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Date: May 4, 2024 Body of Water: Worthley Pond - Peru, Maine Boat: amybaby22 With: Alone Target: Trout Time: 9 AM - 3:30 PM Moon Phase: Waning crescent moon, New minus three days Conditions: Cloudy; generally calm; 50 - 60 degrees. Water temperatures 50 - 55 degrees F (+/-); water clear but tannic. Perhaps I had missed the main portion of breakfast; just moments after setting the second rod, my orange DB Smelt, swimming over about 15 feet of water and presented off 1.5 colors of lead, got crushed! With a 15-inch brown trout in the net so quickly, it looked as if it might be an epic day! But all my presentations went untouched for the next 2.5 hours. Breakfast was over! Conditions seemed fishy, for sure, but I continued to blank despite steadily rotating through presentation options (including spoons, Rapalas, flies, action disks and small plastic worms!) and expanding my range. By 11:45 AM, I'd already explored both the southern and northern portions of the lake and all my previously successful locations, without another bump! While it's always difficult for me to take a DB Smelt out of the water when trout fishing in Maine, I decided to do some bad science and made several changes simultaneously. I returned to the lake's southern basin (I had, after all, caught a nice fish and had marked some likely bait; and the water was a degree or two warmer), but with a new plan to now go slow (1.7 mph) with the electric motor, present a finesse Gulp! pinched crawler off 1.5 or 2 colors of lead, and add an orange J7 Rapala, crawling across the surface, to the spread. When the Gulp! rod quickly bounced, hard, over about 15 feet of new water as I began my troll, my confidence in this new plan rose, even though the strike had not resulted in a hookup. Shortly thereafter, things really picked up. The top-lined Rapala got smoked, and the first of several steelhead-esque rainbows (in attitude and spawning coloration, if not stature) came to the boat. I blew the net job, getting the Rapala's treble hung in the webbing at the net's rim. I torqued the fish off and said goodbye to a beautifully colored, 3- or 4-pound male rainbow. Fortunately, the bites continued for the next 45 minutes or so; and all on the orange Gulp! as presented above. These all came from about 12 or 15 feet of water, or perhaps a little deeper as I tracked the primary break. A few of the hits were brief drive-by's, but I connected with and landed a couple more rainbows in the 16-18 inch range. The day's tide had turned, and I even scored a couple of photos! This action was concentrated in the lake's southeast portion, and I continued making passes through, so long as I got touched. One waypoint about 200 feet from my primary ice-fishing spot produced multiple bites/fish, including the fish that will get me to return to Worthley Pond. This fish buried the short lead core rod and throbbed with long, heavy head shakes. Unfortunately, the light-wire hook partially straightened and pulled before I caught a glimpse of it. I bet it was a big brown; it didn't seem to have the panicked urgency of a rainbow. I continued working the area and did get a final rainbow (Gulp!, again) before deciding it was time to head home. What do I have to say about this? This was my first Spring Effort on this lake. Despite the slow start, given the pleasant conditions and ultimately landing four rainbows and a brown; including a bigger-than-average fish to the net and another large fish lost; this was a good day! I am glad I switched gears and got something going. I am especially glad to have successfully incorporated some California Tactics into my trout fishing. I've used Gulp! pinched crawlers very successfully for walleye, but now I firmly believe in them for trout, too! Every hit was on orange; nothing else elicited any interest. Not even chartreuse Gulp! Pondering the questions of core essence and finding meaning in unexpected ways
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