Episode X Now Online.
Check out our latest 2 minute episode of the Brownie Troop Fishing Show by following the menu above. Blackfish!.
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Big Ass Blues, and Bass too.
I knew it was gonna happen any day now, the big ass Bluefish were bound to arrive. Again, Nick and I picked the right day to fish Island Beach State Park. All told we tagged and released 8 Bluefish and some short Striped Bass.
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2009 Brownie Troop Bass Derby
The 2009 Inaugural Brownie Troop Bass Derby is now officially underway. The tournament will run now thru Sunday, October 25 and end at 11:59pm EST. There will be two divisions, one for Largemouth Bass and one for Smallmouth Bass. To register you need to send $10 cash and a standard 4-1/8 in. x 9-1/2 self addressed stamped envelope to Brownie Troop P.O. Box 324 New Hope, PA 18938. In return we will send you an entry number as well as a derby patch which will serve as proof of your registration.
The grand prizes have been donated by Shimano Fishing Corporation, a beautiful Citica Casting combo with Compre Rod for the winner of the Largemouth division, and and an awesome Sahara spinning outfit with Compre Rod for the winner of the Smallie division.
Total weight of your fish will be determined by using the standard weight calculator for Bass:
length x length x girth divided by 1,200
Hopefully this won’t be too complicated for most of you. We are doing it this way to encourage catch and release. There is a gentlemanly aspect to this derby, we trust that none of you will cheat. You must photograph your fish laid up against a tape measure clearly showing the length and girth, and get your patch in the photo too as well. We are creating a forum for the fishing derby which can be found at http://brownietroop.ning.com We highly encourage to post pictures and comments in this thread. The last derby was a huge success and we hope this one is even better. All fish must be landed using rod and reel.
All photographs must be mailed to vealmarsala@gmail.com to qualify. Good luck out there!
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Trenton Makes....grown men shit their pants.
Alright. I usually like to keep things concise but i need to vent a little today. Where do I start.... I've fished 24 of the last 28 days. That's no exaggeration either, it's pouring rain here and I just walked in the door, I left at 4am this morning and fished in the rain all day. I haven't let the weather stop me even once this spring. (continued below....read on)
by the way this is what an assload of fish looks like on my fishfinder:
Anyway, today I fished in Trenton, NJ with my buddy Brett Favre, ex NFL quarterback for the Green Bay Packers. I have been waiting to fish for Striped Bass in Trenton on my boat since last year. I never had enough boat to make the run until this year though. For those of you who don't know, I am a US Coast Guard certified Captain. Captain fuckin' Mickey. This means I can run charters, have a guide service, drive some rich guy's boat for him, etc. I studied for the exams for a couple of months last winter until I knew all of the material cold. Most of the study material has to do with emergency situations and how to respond appropriately when you encounter them. (still continued below some more, keep going please)
So I have owned and operated small river boats for 25 years and I never underestimate the power of our river. I have a lot of gnarly stories about boating accidents, almost all of them have been the result of dumbassery. Anyway, we were running the Trenton rapids upstream today at low tide, I was following the line of the boat in front of me operated by Captain Chris Gatley, my friend and fishing guru. We had 3 people onboard and a tub of live herring weighing about 225 lbs and we weren't keeping pace with Chris, we lost the line he was following. We slammed into a rock, pretty hard too. I killed the motor in the middle of the rapids and we got sucked (east) deeper into the rocks by the wind and current while dead in the water. This was very fuckin' ugly, the shit that happens to someone else. None of that shit I learned on my Captain's exams mentions this situation. (you have to look at these pictures and then scroll down for the conclusion of this rotten story)
Next thing we know the hull is getting pounded by the rocks below us, I trim up the motor before I lose it and all of the sudden we hit a massive rock about 5 feet across and the boat is stuck, sideways. The bow gets sucked downward and the river is about 6 inches from swamping over the bow and sinking us. It was fuckin' horrible. We were high and dry on a dropping tide for about 30 minutes, another 5 minutes and we would've had to wait 6 hours for the tide to rise up and free us, if we were lucky. Sensing the impending doom facing us, we finally resorted to the unthinkable and got out of the boat into the current. Somehow we broke the boat loose and then after leapfrogging over more rocks we were free. I will not run the trenton rapids at low tide ever again, and that's the triple truth, Ruth.
-Mickey
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Smallies!
man, everything is happening at once now. i love Spring. took my neighbor out for a few hours today on the river. after an hour of super slow shad action i suggested that we try for smallmouth bass. last night i witnessed a guy land some nice chunky bronzebacks and it got me inspired. it turns out it was the right decision. we boated 6 nice fat fish in short order on pumpkin colored senko worms very tight to the bank (like practically on the bank) and then went back and anchored down for a 2nd try at shad. maybe he was good luck because on the first drop he landed a nice big fat roe. a short trip with some quality fish.
-mickey
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