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Date: April 22, 2023 Body of Water: Mousam Lake - Shapleigh, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Brown Trout and Brown Bass Time: 9 AM - 3:15 PM Conditions: Cloudy and raw; easterly wind swinging to the south over 10 mph and about 42 - 50 degrees. Water temperatures unchanged from last week at 48 -50 degrees (+/-). I returned to Mousam Lake. I figured there wouldn't be another bass tournament and I expected conditions to be very similar to the previous weekend. I was hoping for a beautiful brown trout, thinking about lake trout, and prepared to chase smallmouths if I chose to. It turned out to be a pretty good choice for a fairly raw but quiet Spring day. The session did not start well; my motor overheated as I started to move up the lake. I immediately switched to electric power and elected to stay close and troll the southern end of the lake while I let the motor cool down. After I'd set my spread (F11 Rapala in Rainbow Trout, 125 back and a DB Smelt off two colors of lead), I circled the familiar area from previous weeks. After a brief rest, the 30-horse Suzuki started right up, circulated cooling water, and idled perfectly for about 15 minutes as I continued my electric troll. Since I'd not contacted any fish, I pulled lines and headed up the lake. I made it all the way without any issues, so whatever Suzi's issue was, it was apparently ephemeral. Arriving at the productive, north-end reef complex, I chose to fish with the F11 but with a fly-line presenting a Gray Ghost tandem streamer as my second line. This outfit was equipped with 10 feet of sinking tip and additionally with several feet of sinking leader, and so the streamer remained a little under the surface. I trailed this perhaps 50 feet behind the boat, hand-held the rod, and provided frequent forward sweeps to make the fly surge ahead. I'd just completed my first pass along the reef and was starting to turn out to execute a turn when this fly got jolted! I was excited to finally connect in this manner. My first Maine freshwater trolled-fly-caught fish was not the brown trout I'd targeted, but rather a dark and rotund smallmouth bass of approximately 14 inches. That bass set the tone for the day. I continued trolling with the electric motor, generally at speeds between 1.5 and 1.8 mph. I continued to contact brown bass on rocky points, sandy humps, and nearby. One ate the Rapala, but everything else hit the fly. I also caught a beautiful, 16-inch brown trout on the F11 (almost directly over a waypoint from the previous week, adjacent to a point and sandy flat), so the F11 kept swimming for me, too. Around lunch-time, I searched the deeper water of the northern basin with the lead/DB Smelt combo. Despite marking a lot of fish, I had no takes in this area that had been so productive for me in 2022. I'd brought a single spinning rod along to cast for bass if I chose to do so. Since I seemed to have the bass located, I decided to try casting to specific structures with a jerk-bait while utilizing Spot-Lock. Surprisingly, I didn't get touched in 45 minutes, and so I returned to trolling. I expanded my trolling areas and experimented with lures. A mid-lake reef and adjacent bay produced a couple more decent smallmouths. One of these ate the DB Smelt, which had otherwise been silent for the day. Near the day's end, the trolling motor abruptly quit. It turned out to be just a drained battery. As I'd understood, the new lithium battery had delivered perfect performance right until it was totally dead. What do I have to say about this? I left the lake with swallows dipping and lots of water remaining to explore. I was surprised at the minimal trout activity, but happy enough with the incidental bass action. Of the 9 or 10 I'd landed, three weighed a couple of pounds or more, and they certainly fought better than the day's brown trout. It was nice to successfully add another technique to my arsenal, and a few more spots revealed themselves. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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Date: April 16, 2023 Body of Water: Square Pond - Acton, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Brown Trout Time: 9:15 AM - 3 PM Conditions: Cloudy but clearing; inconsequential wind and 50 - 65 degrees. Water temperature 48 - 50 degrees (+/-). Square Pond is generally recognized as Maine's best water for brown trout, having produced the state record 23-pounder a couple of decades ago. I've also heard of various "teenager" trout from here, and so it's been on my radar since I've moved to Maine. I finally deciphered the public access situation (it's just a few miles beyond the Mousam Lake access), and so it was a no-brainer to go give it a try! The ramp will be iffy during any period of low water, and the culvert to the main lake limits the boating options, but soon enough I was in the lake's main basin. A few boats were trolling the break-line into the 35-foot basin for brown trout, but I chose to head up to the northern extent of the lake. Here, I picked up the break into 15 feet or so as I set my starting spread of a flatlined F11 Rapala and a DB Smelt off two colors of lead core. In the first couple of minutes, the DB Smelt got ripped, but I did not connect. Just a few minutes later, the same presentation got hit again over a rocky point, and I landed my first Square Pond fish, a fat, dark 15-inch smallmouth bass in good shape. The next rocky point yielded a similar-sized largemouth. Clearly, the bass were starting to stage for their spawn, and this lake did not suffer from a lack of