Machine head

New England too cold for you? Try Fiji!!

Maine smelting

Steve Winwood, Eric Clapton, and Ginger Baker in COLOR! Look at all those HIPPIES!!

Please Bring Back The 70′s Rock And Roll

THE SMELT SHACKS UP IN MERRYMEETING BAY, MAINE ARE ON THE ICE!

2 of us went today up to Bowdingham, fishing sucked. 3 total fish count. Nice day, sat there watching the ice melt.

2011 hunting in New Hampshire

With the exception of the New Hampshire primary, Jeff Nardello and myself, 2011 was an outstanding year.

JUNE DEEP SEA FISHING AND EQUIPMENT IN THE GULF OF MAINE

 Although most of the party boat operations begin in early to mid April, June is the month when things really begin to get going. Water temps in early spring are still quite cold and even though the days are getting warmer inland a day on the ocean in April will require anglers to bring plenty of warm clothing to be comfortable. Think of it as going out on a boat into a giant bowl of ice water, and fishing tends to start off slow and inconsistent during the early spring days . Things will generally start to improve through May as the days become warmer and the sun has more time to penetrate the deep waters off our coast which range from 50 feet to 500-600 feet in many areas of the gulf.

With the coming of warmer weather and water also come the fish. Cod, haddock, and redfish (ocean perch) begin to increase in numbers for the spring spawning, mackerel, herring, and alewives along with them. The latter three are important feed for the larger species so usually look for stripers to start making an appearance around early to mid June and behind them blues, dog fish, and tuna towards the end of the month. Blackback flounder have begun making an strong comeback in recent years along the sandy bottom coast of Massachusetts and New Hampshire and will begin to offer good fishing starting in mid May and growing stronger as the summer begins to take hold in June.

Most all of our Gulf of Maine species offer good sport fishing and are among the best eating as well. Cod and haddock are the most predominate species targeted by deep sea anglers and have been the backbone of the commercial industry since the abundance of these bottom feeders were discovered century’s ago. New Bedford, Boston, Gloucester, and Portland are all New England coastal cities that began as small fishing villages and grew into the seaports that stand today.

Deep sea fishing for bottom fish, either from party/charter boats, or from a private vessel will require good equipment to achieve good results of coolers full of fillets. Most party/charter boats will offer fishing poles that are adequate for a small rental fee, but if you intend to fish more than the casual summer tourist investing in good tackle is advisable. When I first started in the business 30 years ago the preferred set up was a heavy fiberglass rod around 7 feet long with a Penn 4/0-6/0 reel loaded with 50 pound monofilament line. Strong tips and length were needed to efficiently move the jig and set the hook in depths of 100- 300 feet of water. Many fishermen also preferred to carry a lighter tipped second set-up with a smaller reel and 30 pound line for bait fishing. Working a 14-17.5 ounce jig was a lot of work back then. Today’s equipment has come light-years in efficiency and being more user friendly. Light and fast retrieve set-ups have replaced the clunky fiberglass broomsticks formally used by anglers. Although the length is still important, graphite rods are both slimmer and lighter than their predecessors, and with the invent of strong but thinly braided line, smaller, lighter fast retrieve reels are the norm. Two good choices for rod are the Shimano Trevala and the Ugly Stick Tiger. line efficiency has always been an important part of fishing, especially in deep water. Monofilament was the most popular back in the day and came in many sizes, colors and diameters. Ande pink was the popular choice because it had the least amount of stretch in ocean depths. The less stretch meant less work with the rod to effectively move the jig as well as sensitively to feel the bite hundreds of feet below. It also performed fairly well in strong tides due to it’s smooth nature as long as a heavy enough jig or sinker was used. Dacron line was also around back then and was preferred by many, especially for bait fishing, because it had very little stretch, however it was horrible in tide currents due to poor water resistance. Today’s braided lines have revolutionized the way we now fill the coolers with the tasty offerings from the bottom. Brand names such as Spider Wire and Power-Pro are two of the many on the market that offer 0 stretch and incredibly thin diameters in many line strengths. Most of todays 50 pound braids have the same diameter of 20 pound mono thus allowing for more efficiency in water resistance and sensitivity for working the jig and feeling the bite. Another advantage lighter rigs loaded with thin line allow for is the use of lighter sinkers and jigs. 6 to 10 ounce rigs will work well even in the 400 depth range without much effort to the person holding the rod. There are A few disadvantages to braid, cost, lack of stretch, and tangles are the worst but can be overcome. It is more costly than mono, and because of it’s thin diameter will require quite a bit to fill a large spool. This is the reason for the modern small fast retrieve reels. With these 300 yards of Power-Pro should do well, but if for whatever reason you decide to use say a Penn 4/0 the line will take up little room on the spool thus making reeling up slow. To overcome this problem put a good amount of backing of mono on the reel first and splice the braid on top. I use a double fishermans knot to splice the two together. Lack of or no stretch can hinder your catch from reaching the boat because some stretch is needed as a shock absorber when fighting a fish. If there is no give to the line the hook will tear out of the fishes jaw because as it resists being reeled up the hole where it is hooked will widen resulting in it getting off after the barb can pull back out. To overcome this problem simply add 50 feet of good quality mono leader to give it just enough stretch without losing the advantages of the braid. The biggest problem is the tangles braid, being hard to see and with no memory can create, especially on party boats that carry a pile of anglers of varying expertise. There is not much one can do to get around this problem except try and fish from the stern or bow and away from novice fishermen using the mono on the rental rods. Inevitably there will be tangles and the best solution if you come up involved in a big mess is to cut your line and pull it through and retie either a new leader or the old one if you can retrieve it from the bottom of the pile. Most boats employ mates that are good at getting everybody straitened out in the least amount of time.

