The Massachusetts and Connecticut tour - June 2019
by
Wayne Boon
The 1st installment of Wayne’s epic adventure can be found here: PART 1
Part Two.
Monday night (June 17th) back to Martin’s swim #2 and caught some lovely fish again with Martin! My Knee still very painful from the Crypt Swim Curse. Continued…
And just for fun and to get the motivational juices flowing, click on the video below:
Because I had to park the Jeep about 75 yards away when fishing this swim and there was some rain forecast, I was a little concerned about getting drenched and freezing cold staying by the rods all night. Plus my knee was still very painful and looked a real mess.
Well, it certainly wasn’t an option not to fish all night; I mean I’d traveled so far for a great chance to catch some awesome mirrors… So I gritted my teeth, put the wet gear on and just went for it. I had to do two hobbling trips to the swim from ‘Hotel’ Jeep to get my gear down to the swim where I eventually got set up and put the baits out with great anticipation…
Martin was working late so didn’t arrive at the swim until midnight but Man! Was I ever glad to see him; he came bearing gifts, an extra bivvy and a hot cup of coffee. Yessssss! What a star! That bivvy along with a bed chair that Clifford had lent me literally saved my butt! Thanks guys!! We caught up with each other’s news and quickly settled in for the night. It didn’t take me long, despite the caffeine to drift off and grab a few well needed hours of sleep.
On the fish front, it was quiet until just after daybreak when we picked up some really beautiful fish between us both. I won’t get into any written details but rather let some photos and the above video tell the story…
Tuesday June 18th - Slow pack up while shooting some video and taking stills of some awesome looking mirrors!
I was on the road by 1pm when I drove to meet and fish with Dean Brooks at a river swim for 4pm. Dean was helpful with advice as always and very generous with his time. We saw a few fish moving early on in the session and tried our best angling for them but even with Dean’s generous advice and donations of a few rigs specific to this water, our alarms stayed silent through the afternoon, evening and night. We both really enjoyed chatting & catching up with each other’s news since we last fished together back in Los Angeles the prior year. No fish unfortunately but a fun session with Dean, the master Bank side chef as always… We didn’t take any photos because the swim is very sensitive and doesn’t need any more publicity but needless to say we had a good time trying to catch…. Looking forward to the next chance we have to fish together bro…Cheers Dean!
Wednesday 19th June - Slowly packed away the gear after saying farewell to Dean then slowly worked my way back to Boston via a couple of really nice looking patches of blue on Apple’s maps and a grocery store for supplies.
I was ultimately heading to a lake that Clifford fancied fishing called Lake Fisk. I met up with Martin and Clifford and tried our best all Wednesday night but unfortunately no fish for me… Clifford definitely had one and maybe two commons during the night, so he’d checked off another lake he’d caught fish from and was very happy while leaving for work at 5am…
Martin peeled off to get home around 7am to get cleaned up, ready for work too and because I was tired and to be honest, just not “feeling it” there at the lake. I left too to go find a Dunkin Donuts place for a breakfast sandwich and a hot coffee.
Thursday June 20th - While enjoying some serious Dunkin Donut love, I noticed that I’d not complained to myself about my knee in the last 12 hours, so things were improving there, the crypt swim curse was fading….Thank goodness!
After more than a few unforced errors and wrong turns lol… I eventually found my way to fish with Bob Harnish at his and John McGreevy’s remote and utterly amazing Mirror River swim:
Oh my goodness, it rained and rained and rained! lol… A new lake formed that encompassed half the road (muddy track) where my "‘Hotel’ was parked and nearly all the grass embankment we’d be fishing off.
Luckily Bob had come prepared with a nice ‘easy up’ shelter that kept us dry-ish while waiting for the much anticipated runs…
Luckily both the fish and the Toadstools loved the low pressure storms! Both showing their beauty literally through the darkened daylight of the heavy storm clouds. So there was plenty of nature happening for us to marvel at throughout the day…
I’ll let the photos do the talking but it was a real pleasure hanging, chatting and fishing with Bob; awesome angler and an all round good dude!
We both caught some absolutely stunning looking mirrors and I also had a first! A massive trashcan lid sized snapping turtle that was not amused in any way shape or form about meeting my acquaintance!!! I certainly had to scratch my head about how to unhook the beast without getting within striking range of the pointed end!
