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Date: March 8, 2020 Body of Water: Horn Pond and Lower Mystic Lake Moon Phase: Full Moon minus one day Boat: None, Shore fishing With: Alone Target: Rainbow Trout Time: 9:30 AM - 2:30 PM Conditions: Mostly cloudy; 40 50 degrees F, but with a persistent NW wind in excess of 10 mph that provided a substantial chill. Much windier, cloudier and cooler then predicted. My heart may have been chasing Lake Trout through the last of the season's ice on Newfound Lake in New Hampshire, but my brain convinced me to stay local. The ice, access and bait situations were all a bit unclear for the weekend, and it was going to be difficult to be in place in New Hampshire at the right time, regardless, with the change to Daylight Savings Time. Plus, Horn Pond had just been stocked, courtesy of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (see www.mass.gov/service-details/trout-stocking-report ). I decided to grab some bait and start there. I was in place, armed with medium-sized shiners, small crawlers, wax-worms, marshmallows and various Powerbaits by 9:30 AM. The wind was coming down the length the pond, and so I nixed my plans to fish right by the dam or by the famous flagpole beach. Instead, I crept west and settled in at the small boat ramp area adjacent to the Woburn Water Department facility. The wind was still directly in my face, but reduced due to the decreased fetch. With four rods rigged and ready to go, I was able to deliver all of the above-mentioned baits either under slip floats (3 to 5 feet below the surface) or on a "Carolina" rig setup. I also fired a few casts with a small Kastmaster, but the bite was so slow that I decided to stick with bait, almost exclusively. In the first hour, I did have two "pull downs" on shiners suspended a few feet below the surface. Both took place as if in slow motion, and neither fish moved with the bait; everything still seems to be very lethargic. I almost couldn't believe my eyes with the first float down; when I tightened up, I retrieved nothing but a scaled (de-scaled?) shiner. The second take was a bit more aggressive, but I felt my hook tear through the shiner as I came tight. The hook never found the fish. These bites kept me planted for perhaps too long, but I also tried a couple of other spots (the causeway and the small cove adjacent to the water plant) on Horn Pond to no avail. After perhaps three hours of effort here, I decided to go to Arlington Reservoir; I'd heard it was good for pickerel. But the water level seemed to be down 6 or 8 feet and I didn't' see a place to fish that looked either enjoyable or productive; and so I continued over to Lower Mystic Lake. Fishing below the dam, I had another slo-mo pull down on a float with suspended shiner. Once again, I retrieved a dazed, scaled shiner, but never touched the fish with my hook. What do I have to say about this? This was a bit of a frustrating day, but Hey! It's March! While human fishers seemed to all strike out (as I retrieved many reports from fellow Horn Pond fishermen), the raptors seemed to be doing pretty well. The eagles are still hanging around Mystic Lakes (as are all the birders), and I saw an osprey eating a freshly caught trout at Horn Pond. As Spring progresses, I suspect things will get better for us humans. Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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