April 14th, 2012 – First Surf Fishing of the Year

Danielle and I finally got on the beach for the first time this year. (Navy Crossing – Cape Henlopen State Park) The DNREC fishing report has the rocks in the upper bay for the spawn and some sitting a few miles offshore. It could have been a good chance to grab a few fish, as some keepers and shorts have been caught from the beach recently (according to local reports).

I took some frozen bunker and frozen squid. I was using my 14ft pole and my cheap Shakespeare spinning reel….and this may be one of the last times I use that rig. I had read up on some surf fishing stuff online the past couple weeks (as I still have only been doing it for about 2 years). I had been getting ready to install a shock leader to my rig before my first trip (as I am only spooled up with 15lb test), but I never got around to it. (A shock leader is a short-ish piece of much heavier line that attaches to your terminal tackle, and then goes down and spools around the reel one or two times before attaching to your regular line, that way when you cast with a massive pole, the fore doesn’t snap your regular line)

I soon found that I should have made the time to install it. With a bigger pole, older line, and a much improved cast from all of my recent fishing, I was able to break my line not one time, but three times, and chuck about $20 of tackle into the ocean……needless to say I felt stupid. At least the beach is empty in April.

To add insult to injury, every time I actually got some bait in the water, a big skate would crush it and fight like a discarded tire all the way to the beach.

See some picture of our April (not full summer time hang out) setup with Bentley also enjoying his first beach trip.

On a brighter note, the weather was pleasant, and we had plenty of beer.

April 1st, 2012 – Outdoor Marathon Saturday

About a month behind again – I am writing about what I’ve done outside over the month of April.

On the first of the month, I installed the new EZ Glide – EZ Stik 2 cable that I had ordered (after I stupidly mis-measured the first time and had to send it back for another one). The 14ft Grumman John boat that I have is equipped with a Quicksilver throttle and gear selector on the right side of the front seat, and the steering stick on the left side of the front seat, so the boat is completely controlled from the front.

After I installed the stick, I was able to take the boat out on the water by myself for the first time. I took the boat down to the Woodland Beach boat ramp that goes into what I believe is Duck Creek. The boat started right up, and I was able to finally open her all the way up on open water after owning the boat for 6 months…..and man does she scream. That 25hp 2-stroke really pushes.

That’s a picture of the steering stick installed.

I was not equipped to fish that day, and it was pretty windy, so I took her back to the boat ramp and went home.

The next part of the day was a trip to Killens Pond State Park…with now boat. We wanted to take the dog out and have a little cookout/hike by ourselves…see pictures below. Bentley’s first state park trip was a success.

As if that wasn’t enough, I decided to take the boat back out to Garrisons Lake with my buddy to do some bass fishing……….2 hours on the water, 1 fish caught…..

Bass Fishing – 3/24/2012

On Saturday, March 24th, 2012, after a long day of other activities, my friend Brandon and I decided to hit Garrison Lake in the last 2 hours of daylight. We launched my boat around 6. The sky was overcast, about 55 degrees with a 15 mph wind – not ideal bass fishing conditions. We drifted on the eastern wind from the spillway, down across large fields of lilly pads. The boat had a pretty good speed going on its own.

Although it is still early in the season, and the temperatures are rather low, we are beginning to think other factors are effecting our fishing. The bass and carp are jumping within feet of our boat, but ignoring the entire tackle box that we are throwing at them. A combination of heavy fishing in that lake as well as our loud trolling motor may be hindering our catch. We will see once it finally warms up some.

Below is a picture of our lone bass, caught by Brandon on this stupid $1 buzz bait from Wal-mart that make the most obnoxious sound on the water, but apparently was the only thing that would catch a fish……

Bass Fishing – Milford and Smyrna

In My last post, I talked about taking my boat out for it’s first fishing experiences in Lums Pond and Garrison Lake. The last two weekends, we also took the boat to Haven Lake (3/10/12) and Garrison Lake (3/18/12) and fished bass.

