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PONDERING CORE ESSENCE
NUMENON |
Back on January 1 (which seems like several lifetimes ago), I offered my modest Fishing Goals for 2021. You can find them at www.numenonfunfishing.com/numenon-home/2021-fishing-goals. So, How'd I do? (First, please accept my apologies for the rampant font issues within this post!) 1. 200 Stripers for the season. In short, I crushed it. I ended up with 284 stripers landed, from three states. I missed a few along the way, too! While my best fish typically came aboard the Maritime skiff, the numbers from shore added up to just about half of my fish landed. My biggest striper of the year came from shore, too, so I have to keep plugging away, regardless of the platform. 2. Share a fresh fish meal with Uncle M This certainly could have happened, and probably should have. But pandemic visitation protocols, logistical preparation, and coordination all interfered with this. When my brief time on Cape Cod in the Spring ran out, I had to look to the Fall Run. But with just a single Woods Hole session and three hours together, this didn't materialize. I did, however, catch a pile of legal keepers this year, so it could have happened. Plus, we both prefer steak or chicken to fish, so maybe it's time to drop this idea. 3. Catch my biggest ever striper. Nope. But, did I encounter a qualifying fish? Perhaps; I sighted a single trophy in Duxbury. That bass got beaten to my bait by a quicker blue. I lost a very nice fish to seals by Clapboard Island. And I vividly recall a couple of isolated, exceptionally violent topwater, bait-stealing smashes. My largest striper was 33 inches or so, my biggest in several seasons. That's got to be big enough for 2021! Still, some truly large fish were caught in Maine this year, and perhaps I should spend more time with big(ger) fish tactics and settings. 4. Catch a false albacore! I failed in my single, short, late-September attempt at Woods Hole. I think I need to execute a late-August/early-September trip next year to change my luck. Of course, it could be difficult to leave Maine at that time of the season... 5. Catch a 6-pound "bass" (green, brown or sea-). Ugh... I didn't even try. I do need to integrate myself in some way into Maine bass fishing. The cold-water pre-spawn period might provide my most feasible window into this local fishery. 6. Catch a 20-inch trout! Yes! a beautiful brown from Cape Cod fulfilled this desire. A nice rainbow (19 inches) from Maine's Upper Range Pond capped off my fall freshwater efforts. I miss the Great Lakes trout and salmon, but fish like these, on light tackle and in uncrowded settings, still provide a lot of satisfaction. 7. Successfully fish new water. In certain ways, this was the defining aspect of my 2021 season. From my early Spring Cape Cod explorations through the end of my season in New Jersey's surf, much of my time was spent in new-to-me water. Sometimes I was on a new body of water; and sometimes I was simply stretching my boundaries on more familiar waters. I found a lot of new spots, and I caught my share of fish along the way; all without any real problems on the water. That sounds like success to me! 8. Successfully implement a new technique I did nothing radically different, but I did incorporate many variations on existing themes. Presenting a popper to stripers with the fly rod and swimming a Danny in November's New Jersey surf both qualify, and I hope to incorporate such experiences into future seasons. But I also deployed tiny spoons on very light lead-core setups for inland trout, I slow-trolled mackerel for many miles, I stemmed the tide in Vineyard Sound, and I presented a tube-and-worm on braided line in very shallow water. Finding fish on any local Maine fishery was also new-to-me, and I know I'll be confronted with the need to continue and expand such efforts in all future seasons. 9. Somebody new in the boat Again, I'll have to incorporate variations on themes, but I did lead M to her first striper aboard amybaby22. It was quick and easy, too! What a pic! That was a seasonal highlight. M was "there' , too, via live-stream for one of the last Maritime keepers of the season! 10. Launch Numenon. YES! After a couple of faltering attempts in which maintenance issues were revealed, I finally got her back afloat for a few freshwater sessions. She's aged mightily in the last couple of years, for which I feel badly, but she's certainly worth more to me than anybody else... so I guess we're stuck with each other. Informally Append as invoked on January 1 I hung my mounted walleye and brown trout in my new Maine home office and realized that any right-facing 30-incher (bass, blue, togue... whatever!) would be a cool addition. I caught that fish several times over this season, but all were released. I'll probably just save the money for other, more sensible purposes, but I'll keep half an eye out for the right combination of fish, meaning of experience, aesthetics and opportunity. By my estimation, I had a 60% achievement rate for my stated 2021 Fishing Goals. That's satisfying enough while still providing legitimate challenge. At least with fishing, I'll hereby declare 2021 to have been a success. Now, it's time to start dreaming about 2022! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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Steve LachanceVia Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Michigan and now, back to New England! Archives
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