jbmaine

As of right now the current overnight temperature in our fishing area is down to 29 degrees. By this weekend it's supposed to be in the eighties. We are seeing 30 - 40 degree temp. swings between night and day. Couple that with the usual fall draw down of the lake levels, and it gets interesting figuring out fishing patterns. How do you handle major temp. swings ?

I'm a retired tool and die maker / machinist. I've worked in prototype toolrooms and have built some cool things. I thought I was clever, I thought I was good , until yesterday. Besides fishing, I enjoy woodworking as a hobby. Most of the furniture in our house I've designed and built, and again, and thought I was pretty good, until yesterday. I was looking at Craig's list yesterday and came across an ad for selling a woodworking tool, a jig for making mortice and tenon joints. It was cheap money and just the next town over, so I called and arranged to go see it. I met the older gentlemen, and he took me into a rather large building, what I thought was his house. Turns out I think he slept there, but it was mostly filled with wonderful things. We walked into a room and I was struck by a couple of old iron woodworking machines, in particular a band saw with 36" diameter wheels. He said he had restored it ,and boy did he do a good job. He then took me into another room full of yet more amazing things. I was looking at a late 1800's early 1900's metal working tool room lathe, polished brass indexing gears, shiny metal, ornate cast legs and frame, covered in black lacquer paint. It looked museum quality but OMG there was another lathe sitting right next to it, it's twin. He explained that he had been asked to restore it ( he would not say for whom), so he stripped it down , repaired or rebuilt parts as needed, and this was the finished result. As for the second lathe, it's twin? He told me he loved the craftsmenship so much he wanted one of his own. He made patterns of every part of the original lathe. Had them cast, then he machined, fitted, polished, every piece to original specs, then assembled it. He showed me his woodworking shop, machine shop, things he had designed, built, invented. Room after room of such amazing things. As far as I can tell he just seems to have the time, funds, inclination, skill, and a quirky mind to make just about anything he desires. My mind is still spinning with the things I saw. As for the jig I came for? I bought it from him. He had bought, tried it, and built one of his own, his does things I never would have thought of. Jim

We tow our 16 ft. boat with a Ford Edge ( with a factory tow package), tows like a dream, very nice ride.

Ned rig

Way to busy on the water for us. Think we might head to the local DQ, pick up an ice cream , and watch the backed up traffic. People spending half their holiday getting into Maine, then turning around and spending the last half trying to get back home.

I'm sure I saw you last Friday trolling past a rock pile I was fishing. My wife and I fish Mousam all the time. We're in a black Lund fury XL sport. Will stop and say hi next time we see you.

I've fly fished off and on for 50 years, and have caught just about anything on a fly rod that you can catch on conventional tackle ( in this area) I have to say I've enjoyed salmon in fresh water and stripers in the ocean the most.

My wife loves being out on the water, and yes, she will often out fish me.

Here is my go to bait. I always have one tied on and it almost always gets bit. Strike king KVD swimm'n caffeine shad paddle tail, 4" in KVD magic color, on a Owner twistlock 1/4 oz. weighted hook. This is pretty weedless so toss it in weeds, toss it in clear water, anywhere. Fish it fast, slow, bounce it off the bottom, I have not found a wrong way to fish it. For me it catches LM,SM, pickerel, perch, pretty much anything in the water. I caught two LM on two casts with it yesterday, bouncing it off the bottom in about 10ft. of water.

Total weight-- around 2500 lb.

This is the second year towing our Lund Fury XL with our ford Edge. I would not want to tow anything bigger with the Edge, or have a vehicle any smaller to tow the Lund.

I found the same thing. Spot lock seems to work best if it's holding position against " something", either wind or current. In calm conditions it's almost like it's fighting itself to hold position, and sometimes it will give up and shut off.

We had a camp on Mousam lake in Maine when I was a kid. Always had the fishing bug. Started with worms, then dare devil spoons, inline spinners, jitter bugs, and so on. Here's a picture of me and my dad around 1956. Even with a toy rod,reel, I tried to catch something.

Well it's happened twice now this summer, on two different lakes. Fishing deep ( 20+ ft. ) on known spots for smallies and caught LM instead. A strange year indeed.

I was 14, still remember it like yesterday.

Forgive my for asking, but how many times did you "accidently hit it" before it cracked??

Need to pan the camera up. Can't see the big grin on your face?

Had some visitors this afternoon, kinda cool. Yesterday she shows up to trim my weeds. She must of liked them because today she's back, with her kids of course the kids get hungry, what's a momma to do seems everyone had a nice visit, then off they go.

Hi all, As others have said, this is a strange year. A couple of days ago my wife and I made a trip to one of the local lakes. This is a 1600 acre lake, mostly deep and rocky, good SM water. But there are off shoots ( we call them basins) that hold good LM, pickerel. Our plan was to go after LM early, then switch to SM as the morning went on. We got on the water early and headed to what we call the upper basin. This is off the main lake, several acres of shallow coves 2-6 ft deep, covered in weeds, lilly pads, bull rushes, with a main channel 8-12 ft. deep going thru it. Our first surprise was hardly any weeds. I've never seen this on the beginning of July. We fish another lake 8 miles south of this that is covered in weeds, lilly pads, very strange. Our second surprise was no fish. We spent over an hour fishing tight to shore, across the coves, the channel, everywhere we could think of. No bass was not too unexpected, but we never even got a pickerel. This place is full of pickerel, how do you not catch pickerel? Then we headed out to the main lake and fished a submerged hump, rock pile, for SM. This area has done well for us in the past. It is about 100 yds. in dia. big rocks ( some the size of cars) just under the surface dropping to 20+ ft. Well the SM weren't playing along, but I finally hooked a decent fish on a ned rig. Could tell right away it didn't fight like a SM and as I got it to the surface it turned out to be a LM, short but fat, just under 3 lbs. Have no idea what it was doing on the bottom 20 feet down in SM waters far from shore but guess I won't complain. As I said, strange year. This is what we call the upper basin, looks like. This is the LM, caught in the last place I thought a LM would be.

Jitterbug was catching bass for me 50+ years ago and still works now.

Been a very strange year so far in southern Maine. Catching fish, but mostly not where they usually are this time of year.

Best stuff we've ever used Bite Blocker extreme

This wasn't strange or weird but sure was a once in a life time thing that happened to me. Some years ago I was up in northern Maine flyfishing for trout. Early one morning I was fishing out of my canoe on a wilderness trout pond. The water was dead calm and the mist was heavy on the water. I heard a noise on the shore, it sounded like something got in the water and started towards me ( I couldn't see it, mist was too thick). I was thinking beaver, and figured I'd hear a tail slap when he saw me. So I'm waiting and watching, and out of the mist, about 20ft. away , comes a huge bull moose swimming right at me. I just froze, didn't know what to do. He saw me and changed course just enough to miss me. I don't know why I did it, but as he swam past me, His big eye staring at me, I moved my hand just enough so I could touch his antlers as he went by. Still think about that moment from time to time. Jim

exact same here. Great minds think alike!