I was planning to take two nieces fly fishing for smallmouth bass early this morning, Montana and Sierra. Both with their new Winston rods! Sierra ended up bailing out last minute because her softball team advanced in playoffs and she had a 9 AM game. Without Sierra, Montana and I opted for a more casual departure from the camp of about 9 AM. We headed from main Lake Winnipesaukee into Back Bay – one of my favorite places to fish.
Things weren’t so great in Back Bay. First off, there’s a waterski course that’s been there since I was a kid. Because it’s the weekend it was being used. It’s a small area so when you have a ski boat and a skier whipping past you constantly its not easy to catch fish. Furthermore, they poisoned the weeds in Back Bay. It looked like a dead forest beneath my canoe. Its awful and quite depressing because this was home to numerous sunfish species from largemouth bass to bluegill as well as plenty of big chain pickerel and turtles. We had to fight hard just to catch a few small pumpkinseeds and never saw a single turtle.
I had to hide my disappointment from Montana. There are a couple arms in Back Bay where I found a few weeds and some pretty pumpkinseeds. I got her on a few and in her eyes it was great fishing. But Back Bay has had fish everywhere my entire life. Not this summer. We packed it up early to head back for camp.
There’s one niece that’s been on the blog many times that wasn’t into fishing this weekend, that’s Sammy. Sammy did the big hike with me last summer in the Tetons and you may remember she did a bunch of artwork along the trial. This afternoon Sammy grabbed a pumpkinseed sunfish photo from me and did this pencil drawing of it. I am a proud uncle!
Most headed home tonight – brother, nieces and cousins (Mom and my sister and family live here). We had a superb barbeque before anyone left however. Its good to be in New Hampshire at the camp! Its only Granny and I at the camp tonight. I’m sure I’ll get on the water in the morning.
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