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Date: April 18, 2022 Body of Water: Upper Range Pond - Poland, Maine Moon Phase: Full Moon plus two days; waning gibbous moon Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Trout Time: 8:00 AM - 1:15 PM Conditions: Post front and crystal clear; 35 - 55 degrees F; light wind from mixed directions; water was clear, stained brown, with over 5 feet of visibility and temperatures from 44 rising to 48 degrees F I decided to return to Upper Range Pond to enjoy a peaceful Patriots Day. "Rang" had treated me decently well on my previous visit last fall. Plus, I knew that a variety of trout species (rainbows, brooks and browns) were catchable, and Upper's small fetch would make it fishable regardless of weather conditions. This is a popular lake, and there were already several rigs on the water when I launched uneventfully at about 8 AM. I started with a gold/black S7 Rapala and the Green Wonder fly. Using my Garmin GPS mapping, I tried to trace the 10-foot contour, sometimes finding myself in 25 or more feet of water, and occasionally scrubbing shallows in four or five feet. Some struggling green Potomogeton cabbage fringed the six-to-nine-foot depths, and there are many scattered boulders and rock piles in this lake! Almost immediately, something grabbed the Rapala. It let go before I could respond, and my initial thought was "fish", as the take had been sudden as opposed to gradual, and the lure came back in clean... but still, I was left to wonder. Had it really been a fish? In retrospect, I think so. This same, classic S7 caught all of the day's three fish, and got whacked at least one other time without a hookup. Meanwhile, all other lures (other Rapalas, flies and spoons off short lead-cores) were silent, and I was pretty good at diagnosing weeds, too! Sometimes, there is something about a particular lure on a particular day. And quite often, that applies to the S7 in either gold/black or blue/silver when I am trolling for trout. This seemed to be one of those days for this old, gold S7. The three fish (approximate 16-inch brook trout, a smaller rainbow, and an approximate 14-inch smallmouth bass) all ate in about 8 - 10 feet of water and were either by weeds or prominent boulders. Anything shallower or deeper went untouched, all day. While the brook trout was a stocker and really nothing to get too excited about by Maine standards, I cannot honestly claim to have ever caught a larger one. And, it was pretty colorful, too. Such a fish is welcomed by me at any time. At about 11 AM, I was seduced by the prospect of near-surface trout over the lake's deeper basin. Gnats/midges were flying about, and I had seen swallows diving over the lake earlier in the morning. With the sun and the increasing water temperatures, this move made some sense, but it produced no bites. When I tried to regain my early-morning form along the break, I struggled to find my groove. Weeds and snags were, somehow, now more of a problem. Nothing happened here, either. Returning to the one-lane ramp, I observed one rig struggling to launch and another awaiting retrieval. Instead of just waiting, I explored through the culvert connecting Upper to Middle Range Pond. There was plenty of water to navigate at this time of the year. So, at least I know that I can expand my search for fish into Middle Range, too. I've heard some good things about it, especially for rainbows, and I probably will do just that. What do I have to say about this? I feel as if I finally earned my Maine residency status this trip. The snow-capped White Mountains were beautiful to behold in the distance as I approached the lake. I was celebrating Patriots Day, a state holiday recognized only in Massachusetts and Maine. And, perhaps most importantly, I captured my first brook trout since moving here. It was an uplifting trip! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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