The Massachusetts and Connecticut tour - June 2019
by
Wayne Boon
The 1st installment of Wayne’s epic adventure can be found here: PART 1
The 2nd installment here: PART 2
Part Three.
Saturday June 22nd - The Massachusetts’ American Carp Society Social.
OK, as fantastic as this whole trip had already been, this was the event I was really looking forward too!
I promise not to make this too “wordy” and will just do a little narration around the photos and videos but first off, thanks beyond words are in order for both Tim and Martin Columbo for all their hard graft and phone work in putting this together for us all… It was magic guys….Thank you!!
The Massachusetts’ American Carp Society social was held on the Charles River in Needham with several of our members showing up to fish the event, it was a fantastic couple of days!
The Caption: He ain’t from round these parts is he? or… How many Massachusetts anglers does it take to stand around deciding who should go net the visitor’s fish? lol….
Thanks to Mark Fullbrook for bringing coffee and donuts to start the day off right and to Nate Scannell for the bringing the Pizza later in the afternoon! Life saving stuff guys, thank you so very much!!!
Below is a short video of just two of the many fish that were caught throughout the day. Congrats to Bob Harnish and John McGreevy on these captures…
We all agreed it was an awesome day with lots of great laughs and memories made together. There were plenty of Mass members showing up all through the day. Ahhhhh it was so very cool meet and fish with everyone and totally worth the whole trip across the country for this alone :)
By the middle of the day though, I’d renamed the venue Tick Valley!! I’ve never seen as many ticks in one place before! We all got covered in them and no one except me seemed phased at all??
Click on the vid link below to see one Tick that took a liking to Martin’s leg… Ugh, I can’t watch this again, those things just weird me totally out lol…
Anyways, back to the fishing; Plenty of fish were caught by everyone but Bob Harnish absolutely schooled us all with a masterful fish catching seminar in his swim. Well done bro!!
Clifford Sharp caught plenty of carp throughout the day but just have to show a quick video of this note worthy catch that he had to deal with in the middle of the day.
Caption: With this sharp stick and my highly evolved brain, I shall attempt to release the beast without loosing a single one of my 10 fingers….
They’re not called Snapping Turtles for no reason! lol…
I fished late in to the night with the guys and the local night shift critters before retiring myself to get some sleep before sun-up in the Hotel Jeep.
Sunday June 23rd - After waking up and warming up a little (it was a chilly night!), I fished for a couple of hours Sunday morning there in the end peg (Clifford’s swim) with Martin and we both pulled a couple of nice 20s out from under the far bank’s over hanging tree branches. There were some really good fish hanging out on the far side :)
Around 11 am, Martin had to call it to go get cleaned up before work that day and after organizing our next session, I drove the 3.5 hours down to New Milford, Connecticut to see Joel Harber.
Now, Joel and I had talked hundreds of times via Instagram and Face Book etc. but his was the 1st time we’d actually met face to face. It was great to finally meet Joel and his wonderful wife, Melissa. We called at the store to get some supplies for a cooked meal with a few beers over great conversation which was a luxury for me in recent weeks. It was a pleasure! Slept on the couch at their place for the night, another luxury lol…
Monday June 24th - On one of Joel’s local lakes at the famed tree stump swim 12 noon through 8pm.
I’d seen many of Joel’s great looking fish posts over the years and one venue in particular had a swim/peg that looked spectacular. It always had this cool looking rotted tree stump in the shots and when Joel asked if there was anywhere I’d like to fish in particular, I blurted out, “The tree stump swim bro!!” lol… So that’s where we ended up for the day…
Unfortunately, it ended up being a bit of a nightmare of a day for me with lots of pulled hooks on fish including a Mirror lost at the net… Gutted!!! I managed a couple of commons towards the end of the day (couple of photos of the chunky one below) and Joel connected with a few too but we decided to pull off the lake around 8 pm as that’s when the park actually closes for the night.
We went back to Joel & melissa’a house for food and a few adult beverages with great conversations… The day’s events just kept churning around and around in my head until I decided it was just one of those angling days where things don’t go right… I’ll fix it tomorrow and just enjoy the moment with good friends and their very kind hospitality… Another great night’s sleep on the couch, thanks guys!!
Tuesday June 25th - After a leisurely coffee and breakfast, we were back out at the lake with Joel the next morning and I re-rigged everything again on both rods to try and prevent a repeat of yesterday’s scenario. We went back to the Tree Stump swim as there was unfinished business for me there.
We fished noon through 8pm with some absolutely beautiful fully scaled carp, including a two toned Fully and a few commons that Joel photographed for me.
I’ll let the photos/vids above and below do the narration here and set the scene…
Wednesday June 26th - Had an early breakfast and said my thanks and goodbyes until next time… Massive thanks to Joel and Melissa for their wonderful hospitality!!
On my way back to Boston I called in to see C.A.G. president, Iain Sorrell at his house in Avon CT for a couple of hours. Great introductions & constructive conversation over coffee and cookies while sitting outside on the patio over looking his wonderfully manicured garden. Thanks for your hospitality too Iain, it was a pleasure to finally meet you! Hope you and your family’s move South, to Florida went smoothly and that you’re all settled in by now bro!
Finished the drive back into Boston and spent the night back on Martin’s swim #2 again. Had one teen mirror on the mat at 2:30am but other than that, all was quite.
I’ll leave it there until part #4 which is the final installment of my Massachusetts road trip.
There’s lots of good stuff yet to come in part 4 which will be released released next month. In it, I meet up with Mass’s very own big fish specialist, Scott Osmond for some bread bombing and I visit with Martin and Tim Columbo again on the Charles River but this time, it’s near downtown Boston in another swim, infamous for it’s IG/FB posts that I’ve wanted to visit for the last 3 years!
Thanks for taking the time to read/watch this blog, hope you’ve enjoyed it… Until then, be safe and be lucky out there!!
All the best,
Wayne