Saturday, September 1, 2018

2018 Aug 23 - 25 - Bear Spring Camps- Frank beat me!

Frank with his first nice Smallie



We headed off to one of our favorite fishing camps in Maine, Bear Spring Camps and got out on the water right after lunch.  The woman in the cabin next door warned us that fishing had been very slow the week she was here. We hoped we could prove her wrong and Frank got off to a good start by catching this nice smallmouth bass right away. Then it did get slow and it was another 3 hours until we got into some good action.
Frank with a second smallie
Esther with her only catch of the day, a small pike
Now things got really good for Frank!  He caught a decent pike.
Frank's first big pike
Then he caught the prize fish of the whole day -- a 29" Pike!!! We measured this one together, Frank wanted to make sure there were no mistakes like last year.

Frank with his 29" Pike
 He didn't stop there and ended the day with a nice largemouth bass.
Frank with a nice Largemouth bass
End of the day: Frank 5, Esther 1

Fishing was very slow the next 2 days.  The days were sunny and hot and the wind was too much so it made getting into spots almost impossible. We caught some smallies and largemouth bass but not very many and nothing very big. Frank caught a white perch and I caught a Crappie which is unusual so I took a picture of that fish.
Esther with a Crappie
Frank discovered trolling was a good way to catch since we could not navigate close enough to the reed beds we wanted to fish. That was how he caught his big Pike the first day so we trolled some more on the last day. It paid off and I caught a pickerel and a pike trolling with spinner baits.
Esther with a pickerel
Esther with another small pike
Late in the day I was ready to give up, but Frank wasn't.  He did give up fishing however, so he could better handle the boat in this tough wind.  He drove the boat back and forth close enough to the reeds for me to get multiple casts in.  I had a couple of strikes but I still hadn't landed a big one. My arms were ready to fall off and I decided to switch to a no. 5 Silver Mepps I saw in my tackle box.
First cast and Bam! I caught my big Pike of the weekend.
Esther with a 26" Pike
Mine was not as big as Frank's but I was happy to catch this one.  I owe it all to Frank who was so persistent and willing to give up fishing so I could have the chance!
End score for the weekend:
a tie in the number of fish caught,
but Frank's Pike was bigger and his generosity was the biggest!

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