July Synoposis - Part 2

Continuing into week two I maintained the lake theme and visited Cross Lake and picked up a few brown bullheads for a different type of adventure.  Not overly large, but pound for pound not a bad fight.  The part that takes getting used to though, is that the fish growls at you!  In typical catfish formation the fish utters a guttural sound when stressed.  A worm floating just above bottom on a bobber worked very well for these bottom dwellers.

I then decided to stay true to the River Rats name and get off the lakes and back onto a river. Brent and I headed out for another night on the river for a try at a muskie.  We were not rewarded with a muskie, but the bass action was slow and steady.

In the third week, we went on a couple more unsuccessful muskie trips followed by an evening of shore fishing for Heather and I.  We fished the mouth of the Fish River down into the St.John River a ways, then switched and hit some deep holes further up and finished at the mouth of the Perley Brook.  All in all we got skunked, but had an enjoyable evening on the riverbank.  I was also trying out my latest rod purchase, which was the Ugly Stick Bigwater in 7' medium action.  More to come later on that.  Heather managed to capture a couple of action shots as I plied the murky depths in hopes of finally feeling that tug on the line.  To top off the evening, there was a beautiful sunset as we packed the gear back into the truck.

Late that week, the local newspaper posted pictures of several local fishermen with large muskellunge and that only served to further fuel my fire about muskie.  All of these muskie were in the 39"-46" range and came from Glazier Lake.  I had never fished there and it wasn't a river, but I couldn't resist the urge to give it a try.  The lake is absolutely beautiful and even though our best efforts and 8 solid hours of lures in the water didn't produce a single fish, Brent and I still enjoyed the experience.  It is always fun to explore a new body of water and try to unlock the puzzles that it holds.  We spent most of our time in the upper ponds and in front of Connors Cove, but at one point or another during the day most of the lake was touched by our unrelenting casts.  We spotted several brook trout in our stealthy stalk around the shoreline and by our quick estimates the trout population appears to be in good shape.  A dragonfly hung out with us for the better part of an hour and it finally dawned on me that maybe I should take a picture!

The last week of the month found me down in southern Maine on vacation.  I have been Striped Bass fishing twice now with guides and have been skunked both times.  I decided to take a break this year and not book a trip.  I did head into Cabelas and picked up some new gear and talked to a guy in the fishing department who said people were catching stripers off the breakwater in Camp Ellis.  This piqued my interest and after a brief lesson on how to rig up, Heather and I headed out and lobbed chunks of mackerel into the pounding surf hoping for a hookup.  True to my latest success rates, we left empty handed again.  I am hoping that August produces much better catch results!  We have logged a lot of hours on the water in the last month and don't have many fish to show for it, but sooner or later when you put the time in it will pay off!  Stay tuned for more updates and lots of upcoming posts, including the Fort Kent International Muskie Derby and my previously promised stories!