99% fly: Hoit marsh - post in english

A friend of mine asked me if he can get an English translation for my posts so I decided to start writing in english too, not only in romanian. it's still gonna be mostly romanian since it takes muuuuuch less time to express myself in my native language. but I chose to take this challenge and I consider it a good way to exercise my writing skills and vocabulary.
So, for english only readers, I started this blog because I wanted to express myself, my thoughts and especially show my pictures to anybody is interested or has anything to do with fishing, flyfishing and respects the nature. Fly fishing is my primary hobby, but i also enjoy the thrill the bass gives you during summer months, fishing for it mainly with soft plastics. I kind of stopped using spinners and crankbaits because of some "accidents" when the fish got injured excessively during the drill. so treble hooks are not to be found in my tackle box anymore. and this is because I have a lot of respect for the fish, I no longer catch it for food and I think this is the way it should be so don't ask me to like it when I see bobbers and nightcrawlers in a fly fishing only/catch and release area. the only time I keep a fish is when it gets hooked in a very sensitive spot (e.g. gills) and I am 100% sure that it's not going to survive. and i feel bad for two days after it.
luckily it doesn't happen too often and not at all when i'm fly fishing. that's one of the reasons I prefer this style to others.
The pictures on this blog are exclusively taken by me or by my wife (some times bystanders if my wife is not around- someone in the family has to work :D). and the title would translate to "Fly fishing...and not only" because, as you can see, other fishing styles are going to be harbored here too. and occasionally, it might even be something else, not directly related to fishing. for example, one of this days I intend to post some pictures we've taken during a whale watch trip.

To make the long story short, the trip I'm going to talk today happened on Sunday. I use google maps too locate ponds and lakes around my place in Northfield, because I've been living here in New Hampshire for less than 3 years, and I still have a lot to learn about this state's geography. This is the way I located Hoit marsh. It looks great from the satellite, with a lot of vegetation, lily pads and not too deep so I decided to take my wife and our intex inflatable on a cruise. by the way, speaking about intex inflatables, if you buy one, you have to know that there is NO manufacturer's warranty for it. I found this with surprise, after being on hold on the phone with them for twenty minutes (guess what I've been listening to during this time? yeah, about how great their customer service is. luckily the seller from ebay decided to replace the boat by himself, although on the brochure that came with it it said clearly: "do not return the boat to the seller, call this number instead". anyway, the second one i got it's working great and didn't have any seam leak. overall it's a very good raft, sturdy, spacious and i prefer it to kayaks because of the comfort and space provided.

Ok let's return to fishing. unfortunately the water was very dark, not dirty, but it had a deep brown color. I didn't expect too much action and I was right. only a largemouth bass took my lure, a Zoom lizard. The fish had a really dark color, too. for another hour I just had a few more strikes, but no fish decided to take the bait. I also used a berkley gulp worm and a kinami baits worm, but without success. my wife instead was in heaven because the water lilies were so abundant. she took around 200 pictures with flowers and also some bug's privacy was invaded.

The rain put a stop on our trip on Hoit marsh. of course, after we got back on the shore (pretty wet) it stopped, but I also wanted to check a couple of other ponds in the area, next to Sewalls falls, so we took off. this time we didn't take the boat, because we needed to hike for a quarter of mile to get to those ponds, and I didn't know for sure if there is any spot where we can get to the water.
There are two ponds next to each other, around 8-10 acres each, and I managed to get close enough to try some casts. the first one looked really promising, surrounded with lilies and fallen trees, but I only got a strike, from a sunfish probably. the second one instead, although not so pretty, surprised me with the catch of the day: a 2-3 pounder caught from the shore at the 3rd cast. it put a good fight and, after a photo session, ended up back in the water with no harm except some bad memories.