Intro / Reflections on Friendship in Adulthood
Welcome to another episode of the Cottage Chronicles. I'm your host, Neil Colicchio, founder of New Dawn Tackle Company.
I'm recording from a special location today as I prepare for my best friend's wedding reception. This is the first of four weddings that I have to attend in the next two months or so, and it's forced me to reflect a little bit on the importance of the friendships in my adult life.
I was having this discussion with my wife the other day, and I realized that the types of friends and the value that I place on them in my 30s is a lot different from what I expected in my twenties.
I spent a lot of my young adult life trying to surround myself with people that I thought were better than me or had some qualities that I aspired to—different things that I admired or sometimes even material things that I wanted—some kind of tangible piece of their life that I wanted to emulate in my own.
What I realized in my 30s is that even some of those people, some of those friendships that I curated and that I tried to put a lot of effort into didn't pan out how I thought.
People who were, on the surface, more charismatic than me, more successful in their careers, better negotiators, career-minded people, and more educated people. Some of those people that I admired the most play a less significant part in my life now, in my 30s.
What I've found is that after chasing that for 10 years or so—let's say for the 12 years that I've been a working professional—it doesn't amount to much. It doesn't really get to the core of who people are and who they are as friends.
It's not to disparage the friends that I have now, but rather to call out my naivety as a 20-some-odd, and maybe prompt you to tell the people that you love how much you care about them.
What I've realized is this: I've got a lot of friends around me who are a lot different from me. I've got a lot of friends around me who are a lot different than my ideal version of myself. In other words, I don't necessarily aspire to grow up to be them. I don't necessarily want what they have—the lives that they lead—but instead, what I value in my friends today is the diversity of perspective and the different quirks in their characters that complement my own.
I know this is a weird topic to bring up on a show that's really kind of a fishing and small business show, but I've always felt that I wanted this show to present a piece of me, something that I couldn't capture in writing, something I could pass on to my son, some kind of tidbits of wisdom, or maybe just a recording of my dumb mistakes that I made when I was younger.
So, I hope one day we'll listen to this, and I hope that maybe my friends who are getting married and my friends who aren't, the dear people around me, the family that I chose; I hope you all know how much I care about you guys. And I hope you'll listen to this episode and that it's not just an empty platitude.
Really, you guys are anchors in my life. You are an important part of me becoming the person that I'm supposed to be and becoming the dad that I'm supposed to be. And I hope that you'll hold me accountable to be a good person and to be the kind of friend to you that you are to me.
Listener Question
The next topic I want to cover is a listener question. It's been a little while since I featured one of these. I was really happy that I got one submitted this month, and it actually came from my dad. He asked whether it was more exciting to catch a smallmouth bass that I posted maybe a week or two back or a largemouth bass that I posted in late August.
If you haven't followed me on Instagram or Facebook, this largemouth is the biggest freshwater fish maybe that I've ever caught. Once I felt tension on my hook, I thought for sure I was onto some nasty, old, rotten wood or I was going to pull a corpse out of that water, something. And yeah, I saw a dead raccoon like 10 feet away. So, a corpse was a real possibility.
Anyway, biggest bass I've ever caught, largemouth, smallmouth. For sure the biggest fish that I've caught in 30 years or so. I caught another big bass years back with my dad, and I think I talked about that in the last episode. So anyway, that's the largemouth.
The smallmouth came more recently, and I'll talk more about that later in the episode, but all you need to know for now is that it was the first smallmouth I ever caught, and my dad caught his first smallmouth the same weekend.
So, that makes this an unusually hard question to answer. If we're just talking about size and pure excitement, that largemouth blew my mind. I was trembling after I reeled it in. I thought so many times I was going to lose it. I had the hardest time netting it and I was legitimately scared when I was trying to lip that thing. I thought for sure I was going to get hooked.
I was actually looking to catch a big pickerel, but I had no notion that I would catch any bass that day, big or small. The surprise of it was really cool, but I don't have a real sentimental feeling about it. I just kind of caught the big bass; I moved on. You know, I kept fishing that day and caught more small bass. Life goes on.
