Tales from the Outdoors: Summer Doldrums

By Bob Chapin

This is the time of the year that is considered the lazy time. The weather is balmy (when it is not raining), the rental places around the lake are doing a brisk business, area farmers’ markets are chock full of fresh offerings from the garden and the area ice cream parlors all have long lines. The lake waters have warmed up enough that swimmers and tubers are active most of the daylight hours. Life is good. 

For the outdoors men and women this is the time when food plots need caring for, trail cameras can identify what and who is moving about your hunting property, and relations with landowners can be massaged so you have a place to hunt once the seasons resume.

For those who hunt from tree stands this is the time to check the safety of and the shooting lanes from your favorite stands and a time to install new ones as the deer movement patterns may have changed. Land use near your stands may also have changed necessitating a stand movement.

For those of you fortunate enough to have been chosen during the Moose Lottery, now is the time to line up your recovery crew, find lodging and food sources, and a guide, should you feel the need for one. Most of the prime areas for moose are fairly remote and there is not an abundance of lodges and camps up in the unincorporated townships so reserve yours early.

Prices will probably surprise you a bit but remember in some of these areas hunting is the primary source of revenue for those who live there. You will probably only do this once in your life and when the last piece of delicious meat is safely stored away in a cooler you will agree that it was money well spent.

These summer evenings are a great time to take kids fishing. The weather is great, the fish are biting, the insects are not usually bothersome out on the water, and we are blessed here in Maine with an abundance of choices of where and what to fish for.  Fishing can be as simple as a cane pole, a worm, and a hook fished from the shore.

You don’t need a $50,000 bass boat decked out in $10,000 in electronics to catch fish. Some of the most enjoyable and productive fishing I have done has been from a 14’ aluminum boat with a 10-horsepower outboard. The beauty of a boat or a kayak or canoe is that it can get you to more of the fishing water on a lake or pond.

We have a tremendous variety of fish to fish for and most are present in our local lakes and ponds.

For example, I live on Thomas Pond and at any given time of year, except for the transitions to hard water (ice) I can go out my backyard and fish. This 556-acre lake has landlocked salmon, largemouth and small mouth bass, white perch which are particularly active right now, Sunnys, yellow perch, cusk, brook trout, pickerel and eels. I am told there are rainbow trout in the pond but in 13 years I have yet to catch one, so I don’t say we have them.

Sebago Lake is right next door, and I can pull my boat and be fishing on Sebago in about a half hour. The attraction there is larger fish, both salmon and the Lake Trout or Togue. The lake has had its ups and downs as a fishing lake and the old timers tell me it is in a down cycle right now.

It used to be a great lake for salmon, in fact, the town of Raymond prides itself as “Home of the Land Locked Salmon.” Reading recent history books available at area variety and gift shops you will note that this area was largely developed as a fishing destination where sports from New York city and places in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Jersey used to take a train north then transition to horse drawn wagons to get to sporting camps all around the lake.

The pictures confirm that there were more, and larger salmon easily caught. Lakes, and the fish that are in them, change over time due to a host of factors. Fishing pressure introduced or non-native fish such as pike, bass, and Togue, as well as forage fish such as smelt and alewives affect the fishing.

Uses of more water to a growing Portland population, the stocking of Togue by IF & W, the stocking of saltwater variants of smelt as well as relocating smelt as a food source from other lakes within Maine and the “bucket biologists” that have introduced bass and pike have all had an impact on the fish we see today. Still, it is a tremendous resource to have so close. You should get out and try it! <