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Date: April 4, 2020 Body of Water: Old Lexington Reservoir and White Pond Moon Phase: Full Moon minus 3 days Boat: None, Shore fishing with waders With: Alone Target: Stocked Trout Time: 9 AM - 2 PM Conditions: The last few days leading up to this have been cool (mid-40s), wet (approaching an inch of rain) and windy (consistently northerly and in the high teens with gusts well into the 20s). This day was cloudy to mostly cloudy, 40 - 50 degrees F, with inconsequential winds. It was clearing and pretty darn nice by the time I left White Pond. It's pretty clear; the smart and correct thing to do right now is to stay local and stay socially isolated. So, I chose to check out a couple of local options I'd not yet fished, in the hopes of possibly contacting some fish while avoiding contact with other folks. I hit the "Old Lexington Reservoir" in Lexington first; and then re-located to Concord's White Pond. My time on the Old Reservoir (9 - 11 AM) was pleasant enough. This is just a pothole of a couple of acres. About a half dozen adult men were fishing from various points around its perimeter as I arrived. I fished on the dam end, hoping for some depth or current. It appeared to be rather shallow, and the bottom had some green filamentous algal growth. The water was dark and likely warmer than other local trout lakes. I had one half-hearted pulldown on a Gulp!-and-worm combo pretty early on. Soon thereafter, I lost a Panther Martin spinner to some snagged monofilament, and then a slip-float combo to a submerged tree. I'd casted in that direction because I thought I'd seen some evidence of fish milling about. Once I'd re-rigged, I positioned myself on the other side of the snaggy tree (it was pretty visible from up on the dam, less so from the water). I spent a frustrating half hour trying to get these fish to hit (and they were fish; I suspected rainbow trout.) They ignored small grubs, spoons and tiny cranks; nor would they eat crawlers. Finally, my float went under in slow motion, and I finally connected with a freshwater fish in Massachusetts! What a moment! It turned out to be a 9-inch crappie that ate my green and orange Powerbait "Mice Tail" adorned with a wax-worm. It wasn't the rainbow trout I'd expected or hoped for; but it was a fish! I casted for another half hour or so without any additional action. I suspect I could have worked over the crappies had I wanted to or tried, but I had aspirations of trout. Plus, I saw no evidence of anybody catching anything (although one guy said he'd done well on rainbows last weekend). It was time to try something else. I was off to White Pond. I'd checked out White Pond a couple of times over the winter, and it's a picturesque and less-crowded alternative to nearby Walden Pond. About a dozen folks were already fishing from the beach and small craft, but since I'd brought my waders, I was able to avoid the extant shallows and slid into the crystal clear to the left of the beach. A fellow wader reported good success off the breakline for browns during a recent trip. I alternated small Gulp! grubs on Titanium Ned Heads, various spoons and a crawler/Gulp! combo under a slip float for a couple of hours without success. I was just about ready to call it a day when I got hit almost immediately at the end of a long cast. I very carefully played, landed, photographed and released my first Massachusetts trout. A little perseverance combined with a little good luck to finally break my Massachusetts Skunk. Of course, this fish kept me at it for another 45 minutes, during which nothing good happened. But the birds were singing, the water was beautifully clear, and the sun was starting to peak out. It had been a good day. What do I have to say about this? I'd probably hit that brown on the head with my cast; that's about the only difference between that cast and getting a solid hit, compared to all my other efforts so far this season. Oh well, so be it. I did manage to snap off three favored trout lures (a 1/8-ounce blue/silver Kastmaster, a 1/6-ounce Thomas Cyclone spoon in rainbow trout, and a CD5 Rapala in gold-and-black). A faulty bail spring on an old LL Bean spinning reel cost me each lure, and so this reel has been (finally and belatedly; I'd lost several cranks a few years ago to the same malfunction) retired. I lost more gear this day than in most of last season, cumulative. Perhaps the loss of those lures magnified the kick I got out of catching the trout on my nearly-ancient Little Cleo spoon. I suspect I purchased that spoon in 1985 or 1986, and it has often served me well for trout. It will keep swimming for me until I lose it; I hope in a manner with with a little more dignity than because of a known faulty bail! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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