I now carry a small tape measure around with me, but I didn't at the time. So I don't really have a good measurement to get a taxidermy mount of this thing, a skin mount, or a replica. So, you know, it's just kind of like I have this Instagram picture, I had this happy moment, and I moved on. The smallie is more sentimental to me because my dad caught a fish that weekend.
The smallmouth bass that I caught was maybe an eight-inch fish. It had no weight to it. It hit okay. The mouth got pretty torn up on the spinner that I was using. There was a risk that I could have dropped that fish...
It was a relatively more boring catch than the largemouth. But to have been not really targeting smallmouth... You know, I had it in my mind all summer. This was like a bucket list fish. I wanted to catch one, but I didn't gear up specifically for smallmouth. I didn't hit a body of water specifically for smallmouth. And I happened to catch one the same weekend that my dad caught his first. That makes it, maybe, the cooler catch in my mind.
So, I'm answering this question in two parts. The more exciting catch, for sure, was the largemouth. It was the one that, in that moment, I felt more excitement about. The more enduring excitement, the more significant fish in my life is now probably the smallmouth.
An Unexpected Catch
I guess now's a good time to tell the full story of the smallmouth and why my dad and I even were talking about it in the first place.
I typically share pictures of my catches when I'm out. And especially if he's not able to make it out, sometimes I'll share them just because there's something cool. Sometimes, I'll share them to kind of be a jerk and say, "I'm here. I'm catching fish. Sorry, you're not. Hope you're doing something that's not too boring."
This particular day, I initially wanted to fish in a different part of the river. I was trying to figure out: where could I put my kayak in? Where did I not have to drive that far?
Eventually, I landed at this spot, but I hadn't fished there for my kayak probably in like two years. So I said, "Alright, I'll go here. It looks like there've got to be some sunfish around, maybe some perch, probably some largemouth bass."
When I got in the water, I could see the shape of the river itself had kind of these broad shelves and then a steep, steep drop off. So the shelves were maybe six inches or so deep. And then it would drop to about 12 feet. It was pretty sudden, but there was a nice little ledge that I could fish along and hop my Ned rig along there—from that 12-foot deep section up into the shallows.
After a couple of hours fishing the shelves and cruising the main channel, I came out to an area where the river spilled into a sandbar. The middle was one big standing tree that kind of divided up the river into a deeper pool on my right and a shallow sandbar area with some grass beds far to the left.
I started fishing to the right-hand side, I hooked into a couple of good perch, and at some point, around this time, I was throwing a spoon just into the deeper section of the main river. Something hammered it, but I didn't set the hook quickly enough to actually figure out what kind of fish it was. I thought maybe it was a largemouth; it was kind of a weird section, but maybe there was a lingering grass bed that had kind of wilted that I couldn't see beneath the surface. Maybe there was even a log that I'd missed when I was cruising by. Something was a little bit weird. But after catching these in the deep pool to the right side, I thought maybe it was one of them.
When I passed the tree, I turned the boat around and started fishing the grass beds on the opposite bank. At this point, I switched to a spinner and I was casting along the perimeter of these reeds when something similar to that first mystery hit slammed my lure again. I didn't really set the hook well, but this time, I gradually applied more pressure as I was reeling, figuring at least I could keep enough pressure on to snag the fish.
When I got it in, I could see that I had a bass, but it didn't dawn on me that it was any different than the largemouth that I'd caught earlier in the day when I was fishing the shelves. As I examined it more, I saw this kind of dark green, like bronzy sort of color to it. The belly and the gills almost looked bluish at first, the way that it reflected the sun.
Immediately, I knew... When I saw the back of this thing, immediately it struck me that I had a smallmouth bass. I looked at the eyes of it. I could see they weren't the dark eyes of most of the largemouth I've been catching this year, but they had a lighter ring with a dark pupil in the center. It gave it away instantly.
In Search of Slime Darts
However, not every trip is always a success. Not every fish comes in the net. I often go home skunked at the end of a long day on the water.
