The Eve of NBA Free Agency

So tomorrow is opening day for NBA free agents, to the uninitiated this is the time when any team can sign any player who is not under contract. Personally, I am rooting for the Bulls to add LeBron and Chris Bosh to Noah and Derrick Rose. Tremendous talent without overwhelming the league this foursome could compete for a decade. Miami looks like a second strong team where LeBron, Bosh, and Dwayne Wade could be running the East for years to come. An interesting twist is that Paul Pierce has opted out of his contract with the Celtics. With Pierce and Allen both eligible the Celtics can scramble to overpay for some aging stars or be bold and start over. The fan in me says you have to resign these guys...the business man in me points out that basketball is a young man's game and neither Pierce or Allen are young men. Why pay top dollar for a star in his mid-thirties when you can pay top dollar for a star in his mid-twenties?

Muskrat Fever

So the Muskrats have improved to 10-9 overall and sit in third place in the Eastern Division of the NECBL. They may be the most bipolar sports team that I have ever seen running their home record to 9-1 after last night's win, while they sit on a 1-8 road record. The boy and I missed last night's game. After his second inning meltdown on Thursday I frankly wasn't up to that much fun this weekend, so I gave our tickets for Saturday's game to my parents and the boy and I may try to go tonight.

Really I love baseball but the hard part is the games start at seven and my almost three year old is usually starting to get sleepy by eight. We are often lucky to get four or five innings in before we have to leave. I had a friend suggest bringing a stroller. Then I can let him run around like a madman but then put him to bed at the game.

Unrelated to baseball, I caught a little 11" lake trout (to little to keep legally) right downtown at rotary park this morning. I have enjoyed going to the little creek (again catching eight fish in two trips) but it's almost too easy there. It's a nice place to take the boy for some excitement, but the fish are pretty small so I wanted something with a little higher degree of difficulty. Apparently there are quite a few trout and salmon right downtown, but boy are they finicky. The have no interest in rubber lures. Just like the last trout I caught the magic lure was last night's schnitzel from the William Tell Inn. Maybe I'll be the first fisherman sponsored by a Swiss restaurant?

Bees

USA! USA!

Congratulations to Landon Donovan and the US World Cup team on a tremendous round of group play. They managed to win over Algeria on a 91st minute goal (soccer's version of overtime). This coupled with the stunning shoulda-been victory that was disallowed by the now unemployed referee and the US had a great run. When all was said and done the US will advance to the knockout round of 16 as the group winner and England will advance as runner up. True to form Germany won group D. What this means to the person who watches soccer, oh say every four years, is that by winning the group the US plays the second place team in group D (so-so Ghana) rather than the group winner (mighty Germany). This sets up an exciting match between England and Germany and a very winnable match for the US versus Ghana. For those wondering about the odds according to the Coca-Cola World Rankings, Germany is sixth, the USA is 14th, Ghana is 32nd. Those in the know so to speak knew this way back when the groups were announced, but what it boils down to is that by winning the group the US has a very real chance to have their best tounament ever. If they had come in second another round of 16 exit looked likely. So here is the knockout round as it is set so far:

Uruguay v. Republic of Korea (Sat 1000)

USA v. Ghana (Sat 1430)

Germany v. England (Sun 1000)

Argentina v. Mexico (Sun 1430)

Woe to the last day of vacation.

I had a very relaxing and happy father's day. The boy and I went fishing together it might have been the first time that I caught a fish with him there so he was pretty excited (four little rock bass). We watched a few movies together and then caught the beginning of the Muskrats game (I really wish that they had 6 pm starts instead of 7 pm but what can you do). Some day I'll get to watch an entire game.

We have been trying unsuccessfully to coordinate that Muskrat for Jackie's birthday but the GM hasn't gotten back to me yet. I am really starting to consider back-up plan options. It's hard because it's for my son's birthday but my general rule of thumb is I shouldn't have to beg you to buy your product. We broached the subject in March and have mentioned it by email and in person a few times since and we haven't gotten a real response.

