Fishing in the USA

[BrandonH]

Hi all,

I was lucky enough to get a holiday over on the east coast of the USA last month and was also lucky enough to get a few fishing trips in We also had 2 trips to the local Bass Pro shop OMG!! I never thought a fishing shop could be so big!! lol. I wanted to get to the Bass pro shop before we had a fish as there was a few things I wanted to try so on our second day in Massachusetts Zoe's Uncle drove us to Foxbrough. As well as having LOTS of fishing gear, boats and clothing they also had heaps of hunting gear and a huge fish tank!!







My first fishing trip was at the local golf course, Paul was calling it a pond and I wasn't expecting much. This "pond" use to be the water storage for the area and is huge!! We couldn't access much of it though as most of it is on private land, but the golf course have a buggy track/bridge along the edge of it and over the spillway. It was late afternoon and I was trying a humpin’ toad. I only spent 30mins flicking around and got one small hit, but I was promised another trip there soon.

2 days latter and after some more shopping, Zoe and I go to the local tackle shop and get half a dozen live shiners (Zoe isn't keen on lure fishing yet...).
We get setup I hook-up a Shiner for Zoe and think about what I was going to use. It wasn't late enough for surface fishing so I thought something Australian. I tied on a 4' stump jumper and cast right next to a log that was just off the bank, 2 cranks and I am on!!! I get it about half way back to the bank and it jumps and throws the lure I was still stoked that my first cast got a hit though 5 casts latter in exactly the same spot and I get a solid hit! line starts peeling from the spool and before I know it he has rubbed me off against the log I am fishingL 2 seconds later this bass reminds me that I only brought 1 of these lures over with me by jumping clear out of the water with my stump jumper rattling around in his gob. We watched him jump 3 more times slowly making his way down the bank away from us. Zoe then gets some action with a solid yellow perch that attacked her live Shiner! We kept fishing for another hour or so with another lure lost to the log (not a fish this time) a few bumps and one screaming run on a shiner that didn’t hook-up.

[BrandonH]

My next fishing trip was on Prindle pond in a canoe with a friend of the family. Jerry is a keen fisherman and was happy to show me around. I started off the early morning with a Heddon Zara spook, first cast and wack. Hit and miss. 4 casts latter and I land my first Large Mouth Bass!! Over the course of the morning I managed to catch 12 LMB on surface lures, crank baits and plastic worms! I also managed to catch a few sunfish on poppers nearly the same length as the fish!! It was a magic couple of hours on a lovely pond.







Our next fishing trip was on long pond which is on the Quaboag River. Jerry as well as having a canoe has a bass fishing boat (not allowed on prindle pond) which we took this morning. This pond isn’t that deep, averaging about 5 foot. I started with a surface lure and Zoe had no option but to use a lure and went for a shallow diver. Things were a lot slower here compared to Prindle but Fish were still seen and caught. Zoe caught her first Sunfish, and Crappie before I had even had a hitL So I decided to use something different. After another half hour or so Zoe comes up tight with something of size, after a reasonable fight I net a 4lb Bass for her! This Bass didn’t jump anywhere near as much as the little ones. Jerry caught 2 other bass this morning one being just smaller than Zoe’s and another one about 1lb. I didn’t manage to hook a bass but did catch some Crappie and sunfish. This was the last trip we managed to do in the fresh, I would have liked to go back to the golf course again with some more knowledge of these fish but it wasn’t to be with all the shopping and sightseeing we had yet to do.

[BrandonH]

I did manage to spend a couple of hours on a jetty in Jamestown in Rhode Island. I couldn’t get a touch with plastics but did manage to land one Scup and a baby bluefish. I also hooked 2 starfish on strips of squid!!



Below are a few other pics of our time O/S including some wildlife and our rental If you would like to see the rest of the pics visit http://members.optusnet.com.au/b.hazelwood

Cheers
Brandon...

[bdowdy]

what awesome trip and some great fish and photos thanks for showing. cheers bdowdy.brett

[BR65]

Mate, sounds like a great experience, good stuff

cheers
brian

[yellahunter]

great report mate,
very envious would love to get over there one day and catch some real bass,

that bass pro shop woulda been good too, although mighta hurt the hip pocket hehe

[gaintsquid]

Cool, those 2 last fish look like bream and taylor

[Obi _ Wan]

Great report and good pictures, thanks mate. Quite an experience to fish in another part of the world.

I think you both did very well considering the time and opportunities you had and it looks like Zoe got the biggest fish again, good on her, well done Zoe.

Cheers,
John.

[SeekingBarradise]

Hi Brandon & Zoe that's a top trip wow and a great report & photo's to boot.

Memories for life there for both of you. Thanks for sharing your trip with us.

Cheers Lyndon & Kel.

[shayned]

Looks great mate and I'm not suprised that Zoe outfished you again as we all know where the fishing talent in your family really resides! lol

Lucky you get to fish with me occasionally to restore your lost pride hey!

Some great photos there as well, glad you had a good trip mate.

[yellahunter]

hey brandon,

what can you tell us about the real bass mate,
how do t
hey compare to ours...?
do they fight harder.....? do they seem more willing to hit lures etc

cheers,

Ben

[NAGG]

Good report Brandon ...... specially from another part of the world

but hey ....... We Aussies still have the best - coolest lookin fish!

Cheers

Nagg

[ffejsmada]

hey brandon,

what can you tell us about the real bass mate,
how do t
hey compare to ours...?
do they fight harder.....? do they seem more willing to hit lures etc

cheers,

Ben

You should know the answer to that Ben, you caught one a little while back didn't you?????..........in the hinterland??????

[BrandonH]

Thanks guys!! I did end up spending more at Bass Pro than I expected but hey I saved sooo much money on some of the stuff it was worth it
Ben, I'm not real sure mate.. The day I caught 12 of them they were hitting just about anything and very vicious attacks too. They didn't seam to pull as hard as our bass but they ones under 2lb spent a lot of the time jumping witch is great to watch. The 4lber Zoe got jumped once and did peel line off her but the fight was over a little quicker than expected on 10lb line. The scup on the other hand would have pulled a bream inside out!! I couldn't beleive how small he was when I got him in! played up like a just legal snapper.

Cheers
Brandon...