Saturday, January 09, 2010

The Shortest Trip Report I Will Ever Write!


Go fish,
No fish!

OK, OK, I can't just leave it at that. This was my first fishing trip since I was in high school & although the herring weren't around today, I found that I do still enjoy it very much. Possibly more than I did when I was a kid - maybe I'm better at waiting now. It was cold, but I was properly bundled up (as you can see) & had my usual thermos of hot cider, it was a gorgeous day & it was just kind of nice hanging out watching the water going by.

Andy gave me a ride & our first stop was at Stella Maris, a fishing shop in Sheepshead Bay. They had a nice inexpensive light rod & reel kit, so now I have a new toy that I think I will probably play with again.

I think it helped that I'd been watching "Lotek's" reports over the week, so my expectations weren't too high! Andy definitely plans to keep watching the reports & if & when we start getting schools in Jamaica Bay (apparently these are an all or nothing kind of fish - when they turn up, it's in droves - if they haven't, you could fish all day & not get a nibble), he said he'll organize another trip.

My January weekends already seem to be getting busy - but if it happens when I'm around, I'll definitely join that!

Thanks, Andy!

8 comments:

moonstruck said...

Wow!! is that water, you know, the soft wet stuff? Newburgh Bay is completely frozen. Ice preasure ridges are piling over 10 feet high. It is 7:45 sunday morning and it is a big one degree!!!

Ice fishing on White pond today . Big yellow perch.

Dennis G

Tillerman said...

Let's see if Joe will post this "wahine" picture on Friday!

bonnie said...

I knew I was gonna make one mighty lumpy wahine!

If I'd only had some fish to hold up. 'Cause when you come right down to it, Fish on Friday is really all about the fish, right?

;D

Dennis, I have been watching the Hudson River Ice Yacht Club & I think all the ice yachters are starting to salivate!!! They haven't updated in a couple of days but it was getting pretty close on the 6th (their last update) & we've been in the deep freeze since then.

They've got a neat thing on their site - the Coast Guard apparently does regular ice photography flights up the river during the winter & the HRIYC posts galleries of those flights.

Here was the flight of January 5th.

bad cab driver said...

You gotta see lowtech"s report...(on noreast.com)


Finally saw some herring being caught off of the 69th St Pier in Bay Ridge. I was there for about 10 minutes around 11am and saw 4 fishermen and one pulled a nice sized herring out. He had a total of 6 when i left. It was super cold on the pier with nice gusts and plenty of whitecaps.



Returned to Canarsie to report the good news but some of the regulars were in a van waiting to attend the wake of one the regulars (Mike) who passed away. I never met Mike but he was described as a nice fellow.



I did meet some members of the Sebago Canoe Club who has a winter outing on Canarsie Pier. I think 4 members showed up. They were very nice people and I may join the club in the spring. They are readers of this blog so let's give them a shout-out!!!! No fish caught but they braved the cold....



BTW: Their website is www.sebagocanoeclub.org.



They must have pretty high IQs as they outed me as lotekchow within 10 minutes.



The 69 Pct. did issue a missing chicken report for one Hennie Cordon Bleu. Described as female, approximately 14 inches tall and weighing 7 lbs. Last seen with grey mottled feathers on her back and reddish orange breast feathers.

bonnie said...

I saw that!

He's got some other people who are enjoying his reports, by the comments.

Sad to find out that one of the reasons there were so few people there was because of the memorial service.

It still cracks me up that you guys were swapping stories about husbands who lie to their wives about going fishing. Seems to me like a pretty inocuous hobby!

pia said...

I know I live at one beach but I miss the Sheapshead Bay piers and Jones Beach :) Mine's beautiful though and it might be 60 this weekend!

bonnie said...

We're off to Jones Beach this weekend for a sealwatching paddle!

Can't wait, those are so much fun.

Salt Water said...

I too like fishing for the sake of the surroundings. Yet, my experience with herring says keep the bait just 18 inches below the surface. That could be hard to do in wind and whitecaps. Nice post.