I almost forgot, as an aside, today is my last day on vacation. I love my job, but man do I love vacation. : (

Secret Creek T

So I find it somewhat comical to read articles and blogs referring to secret lake X etc. with regards to people fishing. But I get a little bit what these writers are feeling. Fish are not video games, they are moderately intelligent creatures. If every time you had a cheeseburger you got ripped fifty feet up in the air accosted by an alien and had a big hook ripped through your cheek you would avoid cheeseburgers pretty quickly. Fish are no different so the most over fished locations end up with the most savvy fish.

Opeechee Point for example is over fished. I could have set a table with white linen and those guys wouldn't bite. Granted I'm an amateur but compare that with Secret Creek T (as in trout) where I went today. I was fiddling around with Google Earth last night and I was looking at a river I had fished a few times and maybe 1,000 yards up stream there was a nice bend that looked to open up a little resulting in a slower current. When I got there it was perfect, overhanging trees, scrub on both sides, structure in the form of branches and rocks under water, slow current, and nice flat ground on which to stand.

So I started off using last night's schnitzel as bait, a few nibbles but no takers. Then I switched to my minnows and caught three little rock bass (nothing worth keeping about a fish stick each) in about fifteen minutes. After that I wanted to switch back to the schnitzel as I had seen some fish that had a little different shape and were a little larger. Using my soon-to-be-patented schnitzel lure I caught an 11" 3/4 pound brown trout. All told I caught four fish in about an hour and I was home filleting my trout by 6:15. For the record, the larger fish was much easier to fillet.

Busy Day

Yesterday was one adventure after the next. Now that I have a few more lures and a little more experience I figured I would go back to Opeechee Point and see if I had any more luck there. I tried three different lures in three different spots and I had not a single bite. I have been having the most luck at the train trestle by Hebert Foundry but the fish are on the smaller size.

Later in the morning we took the boy for his second haircut. At his first haircut, during which he was a little squeamish, we promised that if he cooperated he could get a color streak at his next haircut. So today he was a pretty good boy, we got him a nice short summer haircut, and he has nice green highlights running across his bangs.

In the early afternoon the boy and I went fishing together and he was surprisingly engaged. He wanted to use his own pole. He casted and reeled himself, and he wanted to fuss about lure selection (The boy prefers either a naked hook, or a hook with a Pepperidge Farms Goldfish on it). Neither of us caught a thing so I guess I can't be to critical of his tackle selection.

Then to cap our night we went to the Muskrats game, the boy made it until the seventh inning, after which the boy and the fifth place Muskrats melted down. After we left, the Muskrats handed back their hard fought 3-2 lead allowing 3 in the 8th and 2 more in the ninth. It was almost painful to read the box score this morning. After retiring the first batter apparently the Muskrats followed up with a dropped third strike allowing the runner to go to first, back-to-back walks, a fielder's choice (out number 2), and an error on the third baseman who had just come in as a defensive substitution. Fortunately, the team is only about a quarter of the way through the season with a lot of time yet to turn it around.

Mission accomplished...sort of.

I was up at 4:30 and headed out to my new favorite little spot. The weather was cool in the low 60's and overcast. Mission accomplished, I did in fact catch two fish and have them filleted and standing in the kitchen by 7 am. Now as for the size of the fillets, they were a lot closer to one ounce than they were to six ounces. Today was a real challenge so I wanted to use my best bait and my best spot, you know based on my three weeks or so of experience fishing. So I stuck with my Berkley Gulp Minnows and went back to the train trestle by Hebert Foundry in Laconia and I caught two little rock bass in a hour and a half. I've been trying to cast close to the trestle which is a little tricky when your standing on it. The second wrinkle is a fairly swift current in most places. Today I found a pile of rocks at the base of one of the supports where the current isn't quite as fast so I can cast away from the trestle and let it drift back into the rock pile with just a little twitch on the pole to make the minnow behave a little more minnow-like.

They were really modest little guys and let me tell you they look a hell of a lot less impressive when you fillet them. But I wanted to practice the actual process of filleting. As I told Renee unless you practice filleting a slippery fish isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to do. Renee, I'm sure knows a lot more about filleting than I ever will, but she's kind enough to humor me.

