Ice fishing

As winter is coming and it is coming soon. We had snow fall last night the 23rd of October. While most see the snow as the time where there is no more fishing and you need to take invntory for next year. What winter really means is ice fishing. The concept of ice fishing is cut a hole in the ice and drop a line in it. Ice fishing is the lazy way to fish. Just like regular fishing you need to have patients but I think you need more. The weather makes it extra annoying to be waiting. The wind is cold and with the wind getting the channeled by the lake sides and the ice of the lake. At the end of the day you always end up with a wind burn and if its sunny sun burn. That might seem weird for a winter day. For those who live down south or those who haven't seen snow, winter is when the worst sunburns happen. The snow is the best reflector of sunlight.

David Boucher

David was a long time supporter and member of the Maine fisheries and wildlife department. He was awarded the highest honor the Anderson Award. He was awarded this posthumously. "Dave began his career as a student research assistant for IFW while he was at the University of Maine in the early 1980s. After short stints at IFW’s Palermo Fish Hatchery and the Department of Environmental Protection, Dave was hired as an assistant regional fisheries biologist in the Belgrade Lakes Region in 1988, where he worked until he transferred to the Rangeley Lakes region in 1995.

In his 17 years in the Rangeley Lakes region, Dave became well known for protecting and enhancing the area’s trout and salmon fisheries. In 2006, he coauthored “Maine Landlocked Salmon: Life History, Ecology and Management.” During that time, Dave also directed the fisheries dive team, and was the Department’s lead researcher on landlocked salmon."(source: Department of Inland Fisheries and wildlife)

Fishing from my imagination

Dear reader,

     This weekend my dad did the unthinkable, he went fishing with out me. This was not a shock to me because he has done this before. The first time he did this was ice fishing which is the best thing ever. For all those who don't know what it is. It is the sport of going out fishing in winter, 32 degrees and bellow normally colder, and trying to catch fish. Another name my friend Reed calls it is "Go to the lake and freeze your A** off". Most of the time he is not wrong but if you hit the just right then you can get lots of fish. The best time to go is as soon as the ice comes in. The ice will be hard enough for you to be out their but it won't take a block of dynamite to get a hole to fish from. The worst time is dead winter, for one thing it is way too cold and the second is that the fish will be laughing at you under the ice because they don't want to leave the warmer water. My dad went on a ice fishing trip with the "guys", aka the old men. They went to Alagash Lake, which I will explain later. They did little fishing and lots of drinking because that is what the old guys do when they're is no fishing. Aligash is a lake in the protected waterway that is called Aligash. The waterway is made up of Alagash, spider,eagle,small fish, large fish, beaver, and round ponds. Each one has their own advantages and difficulties. Spider is hard because it is a long pond that has no coves. This means that you will look like that guy from lilo and stitch who was beyond normally sun burnt except this will be from windburn. The advantage is that the fishing is crazy good. Then the other end of the scale you have Aligash which you can't have anything that has a motor, which includes but is not limited too; motorized ice augurs, snowmobiles, wheelers, and trucks. This suck because from our cabin on spider its a 15 minute ride by truck and a 5 minutes ride in from where the truck can't go any further. But you can't bring them on the ice, so you have to drag all the gear that was hooked up to the snowmobiles on to the ice for at least a 100 yards to the best spots to fish. Then you have to either use the hand auger or a ice pick. Which on Alagash is never fun because the ice is never less than 18 inches thick. To get around this we make a small hold and add a log dosed in gas and light it, basically a homemade bomb. The limited space in the hole and the gas makes a fun trick. YES, this is dangerous but never no fun. The hole never goes all the way through so you can still make the hole to your own size.

    To get back to what I started this about, my dad went to The Horns Pond this weekend and fished up there. He planned this for the both of us but I had other plans that I couldn't cancel. He just had to brag when he was fishing because he sent me pics of the fish he was catching and their were 10 inches at the smallest and at least 18 at the biggest. He sent me 10 pictures of different fish then he didn't for a while and then he said well the day is ever and the catch count is 103 fish between him and his buddy.

Dried Pond

Dried Pond

The previously mentioned pond, Hobbs pond, is as of now dried up almost all the way. There is now almost no space for the fish to swim. The channel of the pond, which is relatively deep when it was full of water, is now only 6 inches deep and the river that leads to the damn at one end is no longer deep enough to get a kayak through. The dam is small about 30 feet long and 12 feet high. Normally you wouldn't be able to cross it because the dam dips a foot and the water runs over that area. The last time I was there I could climb down the side and look through the drains in the dam. The fishing along with the water level below the dam seem to not be effected. Then again I have had little luck below the dam fishing anyways. 

Some of the best things about fishing is the travel to get to the spot. The rule I follow is, 1; How many people have access to it. 2; How much time will I be able to spend their fishing. 3; How much gear is usable there. 4;  Is their a chance to bring a devise to get out in the water.

Some of the best times I have had is when there is a place that almost never to be reached for fishing.

One location is Hobbs Pond in Wells, Maine. This spot is readily accessible to a lot of people but almost no one ever brings gear to fish. When they do they will find as I have that the fish are rather limited on what they like to strike. I wont give away all the tricks but one thing I use is spoons. A simple $5 pack of spoons from Walmart is what I use. Depending on the time of season and the water level you are more of less likely to find these fish: Northern Chain Pickerel, Bass, Crappie, Brook Trout. The best secret of the pond is the far stretch that can only be accessed by a kayak. I have tried a canoe before and got stuck because of the rapidly changing depth of the water. Once you get past the launching area you will need a bigger boat to hold the amount of fish you will catch.

Another location that was recently mentioned to me was a small pond, more like a water collection area, on the top of a mountain in Wymann, Maine. This pond is one of the most hard fought ones I have been too. If you look it up you will find that the pond is at an elevation of 3142 ft above sea level. Thus it takes some time to get their. Also located on one of the toughest sections of the Appalachian Trail this hike is well worth it. There is a Appalachian Trail volunteer who stays up there for 5 months of the year, they also make sure that all the hiking and other traffic is in a nice manner in regard to the care of the environment. When I hiked to the pond we, my dad and I, were not prepared in regard to the packs we had. I used a day pack and my dad used my old backpack. We hiked up on a Saturday morning and left Sunday morning. My pack weighed 45 lbs and had all my fishing gear and back up clothing also a rubber raft. My dad had all his gear and food. Both of us are in good shape, and it took us 4 hours to hike the trail which was starting at an elevation of 1883 ft then went to 3142 ft. The fishing was well worth it. We were able to catch a lot of brook trout. It would be worth it to take a week to fish here as there is a couple more ponds near enough that it would be worth the time.

How to not enter the water

My friend Chuck was trying to be fancy and ended up in the water with all of the stuff floating away.