Tag: Fishing Trip

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The NJ DEP’s Environmental Expo 2013

Once again, we headed off to the NJ DEP’s FREE “WILD OUTDOOR EXPO’’ on Sunday the 15th of September 2013.

It had been 2 years since we last went, so I thought I knew how to get there! Silly me! I plugged in “Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area” into Google maps and away we went! You know, you can’t always trust Google maps, right? So as we’re heading down a dirt road going farther away from civilization, and we see a gray fox, my wife’s starts to get scared and closes all  the windows!  🙂 When the GPS says you have reached your destination, I’m thinking to myself, “I should have read that PDF on the DEP website that had the directions!

There was already someone else at “the destination” who looked lost, so I asked if they wanted to follow me and once we got cell phone reception back, I’d get the directions from the website. They agreed and we turned around to start our 2 mile dirt road trek out of the wilderness. While heading back, we passed 6 more cars going the wrong way and they too turned around and became part of our caravan! Suffice it to say, “lesson learned”! I will use the directions that the DEP provides from now on!

http://www.state.nj.us/dep/newsrel/2013/13_0086.htm

We finally arrived at the Expo and had a truly wonderful experience. My ten year old son loved it and we had some excellent burgers while there! Even my wife had a good time.

My son had accidentally broken the tip of his fishing rod on our last fishing trip, so we got him a new rig at the Expo – for a very nice Expo price!

I took some pictures to share with you:

Hope to see you there next year!

Catch you later.

Editor Note: I know this is posted a little late, but I had problems getting the pictures off of my phone’s camera.

 

 

 

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Some Freshwater Fishing Pictures

Well, we had a chance to go fishing again, and had a beautiful afternoon on a local lake.

I didn’t catch anything, but had a few pickerel on the line.

My son however, caught a painted turtle! He was using dough balls for bait and there were lots of turtles in the lake.

I warned him to be careful but …

Fortunately I was able to get the turtle off of the hook without harming him.

So I promised some pictures from our last fishing trip and here they are!

The first is a sunfish my son caught and the second is a roach fish.

Had a nice afternoon both times!

Hope you get some time to get out and catch some nice fish as well.

Take care and catch you later.

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First Freshwater Fishing Trip – 2011

Finally had a chance to go fishing last weekend!

First trip this year, so it was important that my 7 year old son had a successful trip!

We stocked up on some worms and took a few lures as well. Checked over the rods and reels and everything looked good!

We were ready to go. So we headed over to our local stream and began fishing. Since there is a current in the stream, I gave my son a few pointers about fishing with a bobber and live bait and letting it drift while keeping the line fairly tight. After a few casts, he had his first fish! Caught a “roach” fish.

A few worms and casts later and he had his second roach. It was late in the day so we didn’t stay real long, but it was still fun for both of us.

Yeah … Dad caught a small roach and a sunny as well.  🙂  But most of all, Dad got to spend some quality time with his son!

I’ll post some pictures of the fish next post.

Hope you all have successful fishing trips this year!

Catch you later.

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Cub Scouts Fishing Trip

My younger son is in the Cub Scouts and they had a fishing trip planned 2 weekends ago. It wasn’t a freshwater fishing trip though.

We actually went over to the Somers Point bay just outside of Ocean City, NJ. The group had chartered the “Duke of Fluke” for the afternoon and the guys were all excited to be going!

It was fairly windy and being a large pontoon boat, the captain decided to stay and fish in the bay area only. There were 41 people fishing in the group and after receiving the usual instructions we were off.

As you can tell by the title of this blog, I’m NOT a big saltwater fishing fan. The last saltwater fishing party boat that I was on was back in the 1970s! But I believe everyone should try it at least once, so I allowed my son his first ever fishing party boat experience.

We fished for 4 hours and out of 41 people only 4 fish were caught. Three adults caught 2 fluke (that’s flounder in case you were wondering) and 1 bluefish. But the big catch of the day went to one of the cub scouts! He caught a nice striper – about 8 lbs and around 30 inches long.

Even though it was windy, the weather was nice and the sun was out the whole afternoon. I enjoyed myself even though I didn’t catch anything. But my son’s thoughts on the experience – “that was lame Dad!” Seems he’s used to catching fish when we go fishing. 🙂 I explained why we didn’t really catch that much on the boat and told him it was nice spending some time together – but that didn’t seem to matter much to him. Kids just want to catch fish!

And in fact, when I went party boat fishing with my dad back in the 70’s, I did catch some porgies. Since it was early in the season, perhaps I’ll take him again, once the fishing season heats up.

Oh, I almost forgot. Do you remember watching cartoons where someone catches a boot while fishing? Well it actually happened on this trip! A man caught a black and yellow fisherman’s boot! LOL – I always wondered why they showed that in the cartoons!

I hope you have a great fishing season this summer!

Catch you later.

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Commodore Club on Great Moose Lake in Hartland Maine

Hey Folks!

Hope you’re all doing well. Today I’ve got a guest post from Michael Norton. He wrote me a note and I thought I’d let you all in on this nice place to grab some fresh water fishing!

So here’s his post:

The Commodore Club on Great Moose Lake in Hartland, Maine is available for weekly fishing trip rentals in May and June every year. Originally built in 1888, this is a one-of-its-kind, post-and-beam sporting club. You can accommodate a group of 20 at the off-season rate of $1,500.

Great Moose is a bass and pickerel lake. There are brown trout for the gifted. This lake also makes a good base to jump off to other lakes and streams. The only challenge is that the Club amenities and slices of history will keep you there — full kitchen (microwave, electric and Garland gas grill, circa 1930, for the big feeds), 10 bedrooms, billiard table, poker tables, a rambling porch overlooking Great Moose, all on 15 private acres.

Here’s a vistor post from the Boston Herald blog a couple years back:

“We were fortunate to discover Great Moose Lake three years ago and will be arriving on Sunday at THE COMMODORE CLUB…A 10 bedroom hunting and fishing lodge on 15 acres, billiard room, ping-pong and card tables. It has a triangular fireplace that fills a small portion of the huge great room. My husband worked with one of the siblings that owns the club, and this will be our 3rd year renting. Enjoy your vacation,….and pull up a kayak and say hi!”

Until this year, renters have been July/August primarily and, as the post indicates, closely associated with our family. Most come back year-after-year. One fishing group came for about 20 years every June until everyone had retired to Florida. Our goal is to find some new people who like to fish, enjoy good times with friends and appreciate this gem of Maine sporting history that is off the track and not off the rack.

You can find pictures and contact information to rent the Club at VacationRentals.com

You also can email one of the owners, Michael Norton, at [email protected] Deposit and references are required.

There’s also a book on Amazon.com called Around Great Moose Lake (ME) that features several vintage photos of the Club and describes some of its history. Take a look and consider the Club if you are bringing together friends or family.

Sounds great – eh? Check them out!

Catch you later