2019 July 20 - Fishing with Cait and Travis

A heatwave moved in this weekend in the 90s so we started our fishing in the morning which is unusual for us.  My niece, Cait, and her friend Travis joined us this weekend. It was very slow fishing and we were not sure if the fish were going to bite, so I took the picture of the first fish caught that day by Travis!

Travis with his first fish of the day!

The fishing started to pick up and we all (except for Cait) started catching a variety of largemouth bass, smallmouth bass and perch.

Travis with a largemouth bass

 Not to be left behind, Cait persisted and tried different lures until she finally pulled in what I believe was the largest bass of the day! I think it was her "little purple rapela" that made this big bass bite.

Cait with the biggest bass of the day!

2019 June 8 - Monster Pickerel

Today we headed to Maranacook Lake.
We have really enjoyed fishing for a few days with my brother.  We put in a lot of hours and the fish were fewer than we would have liked.  But the prize for the weekend goes to my brother for pulling in this monster on the last day of fishing- a 26" pickerel that weighed just over 3.5 lbs! This one fish made it all worthwhile. It is as large as some of the Pike we have caught in the past and it is larger than any pickerel we have caught to-date!

George with a 26" 3.5 plus lb Pickerel

Another highlight of the day was seeing a Bald eagle fly into a tree to eat a fish he had in his talons. He landed pretty much right over our heads.

Eagle eating a fish

2019 June 6 - Fishing and Wildlife

We decided to try a different pond today.  One that we had fished here a few years ago and remembered it was pretty good. Unfortunately, the fish were harder to find today but we did enjoy seeing a variety of wildlife. Here we saw a Canadian Goose with her babies.  They were so cute!

Geese with babies

Next we came upon a Loon nesting.  We kept our distance and I zoomed in with my camera.

Nesting Loon

We also saw our nemesis - the Northern Water snake! I saw him swimming across the water and he held his head high out of the water when he saw us.  He did not scare away and started heading right for us! I was getting ready with my paddle to fight him off so I did not get a picture.  Thankfully, Frank backed the boat up and got us away from the snake, which finally turned and headed to a small island.
Of course the best part of the day was our surprise when Frank and my brother George both caught small pike.  We did not know they were in this lake.

George with a small Pike

My brother also caught a really nice pickerel.

2019 June 7 - Fishing our Favorite Pond

It's fun to try all of the lakes around us in Maine, but we always enjoy coming home to our cottage and favorite pond.  Now Frank and I had an opportunity to get some more pictures up on the blog. We didn't weigh them just snapped a picture.

Esther with a Largemouth Bass

Frank with his Largemouth Bass

So what do you think, who caught the bigger bass?

2019 May 27 - First Maine Fishing Trip of the Year

We are glad to be back in Maine and the fish are biting! We had some nice weather over Memorial Day weekend and were able to get out on our favorite lake. We caught a couple of nice bass but did not bother to measure or weigh them. We caught a few smallmouth bass which is a good sign. They have gotten scarce over the years on this lake.

Esther with a smallmouth bass

Looks like Frank is off to a good start this fishing season!

Frank with his First really large bass of the year.