2023 Aug 3 - Baby Loon Has Grown

Mother loon with baby

It has only been 3 weeks since we saw this baby loon but the change is dramatic. It was a fluffy brown newborn and now it is so much bigger!

It was a good day for seeing wildlife. We also saw a Bald Eagle land in a tall pine tree right near us. It was watching us fish probably hoping we would leave a fish for it to scoop up. We saw an eagle earlier this year, dive down and grab a fish right from the surface of the water. I didn’t get a picture of that but did get one picture today.

2023 July 22 - Baby Loon

 

Baby Loon and  mother Loon

One of the things I love about being on a lake, pond, or river is the chance to see wildlife. Today we were rewarded and got to see this cute little baby loon with its mother.

Of course, we were out fishing. The fish were few and far between but I did catch this nice largemouth.

2022 Aug 13 - Maine Fishing

 

Esther with a largemouth bass 

This trip we went deep and used our wacky worms in the weed beds. Still did not catch anything worth photographing except this one big bass.  I really do not know what to try next. Maybe a different lake!

When we were not fishing, I did see some ducks swimming by. I love the wildlife we see around the pond.

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.

2017 Aug - Summer Fishing with my Niece

 Here is my niece, Caitlin enjoying the boat ride with her friend Jeremy in his fishing boat he named "Fury".

Fishing is slower in the summer but I did manage to catch one nice Smallmouth bass.

Esther caught a nice Smallmouth Bass

 I didn't get any pictures of Frank's fish but I did get this one of him when he borrowed my hat for awhile!

Frank in my hat!

It was a slow day for everyone, but Jeremy caught his best fish when we got back to our dock.

Jeremy with a nice Pickerel

When we are not fishing, we are always amazed at the wildlife you can see when you take the time to look around. The wildlife tend to come out at night to hunt for food. Here we found a crayfish and a snapping turtle.

2017 June - Fishing with George in Maine

My brother came to visit for a fishing weekend and the fishing was great! We didn't keep count and I wish we had because we caught so many fish. The weather was so much better this year than when he visited last year. We had so much fun, I think we spent at least 8 hours every day in the boat fishing! Here is just a small sampling of the fish we caught.

Esther with largemouth bass

George with largemouth bass

Frank with largemouth bass

Frank and George had several Double Hookups all day!

We saw lots of wildlife too. We saw a deer swimming across the lake. And we saw a beaver up close. He was not very happy with us and smacked his tail loudly on the water trying to scare us. I did get a couple of pictures of the beaver.

Beaver swimming underwater close to our boat

Beaver swimming away

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 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

2014 Nov 16 - Florida Pier Fishing

We spent a few days fishing different piers in Florida.  Frank was catching everything --nothing too big, but at least he was catching a variety of fish.  I was only catching glimpses of wildlife, until our last day when I landed my biggest sea trout ever.

Dolphins

Frank with a Jack Crevalle

Close-up of Jack Crevalle

Pin fish

Esther with a Sea Trout

Close up of Sea Trout

Frank with a Puffer fish

White Ibis