If you've been following along, you might know that I have this personal vendetta against—I'd like to think that it started this season, but as I look back, I think it started about a decade ago, maybe more. I always fish the same river, but I fish different sections depending on what kind of fish I'm looking for, what season it is, and who's with me, whether I feel like taking my kayak out, and any other number of factors.
Years back, I caught a sunfish that was pursued by the biggest pickerel that I've ever personally tangled with. That was in a section of river just above the dam at the end of the street near my house. That same dam has a creek below it where my dad once hooked into a similar-sized pickerel. In his pickerel fight, his rod got snapped.
I've always thought these monsters must still be out there. I don't know how long a pickerel lives. I suspect those same fish are probably not in those same sections of river. But it stands to reason that if that river could produce one fish like that, it could produce two, three, maybe dozens. There've got to be more out there.
I talked about this large pickerel that I hooked and dropped just outside of the lily pads. The same area where I caught the big largemouth bass that I was just talking about moments ago. That was the fish I was after when I caught the bass. I was out for pickerel that day. My tackle was meant for pickerel. My mindset was meant for pickerel. I was going for pickerel. I was dead set on it.
That day I had great luck with bass; I caught no pickerel. On subsequent trips along that stretch of river, I've caught some small pickerel but nothing really noteworthy. Nothing that I'd write about in the blog or feature on the podcast. Then, a couple weeks ago, I had another experience with people taking up the entire boat launch, taking up all the parking spots. And once again, it forced me to fish a different section of river.
So I went back to the pond. I went back to the section above the dam, the spot where I saw my big pickerel chase my sunfish years ago. I hate fishing there this time of year because it's full of algae, it's full of lily pads, and there's full wind exposure. So, if I'm on the kayak, I get blown all over the place.
What I did to combat that was roll up onto a big bed of lily pads and look for a big opening and fish that.
It was mid-afternoon. The sun was high. I figured I kind of missed my opportunity at any big fish, but I was going to fish in this clearing anyway between the lily pads. I hoped that maybe there were some bass cruising around the edges. Or if not, maybe there were some sunfish taking cover there.
So, I rolled up onto the lily pads, cast my spinner across this clearing, and out of nowhere came this giant green flash. It slammed my spinner, and it started pulling drag. That's not something that happens, so I knew it had to be a large bass or a good-sized pickerel.
The water was maybe three feet deep. I was surrounded by lily pads. It really could have gone either way. It was deeper than the spots where I caught most of my pickerel recently. But if that fish was a pickerel, it was double to triple the size of any pickerel that I've caught this year.
I fought it probably for two or three minutes. It couldn't have been that long. I fought this fish until I could feel the pressure in the line, and I knew what was coming. If I kept going, the line was going to snap without a doubt. So I paused; I went to set the drag, and as soon as I did, there went my lure, and there went my fish. Back into the lily pads, never to be seen again.
I wanted to pack up and go home at that point. This is now three monster pickerel that I've lost. Even if it was a bass, it was a big enough fish that I still would have been mad. I still would have been just about done with my day. I continued to fish around. I went by a beaver dam. I went by some small islands, fished up in the shallows, and fished some other sections of pads. I even returned to the clearing on my way back in.
But there was no sign of that fish.
I'm now feeling more determined than ever to catch a PB pickerel. And I don't mean a 12 or 14-inch fish. I mean something like state record size. I know there's a giant in the water. There might even be multiple. And I know the cool weather is coming up. I know I've already seen the smaller pickerel coming out, going after beetle spins and the metal lures that I like to throw.
I'm uniquely qualified as an angler because of the style of lures that I use. I love flashy metal things. I love lures that make noise. I like a lot of the same things that attract pickerel. And when other people are out targeting trout, a lot of times I'm out targeting pickerel. So I'm feeling the frustration of missing these big fish.
But more than anything, I'm feeling stoked about fall. I can't wait for the temperatures to drop just a tiny bit more and for those pickerel to come out because I'll be there waiting for them.
The Haunted Lure
Speaking of fall, next month will be Halloween and I don't know when my next episode is going to come out. I've got a couple more weddings coming up soon. I'm going to get some of the spooky stuff in this episode and I hope that my listeners will give me some cool stuff for next month so maybe we can continue with the theme.
