While relaxing at a restaurant last night and enjoying a great meal with great company, my family. My nephew tapped me on the shoulder and wanted to know when I would take him fishing. I said how about tomorrow buddy, his parents gave their nods and blessing and he was instantly excited.  Though I had planned on hitting the Quabbin Reservoir early Saturday morning, with visions of giant lake trout in my head, it was already a 40 minute ride to pick him up and then an additional 80 minutes heading back the opposite direction to fish the big reservoir. The Quabbin can be slow at times as well and kids just want to catch fish, they are not all that picky on what kind their catching as us adults can usually be. So I decided it would make more sense to take him to a little pond not to far from his home. Little Tyler has never gone fishing before so this would be an extra special outing, being the first one to introduce this wonderful kid to the sport was a honor and a pleasure. The goal was to keep it simple and basic but also teach a little skill. I brought the canoe but decided to start him off shore fishing and teach him how to cast a spinning rod first and put him on what most of us catch as our first fish here in the northeast, the very cooperative and eager to bite sunfish/bluegills, aka....kiva. I was a proud uncle when he took to casting easily, especially with the spinning rod. I want to also point out for those of you considering taking a young child fishing that you can even make it simpler for them by purchasing a push button reel and rod combo, that are much easier and faster for kids to learn and also pretty in-expensive. I bought one for the little guy shortly after his birth but mom lost it on him. Tyler's rod was set up with a bobber and a garden worm, like I said simple. It took no time before he landed his very first fish, a pretty little bluegill. He began reeling in sunfish after sunfish and seemed to enjoy casting just as much as the catching. At that point all I could think was that this kid was going to be a natural. After Tyler’s great display I was glad I brought the canoe and decided he had graduated another grade up and it was time to slide the canoe into the water. The little guy seemed a little concerned about getting in the canoe but once he got settled he mentioned how fun it was. I asked if he wanted to continue to fish for sunfish or if he wanted to go after some bigger largemouth bass. His response was both uncle. We began fishing out of the canoe and he continued to slay the bluegills and also managed to land his very first largemouth bass. After a while I decided to join in on the action in-between assisting and teaching the little man. I was able to land a couple of lunker largemouth. One around 4 lbs and the other around 3 lbs. Both fish were caught on a black spinner-bait. Initially when I hooked the fish I asked the little man if he wanted to reel them up but he wanted nothing to do with it and preferred keeping busy and hauling up bluegills all by himself, like a big boy instead. But he was still fascinated by the big bass when they were brought up. It was a memorable trip for both of us and Tyler wants to continue to join uncle on more fishing trips. Something tells me he’s going to become a great fisherman someday and become a semi-usual boat fixture. Tight Lines! And Take A Kid Fishing!

I decided to head out and pursue some largemouth bass, a species I for the most part have incidentally neglected so far this summer. My original plan was to hunt down our most abundant species the largemouth bass during the course of the summer, until a trophy bass was landed. Instead I fooled around with other last minute pursuits' of other species. Regardless I finally made it out for some largemouth action. Hunting for big fish I brought only large swim-baits and as a backup plan I also brought some live and large fallfish, which I caught the other night in preparation for this outing. I finally get to the lake and immediately start tossing Slammers and AC Plugs, working every bit of cover and working the bait many different ways in hopes of trying to figure out how the fish wanted the bait presented. Unfortunately it was some slow fishing but I did mange to land a good chunker guesstimated around 4.50-5 lbs. I caught it while working the bait erratically on the edge of a heavy weed line. After about 3 hours of fishing the swim baits I then put them away and decided to bump my odds up with some live bait. I was baiting up fallfish ranging from 8”-12” long. I forgot my octopus hooks so I had to settle for the circle hooks I had. Great for hooking fish in the corner of the mouth but I find you miss more fish and your catch ratio goes down. So I was not happy about forgetting my octopus hooks. And as I expected I did have a few come off when setting the hook but I still also landed a few more bass, including another chunker around 4 lbs and the others around 2 lbs. I didn’t get the monster I had hoped for but still managed some decent fish and all and all not a bad day for an afternoon of fishing. Tight Lines!

