1997 July - Maine

Frank and a largemouth bass

Another weekend in Maine and Frank catches a nice bass on our favorite lake.

1996 March - Cape Coral, Florida

Frank catching a Florida bass

No matter where we go, Frank is ready to cast a line.  Here we took a drive to Cape Coral to see the land that my family owned.  The town has a network of canals through it, but in this section the land is overgrown with reeds and the water does not go out to the ocean.  It didn't stop Frank from catching a fish!

1995 May - Grand Lake Stream, Maine

Frank the fly fisherman

Esther with her new fly fishing gear

You can't go to Grand Lake Stream and not fly fish!  Seeing I was successful on our first trip, I decided to go all out and get the gear for this trip. Now I have waders and a vest - but I still have my lucky inexpensive rod and reel from K-Mart.  We looked good, but we didn't catch anything.

1995 May - St. Croix River, Maine

Hubert our Guide and Esther

Hubert prepared our catch

We enjoyed our previous experience hiring a guide in Maine, so we decided to do it again.  Our guide this time was Hubert and he was getting along in years but he still got us into a great fishing spot towards the end of the day.  It was a dragon fly hatch and the fish were biting with every cast.

1995 March - Englewood, Fla

Esther with a 5-1/2 lb Largemouth

I remember I had a cold and didn't really feel like doing anything, but I went with Frank to fish the small pond right down the street from his mother's condo in Fla. When I hooked into this bass, I forgot all about how I was feeling.  This was my biggest largemouth bass ever!

1994 Sept - Assateague Island, Maryland



Frank strikes again!

 We went on vacation to Ocean City Maryland and tried surfcast fishing again. 

Our fishing was interrupted when a herd of wild ponies came strolling down the beach!

Assateague ponies

There are several local legends about the origins of the ponies on Assateague. The most popular is that the ponies swam ashore from a Spanish ship that had run aground, while another story has it that they came from a wrecked ship that had been on its way to the English colonies. A third claims that pirates brought the ponies to the island.
In any event, the ponies have been on Assateague for about 300 years. While the early ponies had solid coloring, a good number now have brown and white patches due to interbreeding with new ponies brought to the island in the last hundred years.

1994 May - Laurel Lake in the Berkshires

Esther with a 3-3/4 lb Largemouth bass

We spent a week in the berkshires and discovered Laurel Lake.  Had a great day of fishing there.

1994 March - Red Snapper and Grunt, Florida

Stringer of our catch for the day

We went out on a fishing charter while we were in Florida.  We had a good day and caught several red snappers and some Grunts.  The grunts get their name because they make a grunting sound while you are trying to get the hook out!  We kept this batch and Frank's mom cooked them and they were really good.

1993 October - Red Drum, Outer Banks, No Carolina

Frank has hooked into something!




After fishing the Point, we decided to find an easier spot for fishing and there are miles of beaches to choose from on the Outer Banks.  We picked a spot and we both caught our first Red Drum fish!



Esther's first Red Drum



Frank's first Red Drum

We also had the opportunity to see some of the wild ponies that roam on the outer banks!

Wild pony on the Outer Banks

1993 October - Hatteras Point, North Carolina

Esther fishing at Hatteras Point

Hatteras Point

Frank had read about the legendary Harreras Point in North Carolina.  This is where the gulf stream current meets the current from the north. The sea is really turbulent and great for fishing. So we had to go there to fish.  Most people that fish there have a 4-wheel drive vehicle and simply drive down the long stretch of beach. All we had was a rental car, so we had to walk carrying all of our fishing gear.  The beach was lined with SUVs and trucks all the way down the beach.  We could see people catching some bluefish every now and then but overall it seemed pretty slow. We walked all the way to the point and fished for hours but did not catch anything.  Now we had to make the long journey back to our car. Frank walked ahead of me and we tried to walk close to the water where the sand is packed and easy to walk in.  The problem we ran into was that every few feet we encountered a fishing line from a pole that was planted in the sand.  Frank decided to yell a warning to me  so I wouldn't walk into one.  After awhile, we were exhausted and Frank decided it was too hard to keep turning around to give me the warning.  So at one point, as he looked straight ahead he yelled to me "Watch the line!".  A  fisherman who was sitting on the tailgate of his truck thought Frank was yelling at him and he jumped up and held his fishing pole high up in the air so both Frank and I could walk under the line! We still laugh about this to this day.

1993 February - Florida Red Snapper

Frank with a red snapper

During our annual trip to Florida, we went out on a fishing charter again.  This time Frank caught a red snapper.  We had them fillet the fish and we brought it home and Frank's mom cooked it.  It was really good!

