2016 Oct - Bone Fishing in Bermuda

Daniels Head Beach

The next day in Bermuda we went to Daniel's Head Beach Park in Bermuda to try and catch some Bonefish. We had a beautiful day and we had the beach completely to ourselves.










 Frank waded in and immediately started seeing schools of Bonefish.

Frank fishing for Bonefish

The Bonefish swim in circles at the surface of the water in attempts to catch the baitfish. At times we saw schools of baitfish jumping out of the water in "waves" as the Bonefish swam into the schools to eat them.
It was frustrating to see them all day long and not able to catch even one.

Bonefish

I waded in as well and was amazed at the schools of fish that would swim all around me,

School of small bait fish

School of larger fish

I saw other sea life as well. First I saw a Sea Turtle, but it would not come in close enough for me to get a good photo.

Sea Turtle

The next sea life gave me quite a start  -- I thought it was a snake! Then I heard there are no snakes in Bermuda, so I researched it when I got home and found pictures of eels that are in the Caribbean.  I believe this was an eel, the markings are different on sea snakes. I still don't like the idea of coming across an eel either, so I will definitely keep my eyes open whenever I am in the water.

2016 Oct - Fishing in Bermuda

Frank getting ready to catch some fish!

Whenever we go on vacation Frank brings his travel rod. No matter where we are in the world he brings it hoping he will find some peace and quiet and some good fishing. It doesn't usually work out if we are on a tour or in a foreign country but his persistence paid off this time! We took a cruise to Bermuda and Frank had some good luck fishing right off the pier where the cruise boat docks.

Frank with a Yellow Tailed Jack fish

I went to the beach but came back to snap a photo of one of his catch, a Yellow Tailed Jack fish.



















While on his own he caught some other fish and took these photos himself.

Frank's Pin fish

But the prize of the day and a new record (in our on-going competition) was won when he caught his first Tuna! This species of tuna is called Little Tunny.  He said it gave him quite the fight on his light tackle. I wish I had been there with him fishing instead of swimming.

Frank's Little Tunny fish

2016 End of Sept in Maine

Another fishing season has come to an end for us in Maine. It was a little chilly, in the 60's, but the cooler weather got the fish biting!

Esther with a 23" pickerel

 

 

Frank ending his season with a nice Largemouth bass

Esther managed to catch a nice largemouth too on the last day

We always manage to see something unusual when we are out on the water and this trip was no exception.  I noticed a small bird swimming in the water and I knew it was not a duck, it was much too small. 

Small bird swimming near rock

The bird swam a short distance and crawled up onto a rock and I saw what the problem was -- the bird had a freshwater clam clamped onto one of its legs.  So it could not fly with this weight. 

Small bird with clam on leg

We tried to get close but could not get close enough to help the bird. Hopefully the clam will let go and the bird will get to fly away.

This was not the only unusual thing we saw. We were nearing the pond outlet when I looked down in the water and was amazed to see many small freshwater jellyfish!  I have only seen this one other time on a pond in Massachusetts many years ago.  When I told someone about the freshwater jellyfish, they did not believe me - so look it up on Google! They do exist.

Fresh water jellyfish

 The jellyfish are not very big, many the size of a dime or smaller.  It says on the internet that they are not harmful to humans but I was not crazy about seeing them on this pond we have been fishing for 25 years now.

2016 Sept 6 - Last day at Bear Spring Camps

Today is our last day at Bear Spring Camps and we are stuffed and tired. They serve 3 huge home cooked meals for guests - much more than we normally eat at home. We spent so many hours in the boat, we feel like we are rocking when we are on land now. Time to get back to our normal routine!

Last day was cloudy and we also got caught in some downpours in the morning.  Late morning it was still cloudy but the rain had stopped and that is when I landed 2 nice fish back-to-back. First one was a Pickerel and the second was a Pike.

Esther with a Pickerel

Esther with a Pike

Later on that day, we had a Double-hook-up.  Frank had a hit and was busy landing his Pike when I had a hit at the same time. We love it when that happens! Frank's Pike was  a little bit bigger than mine so I snapped a picture of that one.

Frank with his "double-hook-up" Pike

In the late afternoon we were fishing the reeds hoping to catch one last monster Pike when Frank spotted a large bird at the top of a tree.  We think it might be an eagle but we were not sure.

Eagle maybe?

All in all we had a great time.  We caught at least 6 Pike in the 24 - 29 inch range and ate a lot of good food.  I guess that is why we keep coming back to Bear Spring Camps!

