Summer is kicking into high gear and everyone is out enjoying the beautiful weather and perfect swimming conditions. It’s so much fun to see the lakes being enjoyed by everyone from jet skiers to water-skiers to sunbathers sitting on the ends of their docks. All this sunshine brings out the best in people too and we’ve had some wonderful conversations with folks as we fish by their cottages; the traditional “great weather eh?” and “how are they biting” along with stories of moose swimming across Great Pond’s Austin Bog and aggressive beavers chewing down newly planted apple trees. This is what summer in the Belgrades is all about.
Last Monday I got up way too early. In my opinion there’s no reason to get up at 4:30 a.m. unless you make donuts for a living or are a fishing guide. But getting up early does have its advantages and I enjoy the quiet time and the sunrises.
While sitting on the porch sipping a coffee, the laptop was tuned into CNN.com. I was scanning over the latest
world news and reading about our countries deficit problem. It’s not the most energizing way to start
the day, but I knew there were blue skies and crystal waters (along with a rock pile full of chunky smallmouth bass) waiting for us. After picking up Dick Dempster and his two son-in-laws Michael and Gentry, we headed out to the lake. We came across a young kid in nice a 14-foot aluminum boat with a 9.9 motor. It looked like one of Craig Poolers rental boats over at Belgrade Boat Rentals. The kid was probably 14, lean and tan wearing a pair of shorts and a ball cap. My brain raced back in time, back to a day when I lived for a week’s vacation on the lake. Back to that first time, when I was finally old enough to take the boat out fishing by myself. All of a sudden national economic crisis, property taxes and worries about tuition payments vanished and all that mattered was that kid and that rock pile about a mile up lake. That’s what fishing does to people, that’s what fishing is. It’s not a quest to see who catches the biggest fish or the most fish, those things take care of themselves. It’s a reason to get up way too early and an excuse to push away the quandary of the day and focus on what’s right in front of your eyes . . . its good livin’.
However, to really enjoy fishing we need to catch some fish and the last week has been a period of ups and downs. When the 
fishing has been hot, it’s been amazingly hot and when it turned off, you might as well go eat one of those donuts. The key has been getting the fish active and keeping the bite alive for as long as possible, especially as the sun gets higher in the sky. Live
bait has certainly been helpful to catching mid day fish but you can keep the bite going with artificial baits too. Early in the morning and late in the day, top water lures have been excellent ( the Rapala X-Rap Walk and the Zara Spook have been working great) with tubes and senkos catching smallies in 10 – 15 feet of water along with the occasional northern pike. As a bonus, lots of people have reported catching big white perch off their docks on earthworms. This is definitely an added summer bonus and Maine white perch is the key ingredient to the best chowder anywhere in world! Good luck
this week!
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