Jigs have been improved as well, if fact the selection offered nowadays can be confusing to the novice angler. Fishing on Middlebank and Jefferies Ledge in the 1970′s usually saw fishermen casting 14-17.5 ounce chrome plated Norwegian lures, and at times if the tide was slack and the water shallow, 12 and 10 ounce versions could be sent to the bottom. Today’s new innovations come in many colors and shapes. Most are both lighter and slimmer shaped for use with modern rods and reels. A major change also is the hook placement. The new offerings have a pair of single snatch hooks dangling on tethers from the top of the jig rather than the huge treble on the bottom. This new variation seems to work quite well because fish tend to strike the top or middle of a bait fish, and at times as the lure flutters back down on the action from the rod above. Being on top also keeps the rig from hanging up on the bottom. Choices in lighter jigs include the Butterfly jig from Shimano, Hopkins, and the old stand by Bridgeport Diamond jig.

Tight Lines,

Capt. Don

New England History

NEW ENGLAND HISTORY

When most of us think of history, especially American History, the mind automatically recalls all the facts and stories learned and taught in our schools and museums. Most every city and town in the North East has some kind of monument or other landmark dedicated to some historic battle or famous person, and veterans that were in some way connected to that particular location. All the important dates, 1492, 1776, 1812 and a slew of others that educators deem important are instilled into our brains at an early age, soon to be either forgotten or tucked away into faint memories in hopes of being recalled at some mid-term test or other future reference. Thank God there are some historians out there that dedicate their lives and work to maintain some kind of factual link to our tumultuous beginnings and lives throughout the past centuries here in the “New World”, and it’s a sin that so few know or could care less about the long struggle it has taken to build the world we now live here in the former “Colonies”, or those that dwelled here long before the folk across the “Big Pond” got frisky and sailed over here.

A small percentage of the population that have a distinct advantage over most of observing first hand the lives of our ancestors, Native Americans and past settlements are those that take to the woods. Hunting, fishing, or hiking the woodlands and other undeveloped areas can be as much or more of a history lesson then taught in any school or read in any book as we have the advantage of seeing first hand the foot print left behind by those that walked the same land over the passage of time.

Sadly there is also a small percentage of outdoors people that could care less about what they trod upon as they roam the woodlands, fields, and streams left behind for us by the end of the glacial period some 12,000 years ago. Happily there are as well many that can appreciate the nature and historical wealth that enhance a hunt or hike even if they don’t harvest an animal or are only taking a short leisurely walk in back of the house after dinner.

The lands of New England are a result of what was lest behind by the glaciers after they melted thousands of years ago. The hills, ponds, lakes, and fertile river valleys were formed and left behind for we humans by those huge moving ice formations as they melted and either created lakes and other small bodies of water, or ran off into the ocean.

Walking the woods there are many levels of history left around less obvious than the hills and ponds. Central New Hampshire is a virtual rock garden, a result of the passage of the ice path. Most anywhere you can walk are huge boulders of granite seemingly laying around. They weren’t always there, but were scraped off some mountain top and carried along in the ice until they reached the bottom of the flow and were left behind. Next time you are having a picnic lunch or on a deer stand while sitting on one of these huge pieces of granite keep in mind it may have been part of Montreal at one time.

