My New Hampshire Free Fishing Days

Recently Capitol Outdoors wrote an article about how June 5 - 8,2015 was Free Fishing Days in Illinois. It just so happened that I got to enjoy Free Fishing Days in New Hampshire. New Hampshire also had its Free Fishing Days on June 6, 2015. When I first found out I was hoping to be able to fish.

Even though we had a wedding to attend we managed to find sometime to get the family together and head to the beach. The beach is located on Lake Winpesaukee just down the road from the house.

Wow, what can I say... With mountains of forests, crystal clear lakes and streams, this is an outdoor persons dream.

I managed to find a tackle box and some rods from my father in-laws house. I opened up the box and tied on a craw-fish colored crank bait and a white and chartuse spinner.

Bringing the rods seemed pointless. I was fishing off the dock in about, at most, 5 feet deep in the clearest water I've ever seen. There was no seaweed, no structure just sand and very few basket ball sized rocks. I started out with the crankbait and it looked good in the water. All of a sudden I saw a fish following it, then another and another, but no bites. Tried the spinner, same thing all the fish were just following it. The family was sitting only about 35 yards away and thought I was crazy. Finally, I stopped and thought to myself. I need something that's natural. I looked and found some natural colored plastics.

I tied on a 1/8 oz jig, hooked the plastic up and cast it out. On my first cast, stuck-em... about a 10 inch small mouth. What a great feeling. My first smallie in years and my first New Hampshire fish. Family was laughing and joining in on the success of the fish. I put him back in and was excited that I actually caught one. A few casts later... Stuck-em again. I bust out a nice 15 inch, 2.5 pound smallie. I had a smile from ear to ear.

One of the other guys at the beach came over:

"I've been coming down to this beach for 25 years. I've seen a lot of people fish off that dock... I've never ever seen anyone catch a fish off it let alone two and decent size ones as that. You're my hero!" He said.

Wow! What a great feeling.

Not pushing my luck, I wrapped up the tackle box and rods and walked back to the chairs. I sat down and began talking about what the guy had said to me and a little bit about what I was doing. A little time went by and I told one of the family members, I'll catch one more fish and I'm not even going on the dock.

I grabbed the rod, stood about ten feet way from the dock and cast it underneath in about 1 foot of water. Boom... Fish on... everybody went crazy. Someone - yelled, he did not just catch a fish right there.

I released the fish. Put the rod down and thought to myself... How thankful I was to be able to pull something like that off. Not only did I catch three fish but I was able to share that joy with people that don't often get the chance to go fishing and enjoy the outdoors.

Remember Enjoy the Outdoors Good Luck and Stay Safe -