August 19, 2008 Maine Outdoors Newsletter

All of the signs of the impending change in season are here. The air has cleared and the humidity seems to be gone. Union Fair is underway and the traffic is at the annual peak in town. On the river the cardinal flowers have nearly gone by and the arrowhead is in full bloom. Over the last week the numbers of painted turtles sunning on almost every rock and log along the river has been nothing short of amazing as they take full advantage of the warm sunny weather. Here and there a maple has already given up the season and is now turning a brilliant red. My calendar begins to have a few open afternoons as kids gradually return to school and families are no longer vacationing. While I am a little sorry not to be busy; a few afternoons off are much appreciated.

Now is the time of year I look forward to clear crisp mornings with warm days filled with outstanding fall smallmouth bass fishing.  I have already taken reservations from a number of fly fisherman looking enjoy this outstanding time of year and am looking forward to sharing the golden days of autumn with them.

A First for Me!

The rain of the last couple of weeks has made it possible to get the Lund into Round Pond for my family fishing trips. It is great fun to be finding new perch spots and there are certainly plenty of perch to be found. Thursday afternoon I had a family with two teenage sons fishing and they were doing quite well. Both boys had fifteen or sixteen fish and we had a school of perch under the boat a good part of the time. I was busy keeping lines straight and looking in another direction when I hear a very loud splash.

One of the boys had been standing on the storage box along the side of the boat and simply lost his balance and fell in. His rod of course went in with him! Luckily we were using bobbers and worms so the bobber was still floating. After a minute of splashing around we got him back in the boat and turned our attention to retrieving the rod. I started the electric trolling motor and started for the bobber. At that moment the bobber disappeared, Fish On! Now what? After going under several times and making me wonder if perhaps I would lose the bobber, rod and all. It floated to the surface; the fish had gotten off of the slack line and left me the rod.

We finished the afternoon with several more fish and a great story to tell. I have done family fishing trips for years and sometimes worried that one of the kids would get excited or be concentrating hard on fishing and fall overboard. The Lund is such a wide stable platform though that it has not happened, until now.

Loons by the Dozen!

One sign of fall coming is the breaking down of the territories of loons. Gradually the birds without chicks begin to congregate on the places that have the best fishing. Because I am also looking for the best fishing our paths cross frequently. At times the numbers of loons in one place is pretty amazing. The largest group I ever saw had sixteen in it. One early morning this week I was fishing on Megunticook Lake in Camden and saw a bunch of thirteen. But the most interesting thing was that they all took to the air at once while we were fishing nearby, calling steadily as they flew. It was quite a sight to see a dozen or more loons all at once circling and calling to each other in the early morning mist.

There is still time to arrange a trip for this season!

September is without a doubt the best time of year in the Maine Outdoors. I still have some open dates in September and plan to offer trips well into November this year. In fact after the excellent fishing and good weather in November last year I am looking forward to the late fall. If you are planning to be in the area please give me a call or reply to this e-mail and let's plan to spend some time outdoors together.

Best regards,

Don Kleiner