Conference rdvax::grateful

    1995 Boat Stats: 7 trips, 2 skunks,
                                ^^^^^^
    
    Did you use bait or flies?
    
    

	DOH! 
	
	(and i expected comments on the trips from this crowd  ;-)

    tripswhilstfishingisfun

No boats owned (but several hired), a few trips, some beer, a 6'6" sailfish, a
80 lb. cobia, some more beer, a dozen 10-ish lb. black fin tuna, a gaggle of
amberjack, a half-dozen 10-ish lb. grouper and red snapper, some sobering up,
a sharp knife, some fish guts, some more beer, lots of charcoal, butter, cajun
spices, fresh-parsleyed potatoes ... and just a little more beer...

MMMMMMMmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... 


I just *LOVE* fishin down off the sunshine state!


- jeff

    you mean california???   %^)
    
    
    rfb

	|
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_______________________________________________________________________________

    if you want to be happy for an hour, get drunk
    If you want to be happy for 3 days, get married.
        If you want to be happy for a week, kill your pig and eat it.
        If you want to be happy for life, learn to fish.

	grate day saturday! i was the first to get on the water at 5:30
	(pahkin is at a premium at this lake) fished for two hours and
	caught 8 trout, took home three rainbows. filleted them, soaked
	'em in my secret marinade, and had 'em in the smoker by 9:30.
	went and got tickets at 10, came back and cranked up some tunes,
	and was eatin fresh smoked trout by 11:30 with hahpoon ale! :-)

    well I just typed in a story that belonged in Field and Stream and then
    the system went belly up. So the short version is...
    
    
    Saturday Morning: the start of the South Platte Canyon
    Bait: crawlers from my front yard
    FIsh: 19.5 inch 2.5 lb female wild rainbow!!!
          12 inch wild brown
          16 inch wild brown
          ALL RELEASED
    
    Sunday Morning: Walk in area of South Platte river canyon 
                    (3.5mile hike, one way, 1.5 miles up the mt and 1.5
                     miles down, to be reversed on the way out, did this in
                     45 mins with my 12 yr old german shepard))
    bait: crawlers front yard type
    Fish: 16 inch wild brown
          14 inch same
          2 10 inch same
    The two 10-inchers were fried as soon as i got home
    stuffed the 14 incher with butter onions and red bell peppers
    and baked her for dinner last nite....opps system going belly up (liek a
    gut hooked trout) gotta go!!!!!

    extracted this out of the flyfishing conf, WITHOUT permission...but it
    fits here tooo....%^)
    
    -----------------------------------------

  I've had a ball yesterday and this morning fishing for Steelhead in the
 Credit River a few kilometers from my home. With the warm weather lately
 the Steelhead run is on!

  So off I go all ethusiatic, and confident, my fly box stocked up from winters
 tying and everything. I splashed into the water at the ice breakers and
 started to fish hard. Concentrating, concentrating, watching the strike
 indicator. Its going down - bang set the hook, awe crap its just hung up
 on bottom again. One hour went by, I start to change flies a lot, then another
 hour goes by. Damm I cant believe it where are the fish?! A Gratefull Dead
 lookalike wades into the pool beside me - "any fish", "nope; nuthin",
 I complain. "They were here Monday I stated". "Oh so they are probably now up
 stream holding in the next big pool", he says. Ya sure! I think, the spring
 melt is happening there should be continual flow of spawning crazy (read
 horny) overgrown mean migratory rainbow trout taking over EVERY pool in this
 river. After a few minutes his words started to get to me. So I bounced out
 of the ice breaker pool and proceeded to fish the next sequence of pools up
 stream for the next 2 hours. No fish up there either.

...stuff cut here ....

 "What ya gona do if ya hook one Pete" I shouted, "Who cares", said Pete.
 And Damm! - the Gratefull Dead lookalike has been hooking fish!! The ticket is
 a #2 sized Black Nosed Dace streamer. A much larger fly than I have. Also a
 very different type of fly than I would expect to work now. My box was stocked
 with egg and bug imatations and a few much smaller streamers. Well at least
 the fish are here. I tyed on a #6 Mickey Finn.
  As I proceeded once again in my misery to fish the ice breaker pool the
 Gratefull Dead lookalike moves up a few feet to my right and talks at me
 as we both fish. The Gratefull Dead lookalike hooks a chrome 6 pound hen
 and after landing it proceeds to talk at me some more. Why doesnt he shutup
 and go away I think, cant he see I'm miserable. After a while I start to warm
 up to him. He seemed extremely knowledgeable about various strains of Steelhead
 and he explained to me why the strain of Steelhead in Pennsylvania I caught
 were such a cake walk to hook compared to Lake Ontario Steelhead. I started
 to enjoy the guys company. He was a very knowledgeable, humble, warm, humorous
 person. I told him about a guy I'd read about in a Steelheader magazine who
 had won the local Steelhead fishing derby the last 7 years in a row, the man
 was known as a Steelheading legend. His response was, "YOU'RE TALKIN TO HIM".
 "Ahhh OK, but in the picture you were not wearing a hat", I stammered. "Oh so
 you're Larry MacConklin - Hmmmm", I said now stunned. After the shock wore
 off Larry and I jammed some more. Larry gave me one of his productive flies
 which I snagged it up and lost almost immediately.


...rest of note deleted.... 
   
    -------------------------------------------------------
    
    i liked the humble, warm, humourous part....%^)_
    wonder if Larry IS a deadhead??

	but, what is a Gratefull(sic) Dead look alike?  
	
	;-)  ;-)
	
	and, it figures, a Gratefull Dead look alike fishin for stealies
	
	:-)

    re:but, what is a Gratefull(sic) Dead look alike?
    
    If he's a deadfisherman, he's the guy with the stealie on his cap, 
    wild, wooly, ( and usually grey) hair flyin in the wind...that crazed 
    look in his eyes, something limp hangin out of his mouth (zat a worm,??) 
    picks up the other peoples garbage, stares wistfully out across
    streatchs of water his casts won't reach...get the picture??  %^)

	stealie on cap   	- yup
	crazed look      	- yup
	something in mouth  	- yup
	picks up rubbish	- yup
	   (i purposely look for and troll past floating bottles etc)
	stares where cast won't reach - for me it's watching the skies
	for heron, loon, osprey (my favorite bird) hawks, etc.
	
	i get the picture!

    
    Being the Bass man that I am....when is the official beginning of the
    bass season???? June/July?  Right now, I find that bass to be sluggish 
    and seldom rising to the surface.  It is clearly still trout time here 
    in the Northeast.

    bass season in New England starts when Phil begins the other 1 at
    highgate...  :^)
    
    				da ve

	ok. who remembers the song _Mr Bass Man_  ??
	
	"Hey Mr Bass man, i wanna be a bass man too..."
	
	
	dean-o, bass season nevers starts, cuz trout season never ends
	
	%-)

Bass season is any day I can get a pint of it for <$2  :-)


- jeff

	so many wiseguys  ;-)
	
	siriusly, trout are cold water fish and bass are warm water fish.
	the water is still fairly cold. the trout are moving around well.
	in the warmer weather, the trout will go deep and the bass will
	cruise the warmer waters along the shores, looking for a place to
	spawn. i hope all this sounds ok, cuz i'm making it up. ;-)

    you guys are lucky to even have lakes that harbor both trout and bass.
    Out here, the two seldom meet. Course we *DO* have *WILD* trout in  alot of
    our waters too, where I think most of ya'lls trout are hatchery raised,
    eh?
    
    rfb_
    who would rather eat cleanwater catfish but would rather catch trout

	there are some Mass. places that have native trout. not many.
	most places have stocked trout, and there are holdovers. i,
	personally, don't take stockies. i let 'em acclimate to the
	water. in april, the stockies are awful looking, and you can tell
	the ones that are holdovers. in may, when the stockies start
	feeding on the black flies they'll fatten up and change color.
	i've caught some pretty fish, regardless of where they stared
	out. i got the pictures to prove it  ;-)

In NH and VT you find both and as Jay said it's easy to pick out the
natives.  

bob

    agreed..holdovers are different and better...but I've had some fresh
    stockers that tasted pretty damn good at the time..not as good as a small
    brookie, but pretty good...
    
    rfb

    Well where I come from we have stone fish!
    
