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Date: April 13, 2024 Body of Water: Upper Range Pond - Poland, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Trout Time: 8 AM - 1 PM Moon Phase: New Moon plus five days Conditions: Mostly cloudy, but some sun and ending with a heavy rain shower. Calm to 10 mph SW wind; 45 - 50 degrees; water temperatures 43 degrees F (+/-) and a little cloudy from lots of recent rain. A large group of swallows was dipping the water's surface near the north end of Upper Range Pond, and so I started my search for trout in this area and near the surface. I started with an S7 Rapala (silver/green) on one rod and a "Jay Fair" system-presented green metal-head fly with the other. Working from about 6 to 25 feet of water, I had put in a solid 20 minutes without a hit. I rotated through some new baits (flatlined Trout Whisperer spoon 150 feet back, DB Smelt on two colors of lead, blue S7 Rapala, white Arctic Fox fly behind an action disk) and covered some water over the main basin (where the swallows were most active) as I continued my search. Speeds ranged from about 1.8 to 2.4 mph. Between 9 and 10 AM I found a group of very active fish. All ate spoons fished over 15 - 22 feet of water but immediately adjacent to a weedy boulder reef. It might have helped that the wind was pushing any "warm" water and midge larvae/pupae/adults into an inside turn. I ended with just 3 browns landed for 6 solid strikes in this area, with a couple of lost "doubles", including a lost rod and reel, pulled from the holder as I landed the nicest brown of the bunch at about 18 inches. I had a couple of brief drive-by's, too; I barely capitalized on this opportunity, but was still grateful for the first three trout of the season! The hot baits here were a top-lined 1/8 ounce Trout Whisperer spoon (green and blue) and a gold/black/purple DB Smelt on two colors of lead. Flies and plugs remained untouched, as they would for the remainder of the day. I seemingly lost my mojo along with that favored rod and reel. I tried to scrape the depths with the downrigger where I'd lost the rig; but the bottom proved dangerously sticky and after ten minutes or so, I resumed fishing. I tried to locate another pod of trout and covered lots of water, generally concentrating on edges (especially with rocks!) I donated a couple more favorite lures to the bottom, but scratched out the final (and perhaps best) fish of the day on a small, top-lined, gold Thomas Eel. This scrappy rainbow hit hard, pulled drag and was vividly colored during the fight. It had an interesting spotting pattern, too, and capped off my better-than-pretty-decent day of fishing! I continued my search for the next hour without a hit, but still looking forward to the next outing! What do I have to say about this? Maine 4 California 0 Traditional Maine tactics and spoons produced all my bites and fish, while the "California" presentations went untouched. I'd spent a good chunk of the winter day-dreaming about fly-eating trout on the troll, and I was enthusiastic about trying some new-to-me tactics. A small streamer behind an action disk is just something different (here), but I was most excited by the "Jay Fair" trolling approach. Developed at California's Eagle Lake, this involves a streamer presented off a floating fly line tipped with 15 or 18 feet of lead core; the fly will be just a couple of feet below the surface while the fly line provides a lot of visibility as to where the fly is. The no-stretch presentation also allows one to "pulse" the fly with a simple roll of the wrist; I was excited to try this locally! FYI, I'd run across a video (TV show) in the mid-1980s where Mr. Fair illustrated this technique and featuring some beautiful rainbows on his flies. I thought that'd be a fantastic approach for shoreline Lake Michigan Spring Browns, but without access to the flies (and with nobody apparently using such techniques in Michigan), I instead learned to troll for trout with Rapalas and then spoons. I found this same video this winter on You-Tube, and cross referencing other interests, decided to give it a go. While California took the defeat on this 2024 "Opening Day", I am sure it will provide some victories in the future. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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