So Fishing season is over  for the most part for me for the season, shoulder rotator cup injury at the end of the fall salmon season.
I felt the tear, irritating an old shoulder injury from my current job, and casting is painful to say the least, just as well I suppose as fall salmon season at the station has been a huge disappointment this year, the fish are simply not there, perhaps a side effect of introduced Alewives which may be the kryptonite of the landlock salmon,....they are tasty and fill the bellies of these salmonoids and they are very numerous indeed, however they sterilize Atlantic salmon with a vitamin B deficiency,...we are seeing it now.

Anyhow for myself it is Art season, not feeling in a painting mood I opt for sculpture, in this case a brook trout sculpture based on a trophy sized brookie of 6.5 lbs., the brookie,...prettiest fish that swims IMHO bar none. especially in its Fall garb.

This is going to be a casting of my sculpture first done in sculpy modelling clay then molded in Alumilite  high strength 2 silicone rubber then cast in urethane  resin and painted with water based taxidermy paints with my airbrush. And then finally placed on a walnut base with a glass cover, a nice desktop piece is the final goal.

Stage one is the actual rough sculpture,... fins are not finished they all need rays and bone structure.

Body Proportions are correct now , I just need to bake and smooth the skin of the fish in preparation for the molding process,....will keep posted on progress.

Just posting a few more of my current art projects....
Costas

Costas Hummingbird with pink lilacs

Truro Lighthouse Mass.

Striped Marlin hunting Sardines (Work in Progress)

A vid clip taken on my  Pentax camera a couple weeks ago

1st clip is an underwater vid of a decent pool on the river, about midway through you will see a holding salmon, kinda cool.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v487/spector82/?action=view&current=IMGP0011-1.mp4

Salmon I took out of that pool a bit later  not the same one most likely.

Day 8 Lots of Pine spills in the morning and DONE!

I am finished for the year on the River, last day I went fish began to go on a terror when I arrived on the pool at 730 am on Thursday, hooked 3 smaller fish and more were rolling on the flies, then the wind came up and the pine spills covered the rivers surface, basically shutting any chance of fishing the river, with floating lines and swinging techniquesI was finished for the day.
It would have been a great day too....oh well it happens this time of year.

I never did get my salmon videos with my GoPro,  I bought it late in the season,... perhaps next fall.

Not the best season I have had on this river by any means, but it was decent, next year I will make a few trips up a few weeks earlier, I think I just hit it a bit too late this year...always tough fishing and challenging but good stuff indeed.

Now onto fishing my next favorite fall salmon locations,...may even post a pic ot vid of the action.

Good luck to those able to fish the rest of the season up there,...should be a good day or 2 still to be had.!!!

Day 7,... few fish landed.

I took yesterday off, didn't really feel like driving to the happy salmon hunting grounds yesterday, so took it easy instead.
Today I ventured up arriving at about 0630, first pool seemed to have smaller fish as a majority today as the boils behind the fly showed, and not many boils either, more like a few boils in 3 hours fishing, and I cover the water well at this point.
Around 730 I have a fish to net, I hooked it on the swing during a phone call to the better half, have to hang up and fight the fish with 2 hands which is a small hen about 15 inches, I release her after a fiasco of getting the hook that went through her lower jaw hooked in my net, what a pissah!

I give up on this pool seeing hardly any action of note and head upstream to my favorite haunt, I arrive there to find 3 other fishermen in the various pools,....there is one open pool so I fish that one, and swing away with the Hellegramite, I arrive towards the woodpile at the tailout where I expect to find fish each time and sure enough I hookup to a large fish, couple headshakes and off it comes.
It wasn't coming back of course, but you never know perhaps another taker is in there,...3 flies later NO go!

 I decide to go across the pool to another hotspot which is almost impossible to fish well unless you are an expert roll caster, which I happen to be,...lots of overhanging trees logjams, roots underwater hangs everywhere and of course its a salmon heaven. I swing away with the hellgramite and see nothing at the top, halfway down I feel a solid tug followed by a running splash of a large landlocked Atlantic salmon,...I land her a couple mins later after a few nice jumps and a couple respectable runs downstream. A nice thick fish of about 3-3.5 lbs.. and about 21 inches

 

 

 

I then fish a few more flies and find just more stubborn fish to end the day, only one more small fish that takes the fly on slack line and shakes the hook, still not a bad day on the river, the fish are there but very very flyshy at this point.