    8*)
    
    ...michael t "Roiling the waters since he is OUTTA HERE in twelve
    hours"Head

    you left off the 'ed", Mikey

    Thought about it... but of course you realize how hard it is keeping
    "'ed" lit under water...
    
    
    ...mikey tongue_in_cheek

    When I'm on the riverside, nothing means much to me *BUT* the riverside.
    The solitude and noisy-quite is awesome. I forget about the arguments
    I've recently had with BOTH my kids. I forget abouit how I f*cked up
    that OSF manual at the last minute and shipped it anyway (DOOOHHH!)
    I forget that I chipped my $3000.00 bridge biting off that piece of
    monofiliment line. I look over at my old dog as she's busy digging up a
    mole like a young pup and forget that this might just be her last summer 
    of fishing with me. Long hikes and her hips aren't getting along much
    these days...but she's always ready to go and, like my father, would
    probably rather die fishing than at home in bed. The noisy-quite
    distracts me for minute until I realize the noisy-quite this time is a
    flock of Mountain Chikadees that have surrounded me looking for a
    crumb. I force my eyes to focus on the river, looking for that just
    right riffle going over that just right rock, making that just right
    pool where that just right brown is lying...waiting for my cast. And
    know for now that everything is just right....
    

	i mostly fish in my boat. but, i used to brook fish all the time.
	the sound of the water rushing over the rocks is both meditative
	and theraputic. it clears your mind so you can concentrate on
	fishing, and fishing alone. you see the path in the water, that
	leads to the spot where you know there's a brookie or two. you
	flick the salmon egg, attached to 2 lb test that resembles silver
	thread, so it lands in just the right spot to drift past that
	hungry brookie. exactly where you thought he'd be, there's a
	SPLASH on top of the water as your bait drifts by. suddenly,
	you've got a 10 inch brook trout dancing on the end of your line.
	you reel 'im in, and the colors are so beautiful, it seems like
	the fish was hand painted.
	
	time to break out the brook pole!!!  :-)
	

				 TroutCount 95(tm)
				66 Caught, 24 Kept
	
	My buddy Steve-o came out with me Saturday. We hit Ft Pond a
	little late, at about 6:00. By 6:04 we had our first fish. We
	ended up with 10 on the day, keeping the limit each.
	
	Sunday, my fishin buddy Ray and i hit Whalom, again at about
	6:00. We had al ittle better day hitting a total of 15 and
	keeping 4. I took the limit to fill the smoker, and Ray took a
	nice rainbow which I would have otherwise released.
	
	two grate days!!

        <<< Note 458.0 by STOWOA::JOLLIMORE "Dancing Madly Backwards" >>>


>        "The worst day fishing is better than the best day at work."
        
Yabut is the worst day of fishing better than the worst day on tour?

:)
bob
        
        

	well, that's another kettle of fish entirely.

       I fish because I love to;  because I love the environs where trout are
    found, which are invariably beautiful, and hate the environs where crowds
    of people  are  found,  which  are  invariably ugly�;  because of all the
    television commercials, cocktail parties, and assorted social posturing I
    thus escape;  because,  in  a  world  where  most men seem to spend their
    lives doing things they hate,  my fishing is at once an endless source of
    delight and an act of small rebellion;  because trout do not lie or cheat
    and cannot be bought or bribed or impressed by power, but respond only to
    quietude and humility and endless patience;  because  I  suspect that men
    are going along this way for the last time,  and  I for one don't want to
    waste  the  trip;   because mercifully there are no telephones  of  trout
    waters;    because  only  in  the  woods  can  I  find  solitude  without
    loneliness;   because bourbon out of an old tin cup always tastes  better
    out there;  because maybe one day I will catch a mermaid;   and, finally,
    not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I
    suspect that so many of the other concerns of men are equally unimportant
    - and not nearly so much fun.

        Robert Traver (1903 - 1991)
        Testament of a Fisherman





�*except* at showz ;-)

I was up in Pittsburg, NH trout fishing all weekend.  It got down to *32* 
this past Saturday night.  I caught 9 or 10 good sized brookies; caught no fish
from the canoe,  all from standing on the side of streams.

Never been checked out so close by a loon.  He was less than 50 feet away and
wouldn't leave :)  2 of his buddies were working the other end of the pond
I was fishing in.  This was when I was in my canoe - I was hoping he didn't
like to eat worms or fishing lures.... (s)he hung out for quite a while (couple 
hours).

Saw a half dozen moose and a few deer too.  Not sure what's worse up there, 
moose stumbling out into the middle of the road or the moose_gawkers 
breaking/parking in the road to have a look.

was a good weekend...weather could've been better, cold and raw from sunday eve
til I packed up tues. a.m (sat and most of sunday were nice though).

bob

    ahhhhh.....brookies.....
    
    
    rfb

	well, after talking about brook fishing last week, i got out the
	ultra light gear and headed up to willard brook friday morning.
	went to my favorite section and started down stream. every hole i
	stopped at had 2 or 3 brookies. i ended up catching 15 in a
	little less that 2 hours. the smallest was 4" the largest was 11
	inches. i took two: a 10" and an 11".
	
	Saturday, my buddy ray and i hit ft pond. after 2 hours we had 8
	and the fishing was grate, until i ran out of gas :-/ so, we put
	the boat on the trailer and went for gas and decided to hit
	whalom for a couple of hours. caught a dozen there and kept 1.
	took the day off sunday, but went back to ft pond on monday, by
	myself, and caught another 8. took two: a 16: rainbow and an 18"
	brown. the three of them went in the smoker!!  yum!
	
	so the ToutCount for 95 is: 95 caught, 26 kept, with a lot of
	fishing left.

    holly cow, Jolly! are the browns and rainbows back there hatchery
    raised? At what size does the DOW dump 'em into a body of water? I
    won't be back on the water till around the 8th of June when my dad and
    I have been invited to go along on a salmon/trout fishing cruise on
    Blue Mesa Res. near Gunnison COlo. 
    
    rfb

    JollyJ-
    	
    	Weir is this willard Brook of which you speak?
    
    						_Jeff

	rfb,
	
	yeah, the 'bows and browns are stocked. the state dumps 'em at
	specific times of the year, regardless of size. I've caught
	browns that were around 9-11", wat too small for a brown. They
	put about 600 good size browns in ft pond this year, about 16-18"
	some bigger.
	
	the 15" rainbow was a fat, colorful holdover. the meat was as
	pink as salmon. the bows they stock run about 10-16".
	
	-jeff,
	
	willard brook is in ashby/west townsend on rte 119. nice place.
	it's actually a man made brook. army corps of engineers built it
	for the state. it has a neat place called trap falls, where you
	can go and picnic and whatnot. i fish the lower portion in w
	townsend.  gotta have an old ceegar to fish there tho. may flies
	and skeeters rool.

    interesting....ya know a wild brown, when about 15 inches,
     turns from feeding on worms and bugs primarily to feeding on smaller
    fish. Hoot caught a fat 19 incher last year (on a fat nitecrawler)
    that had 2 6 inch browns in it's belly.
    
