Joseph Goyette / "The Captain's Cask"

Fishing Report: South Watuppa Pond, April 21, 2018

Date: April 21, 2018

Time: 7:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Location: Fishing Spot: South Watuppa Pond, Fall River, Massachusetts

Weather: Sunny but cold and very windy. Multiple layers of clothing !

Air Temperature: Low 30’s to start. High 40’s/Low 50’s to finish

Water Temperature: 46-50 degrees (cool!)

Notes:

This was a fishing trip of firsts for me…

First time bass fishing in such cold temperatures
First time fishing this specific pond
First time fishing in a bass club tournament

I honestly had no idea what to expect… the conditions were very tough nevermind the fact that I was fishing in my first ever bass tournament. I had recently joined the South Shore Bassmasters Club and this was their first tournament of the season.

Despite being frozen to the core preparing my boat for launch in the parking lot, I somehow managed to get launched and ready to fish without any issues.

Oddly enough, or, as it turns out, fortunately enough, I caught my first bass on my fifth cast of the day ! It was only 1 3/4 pounds but I had a fish in the boat ! I recall thinking to myself with surprise that the fish are biting despite the cold conditions. I used a black football jig with a dark blue craw trailer.

How wrong I was !!! This first bass would be the only bass I would boat the entire day. I did get bit off by a pike and did manage to land a pike a bit later in the day but that was it.

At the weigh-in, I learned that I wasn’t the only one having a tough day. There were many anglers that zero’d today. The largest bass caught was just 2.3 pounds.

In any event – looking at the positives – it was a great learning experience on many fronts.

Some Photos of the Day:

SouthWatuppa-1 SouthWatuppa-2 SouthWatuppa-3

Fishing Report: Whitehall Reservoir, April 2018

Date: April, 2018

Time: Afternoon

Location: Fishing Spot: Whitehall Reservoir, Hopkinton, Massachusetts

Weather: Overcast, some wind but not a gale at least. The tolling motor got a workout.

Air Temperature: Low 50’s

Water Temperature: 40-42 degrees (chilly!)

Notes:

I had zero expectations of catching any fish today it all. The entire reason I was out at this time of year was that I had cabin fever… I’d just picked up my boat from winter storage and needed to get it out onto the water to make sure it would run and operate as expected when I needed it for a tournament later in the month 🙂

My boat ran great even in the cold water conditions and I was pleased by that. I did not actually catch any fish on this trip. However, I was able to spend some time over in the deeper sections of the reservoir that I’d typically not been able to in the past. There were only a couple of other boats out which was nice as there was a lot of freedom to roam around and sit in areas where there’s typically a fair amount of boat traffic. I made a lot of mental notes as to where new drops and rock piles etc. were that I’d not known of before.

No fish but lots of information gained so it was a worthwhile trip for sure !

The Orchard (July Update)

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Hey Folks.

I figured I’d give another update on “the orchard” 🙂 When I last posted about the orchard at the end of April, I described the struggle I’d been having simply getting my trees to produce fruit. But, at the same time, I was also hopeful that this would a successful year.

Well… so far things are looking really good. The winter moth caterpillars weren’t too difficult to deal with and the scourge of late spring, also known as the gypsy moth caterpillar, did not invade my trees this year.

All of my apple trees and both of my peach trees have lots of fruit on them right now. I think I need to start watering them a bit more though as they seem to be dropping fruit onto the ground now that the weather has gotten much hotter and the rainfall has stopped quite a bit.

Peach Tree #1 – Early peaches

Peach Tree #2 – later in the season peaches

Golden Delicious Tree

Gala or Cortland (I can’t remember but will know when the apples get a bit larger)

Red Delicious

McIntosh

Granny Smith (only 2nd year in the orchard. Still young and no fruits)

Anyway… things are looking up this year ! Let’s hope the nice weather and lack of insects continues !

-Joe G.

The Orchard…

For the past five years I have been attempting to grow apples in my yard. Unfortunately, I haven’t had much success.

Who would have thought that growing an apple would be so damn difficult ?

I figured I’d just drive down to the tree nursery, pick up a few apple trees, dig a few holes, drop the trees into the holes, water and wait for apples to grow…

My first year, I planted my trees, 3 or 4 if I recall correctly. Within two weeks of planting, half of the leaves had been eaten by winter moth caterpillars. I couldn’t believe it. Where the hell did they come from ? Literally, one day the new trees were looking good and then before I knew it they were half dead. Needless to say, my crop of apples may have reached a grand total of 5.

Over the next 4-5 years, if it wasn’t one thing it was another… winter moths, gypsy moths, Japanese beetles, rot, and/or warm weather in late winter followed by a cold snap causing the trees to bud then freeze (resulting in no buds at all)… my best crop for apples over that entire time span has been about 8. And, I lost a couple of trees completely due to them not being able to recover from the insects feasting on them.

BUT ! There is always hope !

This year, the weather has cooperated very nicely and I was able to keep the winter moth caterpillar population under control (at least as of this date 4/30/2017). Hopefully, they don’t all of a sudden appear out of nowhere again.

All 6 of my apple trees, and both peach trees, are flowering nicely right now ! Each tree looks better than it ever has before.

Here are some pictures from April 23rd… the trees are just starting leaf out and bud.

And here are the same trees just one week later… still looking good and flowering nicely…

Will post more updates as things change… hopefully the locust swarm isn’t heading this way this year 🙂

Got myself a new Nitro Z-18 Bass Boat !

Wow ! Been waiting a LOOOOOOOONG TIME for this ! Hard to believe that it’s finally happened 🙂 !!!

I’ve had a lot of fun fishing with my friend on his Nitro over the past few years. Lots of fish and lots of good times ! But, it was time… time to get my own bass boat and graduate from kayak fishing. Plus, it’s not easy taking my kids fishing with just a kayak 🙂

Here are some photos of the new boat and a few from the maiden voyage this past weekend on Whitehall Reservoir . More to come as I get out onto the water and start catching those lunkers.