rainy and we didn't want to take any chances.
Here's how to check the ice for safety.


 Dave decided to stay off the ice (the safest move) with his cell phone handy.
Clay increased his life insurance policy and headed out.

1. Wear a Personal Floatation Device
2. Tie a rope around yourself (not your neck!).

Clay wore a PFD under his jacket and tied a long rope around his body.

3. Drill or chip a hole every few feet, ice thickness can vary a great deal from one spot to the other.

Clay carried an auger on the ice and drilled a hole every few feet.
At first everything seemed cool, 4 inches, 5 inches.

Drill a hole every three to four feet.

 

Clay is measuring the ice, not guessing.

Then Disaster, the ice was crispy soft and only two inches thick!

4. If the ice is less than six inches, fish somewhere else.  The fish aren't worth dying for.

* If you do break through the ice, don't panic.  Move or swim back to where you fell in, where you know the ice was solid.  Lay both arms on the unbroken ice and kick hard.  This will help lift your body onto the ice.  A set of ice picks can aid you in a self-rescue (wear them around your neck or put them in an easily accessible pocket).  Once out of the water, roll away from the hole until you reach solid ice.

Without panicking Clay came off the ice going exactly the way he walked out.
Please be careful, always have a back up plan and don't head out alone!

If the ice is a solid six inches have a great time.
If the ice is crispy and soft be extremely careful. It is not safe ice!

We traveled to a smaller pond and did the same test.  The ice was six solid inches so we had a safe afternoon of fishing!