    I can't wait for the mayflies to start hatching in the high country
    here, course we've got record snowpack this year and run-off hasn't
    even started yet. 
    
    ahhhhh, fishing ...the next best thang to a dead show for relaxation
    
    rfb

    
    Caught myself a 5lb bass o'er the weekend at a place I should not 
    have been fishing.....amazing how fish naturally thrive in places 
    that are illegal to fish.

	i've been keeping stats on trout fishing since i started in '79.
	i've had my boat for about 5 seasons now. here's a comparison of
	stats for the last three years:             :-)
					            
             Boat Totals         1993     1994      1995 as of: 8-JUN
        -----------------------  ----     ----      ----
            Total Trout Caught:   140      149       105  
               Number of Trips:    53       42        18   
              Number of Skunks:    23       11         2   
        Average Trout per Trip:     2.6      3.5       5.8  
        Number of Trolling Hrs:   169      108        48  
           Number of MAN Hours:   284      145        70  
       Trout per Trolling Hour:     0.8      1.4       2.2  
            Trout per MAN Hour:     0.5      1         1.5  
                Trout Released:    53       83        78   
              Percent Released:    38%      56%       74%  

So jolls... quantity is up but quality (% throwbacks) is down... eh?

... or in other words... yer goin' through more bait this year :-)


- jeff

	;-)
	
	akchewally, jeff, the limit changed from 6 to 3.
	i've released some real nice fish this year. quality has been
	good.
	
	as for bait: i have 2 very productive worm beds in the back yard.
	one is a compst pile, really. so, yeah we go thru a few woimss!!
	
	Curley: Hey Moe, I'm going fishin. Wanna go?
	Moe: Got any worms?
	Curley: Yeah, but I'm going anyway.  nyuck nyuck nyuck.
	

>             Boat Totals         1993     1994      1995 as of: 8-JUN
>        -----------------------  ----     ----      ----
>            Total Trout Caught:   140      149       105  
>               Number of Trips:    53       42        18   
>              Number of Skunks:    23       11         2   
>        Average Trout per Trip:     2.6      3.5       5.8  
>        Number of Trolling Hrs:   169      108        48  
>           Number of MAN Hours:   284      145        70  
>       Trout per Trolling Hour:     0.8      1.4       2.2  
>            Trout per MAN Hour:     0.5      1         1.5  
>                Trout Released:    53       83        78   
>              Percent Released:    38%      56%       74%  


Shades of Trout Fishing in America! So should we start calling you 
"Trout Fishing in America" Jolli??

;-)

PeterT

	well, i'm thinking of doing "charters" and this is all really a
	commercial plug ;-) [note to moderators: just kidding]  ;-)

    Back from a fishing trip to Blue Mesa Res. near Gunnison COlo. Good
    time! The kokonee salmon fishing was not as hot as it should have been
    this time of year, but it was fun. My dad and I went with a guy here at
    DEC that has a 16 ft. v-hull made for fishing 5-7 miles off the coast
    in the ocean...and we needed it one day! Thursday morning my dad was
    hitting the kokonee while trolling but couldn't keep 'em on! We caught
    browns and kokonee off and on all day. That evening we ran 13 miles
    down the lake to fish the dam. AFter a couple of Makinaw Lake trout,
    one 19 inches, and a few salmon, the 4 foot swells came and we had to 
    fight our way back up resivor in ocean size swells. Friday was a little 
    better, with Tim (the captan) getting into the rainbows and me and dad 
    getting a salmon here and there. Sat was the best...5 mins on the water 
    and we were hitting 16 inch, 1.5lb kokonee. my dad and I had a couple of
    "doubles"..two fish on at the same time. add another 17 inch laker and
    a 15 inch brown and we had to get off the water to make it home in the
    time slot we wanted. Long days off fishing and a day of fighting BAD
    water but the best fishing trip I've had in months!!!!!! ate a laker
    and a kokonee last nite after yard work all day...YUMMY!!!!!
    
    rfb

	*Finally* got the boat out saturday - fishing and boating haven't
	been on the top of the priority list this spring, with the other
	half working nights/weekends and the kids zapping all my energy.

	It was incident free, and unfortunately fish-free :-/  but I didn't
	really care - everything was real smooth, and it looked like a GO for
	the drive to the Cape in a couple of weeks.	
	
	As I was putting a tarp over the boat at home, I noticed something
	wierd on the trailer:  the axle was cracked in half and almost totally
	separated!!  If this was a tiny bit worse the wheels could have fallen
	off and trashed my restored '58 Thompson boat!   

	Lucky, I guess...

	/Ken

    >>That evening we ran 13 miles down the lake to fish the dam.
    
    and boy were our feet tired when we got there!! ;^)
    
    sorry, rfb - couldn't resist.

    2 reports here...
    
    last Thursday Divide Dave and I hiked down to Nichols Res below Rampart
    Range Res (no small feat, since this was the first hike, bout 1.5
    miles, that I'd done since twisting my knee skiing)
    and met some people I work with. We each got a small (12")
    Cut-bow (Rainbow-cutthroat hybrid that is sterile and does nothing but
    eat, no spawning) Dave's on a worm, mine on a panther martin..drank a
    bunch of beer and picked up assholes trash.
    
    last nite, Tuesday, I took a VP of the company I am employed by (good
    PR, eh??? %^) ) down to Nichols. We dinked around in a small bay for a
    couple of hours, each hooking and losing a small cutt-bow. We then
    walked/fished over to the dam with me in the lead by 500 yards. A
    silver blade Panther Martin with a yellow body on my flyweight
    ultra-lite was just the ticket. I nailed 8 rainbows from 8" to 14" 
    from 8-9pm. Most took to the air two or three times as soon as the hit
    the PM and then fought like hell for stocker bows! Ultra-lites are *THE*
    way to fish!
    My friend finally caught up with me, put on an orange blade
    yellow body PM and took all the action away from my silver blade. He
    popped out 2 and lost more in a half an hour before it got too dark to
    see. 
    
    Now I don't need to think about what I'm cookin tonite for the bar-b-Q!
    
    rfb_would rather fish than fu.....well,.. maybe not

	man, sounds grate, rfb.
	
	i agree, ultralight is a fun time. i have a 4ft, with an ultra
	lite reel. i even troll with it sometimes ;-)
	
	i went to the lahgist body of watah in mass yesterday. the Big Q:
	the Quabbin resevoir. (For those outside on NE, the Quabbin was
	built in the '20s by flooding an area formerly taken up by four
	towns: Enfield, Dana, Prescott and Greenwich [not sure 'bout the
	last one]. It serves the greater boston area with drinking
	water.) The Q is stocked with lakers, landlock salmon and
	rainbows & browns. We fished for lakers and salmon without much
	luck. I hooked into a small salmon, but cudn't get it to the
	boat. my buddy, ray, caught a rather large smallmouth. there's
	also tons of white perch and various kinds of bass.
	
	Even tho we didn't catch much we had a grate day. we say a bunch
	of hawks, and an immature bald eagle. we had decent weather, with
	the sun coming out only for about an hour or two around noon. it
	got real hot, but the wind kicked up and it cooled off again
	around 2pm. we got chased off by thunder around 2.
	
	we got yelled at by the ranger dood for walking into the water at
	the boat ramp. the ramp is a real piece of crap!! i was having
	trouble getting my boat on the trailer and we walked into the
	water to fix it. the ranger dood said that if the eviromental
	police dood was there, he would've sent us a written letter to
	serve as a one-time warning. if we were to get caught in the
	water again, we'd be barred from the Q. sheesh. well FIX THE
	FREAKIN RAMP THEN!!

