I'm officially on vacation this week. I have lots of free time to go fishing.
On Sunday, I went up to Dobbs Ferry with my new tackle box filled with the new stuff I bought recently. I was hoping to try a few different techniques for the purporse of catching different fish besides the usual catfish.
I got there around 1:30 PM or so, a couple of hours before high tide on the Hudson. It was windy and sunny but tolerable.
I picked up three fresh bunker, three frozen herring, and one dozen bloodworms from Jack's.
I upgraded to 17-pound test.
For one line, I used something (I forget the exact name) I bought at the Sports Authority. It has two bobbers with hooks and a swivel to attach a sinker. The advantage, when using a sinker, is that it keeps the hooks off the bottom and getting snagged. I used bunker, herring, and a bloodworm at different times. I didn't catch anything with this.
A couple of times, I tried a bobber on another line with a bloodworm and some herring, but I couldn't cast it far enough.
Early on, I caught an eel. It was about a foot long. Eels secrete some type of residue that makes them slipperly. The stuff, which I understand is a type of mucous, got on my hands and clothes. When it dries on the skin, it becomes flaky. It was tough to wash off. I threw the eel back.
In the late afternoon, the wind died down, and the water calmed.
Later in the day, I caught another eel. This one was well over two feet and looked exactly like the one I caught in late May.
I didn't catch any fish. I had only a few bites.
Was my line too heavy? Or was it just an unlucky day? A woman fishing a few rocks away from caught a couple of perch.
The only other eventful thing that happened was that I was visited by a beaver. I saw him earlier crawling on some rocks. Later, I caught a glimpse of him in the corner of my eye and was startled out of my chair. He disappeared into a hole in the dock. I then saw him in the lot standing a few feet away from me. He was about a foot long. He disappeared before I got a chance to photograph him.
Around 7:30, some thick, black colds rolled in. The wind returned, and it started to drizzle. Since the tide was going out, I gave up and went home so I could catch the Yankee game.
