Nearly every day since arriving in NH I’ve been up before 5 AM. A few of these days I fished but when not, I got work done for my biz. Today I awoke in the back of my 1991 Explorer in friend Dan Swifts driveway at 4:30 (I love sleeping in my truck and it’s been too long!). But instead of waking up, I rolled over until about 7 AM. It may have been the fact we hung around Dan’s fire pit until midnight listening to an epic Cubs vs Brewers game, but more likely it was the heavy downpour hammering my rig.
Once up I entered Dan’s cottage only to find him in a Zoom meeting with his job. I gave him a thumbs up and filled my Yeti with coffee. I layered up in my Simms raingear and took his Old Town Kayak out on the lake and made casts to cruising bluegill eating midges. It was the best cup of coffee of the year!
When the coffee was gone I retrieved Dan. He whipped us up some scrambled eggs then we launched his canoe. Our theme today was have fun despite the rain. And that began with each of us fishing only a mouse fly all day. Dan’s mouse was a size more suited to taimen fishing in Mongolia!
You rarely get to fish in the rain living out west. I love it. And obviously Dan loves it to. We both went to work twitching our floating mice in the nooks of the neighborhood docks and between every patch of lily pads.
I waited with anticipation with my phone camera in hand – covering it from the deluge of rain as I held fire. It didn’t take long for Dan to go tight. He ended up catching at least three 12-14” largemouth within the first ten minutes. This one had the mouse hanging nicely from the roof of his mouth.
Our bass action never slowed. Both of us caught a bunch of the frisky weed dwelling bass. We had several double ups. And while chain pickerel are no match for their cousins the northern pike and musky’s, they aren’t afraid of a little mammal eating themselves. This guy poses with a mouth full of imitation mouse!
All warmwater species are aggressive. Even the bluegill on Dan’s Pond took swipes at the mouse and this one managed to get the hook. I wonder if bluegill ever take a live mouse completely down? I’d like to think so.
Yup! Its a mouse tail!
Dan and I wrapped it up promptly at 3. Dan is from NJ and had a long 6 hour drive to do. I simply returned to Wolfeboro. The rain is still falling and it’s a whopping 56°. There’s a chance I’ll hit the big lake for a few hours tomorrow. But I’m in the process of organizing my next big Yellow Dog Hosted trip to the Seychelles so it could be a full work day.
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