    
    Ya, my second little ultra lite I just bought collapses/telescopes 
    down to about a foot so I can stick it in my backpack or creel even. 
    
    you can't get in the water? I assume because it *IS* a drinking water
    source? but haven't I read (in other files related to fishing, water,
    environment, etc.) that the Q is polutted with heavy metals? or am i 
    thinking acid rain?? or don't I know what I'm talkin about? (as usual)
    rfb
    
    pee esss.
    those trout sure tasted good last nite!
    
    pee esss eess
    Jay, sounds like we need to get together sometime in the future and
    FISH!

	rfb,
	
	the Q (and it's fish) have fairly high levels of ? mercury ?,
	which leeches out of the hills. it's recommended that young kids,
	or pregnant women not eat a steady diet of fish from the Q. An
	occasional fish (from what I understand) is not a problem for
	adults. to say the Q is polluted is an overstatement, imo (not
	from you, but wherever you read it ;-)
	
	and, yeah, it's cuz it's a resevoir that you can't get in the
	water. bites, too. cuz out there in the boat it gets HOT and
	diving in sure would feel grate! but, as you see, they frown on
	that.
	
	if at all possible, we will fish together at some time!!  ;-)
	here or there (i'd prefer there ;-) fishing here, the way i do,
	would probably be foreign to you. i'd term it urban-fishing. not
	like 'wilderness' fishing, but it does have it's good points  ;-)

	The Quabbin is by far my favorite fresh water to fish...
	the water is so clear you think you're going to ram a boulder
	though it's 20 feet down!  The fishing there seems to be feast 
	or famine.  
	
	I've seen deer, fully mature bald eagles in flight, immatures, 
	wild turkeys (once they *flew* overhead at "the pass", they're huge!),
	a coyote 100' away, and lots of beaver and hawks there.  Even if the 
	fish aren't biting, it can be quite the experience.

	The ramp at gate 43 is a POS, but it's worth it.  Jay, did you go 
	out of that gate ?   Other ramps might be better, but 43 is closest
	to the dike and the fishing limit barrels where the fishing can be
	very good.

	/Ken

	yeah, ken. i usually go out of gate 31, cuz for me, it's much
	easier to get to. but we wanted to fish closer to the boat ramp
	(in case of a quick exit due to thunder ;-) so we  went out gate
	43 (it takes almost an hour to get to the barrels from gate 43).
	i hope to go back soon, but we'll go to gate 31. the water
	is shallower up top, by gate 31, but there are still a couple of
	good holes. and i've hit plenty of salmon fishing in about 40-45
	feet of water.
	
	also, i *always* see eagles up near gate 31. i've seen deer
	crossing the channel, beaver, turkey, oh yeah, and yesterday we
	did see 1 loon. they're tuff to get close to.
	
	Jay

    ya, I just went and re-read the Quabbin note in FISHING-V2 and it was
    Mercury that is the culprit there....My in-law relatives live in
    Michigan, where they have the same restrictions, i.e. don't eat if
    young or pregnant, etc....they, for the most part, have always ignored
    the recomedations. my bro-in-laws wife has had two sisters die of
    cancer.....
    
    rfb

	but, this is all-natural mercury.
	contains no ariticial ingredients.

I don't understand something.  You guys are able to put motorboats into
the Quabbin Res. ?  The same Res. that supplies drinking water to Boston?
Don't the motors in motorboats emit oil into the water?

 Josh

    No motorboats are allowed in the Wachusett Res., which is the next stop
    for water from the Quabbin.  they also have a rule against waterfowl,
    but there's enforcement problems...
    
    And, speaking of ranger type folks, our old friend Fog recently got
    nabbed for swimming nekkid in the Wachusett.  :-)  Drink up,
    Bostonians!!
    
    Jamie
    
    PS - he got off with a warning.

	re: Fog  HaH!! :-)
	
	I salute the people of Bawstin each time I go to the Q. Several
	times each time, in fact.  ;-) 
	
	You can put a motorboat with up to a 20HP engine on the Q. 

re:  motorboats and drinking water

I *think* the deal here is that anything a motorboat can put into the water
like an oil slick or any fuel contamination floats and evaporates....not
what happens when Fog decides he has to wee and away he goes.. 
:)

nabbed!  I once swam to the other side of the Pennichuck to keep from getting
nabbed MANY moons ago...I had shorts on though.

bob

    the pennichuck
    we RAGED there during high school
    played 1-2-3 SCATTER! there more than once when Johnny Law showed up...

    FOG! what a guy! 
    
    I really, really REALLY miss skinny dippin...we did it all the
    time, everywhere in AZ. Too damn cold in COlo except at a hot spring
    and most of those are pretty commercialized nowadays except for Valley
    View Hot Springs which isn't in our general direction of travel
    anymore.
    
    rfb_nekkid is better

	re: oil/gas motors on the Q

	The way I understand it is that oil/gas floats, whereas other stuff,
	like Fog's pee ;-), sinks and gets into the outlet water.  The water 
	outlet on the Q is at the bottom, way deep, so the gas/oil that leaks
	doesn't get into the water headed to Boston.

	/Ken, raised on Quabbin h20, in Boston

Re. Up to 20 HP on the Q.

	Does that mean we could sail our tri, which has only an 8 hp motor 
(and 4 cycle to increase the clean), on the Q. Or would we run into problems 
because we have copper based bottom paint and the ability to potentially 
flush overboard? I must say I also like to be able to dive in when  we 
set an anchor. 

Geoff

    
    Hummm...all this talk about the Q.
    
    So who's gonna take me out there for a day?
    
    ...JAY!

re:        <<< Note 458.63 by MILKWY::HEADSL::SAMPSON "Driven by the wind" >>>

Fishing only.  No pleasure boating at the Q...

/Ken

>Fishing only.  No pleasure boating at the Q...
no pleasure allowed whilst fishing? ;-)
or - we don't want you out here if you're not gonna kill something!!

> >Fishing only.  No pleasure boating at the Q...
> no pleasure allowed whilst fishing? ;-)
> or - we don't want you out here if you're not gonna kill something!!

	Boating is allowed for fishing, which often but not always results
	in some form of pleasure.   I kill nothing when I go there because
	I don't eat fresh water fish.   

	/Ken

    Had some yummy breakfast brookies this weekend at 10,000 feet. My 
    nephew from vegas is out here...poor kid spends way too much (like all) 
    of his time in the city. He sure nailed the little trout in the 
    swimming hole this weekend! 
    
    This weekend was also the biggest party of the summer in Park County. 
    World Championship Pack Burro Races! on Sunday. Lama races on Sat. (one lama
    knocked the shit out of some woman handler on Sat...I'd a takein her to
    the hosp., but they didn't...also Mountain Man Rondevous, small this
    year, but interesting. Authentic mt. man dress, gear, food, etc. Lots
    of pelts to look at, beaver, bobcat, fox, mink, coyote....indian stuff
    too. Good time! 
    
