2013 Nov - Florida Inshore Fishing

We hired a guide, Erick Joseph, of Tails and Scales Charters in Florida to take us on an Inshore fishing trip.  http://www.tailsandscalescharters.com/
We had a beautiful day with calm waters and we spent 6-1/2 hours trying various spots and techniques to catch some Redfish and Snook.  Frank did hook into one Snook at the end of the day, but unfortunately the line broke!  We had a good time anyway and caught several other fish through out the day:  Sheepshead, sea trout, horn pout, Jack Crevalles, and a Lady fish. 

Frank with a nice Sheepshead.  I love Frank's hat:-)

My first Jack Crevalle of the day.  I caught a lot of these and many were larger than this, but I didn't get any other pictures, I was too busy catching.

Esther with her largest Sea Trout of the day.

2013 Aug 3-8 - Maine Largemouth Bass

The bass have been hitting the wacky worm in the early evening.   Here are a couple of the nice largemouth bass we have been catching in Maine.

Esther with a 3-1/4 lb. largemouth bass

Frank had to beat me with his 3-1/2 lb. largemouth bass!

2013 July 13 - 14 - Steve's Big Bass and Cait's Turtles

My niece Cait and her husband Steve came up to spend the weekend with us. 

Cait and Steve with their new boat.

It was a hot summer weekend and the fishing was slow.
I wasn't catching too much except for my lure on the front of my boat!


Fishing picked up for Steve in the late afternoon on Saturday when he caught this one that we estimated to be at least 4 lbs.

Steve with his first 4 pounder

The next day, we decided to try a larger lake to see if the fishing would be better, and to find some smallmouth bass.  This lake has a lot of submerged rocks and it didn't take too long to find some smallies.


Frank with a 2-3/4 lb. smallmouth bass
 

The best fish of the day was Steve's largemouth bass.  We got a scale on this one and it weighed in at 4 lbs.  The poor bass had a long steel leader and hook in its mouth, but Steve and Cait got the hook out before releasing it back into the lake.

Steve with his second 4 lb. largemouth

The highlight of the weekend for us was when we were sitting out at night with our feet in the water looking at the stars.  We had a lantern hung in the tree and we had a flashlight that we would shine in the shallow water to see the baby fish swimming around. This is a favorite activity for Frank and I at our cottage in Maine.  We call this sitting spot our aquarium and find it fascinating to watch the fish and other reptiles like frogs and turtles swimming around.  So here we were sitting peacefully enjoying nature when I saw this moth dancing on top of the water.  I picked up the flashlight to get a better look and Cait said "What's this"?  I moved the light to shine it right in front of Cait and we were  startled (especially Cait) to see this large snapping turtle right at her feet!

 

 The curious snapping turtle

 

The turtle wasn't afraid of the light or us and got closer and closer...

 

Later on the turtle was joined by a friend.

 

And so our weekend came to an end. Steve got to go home happy with the memory of the two 4 pounders he caught and Cait got to go home with her toes intact!

2013 June 26 - Torsey Lake, Maine - Loon and Geese

We decided to try a new lake today, Torsey Lake in Kent's Hill, Maine.  We headed for an area someone had told us about that has a lot of tree stumps.  It was a difficult area to fish and was filled with lily pads which produced some bass but mostly weeds around our electric motor!

Esther with one of the largemouth bass from Torsey Lake

We left the lily pad area and fished along the shore as we headed back to the public landing. The fishing definitely picked up along that stretch and we must have caught at least 100 fish.

The highlight of this trip for me, was when we came upon a nesting Loon. We have only seen a loon nesting twice.  I zoomed in with my camera so as not to disturb her and got this shot.


Nesting Loon on Torsey Lake

We also saw a family of Geese swimming and walking along the shore. 

Canadian Geese



2013 June 15 - Fishing with my Brother-in-Law

Dick with a nice largemouth bass

We waited a whole year for this shot! I wasn't allowed in the boat this year with the camcorder -- my husband Frank was in charge and he got this shot.  Here is my brother-in-law, Dick holding his prize catch of this weekend, a huge largemouth that he caught using a wacky worm.  Dick had a great time fishing in Maine and said he caught more fish than he ever has in his whole life.  We hope he comes back to catch many more!

2013 June 6 - 3-1/4 lb Largemouth

Frank with a 3-1/4 lb. Largemouth Bass

We decided not to take so many fish pictures this year, but we couldn't resist when Frank caught this one which was a little bit bigger than we usually catch - 3-1/4 lb.  I don't know what is going on, but Frank seems to be outfishing me lately!

2013 May 31 - Sunny day on the lake

Esther with a nice pickerel

Great Blue Heron

The weekend after Memorial Day week was beautiful and sunny and we managed to get out and do some fishing on our favorite pond.  We see Great Blue Herons quite often looking to catch some fish too!

2013 Memorial Day Weekend in Maine

My niece Cait and her husband Steve joined us for Memorial Day weekend. The weather was cold and rainy much of the time but it didn't stop them from going out fishing.



My niece, Cait, looks like she is freezing but also happy with her
catch!


Her husband Steve with one of his largemouth bass.

Steve also won the smallest-fish-caught award!



The sun came out for awhile and Cait enjoyed catching this nice largemouth bass.

Steve really loves fishing!



Frank and I were fair weather fisherman this weekend and stayed in instead.  Cait and I worked on a puzzle during the worst of the weekend. It was tough, but we persisted until every last piece was in place!
 

The Loon puzzle that drove us crazy!



2013 May - Start of the fishing season in Maine

We have started our trips to Maine and are happy to see the bass have started to bite. Here are a couple of the nice fish we caught. The weather is still a little cool, but we don't mind. We have the pond all to ourselves this time of year.

 

Esther with a nice largemouth bass

Frank's smiling because his bass is bigger!