We went at Gate 31 last Saturday and Don suggested we fish our spots in reverse order from what we usually do. So we started from the channel that goes off on the left of the launching area where I caught a nice amount of largemouth last year around the same time. And the funny thing is, if you look at the pictures, you will see the same type of weather, cool and overcast.

I switched quickly from the usual plastic worm to my early-season best catching lure: the lizard! That river has a lot of grass at its bottom, so I thought that would work probably better. We fished down the river, the wind blowing down the boat at a pretty nice pace. It did not take long to catch the first largemouth, letting the lizard come down from the edge into the river. And voila:

This one was 3.8lb:

Then another one, 3.2lb:

and Then Don came back strong with first, a smallmouth of 1.8lb:

and he added another 3 pounder largemouth to our catch list for the day:

I have to say, i was super happy, we had a really good day, it feels good catching nice fish, and after the end of the Summer I had when we did not catch a single decent fish for weeks, this feels more like the normal routine

We have (well I do) only have 2 more week ends of fishing, I hope we can catch as many nice fish as we did last week, that’d be a great ending for this 2007 fishing season!

Oh boy, what the Hell is up with me lately. Not able to land one simple decent fish in weeks, it hurts I tell you.

Last week end, we made it back to gate 43 at Quabbin. There is only a few weeks left at Quabbin since it closes late October, and on top of it, I won’t be able to be in the middle of Quabbin without any signal on my cell phone starting the next 2-3 weeks as the baby birth is getting real close now. We’ll probably go to Quaboag this week end and then Gate 31 next week end, then I need to stay close from home or I am a dead man

Saturday was not such of a good day. Cold and rain in the morning for like 3-4 hours…oh yeah, you gotta love fishing to be out there in this type of weather, no kidding.

But as always, Don pulled it off. Don’t expect any picture of me, I caught 2 fish I think, and really it would have been a waste taking pictures of it. I missed quite a few, but until it’s in the boat, it does not count right?

So here it is:

This one is a 1.9lb smallmouth:

Then a smaller largemouth:

Then he caught this 2.2lb largemouth:

and finally this beautiful 3.1lb largemouth near “The Spot”:

I previously said, Don took his long time friend Dennis fishing a few weeks this Summer and in September when I could not make it. Dennis caught quite a few nice fish, from what I heard, because if I am solely relying on the picture Don took, I am not really sure how big Dennis’s fish were!!!

This one was a over 3lb largemouth bass - Dennis’ largest catch ever (right?):

To me, that counts as half the size since that’s all we can see! hehe.

Dennis, I feel your disappointment, i’ve been there, Don’s got big fingers and can’t see well, so he’s got a tough time to take the shot….HAHAHAHAAH, JUST KIDDING DON!!!

Dennis, if you have pictures, feel free to get me some of the pictures you took so I can post it on the blog…as long as they are not pictures Don took cause we need to see the fish WOW, shot #2 Don!

Alright guys, off to get some work done, thanks for reading!

Also, we had a crazy Summer at home getting home improvements done and getting ready for the arrival of our baby girl in 6 weeks… I went fishing, yes, but I just did not take the time to write about it. Actually, I did not go for a few week ends in July as we took a vacation break, and other events have prevented me to go fishing a few week end in August and in early September as well.

Ok, now for the recap. Here are some pictures from the Summer, I lost track of the size of the fish, but as you can see on the photo & video, they are pretty nice:

This largemouth was caught on July 14th, at Quabbin, Gate 31:

This smallmouth was caught by Don the same day:

Don and I went to our first competition in AUgust, which ended up being a real nightmare as we did not catch one single fish. Just writing about it hurts my feelings again the first team ended up with 15lbs+ of fish with a 6.5lb largemouth cath…Impressive. Of 20 or so boats, only 9 (I believe, Don correct me if I am wrong) had some fish to weight, so it wasn’t just us being really bad at it that day!

I have one more recent story I am going to add right now. Something you should know is that even though I did not go fishing several week ends in a row, Don has invited his ling time friend Dennis to go fishing with him, and Dennis has proved to be quite successful at catching fish!! More to follow.

We went to Gate 31 for the first time this year and worked some of the spots we know pretty well. We did not catch anything on the main drop off area, so we decided to move on the other end to fish more drop offs. On the way, we hit (seriously, the prop did hit!) a shallow sandy area…after checking on the engine, Don suggested we tried fishing around it, with crazy drop offs of 30+ feet around it, it looked like a great spot.

It did not take long for Don to successfully back up his suggestion! A nice 2.8lb smallmouth bass, and we got a video:

We kept working on the area and I landed another smallmouth, 2.2lb:

We then moved on to the area where I had a blast on closing day, catching largemouth after largemouth, but we could not find them this year.

So overall, not a bad day, but not a great day either. I wished we caught another 2 or 3 decent fish, but I cannot complain!

BUT…if you refer to my last post, i said something like: “…so stay tune as I hope to turn things around a bit!” Well, I did!

Lucky shot I gotta say, but I take it…So here is my new personal record for largemouth:

This baby weights 4.1lb and it made me really happy!!!

Man, I hope I’ll get the opportunity to catch another one like that someday, what a fight that was! My adrenaline level is sill high, 24 hours later

First let’s acknowledge something: I have changed. Last year I would have literally exploded if I missed a fish…this year, it takes like 3 or 4 nice misses for my blood to boil! Part of it is, I don’t really care, I am a happy camper cause i-gonna-be-a-daddy-soon, so other stuff don’t matter (even people driving at 29mph in a 30mph zone…)! And that’s the truth. I am really excited.

But I gotta give a round of applause to Don, because Mr. Don knows how to catch fish and it proves it week after week! If my count is right, Don caught 6 or 7 fish and over 10 pounds total last Saturday! That’s pretty damn good.

Here is a video of one of the nice smallmouth he caught:

I think Don caught 4 largemouth first, all keepers, and then 2 really nice smallmouth within 10-15 mn interval. I miss my first smallie of the season before Don had caught any smallmouth, but that freaken fish jumped out of the water like a whale and the hook did not get set correctly..bummer I tell you.

Here is a picture of the second smallmouth Don caught - a really nice fish:

This week end, we’re aiming back at Quaboag because we’ll only have a few hours to fish in the morning, so stay tune as I hope to turn things around a bit!