Spent the morning with two ladies on an eagle watching trip we saw maybe a dozen eagles including two eaglets still in the nest. The weather was perfect, cool with a breeze from the west certainly not windy. A perfectly clear blue sky overhead I picked them up at their hotel in Rockport. After launching the boat we headed off upriver and I have to confess I was nervous after the first few miles.
Freshwater bass spawn in the spring based on the water temperature. For us the smallmouth bass spawn first followed by the largemouth a couple of weeks later. We all care because the males first scuff a bed in the gravel in water under six feet deep. These show as white spot in the gravel about the size of a hubcap on the bottom. After the female deposits her eggs and they are fertilized the males defend these nests fiercely. This provides some amazing fishing action not to mention an excellent sight casting opportunity.
Memorial Day weekend marks the start of summer for many folks in the United States, here in Maine it marks the beginning of our summer season. Like most years I was scheduled to fish with a couple of families over the weekend. Mother nature had other plans. Saturday was a complete washout it rained hard most of the day and was cold and damp. Sunday afternoon as the weather was predicted to break; no such luck. After an hour or so it was clear that everyone was cold and wet, the fish were not going to cooperate and that the river was four or five feet higher than it had been all spring.
