Some Fishin' pics

  A number of posts down, I put up a picture of the boat that I bought last Fall.  Since then, I have used it a handful of times to fish with either my Brother Dave and our Cousin's Husband Kenny or my Brother Mark - or with some friends.  It's all good!

  For the most part, the boat has been used for bass fishing floats down the Deleware River on Sunday mornings.  There isn't much that tops the relaxation that an early morning float on the Deleware in search of some fiesty little bass.  There is something irresistably attractive about being on the river, with its quietness of the early morning and the mist is still coming off of the surface of the water - being one with nature.

   This past July 4th weekend however, I towed my boat down to the Cape May area, where both my Brother and my Mother live and Mark and I got to check out a lake or two that had previously been unfishable to us from shore.  The first number of pictues below are from the East Creek Pond.  It's called a pond, but damn, the thing is actually a lake.  It's big.  Through a NJ bass fishing web site, Mark and I learned that this particular pond, in the Dennisville area, held some pickerel and neither one of us had ever attempted to catch them.  Pickerel, like bass, are predatory fish - meaning they seek their food often by ambush.  That means they are a great game fish to catch since they hit properly presented lures with abandone.

   We hit the lake on Saturday morning and found, as we had been told on the bass fishing site, that the lake was getting clogged up with heavy underwater vegetation.  The North side of the lake was much better than the South side and that is where we found the most action.  Now, as it turns out, the Pickerel in the lake were for the most part small, as you can see by the pictures below.  Don't let that fool you though, for their size, their fight is pretty decent. 

   Mark was kickin' my butt on Saturday morning.  He was "boating" a few "picks" here and there and while I WAS hooking some, I was not getting them to the boat.  I had a beautiful opportunity to make up all of the lost ground though when I finally got hooked into a very huge pickerel.  Got it up to the boat and - my god - the things must have been three or four pounds!  No crap, it was that big.  I could have easily put my fist into its mouth, though with the teeth these things have, that would have been crazy.  Now, there are a number of factors that came into play in the next few seconds after getting the fish to the boat. (1) I was brand spanking new to pickerel fishing and didn't know exactly how to handle them.  (2) THOSE TEETH! (3) After being skunked by Mark all morning, it was simply still a shock that I actually got a fish to the boat (4) I didn't have a landing net on board (5) and finally the thing was thrashing all around like a banshee and was making it impossible to get some kind of hold onto it to actually get it into the boat.  Oh yeah - and (6) I was using an ultra-lite poll so I couldn't just simply hoist him into the boat with the poll.  All of these facts came into play and balled up into the unfortunate circumstance the led me to lose the fish to a broken line.  I'm not sure if the line frayed against the side of the boat while the fish was thrashing about or if it maybe came into contact with its very sharp teeth or what, but in the end, does it matter?  I lost one hell of a beautiful fish.  Damn it!  I'll admit it - I lost the fish because the damned thing intimidated me.  Shoot!

   Well, we hit the lake the next morning and you can beleive that I had a net with me this time.  I was going to somehow redeem myself.  And I finally did catch my first ever pickerel, but it was nowhere near the size of that monster that I let get away.  It's a fishing memory, but not one of the more pleasant ones!

   One of the nicest things about going to a new lake is taking in the scenery and this lake was a beautiful place!  Just look at the pictures below!  Truly gorgeous!  God does do some things right!

  On my previous visit to Marks, we hit this really tiny pond in the middle of this trailer park and it proved to be a great little place to fish for bass.  It is strictly catch and release, but that has never bothered me because that is all I practice.  Look at the PIG that Mark caught on this particular day!  It is an absolute hog!  I'm figuring maybe around four pounds or so.

Here I am with my biggest one of the day.