2016 Sept 5 - More Pike

Today the fishing was slower. We didn't catch any really big Pike. The biggest one I caught today is shown below. I did catch a nice largemouth bass using my spinnerbait above a weedbed.

Esther with a Pike

Esther with a 3-1/4 lb Largemouth Bass

When we are not catching fish we always enjoy seeing other wildlife and it always amazes us.  On this day we saw a large snapping turtle swim under our boat. Then we saw what I think was an otter.  It stood up like a prairie dog watching us and then swam back to shore.

Maybe an Otter

Then we saw what looked like a Loon but the colors where more white than a normal loon.  It was not afraid of us at all and swam very close to the boat so I got a couple of nice pictures. The last picture is a normal loon that we see all of the time. I looked loons up on the internet and found out that juvenile loons have different coloring.

Juvenile Loon

Front view

 Adult Loon

2016 Sept 4 - Bear Spring Camps for Pike

We usually do not like to travel on holiday weekends, but on the spur of the moment we decided to go to one of our favorite fishing camps to fish for Pike.  Bear Spring Camps is right on Great Pond in Maine and we had fantastic weather for the 3 days we stayed there.  The water was very low because of the drought going on in most of New England right now. The staff at Bear Spring Camps said Great Pond was 1-1/2 ft. lower than normal. This made it harder to find the fish which were most likely in the deeper parts of the lake trying to stay cool.  We spent about 8 hrs each day on the water and were rewarded for the effort!
Frank started off the first day great and caught this nice Smallmouth bass and the 2 large Pike below along with several other fish.

Frank with 18 inch Smallmouth bass

Frank with 24 inch Pike

Frank with 27 inch Pike

Frank with a Pickerel

The day was almost over and I had not caught a Pike or much of anything. Frank said "They are going to start biting anytime now" and BAM! A big Pike hit my spinner bait. A whopping 29 inches!

Esther with a 29 inch Pike

After looking at these pictures I believe I must have measured Frank's Pike wrong. It was thrashing about so much it was really hard. But looking at these now, his must have been as large as mine. Sorry Frank ;-(

2016 June 19 - Fishing with my Sister Mary

Mary with her first largemouth bass!

Had a wonderful weekend in Maine with my sister Mary and her family.  Mary is not into fishing as much as me, but we did fish together some of the time when we were kids.  She hasn't fished in a long time though, so Frank was determined to get her out there this weekend. It was a beautiful sunny day when bass are typically hard to find, but he got her to the right location and she did catch a couple of nice bass.  She insists it wasn't really that big in person, but pictures don't lie - we can see it was a good sized bass!
Frank took her husband Dick out as well and he had a lot of fun catching  bass all over the lake.

Dick the happy fisherman with his catch of the day

2016 June 11-12 - Fishing with my brother George

George with a nice Largemouth bass

George with another one of the bass he caught

We had a nice weekend fishing with my brother George. The weather was not the best, it was very cool, cloudy with sprinkles of rain on and off.  A  cold front came in and put the fish down so they were hard to find. George said he hadn't fished in awhile but we were amazed at the accuracy of his casts. He managed to cast into these little pockets in the brush along the shore without getting hung up and that was where the fish were hiding!

2016 June 10 - Fish are starting to bite!

Esther with a large pickerel

Frank with a 3 lb. Largemouth Bass

Fishing has been slow this spring and the weather is unpredictable.  One day is cold and the next is warmer than usual.  We did catch these 2 nice fish and several other smaller ones so maybe the fishing is picking up!

2016 May 30 - White Perch

Esther with a large White Perch

We are up in Maine for Memorial Day weekend and went fishing on one of our favorite ponds. I caught this nice white perch which is unusual for this particular pond.  I was fishing with a spinner and I think the white perch typically go for real worms instead.

2016 May 15 - Splake Trout

24" 4-1/2 lb Splake and Esther

The fishing season is off to a great start in Maine! It was an early spring this year so we headed north last weekend which is really early for us.  The bass fishing is slow since the water is still cold so we put into a pond that has trout and bass and I was rewarded with this 4-1/2 pound Splake.  I was thrilled. I have never caught such a large trout, since I typically fish for bass. I was using a crawfish crankbait which I had used successfully at Wachusett reservoir a few years ago and it paid off big time for me now.
This was the only bite I had for the whole afternoon.  As we headed in my husband got a hit.  He was hoping for a trout as well, but he landed a huge largemouth bass instead - 4.25 lbs, 19" long. So we both went home very happy.

19" 4.25 lb Largemouth Bass

Can't wait to go back to Maine!