Big Adventures Tomorrow!

So I am excited for tomorrow for two reasons. First and foremost we have a Mitchell family outing to Odiorne State Park, essentially an oceanside state park with tidal pools and a lot of other fun things the boy.

Exciting event number two is opening day of bass season. It wasn't actually closed all that long but remember, I have only been fishing a month which was basically bass spawning season. Tomorrow, very briefly in the morning, I am going to go out and try and catch my limit of two bass. They don't have to be huge, just large enough to fillet. The only real limitation is the time constraint to be at the park at 9 am or so we need to leave home at around 7:30 meaning we should start getting ready at around 6:30 which is when I really ought to be standing in the kitchen with four clean six ounce bass fillets. I may be putting too much pressure on myself. If I succeed I am hoping Renee will help me cook this Japanese-style recipe with white rice and asparagus...and if I fail hot dogs are always a nice standby.

The One That Got Away

We have several events today including a Happy Birthday Party for Grammy Bayes and a vet appointment for Mr. Elvis. Renee is baking a cake for the party so a busy time all around in the Mitchell House. I still managed to be up at 4:30 and on the shore by 5 am.

I was able to get in just about two hours of fishing as I promised Renee I would be home by 7 am. I tried out both of my new lures and got nothing with the Strike King Rage Tail Chunk. I only gave it about a half hour and the site today was kind of lousy, I went to the River Street side of the water downtown across from the Laconia Spa (lots of weeds, few fish). Then I switched to my new Berkley Gulp Minnows and got a huge hit (huge for me anyway). With the minnow you sort of reel it along in the water and it looks like a little fish swimming, additionally Berkley puts some sort of treatment on it that makes the look feel and smell a little like a fish. It's a lot like using live bait without all of the squirming and flopping around. So anyway, I had a big largemouth bass on the hook and I fought him in but when I got the line in I was actually on top of a retaining wall several feet above the water so I had to reel the fish up about 6-8' through the air before I could get him in hand. Sure enough, my advertised 8 lb test line snapped under the spasmodic 3 lb weight of our friend Mr. Bass. As an aside, I met a teenager who hooked a decent size fish and wanted to weigh it with my scale. His was about 3 lb as well which illustrated to me the my earlier weight estimates were way off. My earlier fish were probably 1 lb at best. The one that got away today was probably 12-15 inches and a solid 3 lbs. Easily the biggest fish I have seen so far. What I will probably do in the next day or two is take my minnows back to the train trestle.

Unrelated to fishing, on yesterday's shopping adventure Jackson said the funniest thing ever. He was appreciative of a couple of early birthday presents and he thanked us for each. Then the gold medal line, "Mummy, Daddy, thank you for rescuing my heart from the dungeon." Apparently, the Toy Story friends bring great joy to a young child's heart.

The price of fishing

So we had a nice Mitchell Family shopping day today. We finally used our Toys 'R' Us gift card that Aunt Mel gave Jackson for Christmas I think, Renee picked up a couple of books, and I naturally got fishing lures...and a fishing book. Which got me thinking, some time back I mentioned that the outlay on fishing equipment was $109, truth be told I spent another $9 last week on modest lures at Wal-Mart and today's adventure set us back about $31 at Disk's Sporting Goods. So the new total is $149 and I will stop publicly tracking this before it gets scary.

I did get some Strike King Rage Tail Chunk lures, some Berkley Gulp Minnows, and a nice comprehensive fishing reference book, Henry Gilbey's Fishing. Obviously, the challenges that I have fishing are mostly practice related, essentially I have no idea what I am doing so the easiest combination possible would be nice. I like the lures a little bit larger because it gives them some heft enabling me to cast a bit further without complicated weights and rigging (tie line to hook, shove hook up backside of plastic lure until pointy end sticks out of the middle of the lure). I was having trouble with the Texas Rigging because I either wasn't getting bites or I couldn't tell I was getting bites. With a straight exposed hook I get stuck in the weeds and lose more lures but I get a nice solid stick on the fish. Today I caught what looked like a little Crappie, easily my smallest fish, not much bigger than my hand but he had a little fight to him and some nice colors.