 

Day 6 on the water,...SKUNKED!!!!

I have to report bad with the good so,....


I knew it was going to be a dull day on the river even before I arrived...as I got into my car to leave this morning the air temperature had dropped at least 20 degrees from the previous night, same thing happened last year about this time and put the fish into a bit of a shock for a day or 2.

River surface was covered in sea smoke which is never a good sign in my opinion,....sign of  air temp much colder than the water temp.

I arrive at the scene about 0630 put on my fave searching pattern(Montreal floozie) and proceed to run it through the pool without so much as a follow or boil.

I switch to a small cream body brown hackled wooly bugger(which has been seeing action this fall) and get only a smallish boil behind the swung fly.

I then go pretty much through my entire roster with only a chase or 2 here or there but no solid takers.

Other fishermen on the river were having similar luck today so I don't feel too badly other than the wasted gasoline and trip up...these days happen for a fall salmon fishermen at times too often, luckily I don't taste skunk very often anymore and expect tomorrow will be an entirely different story,...it should be a good day and will post results tomorrow after fishing...one can only hope!

Day 5 Picky picky fish!

Day 4 was taken off by yours truly to do some laundry,(was running out of socks and shirts that didn't smell to high heaven!) take a quick trip to Cabelas and Best Buy and most of all visit with my mother in Yarmouth I haven't seen in weeks.

Set up a meeting on the river with Steve AKA Blackghost from MFF  a great fly fisherman and fly tyer.
I arrive on the river at about 6:20 am and see another friend already in the pool, (didn't recognize him at first it was dark Gary Slipp AKA "Slippery")  fishing the head and the honeyhole of this particular run, still a bit early he was not getting any tugs or boils.

So I go down to the lower run to see if there is any life below, Montreal lady of the night goes onto the leader, 3 casts and retrieves later get a big boil but no tug on the line, fish did not return for a second look.  I rest that fish and go above Slippery to see whats going on in Pool one, Montreal goes into the run and I get nervous water behind the fly on the swing, there is fish here obviously, still fairly dark out and slippery has gone down to the lower pool so I fish the main run,....

No action for Miss Montreal this time, they ignore my offering through the entire run.
So I change flies to my second top dog the Beadhead Hellegramite.  I first created this fly 3 years ago and fished properly it is a killer on fall salmon, I have even caught salmon in the lake on it.
This river is full of these mean looking nymphs of the Dobson fly.

It is a time consuming/difficult fly to tie, 30-45 mins. for yours truly to tie, which is why I don't dead drift  them but swing them and strip retrieve them like a mini streamer.  Overhanging trees and bank hangs take enough to really irk me to no end.

Anyhow on goes the Dobson nymph for a dip in the drink.
go through the head and nothing, swing the fly and step down each time nothing,..Mid pool up comes a fish and a large boil, recast smaller boil (losing interest?) recast and solid hookup this time and its a nice fish, 3.5lbs. thick fresh hen comes out of the water and puts on a show, fighting the fish as Blackghost arrives and sees the tail end of the battle, he takes a pic or 2 and we release her back where she belongs.  A fuzzy pic!  Camera lens was damp due to my soaked musty fishing vest,...DOAH!

We chat for a bit about the fishing and I tell him to get into the pool and see what he can bring up...
Puts on one of his faves and swings away.
Raises a fish mid pool but not solid customers. then goes to the lower run to give that a try.
I try a couple other patterns with no success,...then go to the beadhead Kaufman's golden stonefly with white black striped rubber legs, AKA the secret weapon, # 3 in my box.

Swing it through the pool a few times with no takers, then swing it 3/4 down the run and big boil followed by a hookup, this one is also a nice salmon and jumps like crazy, bulldogs for a bit and into the net, a solid 4 lbs. buck, probably only been in the river for a few days as he was still bright.

