You are here: Home / Archives for winthrop beach

Back in Maine Again

July 15, 2023 by · Leave a Comment

Back in Maine Again

Thanks for reading this back in Maine again report. The intrepid reader will remember last week’s report came from Winthrop, Massachusetts. We spent Sunday and Monday there (and I got no more striped bass), and left for Maine on Tuesday.

Winthrop Beach.

Subscribers without photos- go to https://www.spottedtail.com/blog/, please.

The blueberries are ripe now. Time spent picking berries is always time well spent.

I’ve been spending much of my fishing time in shallow places with lots of weeds. I get lots of bites there, many from chain pickerel. I thought I’d brought a sufficient number of bass bugs, and if they negotiated the weeds well I probably did. But the face of those gurglers I like to use in Florida catch the weeds. I only had a couple bullet-shaped surface flies, and pickerel cut them off.

Some creativity would be needed to replace them, since I didn’t bring any fly-tying gear with me.

A piece of closed cell foam found lying on the ground could be cut into slider heads. Got two from it. Then another piece of foam was found and I made two more heads. Crude? Yes. Ugly? Oh, yes. I needed hooks to put them on, and something for a tail.

Ugly? Yes indeed.

We went to Bridgton on Friday to get lobster rolls. Next to the lobster place was Unc’L Lunkers Bait and Tackle. Wasn’t expecting much when I went in, but they had #2 Aberdeen hooks and some fly-tying materials, and bunches of other stuff. I bought the hooks and a green calf-tail. Larry (the owner) gave me a tube of super glue. I was ready to make some flies!

Close-up of Ugly Bug.

After a trial with carpet thread that gave unsatisfactory results, I used dental floss for tying thread for the other three flies. It worked much better. After finishing the tying, weedguards were super-glued into the flies.

Ugly Bug wurk gud.

A few bass were caught with one during the first test. No big ones, but the flies work, which I thought they would. So next I have to go to the weedy place and really fish them. I guess that will be in next week’s report.

A fatter specimen on the plastic shad, caught over a rock pile.

When I was here in Lovell earlier this summer, I caught a bass that was missing part of its gill cover. I caught it again this week. All largemouths look pretty much the same, but a missing gill cover is fairly distinctive. All this proves is that catch-and-release works.

The weeds hold lovely things, other than fish.

 

Dusk comes to Kezar Lake.

That’s the back in Maine again report. Thanks for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Take a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2023. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Flies and Fly Tying, travel blog · Tagged: , , , , , ,

A One Striper Report

July 8, 2023 by · Leave a Comment

A One Striper Report

Thanks for reading this one striper report. Susan and I spent the week in Winthrop, with a rocky beach literally a minute’s walk away. I spent at least a little time every day on that beach with a spin rod in hand.

Subscribers without photos- go to https://www.spottedtail.com/blog/, please.

We kicked the week off with a walk around Deer Island, the site of a state-of-the-art sewage treatment plant (the second largest in the country) that handles the poop from Boston and 43 other communities. Are you listening, Florida? Boston Harbor has clean, fish-filled waters because of this plant. Sure wish we had one or more on the Indian River Lagoon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There’s a hill in Winthrop, the top of which has a water tower. Having caught stripers from the beach below this tower in the past, that’s where I went looking for fish. The only one I saw caught was by a guy who was wearing a wet suit, way out in the water, past where I could cast to, who was casting even farther out. Then, Friday afternoon, I got one, a modest specimen, on a DOA Cal jig. I haven’t seen any bait, any diving birds, and certainly no breaking fish.

 

 

There are oystercatchers nesting there, though. The bird with the number 25 tag has nested here for the past ten years. A woman who works for Mass. Audubon told me the oldest one recorded in the state lived 28 years. The are such cool birds…

 

Scott Deveau and I went to Plum Island and tried fishing there, Scott with a spin rod, me with fly gear. I hooked, and lost, a large American shad, the only bite we got. We talked to a guy with a Hobie kayak who had just come in. He said they were swimming all around him, but he only got one. But one is so many more than none!

We saw the full moon rise one evening, quite spectacular.

We went to see the Winthrop fireworks on a foggy Fourth of July night. They started over an hour late, but we stayed and watched.

 

 

 

That’s the one striper report. Thanks for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Take a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2023. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Fishing Reports, Photo Essays, travel blog · Tagged: , , , , ,

Greetings from Chuluota

October 8, 2022 by · Leave a Comment

Greetings from Chuluota

Thanks for reading this week’s post, Greetings from Chuluota. For the first time since July, we slept in our own bed the past two nights. Truly, there’s no place like home!

For subscribers- if the photos don’t load, click this link- www.spottedtail.com/blog.

