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Story 2012 Another Lucky Birthday

Page history last edited by Jerome Moisand 11 years, 11 months ago

Jerome's lucky birthday(s)

 

When

April 14th, 15th and 21st, 2012

Where

A river in MA

See also

CAG forum thread

2011 birthday

 


The story

 

In the past few years, I went out fishing on April 17th, which is my birthday, and I had real good luck every time. 

 

This year, I was actually a tad fearful of breaking the string of lucky birthdays, so I planned to play it safe, heavily chum Spy pond 3 days in a row, and catch plenty of fish during my birthday week-end.  Well, nice plan, except that 3 hours into it on Saturday morning, I had to acknowledge that it might not be smart to fish relatively deep water at this time of the year, nothing was moving at all. This was pleasant with the trees covered with flowers, but not enough for a fishing birthday.

 


 

I wasn't quite sure what to do, pondering to go back to known spots on the Merrimack. And then I had a crazy thought, why not go try this nice new spot I discovered a couple of weeks ago, on a river section I never really fished before. This was a complete shot in the dark, but heck, this was the only idea that seemed exciting.

 

Well, it might be more correct to say I rediscovered this swim because I think I fished there once with AF Bob quite a while ago, although I didn't reach it at all by the same path. I was on a point of rocks, one rod on each side, all alone, nice scenery, nice weather, this was pretty cool. If only those fish could bite... After a while, I got a nice run and... landed a catfish. Early afternoon. Which never happens around here. Sigh. Is my new method ball displaying an undesirable side-effect?

 

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I saw a couple of fish jumping, this gave me more hope. One hour later, I got another run on the same rod, this time, it was a carp... One of the smallest I caught in a while...

 

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And then I started to think. Hm, funny, I was still using this line aligner rig (remember the underwater video that made the CAG vice-prez Mario gloat so much). Hm, funny, the pickup bait was some of this heavily flavored maize that our prez Andy generously distributes to help CAG's finances. And what do I catch for such a distinguished "double prez" rig & bait combo? An annoying catfish and a ridiculously small carp... What is wrong with those guys? No way they'll get my vote for the next election, I tell you...

30 minutes later, I got one more run. This fish took a lot of line and fought like a demon. River fish in the spring at its best. I finally landed it, and it was a rather thick and muscular mid teen. 

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And now I feel compelled to say that... the hook was as straight as can be (that is, the shank and eye)... No line aligner... Powerpro hooklink... The pickup bait was two of those "pips" sold by our CAG ambassador. And this delivered a much nicer fish that the "double prez" rig combo. The proof is there... I vote for Paul Pezalla as next CAG president!

PS. yes, the birthday dinner was great. Excellent food, and nice gifts from our Japanese guests.

 


 

Saturday evening, before going home, I threw a good deal of maize and birdfood in the water. And I was back Sunday morning. That is... around 10am... Yes, slow start.


I cast two rods and... got two runs within minutes. I lost the first fish. Now check what the rod with the "double prez combo" delivered... Another tiny baby of a carp. I actually had very fast action for a couple of hours, and yes, the prez rig & bait kept delivering small carp, while the other rig (with Paul's pips) delivered a 15 pounder and then a 17 pounder... Hmmm.... Note that the 17lb was clearly starting to fill up with eggs.

 



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Then things calmed down, and the rod with the prez rig stayed inactive for more than an hour. And I got an idea... I reeled in my 2 rods, used the one with the straight hook rig, using Paul's pips as pickup bait, and adding Andy's maize & juice in the method ball. Another combo, WITHOUT any influence from Mario. I cast at the same place where the prez rig sat idle for so long, waited for 37 seconds and a half (approximately) and had a slow run. The fish didn't fight much, I though it was small, my cunning plan wasn't working. Oh wait, big swirl close to shore, I saw the fish and was suddenly convinced I had a 20! Well, I landed it and I was slightly disappointed to weigh this fish at 19lb... Still, not too bad.

 

 

After that, the afternoon was a bit slower, and I had a run every now and then, only small fish, whatever the rig. After breaking my line on a rock, I tied my own favorite rig with a curved hook, used Andy's maize as pickup bait, and... look at this little cutie that came to my net!

 

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I wrapped up around 5:30pm, after landing no less than 12 carp, plus a few more missed. That was a good day. Oh, and the conclusion is clear, right... Paul and Andy's bait are perfectly fine... And Mario is the source of all evil...


Many thanks to those three prez & vice-prez (Andy, Mario, Paul), I had a terrific fishing week-end and great fun too, thanks to the 3 of you.

 


 

Since Mario took a clear interest in my very scientific experiment... I went back fishing at the same spot the following week-end. I chummed early in the morning (around 8am), went to take care of various errands, and I was back around 2pm. Two rods in the water, I waited less than 10 minutes and... two simultaneous runs. It took me a while to deal with tangled lines, and I finally landed this brace. Good start.

 

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Yeah, not that big though. I recast and caught a couple of more fish in the same size range. You will of course ask what presidential bait & tackle was I using? Answer is... my own rigs... with Paul's pips on one rig, and Andy's flavored maize on the other. And I kept catching small fish.


Hm, now this seems to contradict previous experiments where Mario's line aligner was clearly the source of evil. I thought a bit more about it, and noticed that my 3rd rod (set up with the evil rig) was laying on the ground, just a couple of feet from my method mix. Would you believe that? Mario's rig was jinxing me, without even being in the water! This guy learned a lot about dark arts in Mexico, I suspect... Any good scientist would want a hard proof to confirm such hypothesis though. So I pushed away the guilty rod, by a solid 20 yards, and I recast my 2 rods with new method balls.

The most necessary thing about scientific theories are solid data points. It didn't take long. First I caught a nice mid teen. And then a very solid run and a protracted fight. What landed in my net was my first 20 pounder from this section of the river. This actually reminded of 'he-who-shall-not-be-named' (aka formula man) who challenged me to catch a 20 in there a few years ago, and I never gave it a try until this year. Mission accomplished!

 


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Then... a hook became blunt, it was late, I was a bit lazy, so I decided to use the rod with the evil rig. Science spoke again, I landed two babies on the other rod, the evil rod didn't move by an inch, and that was it for the day. Not too bad though, 10 fish in another busy afternoon. And an important scientific theory confirmed, Mario is evil, which he confirmed by posting one of his dark magic artifact.

 

 

PS. all data points listed on this thread are rigorously correct. The not-entirely-scientific interpretation is mine, of course... 

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