similar points and flats. I was off to a good start, but was still searching for a brown trout. After another 15 minutes or so, I headed out to the main lake basin. I gave it a solid hour with a flat-lined Rapala and alternating spoons off two and five colors of lead. Without a touch and not seeing much on the graph, I decided to re-visit the shallows in other parts of the lake. I found a couple of other pods of bass, but had no apparent trout action. Skies had now cleared and I decided to try the main lake basin again, this time trolling more slowly with the new Minn Kota. I presented a Michigan Stinger (Mixed Veggies) spoon off two colors of lead and a dodger/smelt fly off five colors of lead. Trolling at 1.5 mph, the spoon got slammed over 35 feet of water! But I didn't hook up, and I could only wonder what it might have been. That strike kept me going for the next hour, at which point I was simply out of time. The skies had totally cleared and the wind had died. I was seeing some insects coming off the water; and for good measure, a fly-fisher in less than 10 feet of water landed a nice brown as I approached the ramp. I'll be back! What do I have to say about this? This was a good experience on a nice lake. It offers great potential and should be quiet in the "off" seasons. I know a lot of locals slowly troll live bait for trout, that is something I may need to explore. Meanwhile, I have to decide if I should be fishing for bass, instead; the trolling motor will make this possible and more efficient. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways Date: April 15, 2033 Body of Water: Mousam Lake - Shapleigh, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Trout Time: 8:30 AM - 1 PM Conditions: Bright and sunny; ENE breeze less than 10 mph and 50 - 65 degrees. Water temperature 46 - 51 degrees (+/-). What a difference a week makes! After a few days of intense sunshine, the ice was gone, the dock was in, and both air and water temperatures were a solid 10 degrees or so higher than six days before. I hit the water with high expectations. I started in the southern basin and circled through the productive water from Easter Sunday. This only produced a small brown bass on the first pass (DB Smelt strikes again!). I trolled through the neck leading to the causeway access to the main lake without a touch. By 9:30 or so, I was setting up my trolling spread along the reef guarding the northernmost portion of the lake. I circled and strafed the reef a couple of times with my blue F11 Rapala and the DB Smelt of choice off two colors of lead. I tried to focus on 8 - 11 feet of water (the spoon was running about 8 feet down at about 2 mph), but of course wandered both too shallow and over deeper water. With no touches, I expanded my search. I'd just passed over a shallow rocky point when I had a heavy hit on the trusty DB Smelt. Unfortunately, this fish came unbuttoned without a sighting; it felt sizable. Continuing upon the shoreline, the next rocky point produced another heavy strike. A beautifully fat, 3+ pound smallie put on an aerial display and came to hand. When the next pass produced another brown bass of about 15 inches, I had to think that perhaps the first fish had been a bass and not the trout I sought. Lesson learned; these bass were fit and staging on shallow rocky points with the water temperature between 48 and 50 degrees. With that knowledge in my back pocket, I continued my quest for trout. I turned north, and my next action was a 14-inch brown trout on the lead-presented DB Smelt. This fish ate in about 12 feet of water as I dropped the spoon back, over an existing waypoint from last year. I continued north and explored both shorelines and basins. Although these had produced in 2022, I wasn't touched, this trip. With the clock ticking, I decided to grind out my time on known, productive spots. The reliably productive DB Smelt was a given presentation, and I had faith in the F11 for producing a big fish. I had just edged over the shallow shoulder of my reef into about 6 feet of water. I adjusted boat positioning "out" while watching my lead-core rod. It got pulled down hard, and I thought I might be snagged, but the drag was slipping too fast and I could feel the rod pulsing. I had two thoughts; a side-snagged fish, or possibly a big lake trout. I carefully worked the fish into sight; it was a fine laker of 10 or 12 pounds! It hadn't fought too well so far, but when it noticed the boat, it went on a continuous run of almost 100 feet (confirmed by the counter on my reel and the disappearance of all my lead core line and well into the backing). I slowly worked the fish back to the boat. It was a beautifully marked charr and the white edges of the fins were brightly lit. As I reached with the net, the hooks pulled and she side-stepped the mesh. Ugh! While not a targeted brown, this was a "hella" togue for an inland lake, and would have been my best Maine freshwater fish to date. Lesson learned; this lake has potential for togues, and to catch them in cold water on shallow reefs is always fun! Was it a good way to end the day? I can't decide. But my time was up, I had to go, regardless. What do I have to say about this? I was little surprised and disappointed with the lack of action from brown trout but that near-miss made the day. I also learned about the next day's bass tournament, and so I decided that my next trip would have to be somewhere else. So much water, so little time... Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways 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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