Conference wahoo::fishing

	Well ............

	Last month I was fishing the middle branch of the Westfield river
just up from my house at about 8:30 pm. There's a nice hole there and I was
hoping for an encounter with a good sized brown or rainbow. I was using a
Mepps Comit #2 casting up into the head of the pool (fast water) and
retrieving just fast enough to bend the rod tip. I mean I could feel the
spinner blade bouncing off the bottom. On maybe the twelvth(sp) cast I
got a hook-up. Not a smashing hit but a solid one. I set the hook and
knew I was attached to some weight.

	Well the sun's setting and this fish is staying in the fast water
- even making a couple of runs. Feels like 2-3 pounds. I work the fish into
waist deep water and as it rolls I see its side flash silver and pink in
the setting sun! A rainbow!?! Grab the net and land a 2.5 pound 16 inch



			CARP !

				Joe Whittemore - From where the Westfield
						      Meets the Westfield
							 By the Westfield
							    In Huntington (MA)

    Oaky,
    
    Two Sundays ago I went out salmon fishing on Puget Sound.  Really
    nice dawn....sunny day.  Start out by catching a 14 lbs king.
    Wahoo.  Move to a new spot to keep looking for number 2.
    
    I thought I hooked bottom, but the boat kept drifting.  I was down
    about 130 ft.  I could get about 3 feet of line back every five
    minutes.  I drifted about a mile and decided I had a halibut.  Great!
    I never caught a halibut largely because I never use a halibut rig.
    I kept fighting for about 45 minutes.  I can taste that halibut.
    Meantime, other boats are catching salmon.  That's okay, I'm picturing
    my first of many nights of halibut fiesta!  This baby's gotta be 40
    lbs.
    
    Finally get the big fish in sight.  Fishing partner says, "Wow!  Never
    saw a skate *that* big."
    
    Grrrrr......

    
    
     I was fishing a club tourney at Barton's Cove on the CT river out
    of Turners Falls, Ma.
     Fishing was slow for the first hour, water was high and no current
    as the dam was closed.
     It was about 9:00 I pull into a little cove, send my black/shad Manns
    manipulator to the bottom 12lb test 1/4 slip sinker 8" worm. Then I
    notice my line taing a left turn. I reel the slack and SLAM the 
    hookset. My 6 ft pool cue starts to keel over. This baby was fighting!!
    Spinning 12lbtest like yarn. I immediately think KARP as the fish
    stayed on the bottom and never rose. Finally enough is enough I tighten
    the drag and tried to lift this ? fish ? up. Well to my shock it was
    a BASS !! One of the biggest I'd seen in the river. I got him into the
    net and later that day to the scales. A 4.20 largemouth!!!
    2nd biggest fish in the club this year !!!
    
    I of course LUNKER of the day !!!
    
    "BASSMASTER"
    

    Nice One BASSSMASTER,
        I am headed out to B.C. this weekend, Where abouts did you say that
    cove was??  I let you know how I do on Tuesday.
    
    
    Les

    
     BEHIND THE TOUR BOAT TO THE RIGHT-
    
     " BASSMASTER"
    

    THANKS,
          Near the cove and/or dam or up river??
    
    Me agian

    
    
    If you head up river you should head way up by the sunken bridge
    12miles up. This will yield smallmouth
    
    The largemouth are in the cove. Many boaters never leave the cove
    or even put thier boats on plane at all all day.
    
    Our club tourney had 43 fisherman 20 boats. I rarely leave the cove
    and it paid off for me. the top 5 places all came from boats
    he never left the ramp area. If the water is high and the largemouth
    are scarce then a run is inorder.
    
    
     good luck 
    
     - Dave
    

    Dave,
       I fished the river and cove all day, I worked the cove mostly 
    and some of the river past the bridge where all those fallen trees are.
    Results, GOOSE EGG.   This keeps My record intact of never catching a
    fish in the river.    HELP!!!!!!  What am I doing wrong.    I threw
    spinner baits, banging them slowly on the trees, worms, grubs, gitzits, 
    and rattle traps.  ONLY got ONE hit, on a worm.   Oh well back up there
    next week and I will try again.
    
    Les
                         
    
    
                         

    Maybe you had the Cold Front Blues. I had them all morning Saturday
    at Lake Waukewan, and the next day at Paugus Bay. The only thing
    I caught for both days was a tiny sunfish. Things picked up on Monday,
    though.
    
    Ed
    

    
    I stopped off at the Bondi's Island boat ramp (Conn River) yesterday
    afternoon on my way home.  A favorite spot in years past, I hadn't
    been since spring.  The water was waaaaaay down and still falling fast
    .... wet squishy mud at least 8 feet back from the water line and
    damp dirt another 6 feet back.  Now, the Ct. usually dries up a
    lot every summer and the fishing is usually tough from shore when the 
    water falls.  I wandered south from the ramp and spotted weed beds
    that are generally beyond casting distance from shore but have been
    known to pay largemouth dividends when I'm fishing from the boat.
    Yesterday, they were reachable and for a half hour, every cast
    attracted attention at a minimum, most resulted in hookups and some
    fish were landed (7-8 in about a half hour).  I say every cast
    attracted attention because the water was so shallow that every
    fish created a wake when it took off after a lure.  Casting out
    a lure, reeeling it back and watching 6 wakes converge on it is
    almost as much fun as fishing topwaters.  Surprisingly, every fish
    was a smallmouth until the last; a 4# largemouth caught on "one
    last cast" made after the bail spring broke.  I'm glad I followed
    my instincts - Gawd I love fall!
    
    The pattern:
    
    Water 6" to 2'
    All fish located on the upstream side of a weedbed (eelgrass?)
    All caught on an orange/black curlytail grub on a 1/4 oz. leadhead jig  
                                            
    -SSS-
    

    And how about this...
    
    Managed to purchase a very special trout lure handmade by an real
    artist of a craftsman. And paid accordingly for it ($25). Nice 
    morning, perfect trout weather and I decided to try it for the
    first time. First cast, second. Wow, isn't she moving lovely and
    looking just like the real thing. Or even better! The third cast,
    long, accurate, nice one. Just in the right place... and BANG!!!
    That's the one! Strong, fast moving, ruhtlessly running beast on
    the end of line. This really is a nice one!
    
    But then it gives up too quickly, could it be... Oh NO! It is a
    f*****g pike not a trout! What a disappointment and the $�*&@
    animal totally ruined that precious lure! And fishing is supposed
    to be fun!
    
    After all the pike wasn't even that big, only some eleven pounds.
    
    Shall I ever overcome...