Proof of Fish

So here you have conclusive evidence of me catching fish number two of the season. On a cool and overcast Sunday morning I went out to begin my big vacation fishing adventure. There was some light rain and a little mist but overall not a bad morning, if you don't mind the high 50's. Again catch and release only at the moment, for one thing bass are still protected and for another thing you really ought to be prepared to cook the fish if you are going to take him home with you (not a whole heck of a lot else to do with a fish at home). This little guy is maybe 2 lb. and about 9" long Rock Bass. I am not really a 100% sure on the species, but comparing the shape of the head to the NH Freshwater Fishing Digest (page 32) Rock Bass seems like the most likely culprit. Tough to tell from my lousy photo but cell phone photography while holding a living fish is not exactly easy. I got a little ten dollar scale at Wal-Mart that has a tape measure built in. At his size weighing wasn't worth the effort so two pounds is totally a guess but the length is pretty accurate, his tail fin is basically behind my right wrist.

I went back this morning to the train trestle in downtown Laconia. I was out the door before five and the location is only a few minutes from my house. I caught our little friend today with a "wild eyed shad" a small lure that looks like a little fish with a neon tail. All of my efforts with the Senko have been unsuccessful. This four inch cigar shaped worm is famed for its bass catching prowess but he's done very little for me. I saw a couple of larger fish (one 12-18" that looked like a trout) in the water today but one literally swam past my lure without interest. I also had a very nice sized snapping turtle pass under the trestle, he was also disinterested in my lures sadly. Obviously I still have a lot of work on what the call presentation, which is making the lure act like the thing that it is supposed to be. I also have had some nice bites that I lost so I need quite a bit of work setting the hook, which is getting the hook to stick in the fella's face once he starts to nibble. Special thanks to my wife who has been very supportive of my new found desire to wander off at five in the morning.

Hooray for Vacation!

So I had to work today, but as of noon-ish I am on vacation for the next week. I am DVR'ing most of the World Cup matches (congrats USA on the tough draw with England) and I plan on getting up early just about everyday to go fishing.

I really want to go the next few days to at least practice a bit before open season on bass Wednesday. Up until then it is catch and release only. Wednesday we are trying to go to the beach so the first "keeper fish" may have to wait until Thursday. I do want to try a couple of recipes this week and see if for one thing bass tastes any good. If it taste terrible I guess I will just have to be a catch and release guy. There are about a thousand ways you can fish; different species, different lures, fly or reel, you get the idea. Basically in the interest of sanity I have been studying bass lures and techniques only and if anyone else jumps on the hook we'll worry about it then.

Tonight we have a Muskrats game. After a nice start the home team has slipped to 4-3 after yesterday's loss and is in fourth place. Tonight the Musky's take on the Gulls a team they trail in the standings. Fourth place in the division would still make the playoffs but with a short season of 42 games one wants to avoid digging to deep a hole.

More School versus More Fishing

So school is tedious, I really should have studied and stayed in school when I was 19. Try having a full time job (for which I am grateful), a preschooler, volunteer in the community, all while essentially being a full time student. Sometimes my life makes me a little tired. Anyway I have three more classes, one of which is half over and I will have my bachelor's degree in September. Then the big question that I still haven't decided conclusively is whether I should go back for the MBA. Really the three choices are go back to school immediately, take a year off (which worked out to ten years last time), or decide I'm happy with the B.S. and be done with it (does anyone else find it humorous that I will have a degree in B.S.)?

Going back for the MBA at Plymouth State may be useful professionally and I would like to have the knowledge if money and time were no object but money and time are objects and I only have so much of both. Conversely, what I really want to do is relax. Go to work, do the best I can, and when I come

home at the end of the day I want to veg out and watch mindless television, or go fishing. Spend more time working on my Texas rigging and less time thinking about public revenue sources and the privatization of services. Does that make me Tom Sawyer?

Really Texas rigging is an important life skill, because as you can see from the illustration by getting the hook entirely inside

the worm you won't get the hook stuck on stumps and rocks and things. An exposed hook might be a little easier to catch a fish but not if you keep getting the damned thing stuck in the weeds.

