Conference wahoo::fishing

31.0. "HURRICANE CONDITIONS" by SPMFG1::CUZZONES () Wed Oct 02 1985 14:39

This weekend, I had my first opportunity to fish after a hurricane and 
thought maybe I'd compare notes with the rest of you.  The results were a
little mixed.  For those of you just returning from an extended vacation in
Borneo, Hurricane Gloria crossed Long Island friday morning and moved inland
up the Connecticut River valley on friday afternoon.

The river had been getting lower and lower the past couple of weeks and I
headed down there thursday to see if the Corps of Engineers had opened the
dams in anticipation of the hurricane.  The river was up to its usual height
and the fishing was fair; a couple 1 lb largemouth and a lot of their little
brothers and sisters in 45 minutes.  I stayed away from the river on friday for
obvious reasons.  I returned saturday morning to find the river several feet 
over its banks and relatively crowded (five others in my favorite spot).
It was instantly apparent that there was room for all as all five were currently
hooked into fish that were bending their rods double.  The toll between ten a.m.
and noon was enormous.  All fish were released so no exact record was kept but,
each one of us easily caught 30 fish from a pool perhaps 40 feet in diameter.
Most of these were largemouth, the biggest was probably 3 pounds.  In addition,
there were smallmouth, white and yellow perch and a carp that must have weighed
at least ten pounds (carp 30-60 lbs are found in the river according to a local
outdoors writer).

The bait ranged from spinners to rubber worms to live crawlers and poppers.  In
fact, I was changing lures every five minutes because I figured I'd never get a
better opportunity to test everything in my tackle box.  I had the best luck 
with spinners and rooster tails, anything shiny or red.  The poorest performers
were the poppers and floating crankbaits as the fish were on the bottom and the
water was extremely dirty.

Sunday was another story.  I should have returned to the river.  Instead, I went
with my uncle to Big Pond in Otis, Ma.  We spent a couple hours trolling and 
casting the north side of the pond and caught nothing.  The water there was also
high (reached the porch of my uncle's cottage) and dirty.  If I hadn't caught a
6" perch off the shore before stepping into the boat, it would have been a total
skunk.  I went back to the Connecticut River yesterday after work and though the
river is down a couple feet from high water, the fish are still there.

All told, I'm ready for another big storm.  Any brewin' ?

Speaking of poor conditions; Myself and a fishing buddy were camping in the 
Baxter/Katadn area of Maine fishing the West Branch for salmon and the local
FFO ponds for Brookies when the "big storm" rolled in, at about 5:00 Pm on
that friday night we were fishing a SMALL (7 acre FFO pond), having been
driven from the river by high winds and lack of co-operation from the 
residents. Our radio reported that the "eye' of the storm had passed over the
Rangely Lakes regon a hour before and was expected in our vicinity around
5:30-6:00 pm with all the warnings etc still in effect.....to make a long
story short...the wind blew like hell (about 35 steady and gusts to 50-55)
but on our small pond it was raining soooooo hard...that the rain literally
beat the surface of the pond down to flat, it was amazing....we were hurling
our flies into the teeth of this gale, casting between each increasing gust..

                               AND

during the last hour before darkness we caught and released about 15-20
brookies all told, our best luck was during the worst of the downpouring
and wind blowing and .....would you beleive it....all they wanted was

                        DRY FLIES

number 14-16 completely black versions of the classic "henryville special",
We tried the "book" but that was all they were interested in, in fact, at one
point I HOOKED five trout in six (or maybe seven) casts....we also missed
innumerable rises because the terrific rain made it difficult to tell the
difference between a rise (to the fly) and a the raindrops hitting the
water......it was a interesting experience to say the least. We left the
pond just before dark because the wind picked up a bit and tree's around the
pond started to fall over..!!!!!!!! And then we drove 100 miles round trip to geget a PIZZA to celebrate our triumph over the elements....

Anyone else have any "hurricane" fishing experiences....

                                                  Ed