Spring weather in Maine never moves forward steadily it is a couple of steps forward and one back with plenty of wind to help dry things out.
This spring is about normal, after a warm middle of March, it went out with cold and wind. To make the point we woke up to a sprinkling of snow on the last day of the month. I am certain that the weather will continue to improve in the same unsteady pattern. On the upside the ice is mostly gone from Seven Tree and Round ponds here in Union and Megunticook Lake in Camden is now free of ice. Water temperatures are still pretty cold, but we are getting there. Last Sunday the water in Seven Tree was 47 degrees so with a few warm sunny days I expect that fish will become active again.
I will note as I do every spring that the ducks and geese are everywhere at the moment and all in their prettiest plumage of the year. Yesterday we saw a variety of pretty birds in the seasons best including a drake wood duck who held a pose while we got nice and close. If you are considering photographing some very pretty birds now is the time before the leaves come out or the ice to our north melts and birds head further north.
Like the weather things are changing here as well. First the boat has been prepped and is ready to go, I’ve been on the water a couple of times already. Most recently I did an interview for Maine Seniors magazine. It will be interesting to see the story that gets written from an hour on the water with me when the air temperature was in the mid 20’s, at least the sun was shining. The photographer did get some nice shots of me telling stories so we will see.
The other big change is that after 13 years I have moved on from the Maine Professional Guides Association and am now running only this small business. What that will mean for you (and me) is a slower pace that will allow me time to get the details right. To that end I have been working to streamline how reservations are made online and the back-end stuff is taken care of here in the office. With an eye toward making everything flow more easily so that I can focus on what is needed to give you a great experience on the water and have my evenings off. Hopefully it gets easier on your end and mine. Like spring coming it will be a process to get there.
In the next couple of weeks, I will re explore familiar places locating the fish and determining what they are interested in (or if they are warm enough to have an interest). I’ll have the first real report on conditions in two weeks as I attempt to keep my promise of delivering the newsletter biweekly during the season.
Best regards,