    Also took my dad and a couple of friends to Alma pond to fish Sat nite.
    While showing a friend how to rig a bubble and fly, i looked down at the
    water by my feet and a fat 14 inch brown was sucking flys out of the
    water slime...I dropped the fly right in front of him and when he
    sucked it it I jerked him up on the bank....everyone was amazed at my
    skill!!!! (and just plain dumb luck!) %^)
    
    lookin to next weekend already, when finally i can fish the South
    Platte and get some larger brookies and browns...
    
    
    rfb_fishin fool

    forgot to mention that neoprene waders are COOL!!!!!!
    
    rfb

>    forgot to mention that neoprene waders are COOL!!!!!!

	well, buy some insulated ones then.     ;-)
	
	i haven't been fishing. all the holes i frequent are too slow.
	the fish are all sittin on the bottom. when the water turns over
	i'll resume and fish 'til the lakes freeze. i also hope to make
	it out to the Q one more time this year, before it closes. then
	again, maybe i'll head out to colaradee for some *real* fishin!
	
	;-)
	

    missed the 17 incher eh?????
    
    boy if THAT doesn't sound like a fish story....  i've always wondered
    how fishermen know exactly how big "the one that got away" was... :^)
    
    
    					da ve_who_missed_one_that_was_
    					THIS_BIG! (no, really!!  it was!!!
    					:^) :^) :^)

    
    
    All the ones that get away are at least 17 inches, didn't you learn
    long ago that...
    
    
    I fish therefor I lie!!~!!
    
    Thats all part of fishing, I should tell you about the ones that got
    away yesterday!
    
     Divide Dave

    
    naaaahhhhhhh.... "lie" is probably a bit strong...  how about
    "exaggerate" instead?  :^)

	moved this to the proper topic  ;-)
from 102.550
>I didn't get a Cabela's catalog - but have seen them.  Pretty comprehensive.

>I did however just receive both the Mepp's yealry catalog + fish journal and
>also the Shimano one.

	bob, i'd like to see that shimano catalogue. or info on where i
	can get one. all the rods/reels on my boat are shimano.

     <<< Note 458.75 by MKOTS3::JOLLIMORE "On the threshold of a dream" >>>

>	bob, i'd like to see that shimano catalogue. or info on where i
>	can get one. all the rods/reels on my boat are shimano.

JJ,

I'll look at what came...probably a "give this card to a friend" card.
It was kind of nice - I think since I filled out the warranty card 
and sent it in they just added me to their mailing list/club.  

bob

    grate day on the river yesterday...
    
    Up at 4AM, at the trailhead by 7:00...it only took a half hour to walk
    *STRAIGHT DOWN* the trail to the South Platte River, a new place for me.
     4 hours later we all meet back at this spot, Divide Dave had caught and 
    released 3 browns, Dino caught and released one and kept one small 
    rainbow, Doug (who has fished this piece of river off-non for 10 years) 
    caught 8, all of which he released except for two 15 inch wild rainbows..
    .beautiful fish! The colors on these fish are like those of no other,
    These fish are born in and grew up in this river, hardly any stocking
    takes place here.  I caught one beautiful, fat wild rainbow about 11
    inches (again, I can't emphasize enough how colorful these fish are!)
    and a real skinny brown about 13 inches long,
    both released (i still have fish in the freezer from last fall, and had
    2 samll brookies for a snack Staurday). This
    piece of river is made up of large pools the size of samall swimming
    pools with waterfalls entering and exiting each pool, which is difficult 
    fishing for me, I prefer long flows of riffles with small rocks 
    everywhere for my river fishing. 
    
    But it was *SO* nice to be back on the river again. I felt a little bad
    about even thinking about putting the back-country skis away so early, 
    but I've got the fishin fever. 
    
    A couple of beers and some B.S. and we hit the trail *STRAIGHT UP* for
    about a half mile...my legs are aching a little this morning....can't
    wait for the weekend after Easter when I know I'll be back on the water
    again.
    
    rfb

	grate start to the '96 fishin season yesterday.
	only 1 fish, but a spectacular day at the Quabbin.
	weather was perfect, the boat functioned flawlessly, the company
	was excellent and the tunz were grate.  :-)
	

    re;
    only 1 fish
    
    trout?
    
    rfb

	yeah, one small laker. around 17". a beautiful looking fish, but
	only a baby ;-)
	
	i was trolling for salmon, but i tried a shiner down deep (we
	were fsihing in about 80' of water). i hit the laker about 40'
	down.
	
	i have ahard time fishing at the Q. Too big, with too many
	distractions ;-) i tend to just kick back and enjoy the scenery.
	we saw numerous hawks, and 4 eagles, two of which appeared to be
	a pair. 
	
	we trolled about 12miles. (actually, 7 hours at 1.75mph ;-)
	music for the tday was: set II of a niiice 93 JGB at msg (thanks
	again mr. strobel!!! :-), then a tape of the '72 Ann Arbor blues
	festival, Hot'effin Tuna at Northboro F&G, Pink Floyd's "Delicate
	Sound of Thunder", and finally a some jethro tull.
	
	:-)
	

            BLUE MESA (mesa, mesa, what a mesa!) BROWN TROUT
    
    Friday morning saw us on the lake trolling deep for what we thought
    were salmon. The fish were 60 some odd feet deep and wanted nothing to
    do with out rainbow needlefish. we finally picked up one small splake.
    But we saw tons of fish stacked up on rocky points as we crossed over
    them turning back to fish deep in the channel. Back to camp for lunch
    and the wind came up pretty hard, so trolling was out. Cause I was
    bored, i started throwing a rappala from shore. I had to use the wind
    to get it out 20-30 yards. That's when i nailed the first brown. 20
    inches 2.5 lbs. Minutes later i had a 19 incher. Then everyone in our
    group started throwing rappalas. A few more browns , a small bow and my
    dad caught one of the prettyest, fatest 16 inch bow i've ever seen. 
    
    The next morning we concentrated on all the rocky points we could. We
    nailed the browns until we lost our rappalas in the rocks. These browns
    were keying in on the babay crawfish and salmon being kicked around by
    the rough waves. Most were caught 3-6 feet off shore. most had between
    10 and 20 little crawfish in their bellies, my dad hooked one that had
    a 4" baby kokonee salmon sticking halfway out his mouth and another in
    his belly! These fish are like lions. I cleaned fish while the Skipper
    and my dad ran into town to buy 60$ more rappalas. But a texas dust
    storm blew in and we were forced to set in Divide Daves camper and
    drink all the beer...then of course we went back into Gunnison and
    bought more!! 
    
    Sunday morningwas cold, a front blew thru and turned off the fishing a
    little. I got skunked, my dad got an 18" 2.5lb and the Skipper got 2
    16" ers. Divide Dave and his buddy managed 5 more. 
    We barely made it back over Monarch Pass ina blizzard..scary stuff.
    
    All in All I think we had 3-4 20" or over, 5-6 16-20 inches and the
    rest 14 inchers for the most part. 
    
    April on Blue Mesa is for Browns!!
    
    rfb
    

	sounds excellent, mon.
	
	we fished local saturday. but we also had a cold front come
	through, and the wind kicked up making trolling difficult. we did
	manage to pickup 5 and took 1. most were stockies. i did hook
	into a decent size rainbow, but he snapped the leader almost
	instantly. we'd heard they put some trophy size fish (breeders)
	into whalom, and this must've been one. he took the davis spinner
	off the downrigger which was down 15 feet. he shot straight up
	out of the water about 20' behind the boat and that's all it
	took. gone.
	
	sunday, i hit whalom by myself, after a late night of slipknot.
	owww my aching head. but the sun and air did me some good and i
	caught 3 decent size rainbows and a good size brown in about 2
	hours. nothing worth taking home, tho. mostly cuz i was too tired
	to clean fish! ;-)
	

    cleaning fish...with my dull knife,
    those 20 inchers and over were like gutting a deer!!
    
    the local ponds (Rampart and Nickels Res) are open now, so we'll be
    hitting those soon for bows and cutbows. All front range lakes will get
    double the stocking this summer of whirling desiese + fish. Then next
    summer none. WD - fish (those that are known to come from a hatchery
    that has never tested + for WD) will be stocked in the rivers and
    streams. Hopefully the fish-n-game will figger out this whirling
    desiese stuff soon, if not the bow and salmon fishing could go to hell
    here in the next few years. I even heard that some browns have been
    affected, they were though to be immune cause they were "old world"
    trout..only new world salmonoids were thought to be affected. 
    So far my favorites, little sweet brookies are not affected. 
    