One weekday evening a friend had told Bill and I about a near by drainage pond out in the woods that he heard had been stocked by someone about 5-6 years ago with shiners from a bait shop and Rosie reds and Goldfish from a pet shop and how they flourished in the pond. Now before I go on with this story I want to remind and discourage anyone from dumping any pet shop goldfish into our public ponds, lakes and rivers. It’s illegal and you risk spreading diseases and negatively impacting native fish and eco systems, (ok, back to the story). As silly as it might sound the pond sparked my curiosity. Wetting a line for any new species is always fun to me (yes even wild goldfish). Bill and me decided to check it out sometime. An outing to this pond sounded interesting since I could combine two hobbies into one...sort of. One of my other hobbies is fish keeping. I have a couple of fish tanks, including a 120-gallon tank that holds some very hungry peacock bass. I feed them pellets but every now and then I treat them to Rosie-reds and goldfish as treats, curtsey of the local pet shop. My pet fish usually put on a great show chasing and hunting every last minnow in the tank until they have all been eaten. I figured I’d bring a minnow trap and an ultra-light rod and see if I could bring home some free feeders for my pet fish. I also figured if I got into any large goldfish I'd bring home one or two as pets for my tanks. After all how many fisherman and aquarists can say they caught their own pet Goldfish. I also wanted to see exactly how large these gold fish have grown. I was also curious if due to all the feed if there were any big fat largemouth bass in the pond. The following Saturday afternoon I ended up meeting Bill at the pond. We both tossed out our minnow traps. I then casted out a few lures and realizing shortly after that there were no bass or any other game fish in the pond, not even a sunfish. It was even more evident when nothing but Goldfish and Rosie-reds appeared (in droves) after tossing out some pieces of bread and crushed crackers. I then grabbed my rod and baited the smallest hook I had with a bread ball and casted. It did not take long before I landed my first goldfish. I’ve done some strange and out of the ordinary fishing before but this by far tops the cake, regardless it was still fun. Ended up catching quite a few gold fish and some bonus shiners with the rod. As planned I took home the two largest goldfish caught and added them as new residents to my tanks. Bill did pretty good himself and when we both pulled up our minnow traps they were full of mostly Rosie-reds and some small goldfish and shiners. Some of the Rosie-reds and small goldfish ended up being chow for my pet fish that night; they looked pretty fat and happy. The next day one of the new goldfish that I thought would be too big to be eaten disappeared. One of my exotic catfish (the largest in the tank) had a beach ball belly. I assumed he was the culprit of the disappearance. I could not get over how he was able to fit that giant goldfish in his mouth. Well it was back to the pond that same day to try and catch a bigger replacement goldfish. Fortunately I did, as well as all kinds of funky colored variations of goldfish. Including some crazy looking specimens with extra long fork tales. Probably some of the most unusual fishing I have ever done. Tight Lines!

Bill and me have been changing things up a little this year and been doing a bit of carping recently. After fishing our new carp spot for the first time, we each caught 3-4 carp apiece and I landed a decent size carp that at fresh weight went 17 lbs 8 ozs. Bill after witnessing the capture was determined to get one of 15 lbs or better himself but after a handful or so of trips he made only had a bunch of small carp to show for it. I told him the fish are there and to just put his time in and he would eventually be rewarded. Our little spot though lately had only been producing a lot of small fish and then the bite died off all together. Saturday I had a bunch of household chores to catch up on and then dinner plans with some friends in the evening but after finishing up the chores earlier than expected left me with a 2-3 hour window of free time. So I met up with Bill and we hit our carp spot and it was a dead bite. I had one strike and that was it and Bill was having the same luck as I was. I finally headed home to shower and head out to dinner. After I left Bill continued to fish and stayed. On my way to the restaurant I get a call from Bill and he tells me he finally landed a lunker carp. He kept the fish over night in his massive holding tank so he could have the fish weighed in at a official weigh station for a MA state award pin. The next day after the weigh in I helped Bill transport the giant cooler back to the pond. With the weight of the water and fish what a chore it was trekking through the woods. But that’s what friends are for and Bill recently did the same for me as well. It was well worth it to see that big fish swim off alive and well to be caught another day (maybe even bigger next time). It was nice to see his efforts rewarded. TIGHT LINES!

Day two of our catfish trip. The plan was to fish the morning for another attempt at a big cat and then head home. The day before we noticed a small school of koi fish that I’m assuming were put in as ornamental fish. When the bite got real slow I occasionally took one of the rods and messed around briefly with the koi trying to get one to bite. But found it to be impossible. Anyway on our last morning we all caught more channel catfish but no monsters or flat heads, the bite was a little slower than the previous morning. Around the last hour before leaving I grabbed a can of sweet corn I had in the truck, left over from a previous carp fishing trip. I figured since koi are the same exact fish as carp (only with a cooler paint job). I’d try the same method as I use on carp. I chummed some corn first before casting out my line. The corn got their attention and they certainly fed on it. But they clearly knew the difference between corn dropping naturally to the bottom and corn with a hook and line attached to it. I kept at it and eventually suckered one into biting. It took the bait while it was sinking to the bottom. Though I was mostly just messing around with them I was happy to catch one. TIGHT LINES! 

