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Date: April 9, 2023 Body of Water: Mousam Lake - Shapleigh, Maine Moon Phase: Waning Gibbous Moon Boat: amybaby22 With: A Target: Trout Time: 9:45 AM - 2:30 PM Conditions: Perfectly clear and bright; fluctuating westerly wind to about 10 mph and 40 - 50 degrees. Water temperature 38-40 degrees and still some shelf ice and icebergs on the lake. Clear, tannic-stained water. My "Opening Day" finally arrived, and A joined me on a trolling quest for trout. We headed south, expecting to find open water and perhaps a more advanced Spring setting, and were surprised to find a band of ice preventing access to most of Mousam Lake. We were confident it would break up with any wind and the predicted warming temperatures, but until that happened, we were stuck in the southernmost portion of the lake. I wasn't exactly pleased with this development, but we made the best of our situation and set a quick spread of four lines featuring a single pink DB Smelt spoon off two colors of lead line and three flat-lined Rapalas (Blue F11, Green S7, Orange J9). Quarters were pretty tight, and I'd already done a few laps of the available water with no hint of action when we passed a rocky point. I stalled our momentum at the edge of the weedy break into 15 feet of water to about 1.5 mph and re-engaged. The lead-core line triggered an aggressive strike, but with an apparent swing-and-miss. Before I could even react, though, two lines jumped and each rod bent over with a fish. Double-header! A lost her trout that had eaten the blue F11 (125 feet off the rod tip), but I was happy enough to boat a healthy, 15-inch brown trout that had returned to eat my DB Smelt. An hour into the 2023 season, I had finally broken the ice! With that milestone now behind us, we quickly set up another pass and scored a second, slightly smaller brown on the F11. When that proved to be the last of our action here, we took pause to assess the performance of the new Minn Kota's Spot-Lock ability. We returned to the waypoint of our initial hit and engaged the Spot-Lock feature. We easily and quietly held our position for several minutes with no further effort or attention from me. This will be a difference-maker! By now, the ice-jam had broken up and so we motored north. We fished the shallow neck just south of the causeway (this has produced browns in the past) without luck, and so we continued our way north. The main lake was totally open except for the back of some bays and the entire northern section I had intended to fish. This forced me to find some new water, and that was pretty easy. This lake is filled with rocky shorelines, points and reefs. When I'd basically trolled the entire eastern shoreline without another bump, we called it a day. What do I have to say about this? Water temperatures (38 - 40) were below my confidence level for consistent action, and so I'm happy with a couple of targeted browns landed and a third chance at a fish. Low speed seemed to be important, but maybe some good luck was just as important. All three fish came from basically the same spot, and I didn't find anything else, anywhere. It felt grand to be back on the water and outside in the sun! The fishing wasn't great, but I won't complain, either. It should only get better as Spring progresses and the water warms, even if only a few more degrees. I found some promising shorelines to return to, and any day on the water shared with A, loons and a bald eagle is certainly a good day! Moreover, amybaby22 appears to have weathered Winter just fine, and with her bottom painted and the installation of the new trolling motor, she is clearly ready for another great season! I've dreamt and day-dreamt a good deal over the long winter about a simple and comfortable trolling session. I made it! I am stunned at how much a brief connection with a small fish can mean to me. All I can say, is that feeling is real, and it is important. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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