    Also, the FnG has lifted all size restrictions of Macs (Lakers) cause
    the monsters are devestating the bow populations. 
    
    rfb_fishin fool

	the weekend fishing ...
	
	well, we found out they put 5 Salmon into Whalom. A guy took a 6
	lber this week. looks an awful lot like the one a lost last week.
	and, when i think back about the way that fish hit, it could very
	well have been a salmon. there are 4 more waiting to be caught.
	one of the tops 20lbs!!
	
	so, i went after the size this week, instead of the numbers. i
	set up for the big one, but despite this fact i hooked into quite
	a few fish. howereve, on;y one could be counted. in order to make
	it into the record, you must touch the line somewhere in front of
	the knot. i took 5 fish to the boat but failed to bring them
	home. my buddy caught 3 and took 2. i caught 1 and took 1 and
	lost another 7. 
	
	sunday, i went out alone and back after the big one. hooked into
	only 1 fish but it was a good size rainbow and i took hom home to
	join his brother in the smoker. no big salmon tho.
	
	word about the big fish brought in all the amatuers tho. the
	place was crowded with boats i've never seen there before. and
	the shores are lined with fishermen. ah well. after a couple of
	skunks, they'll all give up and stay home and we'll have the lake
	back to ourselves again. at least until the ski boats come out.
	;-)

    I played gardener this weekend...but Hoot and I and later Divide Dave 
    made it to Nickles Res Friday. We played around with some spinners with
    no luck, then bait fished with some power bait/worms so we could
    bullsh*t and drink beer. Hoot picked up a fat little rainbow. As the
    wind died, i saw a few small rises from fish feeding just below the
    surface. So I tied on a water bubble and a #20 bloody butcher and nailed a
    small cutthroat right away, which I released. A few minutes later I had
    a nice rainbow, also released. Divide Dave got a real nice, 14" or so
    cuttthroat on a white and black bead-head fly of some sort and I kept
    my last cutt, HOot adn I were supposed to grill 'em up that nite, but
    we didn't get home until 10 or so and we were both tired. So into the
    freezer they went.
    
    But this weekend I grilled up two of the smaller Blue Mesa Browns, the
    smaller one was OK with lemon, butter and salt added, But the larger
    one was like a salmon inside!
    
    rfb 

re:        <<< Note 458.84 by MKOTS3::JOLLIMORE "Always stop at the top" >>>

>	 in order to make
>	it into the record, you must touch the line somewhere in front of
>	the knot. i took 5 fish to the boat but failed to bring them

? Not sure what you mean by this.   Touch the line ahead of the knot
when you land them ?   What about a net ?  Never heard of this rule...

/Ken

	ken,
	
	oh, it's not an official rule. it's my boat rule.  ;-)
	
	in order to have a fish count towards the boat total, you can net
	it (if it's gonna be taken) or you can release it without a net,
	but you must touch somewhere in front of the knot that ties the
	bait to the line on the spool. we use davis spinners, with 18"
	leaders and flies, or lures etc. if you touch any part of the
	davis or the leader, the fish counts.
	
	but, i've had fish that i'd reel right up to the boat, but
	because i didn't grab the leader before it slipped off it can't
	be counted. i lost 5 such fish saturday. 2 were small and
	would've been released anyway, 3 were good size fish (one
	would've been the catch of the day).
	
	last year the boat caught 178 trout. i'm trying to better that
	this year, but with days like saturday, i'm off last year's pace.
	at this time last year i had 31 fish. this year i have only 17.
	

    Ohh, a boat rule... I get it...  I thought you were talking about
    a new Mass Fish+Game rule ;-)

    /Ken

>    a new Mass Fish+Game rule ;-)

	you mean they have rules too??
	
	;-)
	

	finally had a good weekend fishing. after boats problems, and
	slow fishing at whalom, we decided to try Ft Pond this weekend. i
	used to fish there all the time, til it got real popular. now, it
	can be a zoo. it's smaller than whalom, with less parking. and
	can attract lots of boats. so, in order to get parking, you have
	to go real early. but, if you're the first one there, you have to
	clean up all the broken glass from the kids drinking the night
	before. i carry a broom in the back of the truck just for that.
	
	so, i get there at around 5:30, and there's only one other boat
	there. and no glass. so, i pull up to get ready to launch the
	boat and i get out of my truck to bnotice that there's ROOFING
	NAILS everywhere! it looked like someone scattered a coffee can
	full of 'em. WTF?!? so, i spend the next 15 minutes picking up
	nails.
	
	no sooner had i launched the boat then it started getting
	crowded. gonna be an interesting day. but, it topped of at about
	7 boats. no too bad. saw only 2 other fish caught while i caught
	seven. even the guy i was fishing with wasn't catching any. 
	it's so small at this pond that every time you catch a fish yo're
	going past another boat. they kept asking what i was using. which
	i never tell. i lie! ;-) ended up taking home 3 nice fish. 
	filleted 'em, soaked 'em and smoked 'em. brought them with me to
	reilly's for pre-rage. smoked trout and sammie's  :-)
	
	after hornsby sat nite, i was DNF for sunday. but monday i
	decided to go back to ft pond. was the first one there and no
	glass OR nails! one of the boats from saturday was there. the guy
	kept saking questions every tie he trolled past me :-)  "what are
	you using, how far back is your line, how deep is your downrigger
	... what color fly are you using :-) i was using worms ;-)
	i got 5 and took home 2 nice looking, fat rainbows. out of 6
	boats only one other guy caught one fish. i took my tow and
	smoked 'em again. made little trout mcnuggets.
	
	it was good to have a good weekend. the boat is waay off lastt
	year's pace. got a lotta fishing to do to catch up. hmmmm, maybe
	i'm gonna hafta bag a day and leave a sign: [GONE FISHIN']  :-)
	

Ya,  we went fishing all this past weekend.  I caught a few brookies and
the other folks we were with caught a bunch as well.   A mix of native and
stocks.   They said they stocked rainbows but all we caught were brookies.

Oh yea,  Samuel caught a cold :)

bob

    Bob,how big were the brookies?
    