Family Time

So as a salaried manager I am expected to be at work whenever needed which is not necessarily open to close every day but in a small office that is in transition it's pretty close. I enjoy my new job immensely but like anyone I enjoy the opportunity to get out a couple of hours early and catch up with the family. Yesterday was my early day, leaving at around 3:30, I am open to close the rest of the week including Saturday and I have an after hours meeting tonight in a community near work. As I move into the professional ranks, it becomes increasingly important to balance work / life activities and remember to make a little time for what matters.

So yesterday afternoon we packed up a picnic and went down to Opeechee Park. Opeechee is nice because they have picnic facilities, playground facilities, and you can fish a little as well. Here's where the trouble started, on just the third day using my fishing pole the nob on top of my reel simply fell off mid cast and for the life of me I couldn't find it. The real then essentially was a big useless spool of thread. Say what you want about Wal-Mart but with no receipt or evidence that I even purchased the pole there I walked out with a new fishing pole in 15 minutes without a hassle. Which is good, because I go on vacation next week and it would be tough to fish with the Spidey pole everyday for a week.

Aside from my fishing debacles we had a great time, picnic, playground, and a quick stop at Dairy Queen after our detour to Wal-Mart (and yes I am familiar with the parking at Dairy Queen).

The Fish Story

For the first time in my life I, with my own two hands, have captured the elusive fish. This morning at around six I caught a very modest Largemouth Bass (for the totally uninitiated Largemouth Bass refers to the size of the mouth not the fish). He was about 7" and maybe a pound or two at best. Look don't laugh, I've only been fishing like three weeks and until yesterday I have been using a three-foot Spider-man pole. I have left the Spidey pole for the boy and upgraded to a Wal-Mart special, I bought a low end Ugly Stick by Shakespeare, stock line 6-lb test, a black night crawler lure, and some chartreuse Power Bait. I guess my personality is that I could care less about something for thirty years but if I am going to try it and get into it I really want to learn and understand the activity. So in the last three weeks I have actually done a lot of reading and research, basically learning how to fish.

The funny part is that I was so stunned to actually catch the fish that I was frantically scrambling to grab my little state magazine with pictures to figure out what I had, then I knew I had to let him go (Bass are catch and release until June15 for spawning). Then I was frantically trying to figure out how to get the stupid hook out of the guys mouth, Renee advised me to put a pare of pliers in the tackle box (I love that my wife is brilliant, could you imagine spending the rest of your life with an idiot). In the meantime I essentially used the finger sweep method to pull the hook out of the fish's mouth (thank you Army first aid training). Then I was able to toss him back and my prayers were answered as he swam away safely. I really didn't want to be a criminal the first time I caught a fish. The picture is of a largemouth bass (not mine, same idea but mine was a lot smaller and you know, not flying) the health and safety of our sporting friend was my first priority so I have no photographic evidence of my embarrassing catch (maybe next time).

Rain or Shine

4:30 At the risk of ending up as a drowned rat, I am getting ready to go fishing by myself for the first time. Saturday morning is the time that I have so that's when I am going to go. I am just getting up and getting ready now so I am still hoping the storm will pass over by the time I get out to the lake. We'll see how it goes. I picked up a low end rod and reel combo at Wal-Mart and a few more lures from Strike King (they look like big fat black worms). Anyway I hope everyone has a great Saturday but my plan is to get a couple of hours on the lake before the boy wakes up so I have to go.

And congratulations to the Muskrats who won game one and put on a great show, on the field and off.

7:00 So I held off a little bit for the lightning to pass and went out at about 5:15 I got a good hour and a half in with moderate to heavy rains but when the lightning returned at quarter of seven I said that's about enough of that. I might be foolish but not that foolish. Although of the four of five people out that early in the rain there was one guy who stayed right out in his aluminum boat during the lightning without batting an eye. In fairness, he may have batted an eye there's no way to tell for sure. Maybe the reason why I can't catch a fish is that I'm not committed enough.