My friend Mike called me up one day and told me about a pond in PA that he read about online that had some big catfish in it and if I was interested in checking it out with him. I’ll fish for anything so the next thing I know me, Mike and his son are on a road trip. While traveling to our destination we saw a small herd of 5 bucks in velvet in someone’s backyard. Most of the bucks had nice racks in velvet but what I found peculiar was that there are no woods adjacent to this neighborhood. The nearest woods are about a 20-minute (human) walk away, crossing downtown through Main Street? No fences either, I hit the brakes when I saw them and pulled over to shoot some video and Mike snapped a few pictures, cool sight. Anyway the next morning (day 1) we started fishing and I managed to land the first fish of the trip. Mike and little Mike soon followed and caught some channel cats as well. We each landed a bunch by being patient and every so often plucking out a cat. We fished chicken livers (yuck) off the bottom with slip sinkers. At one point we saw a massive flathead catfish appear near the surface out in the center of the pond. What a monster. Unfortunately this fish was beyond casting distance for my gear but man what a fish, I’d guess around 45 lbs. At least we all got to see a whopper. The action wasn’t fast and furious but it was consistent enough to keep us interested. We didn’t hook any of the monsters we hoped for but considering the heat wave we got I’d say we did all right. Not to mention we all got to catch our first channel cats.

My friend sent me this picture of his uncle holding up this 34 inch, 15 pound 8 ounce Walleye. It ended up being a record for that area. The Pickerel River near the French River in Canada. One hell of a catch. 

Steve sent me a quick report of his largest largemouth bass thus far this season. A 6 pound even bass. The largemouth taped out at 23 inches long and was released alive and well to fight another day. Steve wished he had caught it a couple months ago when it was full of eggs and weighed more. His little girl is also catching her own largemouth bass.

When my 3 boys asked me what I wanted to do on Fathers Day it was an easy answer....Go trout fishing in NH!!! So we took off on Saturday after I got out of work. We all slept late on Sunday morning because my cousin and his daughter were there!!! Once you start catching up and laughing the time flies. I asked my 3 boys who wanted to go do a little fishing. Only Skylar was up to it. So off we went just the two of us on Fathers Day. We went to our hot spot in the White Mountains; we were only going to stay for a short time because it was really hot out. We ended up doing well and landed 3 Bookies’ in about 45 minutes. One was very small and still showing its par markings. It was enough for me; the temps were over 80 degrees. So not the most comfortable weather. One of the Brookies had very deep colors; even for a male it was almost spawning colors??? Take your kids fishing Mike Deloia

Bill recently did some river shore fishing the last couple of days and sent me a couple of pictures and a quick report. Each picture represents each days best fish. Fish were caught on texas rigged rubber worms. Bill estimates that one fish is around 3 pounds and the other around 4 pounds.

Neil from Texas wanted to know if there were any bass fishing options in MA, he asked since he will be moving out this way soon. He was happy to here that our ponds, lakes and rivers all have largemouth bass in them and sent us a couple of pictures. 

I took 2 of my 3 boys on a hopeful Trophy brook trout fishing trip. We were on a mission to put a wall hanger in the boat. We headed up to NH for 3 days of brook trout fishing. Our plan was to hit 2 lakes managed as trophy brook trout fisheries. The first night we did it on our own. We trolled on a fly rod only lake in my 12 ft canoe, with my oldest son Mike 14 years old this year, its a little easier he can lift and carry most of the gear. My son Skylar 9 years old is still getting the hang of the fly rod, so he gives it his all to keep up with us. On our first pass both of them hooked up, Skylars was on the small side, we knew because of the bend in Mikes rod was larger. We also knew because we landed both! Mikes was 13.5" and a very colorful male, Skys about 9". On the very next pass we hooked up again, Mike was into another good one 15.5", a long lean Male with a bright orange belly. We ended up with 5 the first night. The next 2 days we fished with guide Richie Bernard of Fin Fighters. Richie is a great guide he really plays by the book. He knows a few tricks that helped educate me. We caught plenty of brookies the next couple days. Richie puts on the best shore lunch. It really helped that we used a guide, its very, very tough to fish if you have a younger kid with you, between the line issues and tying on flies and guiding him while landing the catch...This time I got to fish. Skylar hooked up by far the most and lost 15 trout. He landed 6 over 2 days. At one point he had what looked like a large brookie come off because of his inexperience with a fly rod. The highlights of the trip were seeing a Black bear and her cub on the mountainside and a beaver came out every night at 5:00 to build his dam. The top 3 brookies were all caught by Mike a 13.5", 14.5" and 15.5", between 1 lb 8 oz and 1 lb 12 oz. We never did get a wall hanger in the boat but the trip was a great bonding experience for me with my boys. 

