Hripak

2008 Saug. Res. Trout

2009-01-05T18:21:00.006-05:00

The day after christmas has been good to me in the past and this year the Res was kind again, giving up this gorgeous 5lb, 20 " Male from Godfreys Cove.

Two trophies in one day! I had an unbelievable day at the res today. I hooked a rainbow that fought like it was 5 times its size, it pulled more line off the reel than any fish prior, swore it was going to be much bigger than it was. Turned out to be a gorgeous Rainbow around 3 lbs or so, very long and slender, no clipped fins, perfection. That one went back. Within an hour I had caught these two that went 6lbs 2oz and 5lbs 4oz. Those two fish make up my Ten trophy Trout Goal within 3 yrs. much shorter than I ever thought it would take. Of course I didnt have my damn camera so im stuck with these crappy pics of dead fish and no record of the rainbow.

10lb 6 oz Female - Finally beat the double digit mark!

This one is in the process of being mounted by Ricks Trophy Mounts - the beat mounts ive ever seen come out of their shop so im excited.

2007 Saug. Res. Trout

2009-01-05T18:02:00.004-05:00

7lbs 11oz 24" Brown Trout

6lb 10 oz 25" Brown Trout
An ugly sucker, someone had hooked this one and probably tried to horse it in because one of the sides of its jaws was riped off.

8lbs even 24" a Real slug of a brown.
There was an old man fishing next to me that i had just finished telling
" i never catch anything in this place"
This fish had also been hooked and lost before, one of its jaws was
ripped up like the previous fish.

November Trout

2006-11-22T14:20:00.000-05:00

4lb 13oz 22" Female - Saugatuck Reservoir

Looking good in her spawning coloration.

Please keep in mind that is a 4000 size shimano reel in the photo.

Trout

2006-08-16T13:00:00.000-04:00

9lb 1oz Female 27"

Trout

2006-08-16T12:58:00.000-04:00

8lb 7oz Female 28"

Trout

2006-08-16T12:53:00.000-04:00

6lb 12oz Male 25"

ALL RIGGED UP!

2006-06-23T21:57:00.000-04:00

I RIGGED UP THE CANOE TONIGHT SO SHE'S 100% READY TO GO. I PLAN ON GETTING UP AT THE ASS CRACK OF DAWN TO HEAD TO THE RESERVOIR AND THEN DO SOME FISHING UP AT HUNTINGTON PARK, MAINLY FOR THE EASE OF LAUNCH THERE, NOT THE FISHING.

HERE'S AN OVERALL VIEW OF IT ALL RIGGED UP. CHECK OUT THE ROD HOLDERS!

A CLOSE UP OF THE MOUNTS I MADE FOR THE SCOTTY BASES.

THIS IS A SHOT OF THE DECK AND THE HARDWARE THAT TOOK FOREVER TO FIND, SMALL BRASS BOAT HARDWARE IS IMPOSSIBLE TO LOCATE, LET ME KNOW IF YOU NEED HELP FINDING IT SINCE I'VE ALREADY DONE THE LEG WORK.

A LITTLE CLOSER SHOT OF THE INTERIOR.

TWO OTHER BASES I MOUNTED AT THE REAR OF THE CANOE INCASE I FELT LIKE TROLLING OR JUST HANGING A ROD OUT OF THE WAY.

THE CANOE IS FINISHED!!!

2006-06-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

I PUT THE FINAL COAT OF VARNISH ON THE CANOE TONIGHT AND THAT MEANS ITS FINALLY DONE. TOMORROW I WILL ASSEMBLE ALL THE PIECES AND TAKE HER OUT ON A MAIDEN VOYAGE. IT FEELS GREAT TO FINALLY BE DONE, LIKE A HUGE WEIGHT HAS BEEN LIFTED OFF MY SHOULDERS.

HERE IS A SHOT SHOWING THE OUTSIDE, PAINTED GLOSS WHITE. IM NOT TOO PLEASED WITH THE PAINT JOB, IT LOOKS BETTER IN THE PHOTOS. THE PAINT PROVED A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO WORK WITH SO I WILL BE FIXING THAT UP AFTER THE SUMMER IS OVER AND I GET SOME USE OUT OF IT.

I HAD ORIGINALLY WANTED TO PAINT IT BLACK BUT THAT COULDN'T BE DONE FOR A COUPLE REASONS. I AM ACTUALLY REALLY PLEASED WITH THE WAY THE WHITE MAKES THE TRIM AND INTERIOR STAND OUT.

