pale_folklore

Yesterday's trip started out annoying, got good for a quick second and then immediately went to annoying again. First of all, this was my first fishing excursion on my new kayak so I knew there would be some kinks to work out. The kayak didn’t blow off my car on the way to the pond so that was a success but before I got to the water I hit my first two snags. My anchor system (which I expertly assessed should be stowed inside the body of my sit on top) decided to slide all the way to the aft of the body cavity, open up AND get caught on some of the foam... It was annoying but I wasn't about to let it ruin my day... I got my gear set up, scootched in to the water and wait... what is this my legs are wet. I had forgot to remove the two scupper plugs and they had apparently popped out on the ride over, another minor setback but whatever, I'll be making a trip to home depot soon.

Now for the fishing part, I paddled across the calm waters to one of my favorite areas to fish. It's getting kind of windy at this point but nothing I can't handle right? Start casting a mid depth crank bait and lone behold I hook up with my first fish of the season about 10 feet away from my kayak. For those of you who have never fished out of a kayak before, landing your first fish is pretty awkward (where does my rod go, whoops paddle just fell in the water, crap my pliers are all the way behind me and in the mean time I have a fish flopping in my lap)

In the span of about 5 minutes the wind had really picked up. Now I have chop coming over my bow and I've drifted about 200 yards from where I hooked the fish. I decide that I'd better call it a day. I proceeded a half hour power struggle head on into wind and chop. After getting to shore I managed to get my anchor out of the body, which was a plus at least. All in all I got casts in, I was on the water and I got a fish on... Not bad.

After spending the morning in Pembroke my buddy and I decided to try Smelt Pond in Kingston. We didn’t have the highest of expectations because it was about 11am and the sun had started beating down hard (I have the most brutal of sunburns to show for it). We started working around the pond counter clock wise hitting all the lily pads and shore brush as we passed. My buddy started the trip off the right way with a nice sized Largemouth (pic below) and a few smaller ones. We were plagued by Pickerel and their slime for most of the trip after this until the end where we both landed one pound largemouth’s a piece. All in all I have one picture, a good sunburn and a lot of practice skipping under docks and overhanging branches

After an exhausting weekend my buddy and I decided to forgo the customary Monday holiday off from work sleep late, in lieu of an early-ish morning spent on pond. We showed up to Little Sandy in Pembroke, a pond which has never failed us before to provide some good action.

We worked our way up the developed eastern shore spending some time at each dock. We seemingly got hit after hit (I exclusively fished a YUM Saleemander all day) with no good hook ups. The fish were definitely not committing to their strikes making it very hard to properly set my texas rigged plastic. After what seemed like 4 consecutive botched hook sets where the fish meticulously planned a jump at the right time to send the hook flying dangerously close to our eyes and mouths I landed the first notable fish of the day.

From there we moved down a creek type thing on the northern side of a pond to a cove dug out for cranberry bog filling. This provided three quick fish, I pulled out one Largemouth and my buddy got a Largemouth and a Pickerel.

After another hour or so of stubborn fish we decided to make our way out and go to another pond, on the ride in I landed the always amazing "one last cast" fish. We hauled in the John boat and made our way to another pond.

Went back to pine lake because I felt like it had alot of potential. Ended up pulling out 4 bass in about two hours. Only had to leave cause the girlfriend was getting bored. Sigh.

Started at the very back of the pond and on the third cast pulled a 2+ pounder out of about 8 inches of water.

Got a little guy off of a lipless crank and then two more dinks on a saleemander carolina rigged.

Been seeing Pine Lake on my drive home from work up RT 3 north every day for over a year and I finally decided to get out and explore it. I really liked this lake and definitely plan on fishing it many more times. There is lots of structure right off the shore including submerged logs and brush. I managed to pull a small guy out of some brush with a spinner bait and probably could have had more if I had the time.

Fished for about two hours after work, got nothing but it was still good to get out. It was a little windy for the biatcaster but still a good time.