Saturday, September 9, 2017

Three Bridges to Higginsville


Jorge and I canoed between CR 613 at Three Bridges and the bridge at Higginsville, a distance of little more than a mile, departing at about 8:15 a.m., finishing just after 10:30 a.m. No holes! Besides maybe three or four feet a hundred yards or more upstream of the Higginsville Bridge, and a nice hole at least seven feet deep at the bridge.

In 2012, I drove along the South Branch Raritan River between the bridges, judging no access available, thinking of canoeing this stretch sometime, imagining great spots with big bass. Last night I reviewed my Hunterdon County Hagstrom map, the stretch between Stanton Station and CR 523 too long for us to have paddled it this morning, but it seemed very promising to me, partly because I've got word about bass inhabiting spots along these four miles. I hoped the stretch I had selected wouldn't be too short, and as the morning worked out, including anchoring to test water ahead of us, instead of running over it, the timing was right on the margin.

I caught a largemouth on a #9 Rapala. Jorge caught a smallmouth on a Senko. Both fish from the deep hole at our destination.

This post is short and very lean of substance. Habits, including writing habits of course, get broken, if needlessly, by interruptions. This blog was well kept this year. Last night's post, however, is the first in about a week-and-a-half. Will I come back around and again post more often? I suppose so.

You might think it's not the real world I write about. Surely, you infer irony at that statement, since what I write about is what civilization stands upon--the natural world. If I were no longer able to write about that--the natural world and responses to it--what's the use of the rest, I wonder.



http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2013/09/four-pound-smallmouth-bass-south-branch.html

Friday, September 8, 2017

Morning

Has been awhile since I last posted. Floating more than a mile of the South Branch Raritan tomorrow morning with Jorge. We've planned this for months.

Cool weather persists and has given this late summer an oddly sort of seashore feeling, if you think of late spring onshore breezes that keep the beach 15 degrees or so chillier than inland. Neither of us will use waders in the morning, but it's rather obvious we could.

Looking ahead to the fall, I plan on fishing the South Branch with leaves florid or near-florid, which for most of you might conjure images of rainbow trout beneath reflections. I'm after smallmouths. I want to get photographs of bass and those colors in the background. I've considered writing a book on small river and stream smallmouths since February or March, and though this isn't a promise, I don't want to fail on at least the experience. Lake Hopatcong third week in October. Mike and I have this plan.