When I was in Winthrop, it was a sixty second walk to the beach. I’d been out there every day, casting a jig, hoping for a bass (or something). Our last day there, with by far the worst weather, I gave it one last try. At a spot where water flowed over a bar, I finally got three bass on the jig. Ah, the sweet smell of success.

I found a ball on the beach, pocketing it for Maryann’s pit bull. The dog enjoyed the ball, playing with it for a while, then lying down for a chew. I said to Susan, “Boy, she’s really enjoying that ball,” Then I looked. She wasn’t chewing the ball, she was chewing my Croc shoe. I took it away from her. The shoe is damaged but still wearable. I have it on right now!

Diamond the Dog, who used my shoe as a chew toy.

We drove to East Hampton, Connecticut the next day, staying at the Bevin House B&B, truly our first lodging splurge of the trip. The outside reminded me of the house in the old Addams Family TV show. It was nice inside, built in 1872, lots of antiques and old books.

The Bevin House.

Bill and Heather Embacher came by the next morning to pick us up. Bill and I had hoped to fish- the weather was crap and I’m glad we didn’t go. Instead we went to the Gillette Castle, walking the grounds and enjoying seeing each other. It had been a long time!

 

Gillette, a stage actor, made Sherlock Holmes famous.

 

A balcony on the castle.

 

Gillette enjoyed model trains. His were bigger than most.

 

Gillette’s train station.

 

One of the train trestles.

Bill and Heather invited us for dinner. We got to meet their daughter and also see Bill’s shop. Bill carves duck and goose decoys, as well as doing taxidermy on birds. His work is beautiful and he stays busy.

From East Hampton to Chuluota is a 21-hour drive. There was a time, long past, when I would have done it all at once. We took three too-long days, getting here just at sunset on Thursday.

Friday was spent emptying the car, cleaning and putting things away, going through correspondence, etc. Today I have to remove the solar panel from the roof of the van and get it ready for kayak carrying. There may be a lot of water around, but I’m hoping I can find a fish or two next week.

That’s the Greetings from Chuluota post. Thanks for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Take a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2022. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: travel blog · Tagged: , , ,

Welcome to Winthrop!

September 30, 2022 by · Leave a Comment

Welcome to Winthrop- A Photo Essay

Thanks for reading this week’s post, Welcome to Winthrop. Our friend Maryann lives here. After hosting her in Maine for a while, she’s hosting us now. It all evens out in the wash, doesn’t it?

For subscribers- if the photos don’t load, click this link- www.spottedtail.com/blog.

Speaking of the wash, we missed the hurricane, but it didn’t miss Florida. Many people there need prayers and more!

———————————————–

It’s a sixty second walk to the beach for me here. I’ve been out there every day, casting a jig, hoping for a bass (or something). No luck so far. The first day I was here I could see them busting, way out past where I could cast. A guy came with a paddle board and a fishing rod. He paddled right out to there the fish were, caught two, and paddled back, beautifully done. I told him so, too. But didn’t get a picture.

Winthrop Beach by day.

 

No hard feelings, but I want to see these, getting blasted by bass, within casting range.

We visited old friends and relatives, so no other fishing happened until Thursday, when I visited the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge on Plum Island. After walking to the “spot,” it took me about fifteen minutes to catch a bass. Of course, the entire time I could see the birds going CRAZY on the Ipswich side. But I don’t have a boat here, so too bad, so sad.

Yes, I have caught stripers. Although many people spell it “strippers.”

I chucked a Clouser Minnow for close to six hours, ended up with five bass and a shad. Met a couple local fly casters, enjoyed a spectacular day, and life was good.

 

 

 

 

Watched Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime. If I were paying for that, boy, I’d be mad. What terrible, truly terrible broadcast quality.

Got up early Friday morning to photograph the sun rise. Arms are a bit sore from Thursday’s chuck-fest. Sunrise was beautiful, though.

 

 

We dropped off Susan at an old friend’s house, then went to see an old friend ourselves, meeting Kevin at Walden Pond. Wow, they sure have made it into a monument to Thoreau. It’s a swimming pool for healthy seniors, who swim across and back. I spoke to a fly fisher who told me that it had just been stocked a few days ago with rainbow trout, so there’s that, too.

 

These swimmers cross the pond and return.

 

 

 

We’ve known each other over 50 years. You could call us old friends.

And just like that, the week is almost gone. So is our trip, almost gone. We’ll be heading home next week.

That’s the Welcome to Winthrop post. Thanks for reading!

Every day is a blessing. Don’t waste it- Go fishing! Go paddling! Take a walk! Stay active!

John Kumiski
www.johnkumiski.com
www.spottedtail.com
www.spottedtail.com/blog

All content in this blog, including writing and photos, copyright John Kumiski 2022. All rights are reserved.

Filed Under: Photo Essays, travel blog · Tagged: , , , ,