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

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 19 - Fishing with my Sister Mary

Mary with her first largemouth bass!

Had a wonderful weekend in Maine with my sister Mary and her family.  Mary is not into fishing as much as me, but we did fish together some of the time when we were kids.  She hasn't fished in a long time though, so Frank was determined to get her out there this weekend. It was a beautiful sunny day when bass are typically hard to find, but he got her to the right location and she did catch a couple of nice bass.  She insists it wasn't really that big in person, but pictures don't lie - we can see it was a good sized bass!
Frank took her husband Dick out as well and he had a lot of fun catching  bass all over the lake.

Dick the happy fisherman with his catch of the day

2016 June 11-12 - Fishing with my brother George

George with a nice Largemouth bass

George with another one of the bass he caught

We had a nice weekend fishing with my brother George. The weather was not the best, it was very cool, cloudy with sprinkles of rain on and off.  A  cold front came in and put the fish down so they were hard to find. George said he hadn't fished in awhile but we were amazed at the accuracy of his casts. He managed to cast into these little pockets in the brush along the shore without getting hung up and that was where the fish were hiding!

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!

2016 May 30 - White Perch

Esther with a large White Perch

We are up in Maine for Memorial Day weekend and went fishing on one of our favorite ponds. I caught this nice white perch which is unusual for this particular pond.  I was fishing with a spinner and I think the white perch typically go for real worms instead.

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!