1992 July - Frank and George

Frank and George

My brother George joined us camping and fishing this weekend.  When the fishing is good, it is so hard to come in off the water.  Here is Frank and George coming in as the sun was setting over the water.

1992 May 30th - Maine

Frank with a largemouth bass

Esther with a pickerel

Another spring and another great weekend fishing in Maine.  We used to love going out on Memorial Day weekend.  Most of the time we never saw another boat.  We had this whole pond surrounded by beautiful woods all to ourselves.

1992 Jan - Ice Fishing on Echo Lake

Frank and I sitting on our ice fishing sled with wind screen.

George and I

We decided to go ice fishing in Fayette Maine with my brother George.  It was an extremely cold day. What we didn't know - was that the Maine weather stations were telling ice fishermen not to go out that day! Needless to say we didn't hear the weather report and drove 3-1/2 hrs up to Maine.  It was only 8 degrees with high winds. We didn't catch anything, it was even too cold for the fish to come out.  George and I did have some fun eating hot dogs and having a c-o-l-d beer, but Frank was too frozen to partake in the fun.

1991 June - Largemouth Bass

Esther with a nice Largemouth bass

Fishing is always good in Maine and this day was no exception with this largemouth bass I caught.

1991 April - Frank's Trophy Trout

Frank with his 24", 4-1/2 lb Brook Trout

There is a very deep pond (100'+ deep) in Maine that is surrounded by conservation land.  We have deeded access to this pond with the land we purchased in Maine.  It's not easy to get to the pond; you have to walk a good distance through the woods.  So it took a lot of effort for us to carry our gear in and wheel our 17' canoe in as well. Although it was April  it was quite cold, and there was still some ice around the edges of the pond, but it was peaceful in there.  There was only one other person fly-fishing from a canoe on the pond that day.  Frank was using a cicada lure which is very heavy so he could get down deep into the pond.  I felt bad because everytime Frank cast, it made a big splash and the fly-fisherman kept looking over at us as though we were disturbing him. But the lure paid off for Frank.  He cast out and at first he thought he was stuck on something way down deep because he couldn't reel it in.  Then he realized it was a fish! We couldn't believe it when he landed it and we got a look at this trout.  It was that day that we decided we had to keep track of who catches the biggest fish of each type.  So the record stands even today, 20 years later, Frank has the record for the largest trout!

1990 Sept - Whitehall Reservoir

Frank, Paul and Priscilla

We went fishing at Whitehall Reservoir in Hopkington, Ma with our friends, Priscilla and Paul.  I don't remember what we caught, but we had a good time out in their bass boat!

1990 June 23 - Maine

My brother George with a largemouth bass

In June, my brother George joined us for a weekend.  We had a great time fishing and camping.

1990 May 5 - Maine

Frank with a pickerel

The Lady of the Lake with a smallmouth

Early spring finds us fishing our favorite pond in Maine.  Here Frank shows off one of the large pickerel we so often catch, while I am showing off my smallie and my hat!

1990 April 22 - Wachusett Reservoir

Frank's 3 lb 12 oz Smallmouth

My brother George took Frank and I to his favorite place to fish, Wachusett Reservoir.  George would go there every week to catch lake trout or salmon.  To catch them you throw out your line with a bobber and wait for a trout to come by.  Not a very exciting way to fish.  So Frank was bored and decided to cast a line in and try to catch something with a spinner.  He kept working the shore while George and I sat there and watched him.  George looked at me and said "Persistent isn't he"  I laughed and agreed as Frank worked his way out of our sight.  A little time passed and then we saw Frank walking back carrying a big fish - a 3 lb 5 oz smallmouth!  He let it go and went back to his fishing.   A few minutes later, he came back with an even bigger one - 3 lb 12 oz!  At this point, George and I picked up our rods and tried casting from shore too, but we didn't have the luck (or persistence) that Frank did that day.

1990 March - Florida Grouper

Esther with a Grouper

We started to go to Florida each year to visit Frank's mom and stepdad.  On this trip, we went out on a bottom fishing trip and I caught my first Grouper.

1990 Jan 14 - Ice Fishing

Frank ice fishing

Frank's first fish caught ice fishing

Frank decided to try ice fishing.  I don't think he caught anything on the fishing pole, but he was successful with the tip-up.  He caught his first largemouth bass through the ice!

1989 Sept - Ontario, Canada

We went to Ontario on vacation and fished an area called the Hundred Thousand Islands.  I caught my first small Northern Pike there and here is Frank landing a largemouth bass.