Black Ghost was fighting a salmon in the lower pool which we didn't get a picture of unfortunately, I was tied up trying to release this fish which was slimy as an eel.

The fly pattern I used to catch the fish Kaufman's golden stonefly beadhead with banded rubber legs(centipede legs)

Rest of the day was fairly slow, a few chases here and there but they certainly shut off big time, it was fun to fish with good people and share a few fishing war stories and ideas....Blackghost got to see some really nice salmon water... He's certainly and expert fisherman and a fantastic roll caster...it's a tough river to fish and these guys can be tough to fool most of the time, but put in enough time and there can be a good day or 2 to be had...I have been fishing this river every fall for well over 20 years, the first 5  I was lucky to hook a single  fish in a week, and I put in long days believe me, I learned certain techniques and flies from those that knew the river much better than I and were kind enough to show me the ropes.
This river is as close to actual Atlantic salmon fishing as it gets, the fish are smaller of course as a rule but they respond to the same presentations that work well for the sea runs...SWING THOSE FLIES!
As soon as I learn how to use this new Gopro camera I have on my head I will post hopefully some clips of salmon takes on the swing, the perspective this little camera gives is incredible, vid quality is awesome as well, cannot wait!

Off for the weekend to spend some time with the Lady and relax,...back at it on Monday.

Day 3

I hooked up with my friend Chris and found the fish pretty tough to catch to say the least, tossed all of my top 5 flies at them and only one streamer was consistent,... The Montreal Whore.
This fly is the most deadly fly I use on this particular river, it is my searching pattern.
Chris is fishing the main pool and I go to the riffles in the lower pool, out goes the floozy in orange and white first short cast brings up nothing,I cast out where they have been the past couple days,strip strip WHACK!!!! and off comes the fly!  A savage strike so typical in the spot, they seem to hit it like a pike for some reason, the fish continues to jump completely out of the water as if were still hooked for over a half hour, for that I feel badly, I prefer not to leave my hooks inside a fish's mouth for this reason.
No more fish in this run for me,....
Mid morning even that old standby was being laughed at by my finny friends.
Chris was having similar results with his roster.
We had the occasional chase and did land a few at pool 2 but then they just shut down.
So I started thumbing through my bench warmers and eventually found a couple that seemed to interest them, first was a goof fly from a few years back, an olive ersatz wolly bugger thing is flashy and bright as heck, first pass through the pool and WHAM!,,,,,,nice little 19 inch fish.
Second run through and a big boil and stung the fish, he wasn't coming back today.
It was raining hard on us at this point so I give Chris a copy of the fly and head upstream to a nice little cut on a bend, 3 fish rise up on the bugger but no solid takers.
Chris has similar results in the main pool, he switches to a nymph rig and goes into my spot above, I switch to a small Wardens worry that is old and ratty, run through the entire pool and just as I am wondering what any warden has to worry about with this fly hook an 18 inch buck at the tailout...I land him and go to the pools head and instantly stick another fish and lose him.

One of Chris' fish from yesterday, a nice little 18-19 inch buckaroo

Chris is drifting nymphs above and hooks up to a nice little fish that puts on a hell of a show, but loses him, then a few mins later hooks the bigger fish in this hold that also goes airborne before breaking him off...We are both soaked to the bone and getting a bit tired(roll casting all day is tough work believe me) so we quit for the day....overall it was a tough days fishing on this tough river to fish, but it was a very fun day to say the least,...I love a challenge!  I am taking today off to go visit my Mother and rest up for Friday's marathon.   Tomorrow will be meeting up with Blackghost ( Big Brookie Steve) and see what he has up his sleeve.
One of Chris' fish from yesterday

October salmon

Fall salmon season is here finally!
After the endless pursuit of the stripe ones this fall I was looking forward to a little freshwater fishing with a dry flyline again, like night and day compared to heavy sinking lines used for stripers.
Day one was OK 5 fish hooked 2 landed, not bad for this little river.

Day two has been epic, fish in every pool and they were in a striking mood for sure,...10 fish landed, many more hooked or stuck, very exciting fishing!  Cool air,fall colors, and salmon!  Doesn't get much better than that.

