2014 Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day Parade in Mt. Vernon Maine

 We had lovely weather this Memorial Day weekend and my niece Cait and her husband joined us to do some fishing.  We were lucky to also see the local parade. It reminded me of parades when I was growing up.

Cait and Steve making some casts from shore

 After the parade we took a short ride around and made casts from shore.  You never know what you can catch. 

Steve helping Cait with a yellow perch

 When we were done fishing for the day, Cait and Steve took off on their paddleboards.  Then Steve came back and got his fishing pole and he fished from his board as Cait towed him along and did all of the paddling!   He actually did quite well but I didn't get any pictures of his catch.

Cait and Steve go Paddleboarding

2014 May - First Time Fishing in Maine

 

Esther with a 2-1/2 lb largemouth bass

Frank with one of his largemouth bass

 Well, it is that time of year again!  We have been busy opening our camp in Maine and we are ready to go now.  It was such a long winter and the fishing is definitely slower now than in other years but we expect it should heat up over the next couple of weeks.  We did have one good day last week where we caught 24 fish in about 2 hours.  At least 6 of them were the size you see in these pictures.  We also caught a couple of nice pickerel.

2014 March - Florida Pier Fishing

Esther with her first Snook!

Frank with a "cow fish"



Pelican with his lunch

We spent some time in Florida at the end of March and went fishing on our favorite pier.  We were there only a few minutes when I got a subtle take on my bait.  I was surprised when I started to reel in to feel the fight and saw it was a snook!  I got really excited especially when the fish got wrapped on one of the pier supports, but Frank helped me figure out what to do and another fisherman had a net to help me land it.
We also got to see a "cow fish" that was caught in a net by another fisherman.  The little fish is very strange - it has 2 little horns and a flat bottom.
We also saw several pelicans and I took a photo of one that was guarding a fish head.
Another beautiful day fishing in Charlotte harbor.

2013 Nov - Florida Inshore Fishing

We hired a guide, Erick Joseph, of Tails and Scales Charters in Florida to take us on an Inshore fishing trip.  http://www.tailsandscalescharters.com/
We had a beautiful day with calm waters and we spent 6-1/2 hours trying various spots and techniques to catch some Redfish and Snook.  Frank did hook into one Snook at the end of the day, but unfortunately the line broke!  We had a good time anyway and caught several other fish through out the day:  Sheepshead, sea trout, horn pout, Jack Crevalles, and a Lady fish. 

Frank with a nice Sheepshead.  I love Frank's hat:-)

My first Jack Crevalle of the day.  I caught a lot of these and many were larger than this, but I didn't get any other pictures, I was too busy catching.

Esther with her largest Sea Trout of the day.

2013 Aug 3-8 - Maine Largemouth Bass

The bass have been hitting the wacky worm in the early evening.   Here are a couple of the nice largemouth bass we have been catching in Maine.

Esther with a 3-1/4 lb. largemouth bass

Frank had to beat me with his 3-1/2 lb. largemouth bass!

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!

2013 June 26 - Torsey Lake, Maine - Loon and Geese

We decided to try a new lake today, Torsey Lake in Kent's Hill, Maine.  We headed for an area someone had told us about that has a lot of tree stumps.  It was a difficult area to fish and was filled with lily pads which produced some bass but mostly weeds around our electric motor!

Esther with one of the largemouth bass from Torsey Lake

We left the lily pad area and fished along the shore as we headed back to the public landing. The fishing definitely picked up along that stretch and we must have caught at least 100 fish.

The highlight of this trip for me, was when we came upon a nesting Loon. We have only seen a loon nesting twice.  I zoomed in with my camera so as not to disturb her and got this shot.


Nesting Loon on Torsey Lake

We also saw a family of Geese swimming and walking along the shore. 

Canadian Geese