John managed to get off work early and joined us for a few hours of excellent fishing before nightfall when they both bailed to go spend some time with the families. Here are just a few of the stunning fish from this amazing stretch of water… Thanks so very much for the invite guys!
I fished all night on my own there with two more beautiful mirrors to photograph that completed a fantastic 24 hour period…. Mind bogglingly awesome!
Friday 21st June - Woke early to bait and pack the gear up before driving to meet Pat Fallon and Martin Columbo at a beautiful park river swim. We fished 6am through about noon and all caught some nice commons in between many fun and enlightening conversations about our ever growing US carping scene... Here are some lovely photos and video clips.
The “Wayne Got One Too” vid above was a very nice looking Common but unfortunately we all spaced and didn’t get footage or even any stills of the fish on the mat because just as I got the fish into the net, Martin’s alarms starting screaming! In the confusion and probably due to lack of sleep, I un-hooked the fish and released without a photo then rushed to help Martin… Here is a shot of Martin’s fish.
I left at 12 noon to drive to John’s place again... John McGreevy and family was again awesome enough to invite me back to their house around 4pm for a way overdue shower, some food and a bud light beer…” Great people to hang with and just shoot the breeze!! I really enjoyed the company and hospitality!! Cheers John!!
Around 8 pm after a couple of strong coffees, I thanked John and all the family for their hospitality and drove back to Bob and John’s amazing Mirror river swim to fish the night.
I caught one gorgeous teen mirror and two rig wrecking Bullhead catfish just before dark and the rest of the night was unfortunately silent with no action.
Well, apart from those fish, it was almost silent with no action…
I reclined the passenger seat of Hotel Jeep Trail Hawk, fell asleep quickly and didn’t stir until a knock on the window and an extremely bright flash light in my face, jolted me with a start from a deep sleep!
It took me a few seconds to come round and realize that I was literally surrounded by 4 or 5 of Boston’s finest. Two cars with red and blues flashing away behind me blocking the way out!
One knocking on the window and blinding me with a beam of light, two slightly behind the Jeep with hands on holstered guns and another pair with flash lights bobbing and weaving down by the rods going through all my gear and bait buckets! Yikes!!
I’d been through this scenario a few times back in Los Angeles over the years while fishing with my long time friend and partner at the American Carp Society, Sean Manning and so I knew the drill:
Keep both hands within sight, preferably on the steering wheel, ask politely for permission to wind the window down while answering any questions fully without volunteering any info… yes sir, of course sir! etc.
“Can I see your Driving license and insurance sir?” again I asked permission, this time to reach in my back pocket for said I.D. hand the doc to the officer and wait patiently, hands on wheel while one of them runs my I.D. through HQ for any negative marks or warrants etc. I came back as clean as a whistle, it’s almost embarrassing lol…
Meanwhile, the cop at the window steps back and another steps forward to be the good cop… “You know you shouldn’t be here fishing?” I answered, “Sorry Sir, I didn’t see any signs telling me that…. I can pack up right now if you need me too? “No not right now, we don’t see you doing any harm…”
“Thank you, I really appreciate that…I’m on vacation here from LA and I got here early to meet some friends that will be here at daybreak.” That seemed to fill the gap in the answers they were looking for and with that, I heard the original cop at the window say, while handing my documents back, “we’re sorry to have troubled you Mr. Boon. You can appreciate that when a concerned member of the public calls in about guy sleeping in his car in an empty lot by the river, it’s something that we have to examine… Have a good night, we hope you and your friends catch some fish…Thank you for your time sir”
Of course, after an abrupt, adrenalin filled 15/20 minutes like that, sleep for the rest of the night was impossible lol… I waited a few minutes after they left and did some calming breathing exercises before opening the door to see if my nerve wracked, shaky legs still worked…. They did :) so I went to the rods, rebaited and cast to the marks…
Saturday June 22nd - The Massachusetts’ American Carp Society social.
OK, as fantastic as this whole trip has been, this was the event I was really looking forward too! Thanks beyond words to both Tim and Martin Columbo for all their hard graft and phone work in putting this together for us all… We had such a great time with plenty of laughs, camaraderie and of course fish & Ticks!!
Really appreciate you taking the time to read this 2nd of 3 installments!
To be continued soon… Stay safe and be lucky out there everyone!!