1989 August 20 - Esther's Trophy Smallmouth, Maine

It was a calm gray drizzly day and Frank and I had our rain suits on.  We were picking along the shore when I hooked into something really big.  I had never felt such a fight before and was afraid I would lose it.  But I brought it to the surface and Frank landed it for me and then I snapped this photo.  We couldn't believe it, we had never seen such a large smallmouth bass.  Not wanting to harm it, we quickly put it back in the water, so I didn't even get a picture of me holding this prize fish!  I actually thought they were all this large in Maine, but I soon found out they are not all this large and in fact, it took me 21 years to beat the size of this smallmouth bass.

Esther's 4 lb Smallmouth Bass

Esther

1989 August - Maine

We went up to Maine and camped our land so we could fish almost every weekend.  Some fishing trips were more successful than others, as you can see by Frank's catch! 

Frank's little perch

One good weekend, we caught a pair of 2-1/2 lb smallmouths and decided to  keep one of them for dinner.  Unfortunately, when we got back to the campsite to prepare dinner, I realized I was missing a key ingredient.  So we threw the coleman stove, frying pan and fish into the car and headed to the nearest store in Belgrade Lakes, which was 20 minutes away.  We had stayed on the water so long, I was starving and knew there was no way I could wait to get back to the campsite to cook.  Right next to the store was a small public park on Long Pond.  I set up my stove, and proceeded to fillet and cook my fish.  Some other tourists came into the park and they started to photograph me as I prepared my fish and cooked it. They must have thought I was a local Mainiac living off the land!

Esther with one of the 2-1/2 lb smallmouth bass

1989 May 29 - Maine

We had just bought 4 acres of land in Mainr and this was our first fishing trip on the pond we have deeded access to.  I decided to troll across the lake to see what I could catch and was pleased to quickly catch this perch.

Esther's perch

I continued to fish, remembering what the guide had taught us and I caught a smallmouth .  

Esther's smallmouth bass

Then I caught a largemouth, each fish got bigger and bigger.  Yes this is mine! Frank is just holding it since he frequently helped me land the fish. 

Esther's largemouth bass

1989 May 26 - 28 - Leen's Lodge, Grand Lake Stream Maine

Our first big fishing trip was to Grand Lake Stream in Maine.  We stayed at Leen's Lodge which is a fishing lodge that Ted Williams used to stay at.  We had 3 full days of fishing adventures. 

Esther and Frank at Angler cabin at Leen's Lodge

It was a  windy day with huge waves on the lake, but it didn't stop us from trying to troll for salmon on West Grand Lake.  The woman from Leen's lodge was very nervous and watched us from shore.  She was glad (and so was I ) when we gave up and came in.

Frank Trolling for Salmon on West Grand Lake

Next, we tried fly fishing on Grand Lake stream.  Frank had all of the proper gear, but I didn't.  I wasn't sure if I would like fly fishing, so all I had was an inexpensive flyrod from K-mart and no waders.  So Frank carried me on his back and set me down on a sand bar so I could fish the stream.  It didn't take long for me to fish the area and decide there were no fish where I was.  So Frank carried me back and I told him I would just fish from shore. 

He proceeded to go into the deeper water at the base of the dam as shown below.  Meanwhile, I found 1 spot with just enough room for the backcast of my fly line and almost immediately I hooked into a salmon!  I screamed "I got one" and the salmon jumped out of the water for Frank to see.  I proceeded to clumsily land the salmon and quickly let it go, after it tumbled off my hook into the sand.  It wasn't long before Frank was on land next to me to see if he could catch one too.

Frank fly fishing Grand Lake Stream

Our next adventure was to hire a guide who took us onto the St. Croix river.  I had no confidence I would catch anything and I remember asking the guide if he ever took someone out and they did not catch any fish. He said "Never!", but I had my doubts.  Well the guide was right, and I did catch some bass, enough for us to have a nice lunch. 

My first smallmouth

Guide cooking up Esther's fish

1988 - My new Fishing Partner, Frank

Frank Dec 1988

Frank and I met in Dec 1987 and one of things we learned about each other is that we had both enjoyed fishing as kids, but had gotten away from fishing.  We decided to give it a try again and our first efforts in 1987 were not very good.  So Frank started reading a lot about fishing - where to go, how to fish etc.  And for Christmas 1988, I gave Frank a lot of fishing gear and I also gave him this tee shirt because that was what we intended to do - kick bass!

1987 - Ice Fishing with my Brothers

Mike and Henry - friends from work, Esther, and my brothers George and Kenny

My brother George loves to ice fish and on occasion I would meet up with him and do some ice fishing.  But it would have to be a sunny warm day for me to go out there.  This day my younger brother Kenny joined us and a couple of people I knew at Waters showed up as well.



Esther with her pickerel