2012 Nov 29 - Dominican Republic Mahi Mahi

Frank and I went on vacation to the Dominican Republic with my niece Caitlin and her husband Steve. We decided to go on a 1/2 day deep sea fishing trip. None of us had ever done this before so we didn't know what to expect as we watched the crew troll the bait across the top of  the water.  It was slow and an hour and a half had passed before the first mate Eli jumped up and grabbed one of the poles. He quickly turned to us and said "One of the ladies, please get into the chair!".  I didn't expect ladies to go first, so when my niece turned to me and said "You Go!", I  jumped at the chance and got into the chair for the hardest fight of my life.  The fight must have lasted 15 minutes and my arms were ready to fall off, but I couldn't give up.  At one point the fish jumped and that was when I saw how large it was.  Frank cheered me on and I finally got the fish close enough for Eli to gaff it. This is the biggest fish I have ever caught and I can't imagine I will ever do this again - it was so hard and I was just lucky the crew let "ladies go first" and my niece gave me the first shot.
Unfortunately, the crew didn't find any other fish that day except for 1 Red Snapper on the way in. The crew gave that strike to another person on the boat - so it was very disappointing for the rest of my family :-(

Esther with 50 lb Mahi Mahi

2012 Sept - Sunfish

We have continued to enjoy fishing in Maine this summer.  I can't post pictures of everything we catch, and I never thought I would post a picture of a sunfish, but I thought this was a particularly large one for me to catch -  9" 3/4 lb. sunfish.

Esther with a 9" 3/4 lb. sunfish

2012 Aug 5 - Fishing with my Brother-in-law

My sister Mary, her husband Dick, and daughter Aimee came up to Maine and spent the weekend with us. Dick hasn't fished in freshwater for years so we couldn't wait to show him how good the fishing is in Maine.  Unfortunately, it was August and hot out, so the fishing was not very good on the first day.  The next day, I went out with them to bring Dick some good luck.  We weren't out too long before Dick hooked into a nice bass.  It was a beauty - 2-1/2 lb largemouth!  I was  responsible for the camcorder (which I don't use very often), so in my haste to get his catch filmed, I messed up and didn't get a picture of his bass :-(

I did get pictures of a couple of his other fish that day, but not the big one!  Sorry Dick  - you will have to come back and try again next year.

Dick caught this pickerel

Dick with a small largemouth bass

2012 July 27 - Maine Loons

We decided to try fishing on Echo Lake. It was a sunny hot summer day and the fishing was terrible! We didn't catch anything but we did get to see a loon with a baby. It was the first time ever I have seen a mother loon with a baby.

Mother and baby loon

2012 July 26 -Trolling

As it gets warmer it gets harder to catch fish.  But I am having luck by trolling a rapala and here are a couple of the fish I have caught that way.

Esther with a good sized perch

Esther with a pickerel

2012 June 30 - Maine

The fishing had slowed down in the second half of June so we decided to go out fishing in the morning instead of late afternoon. It was a perfectly calm morning and we got out fishing by 8 a.m.  As we made our way to our fishing spot, we passed a group of ducks still sleeping on the rocks.

Female Mallard ducks sleeping

We were catching a few fish but nothing too noteworthy until we got to the backside of an island.  I was casting to lillypads and on one cast I got a strike immediately and as I reeled my line in, it felt very odd to me.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I pulled my rapala out of the water - I had caught 2 perch on the same lure with that cast, one on each  hook!

 

Esther with a double hook-up!

A short while later I saw a fish jump at a dragon fly near a lily pad, so I of course cast right to that spot.  The fish attacked the rapala and I caught a nice smallmouth bass.  But I was surprised to see, on the same cast, my rapala had also hooked a dragon fly!
I guess that is what I like about fishing, you never know what is going to happen.

I caught a smallmouth bass and a dragon fly on the same cast.

2012 Early June - Maine

Frank with a 3 lb 18" largemouth bass

Fishing in the first half of June was very good and we caught more bass than we can show.  Here is one of the large bass that Frank caught.