Being a multi-species angler at heart I get bored targeting the same type of fish species over and over again. Every year I try and target something different or try and improve on a species I have not had much opportunity to target or achieve the success I wanted. For me successes is landing something new that I have never caught before or improving on a species by catching a trophy specimen or something of respectable size, basically a new personal best. As an angler when I'm successful it’s very gratifying and even more so when I achieve that success in my local waters. This year one of the fish I set my sights on was the much over looked Carp. These fish are the fresh water kings in Europe. However when you compare the number of US anglers perusing fish like, largemouth bass and trout. Carp anglers are in the minority (popularity is increasing every year). Some anglers even hang on to the old stigma, that carp are trash fish; luckily I see through the ignorance and have fun pursuing them anyway. About 4 years ago before moving to a different part of the state I started messing around and fishing for Carp out of the Blackstone River. Most were mirror carp and also mixed in were occasional common carp. Not long after discovering the carp fishery the wife and me moved, cutting short my efforts for catching a large carp. Before moving I did mange to catch a good number of them but I never landed anything in the teens. Fish that I’d landed were always 10 lbs or under. Though I occasionally would see some massive size fish I could never hook any. Either they were onto me and were extremely skittish or the smaller carp and sunfish would get to the bait before the big carp could. Carp are certainly not dumb fish. Since having caught carp before my goal for revisiting carp fishing was to catch one large enough to qualify for a MA state pin award. In order to do so I would have to catch one 15 lbs or better? I ended up achieving this but it didn’t come easy. My fishing buddy Bill was also up for a change of pace and wanted to try and target some carp as well. So we teamed up and on our first attempt we hit a section of the Assabet River and we were close but no cigar. We hoped the carp would be there and they were. We could clearly see them swimming around in this one area. We brought corn and bread for bait. It seemed like we were going to sight fish for them and it was going to be easy but not the case. As we were rigging up a bunch of young small kids moved in and started throwing rocks and casting lures at them. Scaring allot of the fish away. We gave it a shot anyway and it seemed every time a carp came in to investigate my offering the bluegills would eat all the bait before the carp even had a chance. The closest I got was one fish spitting out a bread ball before I could set the hook and another one looked like it was interested and then at the last minute turned away. Bill did a little better but not much, he borrowed a rod from someone and never checked the line. He had a monster carp take the bait of the bottom and run. He fought it for a little bit, the massive fish even leaped for us in it’s attempt to flee. The fish ended up breaking Bill’s line and when he checked the line he discovered he lost his fish due to his line being all frayed up. That was it for action that evening. We made another attempt or two at the same spot but they were never around again. It was a here today, gone tomorrow deal. After a little research and connecting with another angler I even made a road trip to the Connecticut River, which is said to be one of the best spots in the state for carp. Met some cool anglers but none of us caught any. I only got one bite but did see some break water but hey that’s fishing sometimes. On another day Bill and me hooked up to go bass fishing. He suggested we fish a tributary pond off the Assabet River that has some largemouth bass but that might also have some carp too. Well we fished it and our bass trip turned into a carp trip. I caught 3 and Bill caught 3. All were small fish except for my 3rd, according to my digital scale a 17 lbs 8 ozs fish. When it hit I new I had a big fish on, she broke water and made a screaming run into the lily pads. In order to land the fish I had to take my sneakers off and empty my pockets and wade into that nasty, muddy brown water and pray I didn’t step on any broken glass, so I could untangle the line that was wrapped around the lily pads and I hoped she was still be attached to the other end of the line and luckily she was. She made one last run and then tired out and I was able to beach her on shore. The bait shops in the area ate the time were closed. So we put her in a big fish cooler, set up with plenty of pond water and an aerator and then transported her to a giant live well, so that we could keep her over night and get her officially weighed in the next day. The next day we did just that and brought her to a certified weigh station. She obviously more than qualified for a state pin. After the weigh in we brought her back to the pond and released her alive and well, to fight another day. To top it off later on that week me and Bill made yet another trip and I hooked another monster carp I brought to the net that we estimated around 15-16 lbs (a fat fish) but due to some unfortunate circumstances that one never got photographed or weighed but is alive and well in the pond. Mission accomplished. TIGHT LINES!

