2022 Aug 28-30 Bear Spring Camp

 We spent 3 nights at our favorite fishing camp and had a great time. The weather was tough— very hot and sunny during the day and the wind was a constant 10 mph which made boat control and casting a challenge. We had my brother George with us this year and this was his first experience at a fishing camp. The food was very good, and I think we all gained a couple of pounds! Here are just some of the fish we caught this trip.

George with the largest Pickerel caught this trip

We all caught at least 1 smallmouth but Frank got the biggest ones this trip.

Frank with his 3-1/4lb smallmouth

And I saved the best for last. We come to this lake for the Pike. I was lucky enough to catch a 28”Pike this trip.

Esther with her 28” Pike

Frank with his Pike.

George caught a Pike too!

Esther with one of the crappies she caught.

Esther and George - a couple of tired fisherpeople resting up before heading out one more time!

2020 Sept 17 - Water is Getting Cooler

 As the season winds down, we notice the air and water are getting cooler now.  And that brings back the action with certain types of fish. Pickerel have been pretty abundant and we have caught a few nice smallmouth bass as well.

Frank with one of the pickerel he caught.

Esther with a nice smallmouth bass

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.

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!

2018 June 11-12 Maine Fishing Vacation

Esther with a 23" pickerel

Esther with a 3-1/4 lb Largemouth Bass

We are spending a whole week in Maine this time and we are having company in a couple of days. I just had to get out and test the waters so we know where to find the fish.  Here are a couple of the best fish I caught these two days.

2017 Oct - Last Fishing Trip of the Season

I can't believe it is fall again and time to close up our camp on the lake.  We did have a beautiful weekend and the weather was more like September than October.  We were amazed at how good the fishing was. The warm weather definitely made the fish active again.

Frank with one of his largemouth bass

Esther with her bass

We also caught a few pickerel. 

I saved the best for last and Frank ended the season with a Bang, catching the biggest largemouth bass of the year!

Frank with a 3-1/2 lb largemouth bass

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 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 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!

2015 June 20 - Sixty Fish in One Day!

Fishing continues to be hot in Maine. We had company this weekend and our good friend Steve had his best bass fishing day ever. He couldn't believe how many fish he caught. First it was 20, then it was 30...40...50 and by the end of the day he had caught 60! Steve has been a trout fisherman for most of his life, but I think he might be a convert to bass fishing now.

Steve with just one of the 60 fish he caught

Steve caught a few pickerel as well

2015 June 18 - Big Pickerel

Frank with a 24" Pickerel

Frank is all smiles again as he continues to outfish me this season! On this day he caught this incredible 24" pickerel.