2012 June - Maine Perch

Frank with a 12" 3/4 lb yellow perch

Out favorite lake has a lot of perch and they can be fun to catch.  There is one cove we have named "Perch Cove" because we have found on many occassions you can catch a perch on every cast.  We measured a couple of the larger ones and we both had caught a 12" 3/4 lb perch.

2012 Memorial Day Weekend - "I Caught Another One!"

My niece, Caitlin, and her husband Steve came up to go fishing with us for the weekend.  We had a beautiful weekend and the fishing was great for all of us.

Caitlin, Steve and their 3 dogs head out for a day of fishing

Caitlin landed a huge largemouth bass!

My niece doesn't fish very often and she couldn't believe how many fish we were catching.  She was excited at first but towards the end of the day we heard her say to her husband with disappointment in her voice "I caught another one!"
I guess she had had enough.  I never have enough when the fishing is good!

Frank with his 3-1/4 lb largemouth bass

Esther with a largemouth bass (not as big as Frank's!)

2012 May 18 - Maranacook Lake

A beautiful sunny day in the high 60's so we decided to try a new lake.  The day started off slow with Frank catching a lot of small perch. It picked up later in the afternoon when Frank hooked into a couple of large bass.  He lost the first one, but landed the second one.

Frank with a 3-lb largemouth bass

It was then I got busy casting and in a short while, I landed a 3 lb 18" smallmouth, and a 2-1/2 lb smallmouth.  I hooked a couple of others but lost them.  The #2 silver Mepps skirted spinner was working the best.

Esther with a 3lb 18" smallmouth bass

2012 May 11 - Maine

It started out as another typical good day of fishing in Maine.  We were both catching a few nice bass when we decided to explore the outlet stream on this lake.  As we entered the stream, I heard some splashing and looked down to see this red squirrel swimming furiously toward our boat!  I didn't know if it was going to try and climb into the boat, but it just came right up to it and then swam by to head for the opposite side of the stream.  As it approached the shore, the water suddenly exploded as a bass tried twice to gobble the squirrel down!  Lucky for the squirrel, the bass missed and the squirrel made it safely to shore. I have never seen a squirrel  swim before, and it happened so fast, I didn't get any pictures, but I did find a video clip on YouTube that is similar to what happened to us - so it does happen!

Esther with a 16" smallmouth bass. I caught this before all of the excitement with the squirrel.

2012 May 2 - Maine

Our first day out fishing from our cottage in Maine this year.  It was a gray cold day but we stayed out for about 3 hours.  I caught 6 largemouth bass, 2 smallmouth bass and lost another 2 largemouth bass. I measured one of the bass at 18" and at least 4 of the bass were around this size and they all looked pregnant.  Frank caught a nice smallmouth by trolling with a Mepps spinner and he caught a nice largemouth as well.

2012 April - Florida Ladyfish

There is a fishing pier not too far from where we stay in Florida.  We decided to fish from the pier using the same bait we used in the kayaks.  We had some luck and we both caught some Ladyfish. Frank also caught a sea trout.


Esther with a small ladyfish

Frank with a bigger ladyfish

Frank with a sea trout

2012 April - Kayak Fishing in Florida

We decided to try kayak fishing on this trip to Florida.  We hired a guide  and set out to catch sea trout and snook.

 

Frank and the guide



The guide taking a picture of Esther with her sea trout

We paddled 45 minutes down the river to get to the Gasparilla Sound and then began casting to a sunken barge that attracted schools of fish.  I almost immediately got stuck on the barge and Frank very quickly got a bite.  Unfortunately when he set the hook, he went right over backward into the water!  Thank goodness he had a life jacket on, because the water was quite deep.  As he hung onto the kayak, he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw a large dark fin pass through the water right in front of him!  To his relief, it was a dolphin, not a shark.
The guide paddled over to him and said he could not get into the kayak in this deep water and would have to be towed to shore. Luckily there was an island close by so he got back to fishing pretty quickly.