    Patty and I went to Tumbledown, just the two of us, to get away after
    last weeks hectic schedule. I had plans to check out a couple of beaver
    ponds and see what Montgomery Res looked like as far as ice out. (so
    this relates to fishing) but as soon as we pulled into the driveway 
    little ice balls started falling...it rained-snowed-sleeted all nite
    friday and all day Saturday. We tried driving up Hoosier Pass to check
    out Montgomery and drove into a blizzard of little ice balls. Couldn't
    even see the dirt road to turn off on, so we went to the top, locked
    in the hubs, turned around and SLOWLY drove down Hoosier Pass back into
    Alma thru 3-4 inches of ice ball type sleet...like driving on ball
    bearings. We managed one short hike when the rain broke for about 30
    minutes. Drank lots of beer and played games, some of which I won't
    mention in this family conferance. We woke up Sunday morning to 2-3
    inches of nice wet snow and still snowing. We planned on leaving and as 
    I was getting some clothes and things ready, I was thinking, 
    "It's gonna be a fun drive thru South Park, over Wilkerson Pass and 
    Ute Pass and down Ute PAss into the Springs in this snow." and just
    then Patty says "Let's stay another nite". That settles that ! 
    We hiked in the snow, the dogs loved it!  Had a few Pete's Wicked on 
    Tap at the South Park Bar, Rented some videos from The
    Alma Video Store and basically veggied all Sunday evening. Monday
    morning all the snow melted in about 30 minutes after we woke up. The
    dandylions started blooming as we pulled out of Mosquito Road onto
    hiway 9 and started the drive across South Park. Wilkerson Pass had 6
    inches of snow on the sides of the road but the roads were clear. You
    could see where some peopel didn't make it over the pass the day
    before..some cars still left on the sides of the road.    
    
    Typical Spring time in the Rockies...
    
    
    rfb

                      <<< Note 458.92 by SPECXN::BARNES >>>

>    Bob,how big were the brookies?

I think 7 inches would be about average....a couple 8's and a couple' 6's
but all the stocked brookies were about 7.

bob

    
    Anyone up for a deep sea adventure?  I've been deep sea fishing
    hundreds of times and even when you don't catch anything...it's still
    fun.
    
    I found a place in Seabrook that has good luck.  I usually catch nice
    cod when I use them.  There's a picture of me in their brochure holding 
    up 3 HUGE cod by the gills.

	now that sounds like a fun trip!!!!!  

	my participation depends on gig schedule and the like,
	but if you set it up on a day i'm free, i'd like to be a part
	of it!

	cod huh?  from what i hear that's hard to come by now...
	mostly fished out...

				da ve

    I'd be up for deep sea fishin' anytime!  The cod are usually
    plentiful, but it's haddock that are making a strong comeback
    this year.

    /Ken

    
    I love to fish. I prefer fresh water fishing but deep sea fishing
    is always a good way to escape the heat! 
    
    Now that I have my smoker I could smoke whatever I catch too.
    
    Cath

    I caught and released about 14 stocker rainbows last nite in honor of Jays
    Birthday, 5 or 6 fat ones...drank his share of beer too just to help 
    kill the tooth ache pain ...(though the way I feel this morning I'm 
    not sure that worked too well. )
    Divide Dave did his share of C-n-R too, keeping only one, as did Hoot. 
    
    rfb

	I'm honored!    ;-)
	

    I'll put this here instead of the thank-U note cause it's about
    fishing.
    I'd like to thank sometimes GRATEFUL reader and avid fly fisherman
    Ron Schott for the cool box of hand tyed flies. Jeez, the box alone
    probably cost ya 5 bucks! I used a couple last nite in experiments and
    actually got a couple of hits on one of the tiny brownish midges. 
    
    I will recipricate with some colorado flies as soon as i get off my
    butt.
    
    thanks again!!
    
    rfb

I was thinking of you fishing types on the way home last Wednesday...
All Things Considered interviewed a fellow who wrote a book about
Trout, and he was a very thoughtful and articulate speaker.  He spoke
about the lessons learned from fishing on a single river over a long
period of time, and of how he was able to combine his passions for
fishing, photography, and painting.  He told one story of how he was
reviewing his photos at one point, and realized that he had caught
one particular fish four times in the course of two or three years;
catch and release certainly does work!

Here's the official abstract from ATC:

15.  TROUT -- Linda speaks with James Prosek (PROH-sek), a 21-year-old student
at Yale and author of "Trout: An illustrated History." The book contains
descriptions and watercolor illustrations of more than 70 types of trout.
Prosek talks about his passion for painting the fish and the joys of being a
fisherman. (Published by Knopf) (7:00)

Dan

	Thanks, Dan.
	
	Sounds like a book worth 'looking into'.
	
	Jay

    I can relate...I've been fishing the headwaters of the South Fork of
    the South Platte for over 5 years now. It takes me a couple of times
    each spring to get "reaquanted" cause of what spring run-off/floods do to
    this little river at 11,000 - 10,000 feet, and every year the beavers
    mess with the flow a little..but once ya figger it
    out....but i think i'll start writing my name on those I release so i
    can be SURE when i catch them again...%^)
    
    I did catch a 20 inch rainbow one year, furthur (dead relation) down
    the river a couple of years ago that had a difinite, recognizable spot on
    her tail...but i haven't been back to that section of the river since.
    
    rfb_who will releasing rainbows this afternoon, but in  a lake

    
    Been up to Taylor Canyon lately?  I hear there's a couple 
    bighorns living on my claim.

    was up in that area in April, but not really in Taylor Canyon. 
    
    What claim???
    
    rfb

    might have already said this, but gotta say it again cause i actually
    got several strikes on some of these last Monday nite
    
    big grateful thanks to flyfisher extra-ordinary  %^) Russ Schott,
    sometimes grateful noter, for the excellent box of flies he sent me...
    the small brown ones (see what i know about flies!) were tricking some
    of the cutts and bows that were into the mayfly hatch (blue dunns???)
    I must admit though, (blush, blush) that i was slinging these flies 
    out at the end of a water bubble with an ultra lite spinning rod/reel and 
    not with a fly rod 
    
    rfb

    Russ Schott's muddler minnow he tied for me caught about 15 8-10" 
    brookies (half released) this Sunday in the high country.
    a few worms caught 3 larger ones. On Saturday, while we were, errr,
    ahhhmm...."communing with nature" , Patty actually caught several what
    she called "baby" fish out of the swimming hole by Tumbledown, all
    released except for one and i kept 2, plus a small brown from a beaver
    pond. Those 4 fish were part of lunch Sunday. My nose and beer-belly
    are sunburned from "frying" around the fire Saturday and watching the
    flowers grow.
    rfb
    

    re: communing with nature...
    
    There was an item recently (I think it was in Newsday) that
    in some places (Utah?)  wardens were busting more people
    for dope than for underage fish...
    
    /b 

    yep..sad, I think....even the F&G and the Forest Service are getting
    into "revenue" producing endevors instead of what they are/were
    actually chartered for.....of course that's *NOT* what i meant by 
    "communing with nature"...%^)
    
    we saw, for the first time this week, a Forest Ranger that had 
    "Law Enforcement" on the side of his jeep instead of "Ranger"
    really wants to make me ask him a question...on the same note, Alma,
    once again, has a cop....The biggest head in the town was recently
    elected mayor, so both the previous cops quit, and it has taken them
    this long to find another.
    
    rfb 
    
    rfb

    an aquantance of mine caughta 6lb rainbow at a 10,000 ft lake,
    Jefferson Lake, this past weekend. On a gitzit tipped with sucker meat!
    This lake is about 5 miles form Tumbledown. He was in a belly boat in
    about 200 feet of water...pretty cold stuff! 

    I'm really gettin the itch lately, what with our spring weather teasing
    us here in Colorado. Divide Dave and I and our dads are goin to Kansas
    end of May for a 4 day guided trip  lookin for BIG cats and crappie
    and white bass, a walleyey or 6 would be nice too. But first, in April
    we hit Blue Mesa over by Gunnison Co. for big browns. Then in mid-May,
    we'll hit the eastern reseviors for catfish and white bass. Then in
    June it's time for the high-country lakes with my new belly-boat I just
    bought with all the money I don't have for brookies and cuts. But as
    soon as the weather stabilizes around here this month, I'm hittin the
    South Platte for wild trout! 
    
