Skunked on Saturday

After an eventful morning at the bait shop on Saturday the 18th I drove an extra 5 minutes down to my grandparents beach house where we decided we would take my grandfather's boat out into Quonochontaug Pond.  So my grandfather (Pop), Stephen Jordan, Mr. Bob Darigan, another expert fisherman from Quonochontaug, and I trailered the boat and moved it into the pond only a half mile away.  We were excited to go out fishing in the boat as it was my first time in the boat this year.  We decided that we would first 'tube and worm' in the pond in some of Mr. Darigan's and Pop's secret spots where they caught a lot of fish last year.  Tubing and worming is exactly as it sounds.  There is a long red tube which looks like an eel or a big worm and we attach live sand worms to the hooks.  This bait is then dropped off of the side of the boat and about thirty yards of line is let out of the reel and at that point the bail is hit and the bait is simply dragged along behind the boat.  An optimal speed for tubing and worming is between 2 and 2.2 mph as the bait will be dragging close to the bottom of the pond at that speed where most of the striped bass are found.  Below is a picture of a tube and worm rig.

However, we caught no luck with that and decided after about 45 minutes to just cast off of the boat around rocky islands and the shore.  Striped bass are sometimes called rock fish because they are so often found near rocks and the shore.  We fished around all of the best spots in the pond and I didn't even catch one fish!  My grandfather only caught one small striper and thats all we caught all day!  But as they say, 'a bad day fishing beats a good day working'!

Below is a picture of myself fishing off of the front of the boat.  Usually there is enough room for at least three people to be casting at the same time on a boat one in the front, middle, and back. However, space is definitely a limited resource and a major difference between fishing on land vs. on a boat.  Yet, fishing on a boat also allows you to get to places where only a boat can take you.  you can only cast so far off of land or the breachway while the boat leaves you with endless possibilities on where to fish.