Frank being towed to shore

We got back to fishing and had a good day catching some new fish for us.  I caught a black sea bass, a sea horn pout and a sea trout. Frank caught several sea trout, a lizard fish and a snook.  Unfortunately I was too far away to get any photos of his fish.

Esther with a sea horn pout

Esther with a sea trout

A lizard fish

 

A snook

Black sea bass

2011 Sept - Oseetah Lake, NY

We spent a week in Lake Placid and we took 1 day to fish Oseetah Lake.  We had fished this lake a few years ago and had a great day catching all kinds of fish. Unfortunately, that experience was not repeated today.  We went all over the lake and did not catch anything. We decided to head in and made some casts into the shaded areas along shore in the narrower part of the lake as we headed in.  This is where we found the pike!  We caught at least 6 pike in a short span of time.  Here are pictures of 2 of them.

Esther with a pike

Frank with a bigger pike!

2011 Aug 8 - Maine

We spent some time at our cottage in Maine in August and had the opportunity to try fishing our favorite pond in the summer.  We were very happy to see the bass were hitting rubber worms at this time of year.

Esther with a 16" 2-1/2 lb largemouth bass

Esther with a 16" 1-3/4 lb. smallmouth bass

Frank with a nice largemouth bass

2011 July 17 - Bethel, Maine

We spent a week in Bethel and Frank landed this nice smallmouth bass just fishing from the shore.

Frank with a smallmouth bass

2011 July 9 - Maine

I spent a Girls Away weekend with my sister Mary, and her daughter Caitlin at the camp that my husband and I bought on a lake in Maine.  As soon as we got there, Caitlin cast a line into the water.  Unfortunately she did get caught in the weeds and had to go in to retrieve the lure!

Caitlin looking concerned at what might be in the water with her!

2011 June - Shoreline Camp

We had a beautiful week at Shoreline Camps on Big Lake in Grand Lake Stream, Maine.  We saw lots of nature and caught a lot of fish too.

A fishing guide taking 2 people out fishing in his West Grand Laker canoe

A female goldeneye duck with her baby

Frank with a large shiner.

 One night we fished an area on the lake that had a great big patch of weeds and lilly pads.  We found if we dragged a weedless frog or buzz bait across the weeds it was a guarantee to have a pickerel strike!  The action was nonstop.

Esther with one of her Big Lake pickerels

Frank with  a 22" pickerel

2011 June - Bear Spring Camps

June is our favorite month for fishing and we planned a lot of trips this year to go fishing. This trip was to Bear Spring Camps in Maine.

Esther with a 2 lb 17 " smallmouth bass

We love Great Pond because you have the opportunity to catch Pike.  I caught a couple this trip, none as large as the monster Frank caught a few years ago. Notice I now wear a special glove when landing pickeral and pike.

Esther with a 4 lb 25" northern pike

Here is a video of this same pike.

Great Pond has lots of different types of fish.  Here is a nice crappie and a nice smallmouth that Frank caught.

Frank with a large crappie

Frank with a nice smallmouth

The biggest surprise was when Frank was using a new lure - a large realistic plastic perch lure - to catch a pike. As he worked his lure a curious turtle kept coming to the surface closer and closer.  Frank was shocked on his last retrieve when the turtle actually hit the bait below the surface! Fortunately he was not hooked very deep, he had the bait in his mouth and one paw was hooked. When Frank got a hold of the large lure, the turtle pushed himself off the hook and went down to the bottom.

Curious turtle that kept hanging around

We would go out late in the afternoon for the pike and our last night there we had a beautiful sunset.  We also were seeing eagles swoop down and catch fish out of the water.  We didn't catch any pike that night but it was a nice way to end our vacation.

 

2011 May 28 - Maine

This Memorial Day weekend we had company fishing in Maine. My niece Caitlin and her husband Steve came up to try fishing our favorite pond in Maine. Fishing started off a little slow and then Caitlin caught the first big bass.

Cait caught the first large fish of the day

Not sure she likes this lip-landing

Frank caught the next largemouth.

 Then Steve landed one.

Finally I caught one!

Esther with one of her largemouth bass