Quite possibly the best weekend ever! Another all nighter included!

Wow! Where to start...I guess the beginning...nah. Let's go backwards.

Last night I got a black lab puppy! I've always wanted one but was never in the position to have one. She is an awesome little girl and I can't wait to take her (Molly) fishing with me! The Mayer family just got a little bigger!

Saturday before the puppy I fished with Ashley Bishop at Beaverdam reservoir. It was nothing special because it was very slow fishing. I ended up with three 12" bass and lost one pickerel at the boat. Ash got one 14" bass and one 20"pickerel (10 Kayak Wars points)

I spent all Friday afternoon with my awesome wife Alice. We went to the Williamsburg antique mall and I got her a letter opener shaped like a sword. Just so everyone knows my wife is the best wife in the world. So that pretty much makes me the luckiest dude in the world. I am truly blessed.

I fished for striper from 11pm Thursday night to 7 Friday morning. It was an amazing night of striper catching! It started off about as slow as it could get. I fished for 2 hours without a single bite. In that time Forrest caught 8-10 striper up to 28". I was getting frustrated but had to stay at it. By the time Forrest quit he had caught a dozen or more and I was only up to 3 small striper. I was getting extremely sleepy at this point and was tempted to just leave with him but I had a feeling that it was about to get good. It was after 2am, I was fishing by myself, and dozing off periodically when it finally started getting good. From 3am til 5:15 I caught a striper every 2-3 casts with the occasional 10-15 cast slow periods. They were fat and most of them were around 24". My biggest 2 were 38" and 42"

I finally used my new Release reel that Wes Seigler gave to me. I have to say, it is a powerful reel. It is not designed for casting small baits but I couldn't wait to use it so I tied on a mirrolure. It has such an amazing free-spool! I was expecting the reel to be impossible to cast with 50 lb power pro but I was pleasantly surprised to see that I could cast a mirrolure nearly as far as I could with my spinning rod! I am kind of spoiled with all the fancy new brake controls for my baitcasters but after a few casts I got thumbing the spool down to a science. It landed a fat 24" striper like it was a minnow! I can't wait to get some tautog with it! Thanks Wes!

At 7am I finished the trip with at least 25 striper (300 kayak wars points). I was just a little sleepy so the paddle back was tough against the 25 + mph winds. I was so tired I actually fell asleep while paddling and almost tipped the yak! I don't know why but I love pushing myself like that!

Before the striper fishing I went to the Piscataway creek to try my luck with some yellow perch and crappie. It was a little slow but I ended up with 3 crappie, 2 perch, and 2 shad. Nothing huge but still fun.

All and all it was a pretty epic weekend. Just a few simple things happened but that's what makes life worth it to me.

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HAD to pull an all nighter :)

This past weekend was very tough for me to get out and fish. Saturday would have been fine if it wasn't for the 900MPH winds... Oh well. I was so determined to catch fish that I decided I was going to have to pull an all nighter. I talked to Ric Burnly and Rob Choi about fishing the HRBT and I made up my mind to meet them there. At about 11pm I was en route to the HRBT. I decided to call Forrest to see if he was having any luck. Forrest had caught a few small striper already and it was about 30 mins closer to home so I decided to skip out on the HRBT and I sure am glad i did! I started fishing by 11:30 or so and within 10 casts I broke off my (Rob's) beloved Mirrolure on a NICE striper. Over the next couple hours I caught 2 striper that were 38" and 40"! So much fun! In kayak wars 37" is the trophy size so i ended the night at about 4am with two 40 point fish. Not too shabby! I got home around 5am and made myself some eggs and toast then headed out the door for work at 6. Needless to say it was a rough day at work til 1am Tuesday morning. I am well recovered now so I have to say it was worth it! Less Sleep = More fish! Proof again!

Kayak Wars

At the beginning of this month myself and 4 other kayakers (Rob Choi, Ashley Bishop, Forrest Short, and Tim Morris)  formed a team for the kayak wars tournament. Kayak Wars is a year long CPR (catch, photo, release) tournament for different regions of the US. We are competing in the northeast division and the freshwater division. Right around the same time i started working out of town was when the tourney started so needless to say i haven't had much time to fish. Last Friday i finally got the chance to go fishing and possibly put some points on the board.

Ashley and I joined Forrest at a lake in Smithfield  in search of Bass and pickerel. It was a very productive day for Ash and Forrest but for me it was just ok. We fished the frigid water with 6'-8' diving crankbaits in the middle of the lake. Forrest got a couple nice bass (up to 21") and a couple nice pickerel up to 25". I got 1 bass and 2 pickerel. Ash got 7 bass and 2 pickerel the biggest bass going 20"+. It was pretty productive for a February day. At the end i got my first 20 points for kayak wars. Not the biggest start but not too shabby i guess. 

Struggling to fish

The last couple weeks have been very intense at work. I've been working out of town in Fayetteville, NC. laying ceramic tile 14-18hrs a day. The money is good so i cant complain, but I really miss the freedom to fish whenever i want. This past weekend i got the opportunity to fish so i took advantage of it. Saturday i fished with Rob Choi at the Elizabeth river hot ditch. It was a fairly warm day but the comfort of the warmth counteracted with the steady rain with occasional downpours. I sure am glad that i have the gear to keep me dry! I was very hopeful because rainy days are usually very productive for me...not the case this time. I mean don't get me wrong, it was nice to be fishing, but at the end of the day all i ended up with after 6+ hours of fishing was 10-12 small speckled trout. Not my worst day down there but just barely worth it after all the effort.  Sorry i didn't take any pictures... I didn't really have any fish that were worthwhile anyways

Later that night i went to my striper spot and immediately hooked up on some striper that were in mid 20" range. Pretty typical night of fishing except one of the fish had a 8" long lamprey attached to it. Its always nice to have something out of the ordinary happen while fishing. I think its the real reason I love fishing so much...its always something new. I only fished for a couple hours and i ended up with 4 striper.

 

On Sunday my wife and i fished for yellow perch. We got a late start and could not find any perch but in the 2-3 hours we fished i caught 2 bass. The first one was 13" or so then i hooked a nice one on my tiny 1/16th oz crappie jig. It was by far the biggest bass i've caught in that area. About 3-1/2 to 4 lbs 20.25" long. That bass was well worth the 45min drive out there.