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

2014 - Nov 14 - Florida Tarpon

Frank with his Tarpon

Close-up of Tarpon

Here we were on what may be our last trip to Florida fishing our favorite little pond and the fishing was terrible. We couldn't catch anything, even though we could see large fish swimming around during the day.   We tried every lure we brought, when finally Frank had a good hit and we couldn't believe our eyes when he pulled in this juvenile Tarpon! We shouldn't have been so surprised since over the years, we would see small silver fish jumping out of the water, but they would never bite at anything.  One year Frank saw a large silver fish, close to 2 ft long jump out of the water.  Still we never caught one.  This pond is close to Lemon Bay and right across the street from a golf course that went out of business and was turned into a nature trail park.  The conservators of the park discovered there are juvenile tarpon in all of the golf course ponds.  They are born in these small ponds and stay there for a couple of years before returning to the sea.  So that explains what the silver fish are that we had seen for years.

2014 Sept - Great Pond Wildlife

We spent a lot of time on the water fishing but we also enjoy looking around and taking in sights of other wildlife and beautiful scenery.  We were very lucky this week to get a shot of an American Eagle in a tree.


Eagle in the tree
 

We also had an encounter with an aggressive Maine Northern Water Snake.  This is the second time we have had this experience and both times were here on Great Pond near Snake Point!  We think we know how the point got its name now.  I didn't get a picture of the snake  but the picture below gives you an idea of the snake we saw. 

Maine Northern Water Snake

We were fishing the brushy shoreline when Frank got his lure caught on some underwater brush.  We moved in to release it and Frank noticed something moving in the water and heading directly toward our boat.  It was a snake!  Frank hit it with his fishing pole a few times and it dove down in the water to avoid the hits but kept coming back up.  The snake finally dove down deep and swam under the boat.  We freed his lure and anxiously looked around for the snake.  It now appeared on my side of the boat and again headed right toward us as if intent on boarding. I readied my paddle and took a big swing at its head as it quickly dove down again.  It gave up this time and we were relieved to see it swimming back to the brushy shoreline.  We had this exact same experience on Great Pond several years ago at the mouth of one of the streams in the Northern bay.  We searched the internet for information and found out these snakes are known to be aggressive but are not poisonous. 
On a more peaceful note, we saw some gorgeous skies and sunsets and can't wait to go back again for more adventures!

Great Pond

2014 Sept 2-9 Great Pond and Big Pike!

We just finished a week at one of our favorite fishing camps - Bear Spring Camps on Great Pond, in Rome, Maine.  We had a beautiful week: the weather was warm (even too hot on some days), the food was delicious and plentiful, and we caught enough fish (especially me) to make us want to go back again. 
We checked in at noon, ate lunch and got out on the water.  We rented a boat but unfortunately the motor didn't work properly this first day and it was kind of rough on the water.  Despite these problems Frank still out-fished me! He landed a nice smallmouth bass and we both landed our first small pike of the week.

Frank with 2-1/4 lb. smallmouth bass

Frank strikes again with the first pike of the trip

Esther with her first pike, the only fish she caught the first day

We changed boats and were much happier and the fishing got better. I landed my biggest pike as it was getting dark one evening.  In the excitement I didn't get a good measurement, but I did get a weight of 10 lbs. on the boga grip!

Esther with a 10 lb. Northern Pike

Frank was hoping for a pike too but landed a large Crappie instead.

Frank with a large Crappie

We landed a lot of smallmouth and small pike the rest of the week, too numerous to show all of them.  I was however, very lucky to land a couple of other nice pike and a couple of large pickerel as well.

Esther with 24" Pike

Esther with 23" Pike

Esther with 22"  Pickerel

2014 Aug 15 - Sharing a Campfire with Friends

We had some friends come up to Maine for the weekend and had a great time showing them the lake and surrounding towns.  We had a wonderful time and beautiful weather although it was too cool to go swimming.  So we decided to have a campfire down by the water -- I just wish I had brought some marshmallows! 

 

2014 Aug 3 - Baby Loon Again

We see the mother and baby loon almost everyday and the baby is getting bigger!

2014 July 19 - Baby Loon and other Wildlife



 We were very happy to see the loons were successful in hatching a baby loon this year!  This has to be the mother loon we saw nesting last month.

 

Baby loon and mother

When I am not watching the loons I enjoy sitting in my screen-house in the morning, sipping my coffee and watching the hummingbirds.  They are constantly feeding but will not share the feeder with another hummingbird.  So there is a constant chatter as they chirp and fly at one another to gain control over the feeder.  Last year I heard some louder sounds at that feeder and was amazed to see a Baltimore Oriole was perched on the feeder eating the nectar!  I wasn't fast enough to get a picture of the Oriole but I did get this picture of a hummingbird.

Hummingbird feeding