July 2006 

July 20th, 2006

   Summer sure has sent some warm weather our way!  It has been hot for the past week.  We have the occasional thunderstorm pass through in the afternoon, but all and all it has been pretty nice.  Yesterday and today were those summer days that we all look forward to.  Bright blue skies, a little breeze and warm temperatures. 
   The fishing in the river continues to be very good although the pond has not been fished much of late, I would expect that the fish are deep now.  Early morning, (and I mean you get up before breakfast) and late evening would be the desired times to be out on the pond.  I have to take a trip out to see if I can still catch trout!  Jed and I have still been catching white perch which is lots of fun.
  The garden has started to produce produce, (how did you lake that one).  I picked the first cucumbers yesterday!  The beet greens are ready and I look forward to the tomatoes when they ripen!  I am not much of a gardener, but Jed and I have fun trying.
  I had guests roll in late last night and they were commenting on the fact that you can see the Milky Way from their campsite.  I take it for granted for the most part, until I have someone come in who very seldom sees the night heavens as we do up here.  Those clear nights are made for us folks who do not have other forms of entertainment.  I still can sit at the campfire and just stare off at the sky.  Our ancestors spent countless nights doing the same thing, and I figure that I owe it to myself to spend as much time out under the stars, watching and wondering, as I can.
   Jed and I have seen 2 fishers in the past 2 days!  They are getting closer to camp all the time.  I am not sure if it was the same one or not, but they did look like they were different size.  When they cross the road they sure were moving though! 


July 4th, 2006

   My goodness, here it is the 4th of July already!  Where has the summer gone? (Ankie, you were correct and I will give Alan the 2 points. The correct answer to the previous question was "Summer Solstice")  Be sure to thank any servicemen and women that you see for keeping us safe so we can still have an Independence Day.  It was a hard thing for this country to get and even harder for us to keep over the past 230 years!
   The Green Drakes are hatching these days and it is a pleasure to watch the trout feeding on them.  Some nights it is the seagulls that seem to be doing more of the feeding than the trout. The gulls will come over from Chesuncook Lake and fly around and squawk as they pick the large May Flies off the pond. You can have a touch of coastal Maine right here at Frost Pond!  Some evenings the fish are taking them before they reach the surface and you have to fish down a bit for them.  When the wind dies down in the evening the fish will start to surface.  It is just like someone turns on a switch when that happens.  It kind of happens all at once.  Every once in awhile you will have a single fish or two feeding on the surface and it is very easy to catch it.  All you have to do is work your way close and just lay your fly out in front of the subject.  Almost without fail they will grab it.  When all of the fish are surface feeding it sometimes is harder to get one to hit.  It may be that I get so confused as to which fish is where and I spend more time chasing rather than fishing.  It reminds me of the days when I used to use a fish finder to locate white perch.  I would spend all of my time looking for a school rather than just stopping and starting to fish.  Once I quit using the fish finder to locate fish and just started to use it to check depth I did much better.  Now when I use one it is just to find the depth that I want to fish in.  Many times when I start fishing there will not be any fish showing and after fishing for a bit there will be many of them showing up on the screen. Go figure!
   Jed is out in his tent reading a book, something that I have waited to happen for the past couple of years.  I knew that once he started he would love it.  It is pouring rain as a thunder shower is passing by and he is content to just lie in the tent and read and listen to the rain on the tent. He just turned 11 a couple of days ago and is having a great time.  He has become a big help to me here at the camps, at least when he wants to be a help.  We went fishing the other night and managed to catch a few perch again.  I want to lay in a supply for the winter as this is the best fish to eat that comes out of fresh water, at least here in Maine. (Of course that is just my opinion) 
   I hope that you all had a nice 4th and have a great remainder of the summer.  GT