Soon after the passage of the ice age came the humans and animals. The first New England Native Americans were the Wobanakiak, which is a term that means “people of the east, or “dawnland people, and actually covers all the culturally related groups of early Americans of New England such as Abenaki, Pennacook, and Pequawket. Our modern day culture would have us believe that New England was an untouched wilderness inhabited by savages. This is far from the truth, the Native Americans had a handle on things long before the colonists decided to plant their roots here. The most prominent evidence of this still visible today are their trails and routs. New England is covered with woodland trails. Many hunters mistakenly take many of these as “deer runs”, when in fact they probably were man made either by Native Americans or early settlers. Deer do have their own trails usually leading from cover areas such as swamps and heavy undergrowth, to general feeding areas but usually peter out as they spread out to meander along looking for food. If you find a well defined trail that leads for miles offering the path of least resistance such as along river bottoms and over hills through low passes it may well have been a human route of travel for many years . Yes, deer will also travel these trails as they are the same as us in looking for the easy rout between points A and B especially if they are in a hurry to get out of Dodge for whatever reason. A good example of this is a trail we used as kids to go blackberry picking. We lived in the North River valley in western Massachusetts and a range of hills separated us from the Green River valley where the best berries grew because of the Southern exposure to the sun. we would follow a path that led us for a couple miles through a low point in the line of steep hills connecting the two valleys. Being kids we never gave it a thought as to how the trail got there, but logic would lean to it as an old passage used hundreds of years ago for humans to go from one river to the other. Western Mass if full of history and in fact during the French Indian raid on Old Deerfield in 1704 the raiders took part of the “Great Trail” rout down the Connecticut River Valley from Canada crossing over in Vermont to the Green River Valley and on down to Massachusetts. After the raid, sometimes referred to as the “Deerfield Massacre,” captives were force marched back up this route the 300 miles to Quebec. Many of these were New England trails were originally mapped out by the indigenous Americans for reasons of trade and moving with the migration of animals as well as war parties. Upon the arrival of the colonists they were adapted and further developed into wagon and horse trails. Some even exist today as major interstate highways, Rt. 91 from Connecticut to Canada, and Rt. 2 from Boston to Albany New York, (aptly named the Mohawk Trail) were both part of the Great Trail system.

Some of the final level of New England history are the remains of the early settlers that eventually came from Europe and found the living good here. Stone walls are the most evident to the casual observer as they are literally everywhere you look in all three states of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. These granite structures served as fences, boundary markers, and defensive shielding for the pioneers as they began to spread out and clear the lands for farming. Once again the readily availability of hard stone was a result of the glaciers having left the landscape littered with it’s lower contents as it melted and made it’s way South. As the farmers cleared their land for crops and buildings the stone would be made into walls to keep cows and horses in, mark the boundary of the fields, make foundations for their houses and barns, enclose their community or family cemetery and set up defensive parameters around house lots in hope of giving themselves a little extra time to reload “Ole Betsy” in case of attack. There was no shortage of building material either because even though the fields would be cleared each spring for planting, Mother Nature would freeze the ground in winter and “heave” up a fresh crop of stone each spring as the soil would thaw. Search around the edges of many of the old fields in New England and you will find huge piles of stone that were piled up as excess because the farmer had built as many walls as he needed and simply discarded the new “crop”.

The old graveyards are another link to the past and there as many of them as there are stone walls in our woods. Sometimes they are community plots and many are simply family cemeteries used as many generations passed away. Life a couple century’s ago was much different than today because the family home was just that, a home that passed down for many generations instead of the modern real estate house swap we have today. I like those old family ways better.

Sadly the shadows of the past are slowly being erased forever. As time passes nature reclaims much of the landscape she loaned humans for periods of history, but even worse and most sad of all development is slowly but surely expanding out from the cities and more populated areas and destroying the trails, walls, woods and old homesteads forever. I am experiencing first hand the loss of one of my favorite hunting areas up in Strafford to development. The old township of Johnsonboro has existed as a home to the wildlife for the last 100 years since it had dried up around 1901 judging by the dates on the old cemetery grave stones. A few years ago the surveyors started showing up to mark the boundaries of different owners, then the loggers showed up and are still in the process of removing the valuable timber and doing it in a manner that is clearly leaving a blueprint for housing development, more than likely fancy new homes for the rich to buy their own little piece of nature. All that is left for me to do is gather my tree stands, say goodbye to the area as I remember it and move on to other places up north. I would suggest to all that enjoy the outdoors to enjoy it while it’s still around before it is gone forever.

Keep your powder dry,

Captain Don

cool old video, great old pictures of Annie Oakley, Bonnie and Clyde, and Pretty Boy Floyd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__7OrOxoQxI&feature=related