This started with a lure that I found the other day when I was out fishing with my brother. The lure itself I actually picked up a while back. I talked about going micro fishing with my friend Mike in my last episode when my rod broke, and we were fishing under the overpass.
During that time, when I was ruminating and reflecting on what went wrong, I was pacing up and down the bank, and I found a couple of other snags. It was a super snaggy area full of rocks, full of debris, and I was able to recover two lures. One of them was a spinner; I think it's about a size two. It's got a black blade with yellow spots on it and a dressed treble hook with sort of a white feather on it.
I thought it was a cool lure at the time and made a note to take it out the next time that I went on the kayak. That section of river was clearly a little too sketchy for it. It was too heavy. It was definitely going to get snagged that day. So I'd take it out the next time that I was in deeper water. So the next trip came and went. I took the lure with me. I even took a picture of it before I cast, figuring there was no way it was going to make it through two trips.
It was going to get snagged, and I'd never see it again. But in the meantime, I thought maybe I'd catch an okay-sized bass with it. Maybe even an overzealous perch. So I took my picture, I cast the lure and I swear that I either snagged it in a tree or I snagged it on the bottom. For sure, I did not go home with this lure in my tackle tray. There is no way in my mind that it was with me by the next time I went on the water.
I think a couple of trips passed between the last time I used this lure and the more recent trip with my brother. So Nick and I are out on the water. We're cruising the river. I was throwing beetle spins this day.
I love inline spinners. What's not to love about a beetle spin? So I was casting the beetle spin. I got into an OK-sized bass. I got a couple of small pickerel. I got some bluegills. Sooner later, my first beetle spin broke off. I tied on a second one, fished a while longer, and eventually, that one broke off, too.
The water's relatively shallow right now, so I was just going to fish spinners and things that were going to sit higher in the water column and be less prone to snagging. Most of my other spinners are pretty beat up right now because I've been really abusing them. I dug through my tackle tray, and there it was, the black spinner with the yellow spotted blade and the white dressed treble hook.
I don't know where it came from. I don't know when it got in my tackle tray. I'm quite certain I didn't put it away there. In any case, I tied it on, and I fished for a while longer. First, I caught it on the bottom. Within one or two tugs, it came loose. Then I caught it in a tree. Again, one or two tugs, and it came loose.
Then, a third time, another snag on the bottom. And once more, one or two tugs, it came loose. I could not lose this lure, no matter how hard I tried. It got to a point where I was determined to get rid of this thing, get this bad voodoo out of my boat, get this negative thing out of my life. I'm convinced that I have a haunted lure.
I can't get rid of it. I can't leave it behind. I can't snag it and leave it for somebody else to pick up. I don't know how to get rid of this thing. And worse yet, I've never caught a fish on it. I'm not a real superstitious guy. I've got a lucky fishing hat.
I'd be happy to sell you a fishing hat if you want a lucky fishing hat of your own. But otherwise, I don't follow a lot of superstitions. I don't bring bananas on other people's boats out of respect for those that have that superstition. I don't really have any pre-fishing rituals. I don't have any super lucky or super unlucky lures. I wouldn't even say I really have any unlucky colors.
I guess I've got a lucky color now. I've found this particular Ned rig trailer that has worked really well for that big bass, and I've also found one that works really well for crappie. But otherwise, this is the first experience for me with something that feels a little bit defying explanation.
Call for Submissions/Outro
So I challenge you listeners to give me something for next month. Tell me your weird fishing traditions, your scary stories, and if you give me anything good, I'd love to feature it on the next episode.
If you can't think of a cool story or you don't have any fishing traditions, use it as a prompt for a listener question. I really do want to continue to feature that segment in my show. It's something I don't get enough of, and I have a really hard time going out and asking for it proactively. So if you'd do me a favor, send me your thoughts, send me your feedback, send me your questions.
If you liked this episode, check me out on Instagram and Facebook, follow me on Spotify, and leave me a review. Until next time, tight lines and happy fishing.
