2018 June 24 - Fishing from my Dock

3 lb largemouth bass

I was standing on my dock and I could see this large bass hanging around close to shore.  I threw a floating lure and tried a spinning lure but the fish wouldn't go for either.  I then decided to put on a really large rubber crawfish and I threw it close to the bass and that did it! He gobbled it immediately and I pulled the fish in.  As I was removing my lure I noticed this fish had already escaped another fisherman.  I could not see a hook or lure, but the poor fish had broken the fishing line and had about 4 feet of line coming out of its throat and into the water.  I cut the line as close as I could deep inside its throat so I hope the fish feels better for that.

2018 June 15-17 My brother Beat Me in Fishing!

As mentioned in an earlier post (1950's - My Fishing Partner), my brother George and I have always competed in everything growing up, especially fishing!  This weekend was no exception.




I was all smiles as I started off strong using my wacky worm and landed some good sized bass. Here is a nice Small mouth bass.

Frank and George were fishing spinners, and not having the success I was having.  So they switched to wacky worms and sure enough that shut down my luck and the wacky worm stopped working!


Next, George pulled a 3 hook gold/black colored Rapela out of his tackle box, threw that out, and brought it in with a slow retrieve. 

Bam!! George found the right lure and the right technique and starting pulling in one fish after another!

I wasn't worried at first, just glad that someone was catching a lot of fish. Besides, Rapelas are not my favorite lures anymore after 2 infamous hooking accidents in the past. 





But after awhile, I started to get concerned (see the look on my face and the smug and happy look on George's face)

Was my brother going to out fish me?






Now I was the one switching lures! I put on a light green/silver 2 hook Rapela.  But whether it  was the wrong color, the wrong size or my technique - it just didn't work.
And George kept pulling in more bass. Honestly, there are just too many photos to post here, but here is one of George's smallies.

George's luck continued the next day, on another pond. Same lure, same technique. Here he is with a 2-1/2 lb smallie.









 
After the weekend ended, I went to the store.

So all I can say now is "Game on George - can't wait until next year!"

2018 June 14 - Fishing with my brother George

It didn't take long for my brother to land the first of his largemouth bass on this fishing excursion.












He also caught an exceptionally large bluegill!

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.

2018 May 19 - The Bass are Biting and so are the Black Flies!

First trip of the season and the fishing is pretty good. Our favorite lake is nice and quiet and we caught a few nice bass.  I had to wear my bug suit though because it is also black fly season.  The suit works great and I am happy to report I had more bites from the bass than the black fly bites!

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

2017 Sept - Bear Spring Camps

We could not resist going back to one of our favorite fishing camps again.  This camp is located on Great Pond in Maine and it gives us the opportunity to catch Pike.  We only stayed for a weekend and the weather predicted a chance of showers everyday.  One day right after a sprinkle we looked out and saw a beautiful rainbow.  I said this was a lucky sign and it was pointing to where the Pike were hiding!

Let's follow the rainbow!

We headed out to that spot but didn't catch any really big pike. Overall we caught a dozen or so medium sized pike.

Esther with one of her pike

Looks like Frank caught the biggest one of the trip.

Frank with one of his pike

On our second day we really wanted to catch a trophy pike, but we had a very unusual day instead.  We had just settled on a weed bed to fish, when we noticed a boat within our sight with many people and they appeared to be swimming.  After awhile we thought we heard something and sure enough, they were trying to get our attention.  We went over to see what was going on. They had caught a rope around one of their propellers and could not get it free.  They also did not have any tools to help and no one else was around on the lake.
Frank did have a tiny 1" pocket knife which they gladly accepted.  It took them a long time because the propellers were under the boat and they had to take turns going under, holding their breath.  In the process, one young man unfortunately stabbed his hand with the knife! They finally cut through all of rope and went on their way home to get their friend's hand bandaged up.
So much time had passed, we decided to move on to another weed bed.  We had no sooner settled in when a speed boat came across the lake and stopped not too far away.  Again we heard "HELP!"
 I looked over and the older man was all alone and he was trying to paddle his large boat. We pulled up anchor and went over to help.  His engines wouldn't start and he was asking us to tow him, which didn't look possible since his boat was much larger.  Frank tried to help him troubleshoot the problem and that was when the older gentleman realized he had gotten a rope around his propeller! He was able to tilt the motor and I freed the rope so no one had to get into the water.
We could not believe our luck. We have never had to rescue anyone and to have 2 incidents in one afternoon was too much to believe!
By now the sun was setting and we hadn't caught any pike.
I guess we will have to come back and try again for that trophy!

Great Pond sunset and end of our fishing trip