One thing that I have always appreciated about my life as a guide is the fact that each day is different. The clients are different having unique interests and skill levels, the trips are different and the weather is always a wild card. This week I spent a most enjoyable day bass fishing on one of my favorite local ponds. It is always a pleasure to work out of the strip built grand lake canoe. I like to think of it as a piece of fine furniture and it moves nicely when I put my paddle in the water. The morning was almost perfectly still, with a loon watching us fish along the shore.
Fishing started out pretty slow, partly because my client was a little rusty on his fly casting and partly because the fish were not feeding like they would later in the day. He caught and released several fish throughout the morning and we were having a pretty good day. I paddled into one cove and it was obvious that there were bigger fish in among the lily pads actively feeding; make that anyone could easily see them jumping up into the air with a loud splash on return to the water. We slowly worked our way in to the back of the cove where he hooked and lost what I am guessing to be the biggest fish. But on the next several casts he caught a few big bass including the one in this picture. What great fun on a fly rod!
After lunch we fished for another couple of hours and caught many more smallmouth bass, they were really feeding actively. When I returned him to his hotel and began my trip home I ran in to an almost unbelievable thunderstorm. The wind blew and swirled and after that the rain came down in huge drops and literally ran down the road several inches deep. We lost our power for a few hours, the good news is that the hot and humid spell of the last several days is broken and we have been returned to a sparkling clear Maine summer. Cool in the evening and morning and pleasantly warm during the day.
Argy will be starting a new job in a couple of weeks and won't go back to the classroom in September for the first time since she was five years old, it will definitely be a big change. The Bangor Daily News ran a short piece on her and the new position.
We now have green waxed cotton hats with a striper in place of the smallmouth bass on the side and Maine Outdoors across the front. Since more than half of the fishing I am doing these days is for stripers, I thought that many of you would appreciate a picture of the fish that made your trip. The image is at this point unique to Maine Outdoors items. Visit the online store and order yours today.
Best regards,
Don Kleiner
Master Maine Guide