Shore fished a spring fed pond that holds trout all year. Nothing serious just messing around while in the area for a couple of hours. I caught largemouth bass, small pickerel, bluegills and a few rainbow trout. I was primarily switching back and fourth between the trout and the largemouth. For trout I was tossing out fly’s and spinners on my trout rods. On my bass rod I was tossing out a rubber worm and twitching it off the bottom, to my surprise I landed a nice 14-inch rainbow trout. Not what I was expecting but a pleasant surprise and the best fish of the afternoon. TIGHT LINES!

Last Sunday I headed out and fished the Quabbin from early afternoon up to closing time. I brought with me some large live dace I had caught 2 days ago from a creek behind my home. The plan was to troll this bait deep for laker's. I knew with the large size bait I was using it would be hit or miss. I figured I’d catch a monster fish or nothing but what happened is far from what I expected. Running live 10-inch bait down about 60 feet I got hit twice but no hook set. About an hour before closing time my rod got slammed and it was completely bent over in the rod holder. I grabbed it and set the hook. I knew instantly I had a big one on and I took my time playing it. I was alone trying to fight the fish, control my boat, keep from tangling on my 2nd line, keep from drifting into a restricted non-fishing area and self net. After a bit of a tug of war battle I finally get the laker up and it’s a whopper. One I’m estimating around 9-10 lbs. I struggle to get its head in the net and before I can even lift the net. The treble hook that was embedded in the fish’s mouth was now also caught in the mesh of the net. The laker starts thrashing and manages to unhook itself. I painfully watch this trophy pin fish as it swims straight down into the deep clear water. Though I was disappointed and disgusted I looked forward to another chance. The following Saturday I go back for that second chance. I brought some more large fallfish I collected during the week, so I could repeat the same tactics. I also brought Bill along. After a very long morning Bill and me had nothing to show for it. We got so bored catching nothing that we even took a break from trolling and fished some rock ledges for small rock bass and little smallmouth bass; at least they got rid of the skunk for us. After messing around we get back to trolling and then we see another boat land it’s third laker, while we struggle to hook up with our first. Aggravated, I decide to switch tactics and forget about the live bait. I drop a rapala on the downrigger about 80 feet over 100 feet. Not long after doing so the rod finally pops and a nice healthy looking lake trout is in the net. Unfortunately it's size was a far cry from the one that got away last week but a lake trout non-the less. Tight Lines!

Decided to meet up with Bill for some shore fishing. The plan was to hit some creeks and try and collect some fallfish/dace in the afternoon and then hit another spot in the evening for some lunker largemouth bass, using our freshly caught dace as bait to try and tempt some hogs into hitting. The plan came together pretty nicely; we caught a good number of dace and some good size ones that were large enough to prevent most of the little rat bass from stealing our bait. Collecting the bait was almost as much fun as bass fishing. I got a nice little surprise when I landed a 14-inch dace, a monster size for this species and my personal best one. The average dace we usually catch run around 4-10 inches. The 14-inch was a beautiful specimen with bright red gill plates. In the mix was also some sunfish. After filling up the bucket with enough monster size live bait, we took our dace and hit the Assabet River to target lunker largemouth. I ended up getting one pretty quick off the bat, a bass around 2 lbs 8 ozs. Then it slowed down. I managed a couple of small rat bass on my second rod on plastic worms. Bill ended up with a couple of bass; both were in the 4 lb class and caught on live dace. So the plan did work but we had hoped for more and larger lunkers but there is always next time. When it got dark the bite was dead but rather than leave we switched tactics and species. We chopped up some dace, to bottom fish with and try our luck for some bullhead catfish. The bite was on and we both caught our share of cats. The catfish bite was not the only bite that was on, so was the mosquito bite. They were relentless and the mosquito repellant spray didn’t seem to be working. After catching a bunch of cats we called it quits, to seek shelter at home from the mosquitoes and grab a bite ourselves. All and all not a bad day.

Hooked up with Bert and we decided to hit the Assabet River for some largemouth and pickerel and hoping for some large fish. Unfortunately we didn't start fishing until late morning. It was extremely hot and the fishing was extremely slow. Bert didn't connect with any fish. I landed two small rat bass and a decent size pickerel around three and a half pounds. The heat was insane and not much action, so we split early. I should have gone with another option that I was considering but I suppose it could have been worse. TIGHT LINES!