HERE'S A PIC OF THE INTERIOR OF THE BOAT WITHOUT SEATS, NICE AND GLOSSY.

A PICTURE OF ONE DECK.

AND THE OTHER.

THIS IS THE PADDLE I BOUGHT, HANDMADE BY ART AND GENIE IN TINMOUTH, VT, IT'S MADE FROM ASH, BLACK WALNUT AND CHERRY. IT'S REALLY NICE AND I CAN'T WAIT TO USE IT.

IT'S NICE ENOUGH TO HANG ON THE WALL, THANKS GUYS !

Reservoir Trout

2006-05-21T18:18:00.000-04:00

December 2005 - 4lbs 13oz.

April 2006 - 6lb 12 oz.

May 2006 - 4lbs 12oz.

Mike the Mouth's "28 inch / 10lb +"

Blizzard 2006 Fun with Snow and Spray Paint

2006-02-12T14:51:00.000-05:00

I feel like one of my neighbors while I'm writing this, i just dont know what to say about it.

She Floats!

2006-02-11T18:38:00.000-05:00

Well the boat didn't break when I cracked the corona on the bow, and she floats high and dry. This is one small canoe, it looked a hell of a lot bigger in the basement, but it will suit my needs pretty well I think. It handles really well and tracks very straight, it is unlike any canoe I've ever paddled, most of the time you have to stroke on alternating sides to go straight. Not the case with this one, I think the sharp ends have a lot to do with it.
I think that will help on windy days too.

It handles me and Melissa without a problem, I was nervous at first and
warned her we might get wet.

Back to the basement for a wash down, hardware, rod holders and some paint and varnish.

I Caught You This Declicious Trout

2006-02-11T17:44:00.000-05:00

Brown Trout - 20 inches, 2lbs 10oz's

Caught her on a black twisty tail grub in the Saugatuck River today along with a tiny rainbow trout and a small brown.

To date this is my largest river caught trout yet!

She's Ready For Sea Trials!

2006-02-09T19:21:00.000-05:00

Saturday she's goin in the water!

All but paint and varnish is done, the gunnels, decks, seats, and interior get clear coat varnish and the outside gets paint. After that only hardware remains.
The plan is to be fishing on Echo Lake on April 9th, opening day of trout season in Vermont.

Paul Gives It Thumbs Up!

First Trout of 2006

2006-02-07T14:18:00.000-05:00

I got this lunker brown on a small black twisty tail grub fishing inthe Sauagtuck River. I went out for a couple of hours before the super bowl to try and catch Casey some delicious trout for dinner. He would have been small meal so back in the drink to gain some weight.

Canoe Update

2006-02-04T19:31:00.000-05:00

Check out the progress on the canoe. I havent posted much of my progress lately due to some changes in the blogspot format. Im not to happy with it and dont know how to get a decent looking post so i've been less than excited to post periodically.

I'm alomost done and only have paint and varnish left to do at this point. Still a considerable amount of work but it pales in comparison to the woodworking end of the project.

2005-11-01T00:07:00.000-05:00

Some Fall Foliage at Buttermilk Falls

No trout around though, maybe the heavy rains washed them downtown?

Courtney and Melissa playing with fire

A stitched photo of Buttermilks Falls and Melissa Fishing

I tried to get one of these for two years now and I finally landed an Echo Lake Lake Trout,

she was 21.5" long and weighed 2lbs 14 ozs.

To give it some scale

Norwegians insist upon boating safety.

Penfield Reef Striper

2005-07-19T08:53:00.000-04:00

Got the first Striper of 2005 at Penfield Reef on a Sandworm and a Bobber.
Shes pretty small but at least I got the skunk off my rod from our bust of a Block Island Trip.

Caught this one on my reservoir trout rod, 10 lb braided and a 6lb leader, fun as hell, these small stripers are pretty tough.

1st Deck Installed

2005-07-12T18:43:00.000-04:00

Last weekend i got the first deck installed on the canoe. It was hard as hell to curve that solid piece of wood to fit into the curves of the canoe but im happy with the results. I still dont know how to handle the exposed inside edge of the deck but I'll think of something I guess. I'm finding out that I shouldve attempted to finish this project before summer because it is real hard to devote time to it when there is so much more going on. Just taking longer than expected, but it's my own fault.

