Fishing, Again

It's the end of May already, and we had not been down to the River yet this year, but we fixed that today. We were able to get down and spend the afternoon fishing, with Grace again catching the first fish of the year, and the most fish. I think she did that last year too. It is becoming a tradition.

We had a nice warm day, and the fishing was decent but not great, with the usual assortment of perch, sunfish and catfish. There was a decent amount of boat traffic on the river kicking up wakes, and that always makes fishing off the bulkhead less productive.

It is an amusing experience fishing with the girls; they have limited attention spans, and do like to fish, but will spend much of the time wandering back and forth between holding a pole and various other endeavors. When I am not taking fish off and baiting hooks I think I spend the rest of my time holding poles for them.

I can't complain though, as I love to fish and should be very happy that my girls have any interest in it at all. I get a great amount of enjoyment out of watching them play, whatever it is that they are doing, whether fishing or just running around the yard. They will not be young forever, and are growing up at an alarming rate. I hope these days continue as long as possible.

Sassafras River - Fourth of July

I took the girls down to the River for the afternoon on Sunday 7/4 to spend a few hours fishing. The grandparents were there, and Dave and Lori were going down for the afternoon as well.


It was another day of small panfish off the wall with only one catfish. But the catfish was a great one. Grace, fishing in 12 inches of water about 12 inches off the bulkhead, hooked this nice one. This is the fish of the year so far, a 21 inch channel catfish weighing in at just under 3 pounds. I brought this fish in because it would have pulled Grace's little ultralight rod out of her hands. Fighting a fish this size on a tiny rod with 4 lb test line is tremendous fun, and it was touch and go as to whether I was going to be able to land the fish. It fought hard for quite a while, and I was just hoping that I could get it up off the bottom so we could see it before it snapped the line. Fortunately, with Dave helping out with the net, we were able to get it in. You can see the size of the fish versus the size of the pole...

On the road coming into the neighborhood, there is a nesting platform on top of one of the telephone poles. This year, a family of Osprey are calling it home. There are three little ones, although as can be seen here they are not so little any more. At least two adults are also here, bringing fish back to the kids. When one of the adults shows up with a fish in its claws, the little ones go nuts and start making an awful racket of squawking and crying out.

It is nice to have a chance to see these beautiful birds right out the car window.

Sassafras River Fishing - June 22, 2010

This post comes a bit out of order, but the lead up to the backpacking trip pushed everything else out of the way for a while. On Tuesday June 22, my friend Maryellen brought her boys down to the River for an afternoon of fishing, like we had done later last summer.



The fishing wasn't quite as good this time around, especially since the day we did this last August was one of the best fishing days down there in recent memory, with a non-stop string of decent sized catfish all day long. Today, we were catching mainly white perch and bluegill sunfish, with a few catfish thrown in for good measure, but nothing of exceptional size.



Nathan and Jack wetting a line. Jack took the prize for most fish caught. Nathan didn't catch his first fish for a while, much to the amusement of his brothers, but did end up with a respectable handful of fish by the time the day was done.



Sam had the largest fish of the day, a channel catfish that he caught on a little Mepps spinner lure. Odd... catfish don't generally take lures, but I guess this one was bored.



What's a day on the water without food and drinks. For that matter, what's anything without food and drinks.



The gang hard at work.



A very nice afternoon, which I hope we can do again before the kids go back to school.

Background Part 2, About Me

Below are a couple of pictures of me and my girls, Grace (the younger) and Julia (the older).

One of the happiest places on earth for me, filled with more good memories than I can count, is my parents' place on the Sassafrass River. The Sassafrass is on the upper eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The house has been in the family since the late 1950's when it was purchased as a vacation home by my grandfather, and I have been going there since I was three months old. Nothing is more fun than getting a bunch of friends and family together, getting out the fishing poles, and just relaxing. I have included a picture of one of the nicer things to catch on our tidal river, a baby Striped Bass (Rockfish). At certain times of the year, you can catch the little ones off of our front lawn or pier. The little ones are extremely aggressive for their size, and will hit a spinner or spoon like a ton of bricks. But if you want the big ones, you need to go out on the Bay. Five or six of the boys chartered a boat for an afternoon out on the Bay several years ago, but that is a story for another day. I must remember to harass brother Dave about doing that again...

Gracie has especially taken to fishing, and shows off her pro form below (at the ripe old age of five). For two or three consecutive outings this summer, Grace caught the largest fish (channel catfish). Way to go Gracie!