Sorry, we been fishing #95

For the last couple of weeks, I have to admit that the blogs or any notion of writing a blog has been thin. I’ve had some questions about when the next one would come out, and one person actually told me that he lives vicariously through my fishing adventures. Having that on my conscious, I sat down and pounded out this blog. This one’s for you Tim.

TC and I have been spending our time in the northern part of Aroostook County taking advantage of the excellent fishing we have had, as well as bumming a place to stay at her brother’s home. We’ve had the travel down to a science, generally leaving home either Friday or Saturday and fishing the weekend and coming back home on Sunday afternoon or evening.  For a couple of the weekends, I felt like I had a new name, “Net Boy”. Please allow me to explain. TC has had an incredible run on fish these past several weeks. Most of the fish she is catching are 12-16” and nice and fat to boot. I recall being on a pond several weeks ago and her brother and her Uncle Phil were in another boat, and she was catching fish and they were not. I have to admit that I did well that day and we both brought our limit home. They watched us with open mouths and eventually asked what we were using. Being the good hearted folks that we are, we paddled over and TC offered them one of our flies.  

Her uncle reciprocated the next day by taking us behind a locked gate to a pond I have not fished since I left Fort Kent 36 years ago. There we enjoyed a nice day and did catch a few fish. The next day, we went back to the pond we had been fishing and TC used a wet fly she had tied. Almost immediately, she got one fish and then hooked another, but lost it and then another which measured 16”. I did catch a salmon and did not have any other bites, but it was fun to see TC catch those fish on a fly she had tied.  But I have to admit, the highlight of the past four weeks was this past weekend when we went to a lake that I again had not fished in some time. This lake was frequented by TC’s father and brother Andre and she had a real desire to see it and fish it. So, on went the aluminum boat, in went the motor and we were off like a herd of turtles crossing the road. My memory of the lake was still quite vivid and I was sure I was still able to navigate the truck to its location. I was, however, not sure how the road would be. When we turned left off the hot top, I didn’t think it was too bad, until we got part way in and the potholes appeared to be bigger than the truck itself. There was one right after the other which made for a very slow ride in. As we got to the final intersection and turned right the road began to get more grown in with alders. Thanks to the size of my little Tacoma, we were able to move through it quite well. Finally we got to the road that would take us to the lake and we turned and backed down to the water. We unloaded the boat, cranked down the motor and loaded it with our gear. This day, we would be trolling and had planned that we would use our 8 weight rods, sink lines and streamers. The day was nice with little to no breeze and just enough clouds to make it overcast. TC took it all in remembering that the lake was often frequented by her brother and father. It was not long before we started having bites and before long, TC had her first fish on. I stopped the motor and she reeled it in like a pro. She got the nice looking trout to the boat and “Net Boy” brought it aboard. It was a beautiful colored 9” brook trout. Immediately, I removed the hook and lowered it back into the water moving it back and forth until it jetted out of my hand and off into the dark. We continued with a few bites until roughly 11am and then as we were on a pass where she had caught the first fish, my rod came to life. I began to reel in and just knew this was a good fish.  As I got it to the boat, “NET GIRL” J came to life and she got the net into the water. BUT the fish was not done. It took a deep dive away from the net and the boat, pulling my rod down with it. Now, I had to say that this made my heart beat faster than normal as I had seen this trick before. Two weeks before that, while on a different pond, I hooked a fish that was probably the biggest one I had ever caught in Aroostook County. That one had some fight in it. TC and I saw it roll a few times and knew it was big. Well, that fish did the same thing, I got it near the boat and it darted off and when it did, it went down hard. At that moment, my pole went down with it and snap went my line. Yes, it was gone and so to was much of my leader. It had taken the hook and leader and left me with a small portion of leader and my fly line. So, when this fish started down I had shades of the other one. Thankfully, the same did not happen and I got control again and brought it to the boat where TC netted it and brought it aboard. It was beautiful with a dark color and red belly to boot. This brook trout measured at 16+ inches. It was so big, it almost did not fit in our creel. This was a keeper. We finished up the morning and before landing, noticed that we had company. TC’s Uncle Phil and Uncle Joel and her brothers Paul and Raymond had shown up. Yup, it was a good time to leave….. We have to keep an eye on that Joel guy!  We packed up and headed home once again satisfied with our adventure and our catch.

As September begins to wind down and fishing season comes to a close at the end of the month, TC and I plan to do as much fishing as we can. This coming weekend is already being planned and with one more week of fishing after that, we are going to make the most of it. If the fishing and the big fish we have been catching continue, we just might have to take a few days off before the end of the season. See next year is a long way off.