    Gotta go..got a in-fisherman catfish special amgazine to read!
    
    rfb

	ah, now this is the kind of fish i'm a fan of!
	
	tho, i ain't got the jones yet. 
	the boat trailer still sits on jack stands.
	the new tires (and old rims) are in the back of the truck,
	waiting to be taken the the tire_man for mounting.
	
	about a week away from ice-out. no license. nothin's ready.
	i'm worrying about myself.
		

    hmmm...seems I've neglected  to buy a license yet, also!!! gotta remidy
    that!

    
    Speakin of fishin'
    
    I like to thatnk the good Cap'n Jollymore for the beautiful DOW rainbow
    trout stamp he gave me.  Thanks Dude!
    
    	Mark

>    hmmm...seems I've neglected  to buy a license yet, also!!! 

	Guntis always is complaining about the amount of reading I do,
	and I'm always complaining about the amount of fishing he does.
	Our own little "Gift of the Magi" scenario is that every 
	Christmas he buys me a library card at a better library than
	my teeny tiny local one, and I buy him a fishing license.
	Makes no sense, but kinda does. ;-)
	
	Of course, unlike you guys, he needs it Jan. 1 for when he
	goes drilling holes thru 2 feet of ice.

	Debess

> 	Guntis always is complaining about the amount of reading I do,


Slap some sense into that boy!  How could anyone do too much reading?!

PeterT_confirmed_TV_and_book_junkie


ps:  BUY a library card???  Just what type of primitive services DO you
have here in NH???

	it's free if you live in the town the library is in - the library
	in my town is -real- small, which is sometimes an advantage (no
	long reserve lists for new books), but most times not, especially
	if you want to browse the shelves...which is what I like to do
	alot.  The library in my town is only open 20 hours a week too.

	So I get a card in another town too.


	

    Sounds a lot like my town library.  But getting a library card from 
    the next town over, which I have done, does not require "BUY"ing
    it.  That was the point I stumbled over.  Not that I don't 
    pay my weight in it in overdue fees, but I always figure those
    go on to help the library, rather than any money hungry institution.
    
    PeterT

	this s*x.
	
	since i put the new tires on the boat trailer (in order to get
	the boat inside so i can start working on it) WINTER HAS RETURNED!
	
	arrrrgh. it's snowed nearly everyday. and it's been freezing
	cold.m    wtf????????
	
	:-/
	
	grumpy of merrimack
	

    grumpy of fitchburg

	i'll be "grumpy of fitchburg" tomorrow.
	today i'm "grumpy of merrimack".
	

    yep...same here in COlo.. was supposed to take Tiffany back to Ft.
    Collins tonite, stay the nite, and fish some ponds in that area
    tomorrow..cold front came in last nite, temps went from 50's to 30's in 
    a couple of hours, an inch of snow this morning and spitting all day.
    
    rfb

	ugh.
	well, it ain't spoze to improve at all this week.
	cold rain and snow thursday, friday and saturday.
	fishing? ha. i'll show you snow and rain.
	Snow and rain.
	

 �  <<< Note 458.120 by MKOTS3::JOLLIMORE "Keep on pushing, straight ahead" >>>
 �
 �	this s*x.
	
�	since i put the new tires on the boat trailer (in order to get
�	the boat inside so i can start working on it) WINTER HAS RETURNED!
	
�	arrrrgh. it's snowed nearly everyday. and it's been freezing
�	cold.m    wtf????????
    
    So it's your fault is it?  I've been moving (finally) the last two
    weekends, and they've been the worst weekends all winter (except
    for the ice storm in December, when I was in San Diego)...
    I've moved more snow than stuff!!
    
    /b

    Took Tiffany back to School (CSU) Saturday morning, unloaded a truck
    full of supplies for her,(mostly health food) had Chinese together,
    dropped her off and headed for  Barbor State Ponds. Caught a nice 14"
    stocker and missed a couple more bites..$4.00 fish. Got up Sunday and
    made it to The South Platte by noon. Fished for 3 hours wading in my
    neoprenes (the water was fine when dressed for it)
    before I caught a small 12 " wild bow..released him as I do with most
    wild fish. Had to rescue my 14-year-old GErman Shepard from the river...her
    back legs are just about shot, and carry her back to the Donkey,
    probably her last trip. Arthur the Asshole did OK jumping from rock to 
    rock and only falling in a couple of times..he hates deep water, funny 
    watching him flounder in the deep water, being washed downstream, until 
    he hits a shallow part and can stand up. 
    
    fishin just startin...
    
    rfb

	the boat is out of storage.
	the new tires are on the trailer.
	the registration has been renewed.
	a 97 license has been obtained (605105)
	the boat needs to be cleaned and restocked.
	then, let the fishing begin!
	

    Divide Dave and I and a friend hit the South Platte again last Sunday.
    friend = 1 small brown, me = 1 small brown, Divice Dave = 1 ugly sucker.
    
    rfb

>Divide Dave = 1 ugly sucker.

	yabut, did he catch anything?!?    %-)
	
	

>Divide Dave = 1 ugly sucker.

	yabut, did he catch anything?!?    %-)
	
	

    my band-mate, Pete, is on the board already this year...
    when i spoke to him on Monday, he was up to 26 brown trout
    pulled out of lake quinsigamond...  talk about off to a
    roaring start!!!!!
    
    					da ve

    
    Thanks for posting that rfb.....
    
    Jolli did you have to ask twice,I may be ugly but I didn't think I made
    people look twice.....
    
    Ya'll have a fun weekend and may yor fish all be small!
    
    
    Divide Dave
    
      . .
       '
     \___/ 
    

    
    Got a friend hauling trout out of Whites Pond in Concord right now.
    
    While out biking yesterday I encountered the local bums fishing in the
    Nashoba Brook.   No luck yet.  Too much water in the streams.

    hit the South Platte Sunday with a non-fishing friend...he wanted to do
    the hike in to prepare for his ascent(ie:RUN!) up Pikes Peak (the fool) in
    August..it's a 2 mile hike up and over a couple small mountains, never
    been able to do it under 40-45 mins. Set him up in a pool where I know
    there are always fish and on his second cast he caught a 12" wild
    rainbow..beautiful fish. I missed a couple in the same pool. Couple of
    hours later I got a 14" skinny brown out of "Divide Dave's pool". Both
    returned without even taking them out of the water. Just starting to
    pick up...
    
    rfb 

    
    The first evening on the South PLatte this year...got on the river at
    about 5pm. Fished till 8pm. halfway out had to turn on the flash lites
    and slow the pace down. I got a hefty 13 inch brown that bent the
    ultra-lite with 4lb test like a pretzel, a 12 ", a 10" and a 3"..yes 3"
    baby brown...Hoot got 1 nice brown and a fat Rainbow..Divide Dave lost a
    few nice trout and managed a nice brown towards the end of the evening.
    All returned to the water, as these are wild trout..kept mine out 
    a little too long to measure them, but they revived OK...thought I 
    was gonna lose one, but  she turned out OK. Hoot had 8 homebrews on ice 
    in the cooler for when we
    got back to the car after the hour walk out. Stood outside in what was 
    the first "real" nite of Spring, watchin the stars twinkle and drinkin 
    Hootweisers, Brunhilde Brown Ales and "black-n-tans".
    
     AHHHHHHHH! only a couple of other ways to spend a Sunday evening that
    could be better!  
    
    Got home around midnite...Arthur the Asshole could barely walk this
    morning...i'm a little stiff myself...
                                   rfb