The grain should look great with some epoxy coats and varnish.
Here are some pictures of the installed deck:

Aaron Apparel

2005-06-17T15:26:00.000-04:00

Anyone wishing to wear Aaron around town is going to have to let me know so I can order the shirts myself. The Website wont allow me to post the shirts in the public area probably due to the swear words.

You can check out what types of shirts they have on Zazzle.com and then give size and style info., I'll order them through my account if you want.
I accept PAYPAL, Cash, & Poker Game Credit from the "Host House" etc.

CHEERS !!

Now we can take him with us everywhere we go. Wearable Aaron!!!!!

2005-06-10T16:02:00.000-04:00

Here is Aaron Fishing and Drinking, his two favorite things. Oh yeah and Party Mix.
The cheap kind from vending machines tastes the best.

I guess the Blog people didnt like your shirts Aaron they asked that i take them off. Damn!

Here is Aaron enjoying some baseball. A beatiful day to Black Out at Shea. Dont Spill any beer on the way down and watch the pavement, it bites back!

I can email the images over if anyone wants to see them

Gunwales Done

2005-05-25T17:19:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I finished epoxying the cherry gunwales on the canoe. They were extremely hard to bend along the curving length of the canoe and I'm glad that part is over. I wanted to join the two ends to form a nice joint but I didn't see any way to achieve that. The wood just doesn't bend enough and to hold it in position would have been virtually impossible.

NICE LOOKING TRIM

2005-05-17T16:11:00.000-04:00

Not too much has been completed on the canoe lately,the spacing on the inwales took me while to figure out. Im onto the trim now so a lot of care needs to be taken to make it all look good and tight. Once I figured out the spacing so that the seats would workout I had to go out and buy a router table $$$$ that would enable me to cut the scuppers cleanly. This is going to be the most expensive canoe you have ever seen. Below is a shot of the gunwales temporarily screwed on prior to epoxying them.

Glassing the Inside

2005-04-21T23:04:00.000-04:00

Here is the inside of the Canoe fiberglassed and clear coated and with one coat of epoxy. One more coat of Epoxy and were ready for all the trim.

I have to say it was a good day

2005-04-16T18:40:00.000-04:00

We landed this beauty after not having any hits for about three hours. I figured something would go wrong and we would lose her but Jay was able to net it and after I finish this post we're going to cook it up. This is the biggest trout I have caughtin the Saugatuck to date. She was around 2lbs. and 18". Its about time!

After the fishing I worked on the canoe for like 6 hours and got a lot done.
Check it out.

Here's a closeup of the interior, it will be left natural so the wood tones and patterns will show up nicely. The nail holes are a little unattractive, maybe next time I will build without nails.

Glassing Done

2005-04-05T20:30:00.000-04:00

The fiberglassing step is finished and I have added the strengthening Fiberglass Strips at the stems/ keel. It looks pretty good except that i had some trouble with the stain that i tried to use to darken the hull with. After applying the first coat of stain the whole canoe turned pink! I tried to darken it a little but then it turned purple so I decided to forget about the stain and go back to the original idea of painting the outside. I wanted to paint it originally anyway, although I would have liked to see it natural outside in the sun.

Next Time.

Guinness Bottles

2005-03-27T19:44:00.000-05:00

Here they are Scott. These are all almost defintley pre 1900 and may go back much farther. The Guinness Factory has been open for 250 years i believe.

All Done Sanding

2005-03-26T16:18:00.000-05:00

I didnt get as far as I would have liked this weekend. The sanding was more time consuming than I had thought. I'm relatively satisfied with the results so far. I'll do a few things differently on my next try, my main goal is to get this one in the water this summer.

Taking a little break.

Please join me in a moment of silence.

2005-03-23T20:49:00.000-05:00

I have finished the hull of the canoe. Lots of sanding and planing is up next then a coat of epoxy, hopefully by the end of this weekend.

Stitch Assist Program

2005-03-20T18:41:00.000-05:00

The stitch assist mode that comes with digital cameras is way better than I thought it was. I was just messing around with it on my computer and this is four photos of a carved piece of granite at Peggy's Cove Nova Scotia. You cant see the seams at all.

ALMOST THERE!

