2017 Aug - Fishing in Steamboat Springs Colorado

Esther with a Colorado trout

We had a wonderful vacation in Colorado and we spent a fair amount of time fishing.  The town we stayed in had the Yampa River flowing through it.  This river is known for it's abundance of trout.  Most people fly fish in this area, but we wanted to travel light so we did not pack all of our fly fishing gear.  This made it more difficult to find spots where we could cast a lure from shore. I am not a trout fisherman but I did manage to hook into 5 trout and I landed 3! The best one is pictured here.  I believe it was a cutthroat trout because it had 2 reddish lines along it's throat.  At first I thought the fish was bleeding, but I was glad it wasn't because this river is catch and release.

Close up of trout

Frank with a fat Colorado Pike

We also fished in a few ponds where I did not have any luck, but Frank did! He landed 3 Pike during the week.  They were not the huge like the Pike we are used to catching in Maine but he had fun landing them anyway.

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!

2010 Fall - Wachusett Reservoir

Wachusett Reservoir is not an easy place to fish, but we decided to give it a try.   I was not expecting to catch anything just casting from shore so I didn't even bring my camera. I was using an imitation crawfish crankbait and suddenly I had a really big hit on my lure.  I couldn't believe it when I pulled in the largest smallmouth bass I have ever caught in my whole life!  It was 4-1/2 lbs and I only have Frank as my witness - no picture!!!

Smallmouth bass

We went back the very next week, this time with a camera.  I was determined to catch another smallmouth and get the picture this time.  Unfortunately, I did not catch another smallmouth, but I did catch a nice trout on the same crawfish crankbait.

Esther with a nice rainbow trout

2003 June 19 - Knops Pond, Groton, Ma

Esther with a trout

Brown trout

It's not very often that I catch a trout.  So when I caught this one, I brought it home and ate it!

1991 April - Frank's Trophy Trout

Frank with his 24", 4-1/2 lb Brook Trout

There is a very deep pond (100'+ deep) in Maine that is surrounded by conservation land.  We have deeded access to this pond with the land we purchased in Maine.  It's not easy to get to the pond; you have to walk a good distance through the woods.  So it took a lot of effort for us to carry our gear in and wheel our 17' canoe in as well. Although it was April  it was quite cold, and there was still some ice around the edges of the pond, but it was peaceful in there.  There was only one other person fly-fishing from a canoe on the pond that day.  Frank was using a cicada lure which is very heavy so he could get down deep into the pond.  I felt bad because everytime Frank cast, it made a big splash and the fly-fisherman kept looking over at us as though we were disturbing him. But the lure paid off for Frank.  He cast out and at first he thought he was stuck on something way down deep because he couldn't reel it in.  Then he realized it was a fish! We couldn't believe it when he landed it and we got a look at this trout.  It was that day that we decided we had to keep track of who catches the biggest fish of each type.  So the record stands even today, 20 years later, Frank has the record for the largest trout!

1964 - My Brown Trout

Esther's 11 inch Brown Trout June 1964

The only trout I ever caught as a child was this one.  I remember the water was low and clear, and I saw this fish swimming down the river.  I threw a worm right in front of it and couldn't believe it when the fish grabbed the worm.  With one quick pull, I pulled the trout right out of the river and it went flying through the air and landed in our garden.  I didn't know what kind of fish it was, so I ran up to the house to show my parents.  They told me it was a brown trout, so I kept it and really enjoyed eating it.
Not long after this, my childhood fishing adventures came to an end when my parents bought a house in another part of town, and I no longer had a river in my backyard to fish in.