EclecticGuy

On Saturday morning, Nick and I met up with our friends Aaron and Ethan to head north to White Mountains of New Hampshire. On the way up, it was obvious that the rivers were swollen from all of the rain we had through July. I have never seen them this high, this late in the summer. We stopped at our favorite pancake house for breakfast before hitting the trail.

It was a short drive to the Lincoln Woods parking area and trailhead from there. We had a lot … Continue Reading

I got a bit of time to fish my favorite stretch of the Squanacook today. It was a bright sunny day (65°) with a light breeze. I got to my favorite section and there were 2 bait fishermen there – one upstream and one downstream from “my” spot. Their bobbers drifted slowly down stream.

I looked around and noticed little black stoneflies laying eggs on the water. The female hits the water with a splat and skitters across the surface – upstream, downstream, with the wind, against the wind – what ever direction they want. One even landed on my thumb, … Continue Reading

I met my friend Dave on the Squanacook below Townsend Harbor dam this morning at 6:30am. It was cold! I worked my way downstream to an area where a large log crossed the stream and created a pool. Caught my only rainbow under that log. I got off to a rough start – catching trees along the bank.

Every January, our Boy Scout troop heads up to NH (we’re based in MA) to cabin camp. Last weekend was this year’s trip. The cabin is on the waterfront of a large pond. Last year I taught a few boys how to ice fish – we cut the holes with a hatchet! This year I was armed with a hand auger, 3 tip-ups, a bucket of shiners and some other items.

It was an extremely cold weekend, it was down to below 0 on Friday night. On Saturday morning … Continue Reading

My sons, our dog Mia and I went GeoCaching for Cache GCGKTB. This cache was a 2 part multi-cache, meaning you first had to find the clue to get the coordinates to the actual cache. We could not find the coordinates at the original site but were successful at the alternative site. It took a little while to find it though!

Once we retrieved the N and W minutes, plugging them in to our Garmin 60CS was easy enough. Unfortunately, the day was very overcast and the Garmin had … Continue Reading

I took my son Nick out for a couple of hours on the Nashua River last night. I also brought along my new Pentax Optio W60 waterproof 10 megapixel camera to try out. It replaces my Optio W30 that I’ve had for over a year. But this trip was more about paddling on a beautiful September evening than photography!

Here’s me heading out:

And a quick shot of Nick checking something out on shore:

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My son & I had a great 2 hour paddle on the Squannacook River, ending at sunset last night. My son was taking our new Perception Swifty for its maiden voyage. The flow was high – 400 cfs – but was up at 1400 cfs on Sunday! This river usually meanders along at about 20 cfs in the summer.

I know the canoe/kayak launch for this part of the Squannacook can be difficult to find, so here is a map to help out. The biggest soure of confusion is that there are 2 Townsend Roads – one on … Continue Reading

I was coming home this evening right at dusk. As I approached my house, I spotted an animal on the side of the road. At first I thought it was a skunk but as I got closer, I saw that it was a porcupine! A big, fat porcupine. I stopped the car and rolled down the window so the kids could see. It was raining lightly but there was enough light for a good look. After a few seconds the critter turned and ambled back in to the woods.

I took this macro photo of a Luna Moth at Camp Wanocksett – our Boy Scout camp. It was drying itself out after a big rainstorm. Get more info on Luna Moths here.

My friend Aaron and I headed to western Massachusetts to fish the Deerfield river on a beautiful November day! There were fish rising early in a large pool below the dam. As the day warmed up, we headed downstream and found a foam patch where fish were rising around the edges of the foam. Lot’s of activity there. The fish were gently sipping right below the surface, mostly along the edge of the foam. Later on, there actually started sipping in the middle of the foam patch.

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