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Date: April 29, 2023 Body of Water: Upper and Middle Range Ponds - Poland, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Trout Time: 8 AM - 2:30 PM Conditions: Clear at first but becoming cloudy; calm but developing a stiff ESE breeze over 10 mph; 40 - 54 degrees. Water temperature 48 - 51 degrees (+/-). With the weather "stuck" for the past two weeks, going North to a new pond wasn't going to be the best choice. Instead, I chose the local, familiar confines of Upper Range Pond and adjoining Middle Range Pond. What started as a chilly but gentle Spring morning became a raw grind of an outing. There was plenty of optimism for the day. Gentle conditions, two kinds of airborne insects (midges and tiny mayflies?) and favorable water temperatures all had me daydreaming of a good trout session. The initial spread included the Rainbow Trout Rapala F11 (flat-lined 125 feet behind the rod tip) and a tandem streamer from the sink-tipped fly line, both worked along break-lines and weediness with the electric motor. After a search around half or more of Upper pond without a bump, the substitutions began. I moved to deeper water, where humps and boulders abound, and where I marked plenty of fish. Clouds were increasing and the ESE wind was developing. I mixed in the main motor for increased speeds (above 1.9 mph) and improved boat control in the wind. Two to five colors of lead-core were implemented, and an S7 Rapala in green swam as my shotgun search lure. At about 11, still without a touch, I ventured into Middle Range Pond. The initial spread here included the trusty F11 and a DB Smelt presented off one or two colors of lead in shallow water. I'd searched a good chunk of the shoreline by 1 PM and still had not found any fish. I moved into the main lake basin (attaining depths over 60 feet on this lake) and presented lures from top to almost 40 feet deep with seven colors of lead. At the very least, I imagined that I had now added togue to my list of likely targets. I finally noticed a dense concentration of "something" on the graph, suspended at about 20 feet below the surface. I pulled the deepest core and shortened it to about four colors to run at about that depth. I'd tried to keep the fish honest with shallow presentations over this deep water, too, but perhaps my longest lead had been below any active fish? At just about 2 PM and over 58 feet of water at 1.7 mph, six solid hours into the session, the drag of my two-color presentation (now terminated with an orange-and-black-dotted DB Smelt) finally slipped with some authority and the light rod bowed deeply! But, in what has become something of a disturbing pattern, the small hooks pulled from the fish about half-way back to the boat. I never saw the fish, and my first thought was Laker!, but the spinning head shakes and successful gyrations it employed about 40 feet behind the boat make me wonder. It probably wasn't a giant, but it certainly was a substantial trout. I continued this effort in this area for another half hour, now with spoons presented off two and three colors of lead, but I ran out of time before anything else could happen. What do I have to say about this? I did confirm that my lead-core lines are reaching a little over five feet of depth for each color of line at approximately 1.7 mph when I grabbed bottom in 21.5 feet of water with four colors out. My mixed feelings for the trip include the following: -Half proud of my effort but half ashamed that I am struggling to catch any trout! -Half encouraged by contacting another nice fish but half revulsed by my inability to execute my chances -Half sunny but half cloudy -Half gentle but half raw -Half a decent launch facility but half a cluster -Half shallow but half deep -Half electric but half main motor -Half spoons but half stick-baits (and somehow, a bit of fly) -Half Upper but half Middle -Half loons but half ducks and geese -Half excited to move on to stripers but half reluctant to end this seasonal quest Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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