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.

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.

2014 June 28 - More Maine Wildlife

This had to be the weekend of the turtles!  Everywhere I looked I saw a turtle - I saw a large one crossing a road, I saw one very close to shore when I was fishing from shore on Long Pond.  I saw a small one swimming by my dock and then I saw this large snapping turtle sunning himself ALL day!  I thought for sure this large turtle must be dead because it didn't move for hours.  So I walked along the shore to get as close as I could and zoomed in with my camera to see if there was any sign of life in this turtle.  It didn't move at all and was still there as the sun was going down.  I was happy to see the next day, the turtle was gone - so it was alive after all.

Baby turtle swimming through my beach area

Large snapping turtle sunbathing

Close-up of large snapping turtle

2013 July 13 - 14 - Steve's Big Bass and Cait's Turtles

My niece Cait and her husband Steve came up to spend the weekend with us. 

Cait and Steve with their new boat.

It was a hot summer weekend and the fishing was slow.
I wasn't catching too much except for my lure on the front of my boat!


Fishing picked up for Steve in the late afternoon on Saturday when he caught this one that we estimated to be at least 4 lbs.

Steve with his first 4 pounder

The next day, we decided to try a larger lake to see if the fishing would be better, and to find some smallmouth bass.  This lake has a lot of submerged rocks and it didn't take too long to find some smallies.


Frank with a 2-3/4 lb. smallmouth bass
 

The best fish of the day was Steve's largemouth bass.  We got a scale on this one and it weighed in at 4 lbs.  The poor bass had a long steel leader and hook in its mouth, but Steve and Cait got the hook out before releasing it back into the lake.

Steve with his second 4 lb. largemouth

The highlight of the weekend for us was when we were sitting out at night with our feet in the water looking at the stars.  We had a lantern hung in the tree and we had a flashlight that we would shine in the shallow water to see the baby fish swimming around. This is a favorite activity for Frank and I at our cottage in Maine.  We call this sitting spot our aquarium and find it fascinating to watch the fish and other reptiles like frogs and turtles swimming around.  So here we were sitting peacefully enjoying nature when I saw this moth dancing on top of the water.  I picked up the flashlight to get a better look and Cait said "What's this"?  I moved the light to shine it right in front of Cait and we were  startled (especially Cait) to see this large snapping turtle right at her feet!

 

 The curious snapping turtle

 

The turtle wasn't afraid of the light or us and got closer and closer...

 

Later on the turtle was joined by a friend.

 

And so our weekend came to an end. Steve got to go home happy with the memory of the two 4 pounders he caught and Cait got to go home with her toes intact!

2011 June - Bear Spring Camps

June is our favorite month for fishing and we planned a lot of trips this year to go fishing. This trip was to Bear Spring Camps in Maine.

Esther with a 2 lb 17 " smallmouth bass

We love Great Pond because you have the opportunity to catch Pike.  I caught a couple this trip, none as large as the monster Frank caught a few years ago. Notice I now wear a special glove when landing pickeral and pike.

Esther with a 4 lb 25" northern pike

Here is a video of this same pike.

Great Pond has lots of different types of fish.  Here is a nice crappie and a nice smallmouth that Frank caught.

Frank with a large crappie

Frank with a nice smallmouth

The biggest surprise was when Frank was using a new lure - a large realistic plastic perch lure - to catch a pike. As he worked his lure a curious turtle kept coming to the surface closer and closer.  Frank was shocked on his last retrieve when the turtle actually hit the bait below the surface! Fortunately he was not hooked very deep, he had the bait in his mouth and one paw was hooked. When Frank got a hold of the large lure, the turtle pushed himself off the hook and went down to the bottom.

Curious turtle that kept hanging around

We would go out late in the afternoon for the pike and our last night there we had a beautiful sunset.  We also were seeing eagles swoop down and catch fish out of the water.  We didn't catch any pike that night but it was a nice way to end our vacation.

 

2008 May - Maine

Back to Maine in May and we are catching our favorite fish, the smallmouth bass.

Esther with a nice smallmouth bass

Frank with a much larger smallmouth bass

 We always enjoy seeing wildlife while we are fishing and have seen some amazing things. It is pretty common to see small turtles all lined up on logs to catch the warmth of the sun.

Turtles sunning themselves on a log

2006 June - Big Lake

We went to Shoreline Camps in Grand Lake Stream.  This camp is right on Big Lake.  It is so remote and beautiful, we had a great time fishing and caught a variety of fish.

Esther with a smallmouth bass

 Sometimes we catch these silver fish.  I have always called them shiners.

Esther with a shiner

 I caught a 24" 2 lb pickerel and this video shows me landing this big fish.

We saw a snapping turtle coming ashore to lay her eggs in the sand.

Frank enjoying a rare calm day on Big Lake.

Frank getting a few more casts in at the end of the day.