Long weekend this week and felt motivated by the crap weather , wanting to do a different subject for a change in watercolor, so it was a Leopard hunting Thompson's Gazelle for this one, bit of a challenge and lots of color, but my new Kolinsky sable brushes seemed to be up to the task,...they rock!

Big weekend of finishing up a few projects I had sitting on the wall for weeks,...

First up was my Striped Bass Painting , pretty happy with this one used a lot of silver oil for scale reflective flashes, liking the effect.

Next painting is 3 Bluefin tuna eating squid on 18X24 canvas, this is based on a Stanley Meltzoff original, my girlfriend saw it as we were browsing online she liked it quite a lot and I don't have $10,000+ for the original so I painted one for her for a fraction of the cost,... not even close to the quality/talent of Stanley's but not too bad, his painting has the big fish hunting baitish, mine are ravaging a school of squid. Stan Meltzoff is a now deceased artist that did fantastic works for Nat Geo/ Sports Illustrated magazine, as well as many others, his big game fishing works are top notch.

 Finally a Hummingbird with flowers, with lots of color and copper oil for the throat feather highlights.

It's been a while since I posted a new page here, not really too much going on fishing or painting wise due to the holidays, and have been in a bit of a slump oil painting wise. 
While surfing the net, particularly Facebook I came across a very inspiring watercolor artist who lives out on the west coast Dianne Michelin, just amazing stuff, I had a small kit of watercolors and some paper I purchased last summer however was afraid to try them out knowing how difficult he watercolor process was.
So I broke them out to try something new and sure enough my first attempt was a complete bust, tossing that aside I sketched out another, put on the masking, and started the background, this time I liked what I saw a bit better, enough to save it from the trash anyhow...and used a different approach on the fish which at least looked like a swimming fish and not a childs painting.  (the 3 d effect is mandatory for my paintings if I don't kind of see that I trash it).   The first one is tail unshaded, something didn't look right so I added shadow on the lower part because that is where the light wouldn't be hitting it as directly. 

 This one is after a bit more shading in the tail area, I like it better.  Water surface still needs tobe completed I am missing sky blue (cerulean blue) to complete that, which I will hit the art store today to pick up.

I kind of like it, much brighter than my oil work.

Another oil painting, this one in progress on 16"x20" canvas,...striped bass rolling on a streamer fly close to the waters surface, background in various shades of Pthalo green which is close to the color of inshore Atlantic ocean as viewed from below.

Hello again, just an update on my painting "The release" ,....Did a bit of airbrushing today for the spots on the trout and a few light ripples on its back as well as red spots painted inside the blue halos...and brushed the highlighting on the grass, didn't do much to the fisherman's hands and think I will leave them as is...not my best work to date, but it's kinda cool.

"The Release" Brook trout oil on 16"x20" canvas

Preview of my latest work in progress,..."the release"   A large brook trout being released in a spring creek, add a bit of  a human element to it with the hands and waders.  Grass needs work with highlights and shimmer and the brookie will be airbrushed with spots and  surface reflections on his back.

Some highlights of this fall on the Crooked River...

In an oil painting mood as of late so for my first post I will present a completed painting of a Brook trout hunting blueback char in Rangeley lake circa 1870 or so, a little bit of history of the Rangeley lakes region in this one.  The Rangeley lakes chain was always famous for its large brook trout,  smaller Blueback trout (a subspecies of landlocked arctic char) were the primary feed and thought to be the reason for Rangeley's quality brook trout fishery.
Landlocked atlantic salmon were stocked in Rangeley lake around around 1875 to provide another sportfish for vacationing anglers, quickly the smaller blueback began to disappear and by 1900 were thought to be extinct from the lake.   Rainbow smelt were stocked to provide a replacement forage for the bluebacks around year 1891...pretty much finishing off any chance of a comeback for the bluebacks.

What I tried to capture in this latest work was a time prior to stocking of any kind, Rangeley as it should be even today, without human intervention.   Invasive's destroy ecosystems, we know this now, yet illegal stockings continue to this very day,....different subject for a different day I suppose, enough quacking an onto the painting,....