Thursday, July 29, 2021
Tuesday, July 27, 2021
Sunday, July 25, 2021
Laurie's Report
Laurie Murphy:
The Knee Deep Club’s next contest is for Catfish, to be held on August 7th & 8th. Catfish are starting to hit with the warmer temps. Junior member Max Hughen had some nice Bass this past week. His largemouth hit the scales at 4 lb 1oz, along with a Smallmouth weighing 3 lb 10 oz. Richard Hilton also had a nice largemouth weighing 4 lb 6 oz, casting some rubber worms along Nolans Point and Lou Marcucci had a smallmouth bass weighing 3 lb 3 oz caught on herring. Another Junior member River Graybill, while fishing with his mom and dad Aaron helped to land a 9 lb 9 oz Hybrid Striped bass. Jim Welsh had an 8 lb 3 oz Hybrid, also caught on herring. Other hybrids caught this week also were in the 7 - 8 pound range, being caught on herring or rapala jigs in deeper water. Several pickerel up to 4 1/2 pounds and some walleye have managed to be caught also. Jerry Freeman while trolling worm harnesses managed a 7 lb 6 oz walleye for his efforts. Some nice crappies have also made their way to the scale. Have a great week ...
Raritan and South Branch Farewell
This outing seems to bring a long history of fishing with my son to an end, as he goes back to Boston this afternoon and then on to settle in California in weeks, but I'm sure we'll fish again. Maybe even in New Jersey. In any event, I've fished New Jersey with him since he was two, 20 years ago. Though I've mostly been into literature all these years, I began taking him on explorations at six months, orienting him to science.
Why not literature instead? I did read him all of Blake's work and from other books when he was little, but I felt inclined to introduce him to science. When I was little, science was my interest, and it came naturally to steer him in that direction.
After I took him to Round Valley when he was three, during the drive home, we had an intensely long and detailed conversation about evolution. Many other discussions since. And now he goes and joins a team to build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor. Or let's hope it gets built.
It never was a one-way street. Matt got me back into fishing seriously, by insisting we go several times a week. That led to the blog. We fished more often than I do now back then. Today he beat me six to one. Three smallmouths, three largemouths for him. One smallmouth for me. None were better than average steam bass.
We began in Somerville long before dawn, where a garish electrical sign warned: River Closed. No Trespassing. But a friend from work told me he spoke to a police officer who told him it's OK to fish. They just don't want another party trashing the spot. Matt got a smallmouth on a popper. I missed two hits on my Torpedo and something large broke surface, swirling behind my big Rebel Pop-R. It behaved more like a pike than a smallmouth, but I'm sure it was a smallmouth....though, of course, I don't really know.
I had another spot in mind not too distant, on the South Branch. My Torpedo got hit right away by an average smallie, which didn't get hooked. Matt got one on his popper, and I missed a hit on a Senko. Not much was happening here, and though nothing's happened for me this year in my favorite stretch, to deny ourselves a try would have been foolish. That's where Matt did best, on a Zoom worm, and I caught mine on a Senko.
Typically, he tries something other than what I use. And rather than sticking to my side, he's always venturing off elsewhere. It's been that way all these years, and on frequent occasion he either does better than I do, or puts me on a better path.
He just now showed me Reptiles and Amphibians, the Peterson Guide he's taking to California, dozens of Post It stickers marking pages of special interest from when he was little boy, though he was reading graduate-level books on science in the seventh grade.
