Slacking!

It's true. I have been slacking in the writing blogs department, although I do have plenty to write about.  I have fished 19 times since my last post just under a month ago in both fresh and saltwater.  Here's a few highlights and photos.

May 1st - 7th I fly fished RI's south shore salt ponds every day in the well known cinder worm hatches.  I found lots of worms from the beginning which seemed to diminish by the 4th or 5th.   There were fish to be found every day, but the number and size increased substantially between the beginning of the week and just a few days in.  By the end of the week it seemed like it was all over and the fish had left town.

 A cinder worm. Candy to a striped bass.

The surface of the water littered with cinder worms and few swirling stripers.

A nice fly caught schoolie, unhooked and free to leave

My brother doing battle with his first RI striper of the year

A squid, foul hooked, but calamari none the less

I fished a couple times for the following week, picking off a few stripers here and there at various coastal spots.  On the weekend of 5/13-5/15 I fished freshwater all weekend with my brother in CT.  We did well on both smallmouth and largemouth bass and while my brother schooled me (pun intended!) on numbers of smallies, I took the cake with a slammer largemouth on my third cast Friday evening.  Since I rarely fish freshwater it was nice to take such a big bass. I have only landed one largemouth larger in my life and it was when I fished freshwater on a near daily basis. 

Broke out the 5 wt on Saturday off the dock. Mega smallmouth. 

A little later that day from my kayak with the same 5 weight.  My biggest fly rod largemouth to date.

Last week was a wet one, windy too! The rain didn't want to let up making fishing possible yet uncomfortable....  I stayed in most days.  I did get out a few times, for a couple scattered stripers on fly.  Hoping this next week proves fishy, I have a new 7wt to try out on schoolies, custom built by my friend John.