We are justback from our annual trip to visit the in-laws in the US and as usual I got a bit of fishing in around visiting family, going to baseball, canoeing, swimming, playing on 4-wheelers etc. Everything from throwing worm to small smallmouth bass and sunfish, spinning for largemouth bass and fly fishing for small brook trout and larger landlocked salmon. THe added bonus this year was that my new bamboo rod was ready in time to be tested out.
I am not going to give an extensive report but just summarise some of the areas.
Pocomoonshine Lake, Maine, was where we spent most of our time. This is a warm water lake so was bass, pickerel (small pike like fish), perch and sunfish territory and my father in law, my son and myself did a fair amount of canoeing and spinning for all things fishy. This sort of spinning is almost like buzzer fishing with slooooow retrieves and watching the end of the line like a hawk. David, my father in law, took the biggest fish of the trip, an 18" largemouth on a squid thing. The mouth was larger than a grown man's fist!
I managed a couple of decent bass in the shape of a 17" largemouth and 15" smallmouth.
Payton, my son, also had his share of success with pickerel and sunfish
WE took a break from bass etc and took a family trip to Grand Lake Stream, probably Maine's most famous Landlocked Salmon (LLS) fishing region. Surprisingly, this gave me a chance to test out the new bamboo rod by Colorado maker Matt Schliske (good work, Matt). There were no rises so it was nymph fishing and after 1/2 hour the result was an aerial tussle with a 14" (1.5lb) LLS. I managed one other 10" fish on the nymph and was broken, due to a poor knot, when I fished a dry caddis over a rise.
Before we left this area of Maine we hit the Moosehorn area for bass etc again. We tried one pond with only one small perch caught then I found a pretty little stream and quickly hooked a wee smallmouth. We ended up releasing around 20 sunfish and smallmouths all within this small stream
So, after a family lobster dinner it was time to head towards Moosehead lake.
Up in the Moosehead area I was surrounded by good fishing and one of my buddies (also part-time bamboo rod maker) took me to a couple of beaver ponds and a smallstream to fish for brookies. There were no giants but it was the sort of fishing I love!
Beaver pond
Typical brookie
My buddy, Ken, fishing the stream
I also managed a few hours here and there chasing more landlocked salmon at East Outlet. I managed about 8 fish up to 16" on dries and nymphs. The largest fish took a #22 green beadhead brassie.
14" salmon on dry caddis pattern
So, that was about it for the fishing!