Only a few fish were actually caught, because the water temperature has not increased enough yet. The bass we caught in both lakes were caught on Yamasenkos.

The boat now has a properly mounted trolling motor and the EZ Glide steering cable has been delivered, and will be installed soon.

Catch up post since Thanksgiving

Well….I have not posted in over three months. Buying a house, getting married, having appendicitis, and getting a puppy have put a damper on my outdoor activities, as well as distracted me from posting about them on this blog.

This post is to catch up to the current time…and going forward, I will be posting more actively as I do things outside.

On Thanksgiving day, I hunted my friend Dave’s farm in Port Penn. We jump-shot the march at the back of the property, and only shot two Canada geese and one mallard. The weather and timing were terrible. There were no birds in the air, and we didn’t have the best setup.

I continued to bow-hunt for the rest of the season, but with no success. I resorted to baiting the ground in front of my one fixed stand on private property with cheap bags of corn. One hunt in December resulted in me bumping what sounded like a whole herd of deer that went crashing through the woods. I was late getting to my parents’ house (and by late I mean that I was only there 30 minutes before legal shooting time instead of an hour before legal shooting time) and while walking to my stand with no light, I stepped into a hole and broke a stick at its bottom, leading to the stirring of all the deer. I also hunted a few frigid days in January, refreshing the corn pile before each hunt – but with no success.

As the bow deer season came to a close at the end of January, I still hadn’t harvested anything near what I thought I would have this season. Therefore, I decided to dive into rabbit hunting….which lead to more disappointment. I am still learning a lot about hunting every time I talk to someone about it and every time I actually go, so I know there is a lot of getting better to do. Some picture of some rabbit hunting spots that I found and GPS trails that I recorded while rabbit hunting in the Blackbird State Forest.

I also decided to use these long walks to scout for turkeys for the Spring. It is even more convenient that I drew Blackbird State Forest for my public land hunting spot for Spring turkeys in the State lottery. While on one of my rabbit hunts, I startled a wild turkey hen in one of the back fields of the Peters Tract of the forest. I marked it on my GPS, and watched as the turkey flew about a half mile over the field and nearby tree line, to what appeared to be a roost. More to come as I scout further. I cannot hunt that land until the weekend of April 22nd.

Peters Tract – Blackbird State Forest

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Blackbird State Forest Hiking/Scouting

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While rabbit hunting, I did not manage to shoot a single rabbit, but I did flush two woodcocks in the state forest that almost caused a heart attack. I have heard a lot about woodcock hunting, and I plan on hunting them next season. Unfortunately, I was already about a month out of woodcock season when I flushed these two.

Finally, in the last couple of weeks, I have been preparing a boat that I purchased back in October. It spent most of the fall sitting, while my dad and I worked on the engine and I re-wired the trailer and boat for lights. I got both titled and registered, as well as have been slowly purchasing all of the necessities and accessories that I need to fish and crab in the Spring/Summer, and more importantly, get it ready to be able to duck hunt in the coming hunting season.

It is a 14ft Grumman “Jon Boat” with a 25hp Mercury 2-cycle on the transom, and a pull-up mounted Motor Guide trolling motor on the front. The funniest and coolest part about this boat is that the previous owner rigged it up with a Quicksilver gear and throttle box and Ezy Glide stick steering system up front, so the driver sits in the front seat and controls power and steering one in each hand.

Dad and I took it out on Garrison’s lake to test the gas motor once we got it running. After years of apparent sitting, it runs like a dream, and has a ridiculous amount of power for that size boat. The following weekend, we took it fishing on Lums Pond, and this last weekend, me, dad, and a buddy took her fishing on Garrison’s lake. Although the fishing is not the best right now in the cold weather, I’m psyched to have a working boat, and should have all the finishing details done by the time the real fishing/crabbing kicks in soon.

Below is a picture of her when I first got her. I will post updated pictures soon.