2005-03-20T16:54:00.000-05:00

I'm just about done stripping the hull of the canoe at this point. I figure I can be laying fiberglass by Good Friday. Once I get some epoxy on the hull, all of the colors of the cedar will really stand out. Shes gonna look SWEET!

Keel Strips

2005-03-11T17:57:00.000-05:00

I have reached the part of the canoe stripping process that i have been most worried about. The keel at the stems. I have to bend these godamn strips 90 degrees over a distance of 26 inches. The picture below is what will be my third attempt. CANT WAIT TILL THIS PART IS OVER!

I'm heading down now to give it a shot, AGAIN!

What do you think Walt?

2005-03-01T21:30:00.000-05:00

I like it a lot, I think this is the plan

Black or Natural

2005-02-27T11:57:00.000-05:00

These are finished pictures of someone elses Wee Two.
I doctored up his photos to show the two ways that i can finish my canoes hull.

One way is to leave it natural on the inside and outside.

The other is to finish the outside in a solid color(s) and leave the inside natural.

I like the idea of a jet black outer hull, and maybe even a gold pinstripe.

Got any preferences/ suggestions?

RMR Snocross Chesire Fairgrounds NH

2005-02-26T10:11:00.000-05:00

Canoe Construction Update!

2005-02-25T00:49:00.000-05:00

MORE SUPPLIES HAVE ARRIVED!

I have begun to strip the "turn of the bilge" on the yet to be named WEE TWO CANOE.

A Name For The Canoe

2005-02-15T22:07:00.000-05:00

I need a name for my canoe so if anyone can come up with any good ones place them into the comments area below this post.
Aaron came up with "Dirty Oar" and its gonna be tough to beat that i think.
Whatever one i end up going with im gonna paint onto the side.

Wee Two Canoe Construction

2005-02-15T21:43:00.000-05:00

Here is Aaron helping me set up the forms for the canoe. He gets real bored sometimes, just add beer.

The forms are all level and plum. The 1400 ft of cedar and 30 ft or so of cherry that will make up the bulk of the boat just arrived from Canada.

Here you can see several strips have been applied to the forms. I arranged some strips into a dark and light striped pattern with inlaid diamonds of very light wood.

Here is a closeup of one of the diamonds. If im lucky it will look half this good when im all done.

Niagara Falls Canada

2005-02-04T18:47:00.000-05:00

View of the Horseshoe Falls from the Canadian side.

Ice forms everywhere from all of the mist coming up from the falls.

A closer view of the Horseshoe Falls.

Icy Lamp Post.

The curved structures are lights that iluminate the skating rink in Toronto at City Hall. In the background is CN Tower.

This is a view of the whirpool 5 miles downstream from the falls, in the foreground you can see the Spanish Aero Car which will take you across during the summer. That thing is really old and there is no way in hell I would ride across in it.

A couple of butterflies doing the nasty at the Butterfly Conservatory.

This is a view from our hotel room. At night they illuminate the falls with constantly changing colors.

Jets vs Patriots / Jesse vs. Aaron

2004-12-30T21:38:00.000-05:00

Everyone is enjoying some chili, freezing cold temps, and ice cold beer.
Looks like Sankets grounding is over and he is allowed out of the house. Thanks for the Beer!

Everyone in the stadium, a nice sunset, and the fans are getting increasingly hostile towards patriots fans in helmets (Jesse)

The end result is a fight and as with all fights there has to be a winner.

FINALLY GOT SOME SNOW!

2004-12-20T13:54:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the snow that fell last night on the glass atrium at my work place.

For those of you too lazy to stay awake

2004-10-28T16:09:00.000-04:00

Sorry this ones so fuzzy, it was a B@#*H trying to get the later ones to come out as clear as the early shots.

Hripak

2004-10-01T13:58:00.000-04:00

Hripak

Hey

Comment on any of the girls except my mom.

2004-09-29T15:49:00.000-04:00

This is my mom and her "troop" Dancing at the Summertime Festival in Danbury Connecticut.

Someone Please IM Me!

2004-09-24T14:43:00.000-04:00

Loving the new Kayak

2004-09-09T18:51:00.000-04:00

This ones for you Burke

2004-09-09T18:38:00.000-04:00

Fsihing Off The Cape On The Annie B

2004-09-09T18:17:00.000-04:00

Floating Drunk & Lighting Off Fireworks At Candlewood Lake

2004-09-01T19:33:00.000-04:00