BubbaBlue
08-11-2007, 09:15 PM
I've had a number of folks ask me offline how things were in Maine. Figured I'd post trip report even though it isn't a normal one.
We were in Maine eight days. Got back last Saturday. This was delayed because I was rigging my new Revo all week. Priorities. :rolleyes: :p
We went to Maine mainly because some friends invited us up to their cabin on Moose Head Lake.
I had never been to Maine before but my fiancé went to the coast years ago. We spent 4 days on Moose Head and 4 on the coast.
Moose Head Lake.
Beautiful place but difficult to fish. I had never seen water like this. It's a large lake, 5+ miles wide by 35+ miles long and in some places 300+ feet deep. The water was perfectly clear. There were many times fishing where I thought the water was maybe three feet deep but it was actually 15+ confirmed by the fish finder. The bottom was mostly covered with rocks, as the lake was created by glaciers.
Here are some picts:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01165.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01148.jpg
BIG lake.
The target species are large landlocked salmon and lake trout. Large lake trout. Well, it turned out that the big boys stay deep most of the year and the only way to catch them was to troll all day with deep diving lures. We did it for about a half a day, didn't get squat, and I decided I wanted to spend my vacation a little differently.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1524.jpg
BL and a lawn chair. My kind of vacation. :D
Played with the smallmouth and small trout from shore and from the boat.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1504-1.jpg
Caught lots of smallmouth and a few were decent size but I didn't keep any. We already had meal plans and I really didn't feel like cleaning fish. :rolleyes:
The last day there I caught a decent SM and I grabbed the book to see what the minimum size was, just for grins. It said that smallmouth bass, crappie and any member of the pike family are considered "destructive, invasive species" and fishermen were encouraged to kill as many as possible. :eek: :eek:
I'd been throwing them back for 4 days. :rolleyes: Oh well.
The lake was really pretty and unspoiled. It's out in the boonies, for sure. 3 hours to the nearest real store. An hour from Canada. Wildlife acted strange... they aren't used to humans. Red fox, red squirrel and chipmunks would come right up to me, wondering what I was.
There were many totally isolated houses on the lake. Not only cabins, but nice houses too. No way to get to them except by water. For example:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01161.jpg
That one is on an island but there are lots on the shore too. No roads where they are.
I was curious how they built them. Turns out that during the winter, when the lake freezes, it becomes the local interstate. Building materials are put on big sleds and folks just head on across the lake with their 4x4s. They lug the stuff over in the winter and build in the summer.
Ice fishing is a big thing there, as is snowmobiles and such. -20 F is normal. No thanks.
Saw a number of moose. Big ugly docile critters. They eat water plants, like cat tails. At sunset they would come up to the road to eat in the ditch where water plants were growing. Took pictures but none of them turned out. Should have had my tri-pod. (Low light blurs.) :rolleyes:
Here's one that was easy photograph:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1490-1.jpg
:p
As I mentioned, that whole area is boonies, or near wilderness, and any dive you check out has it's own character. One place we ate at, called the "Stress-Free Moose" had this on their outside wall.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1483-1.jpg
:D
Off to the coast:
The area between Bath and Bar Harbor is a nice place to visit. We stayed in East Booth Bay, 10 minutes from Booth Bay Harbor. There are number of small towns there along the coast, mostly supported by lobster and tourism. We also stayed in Freeport, home of L.L. Bean. What a disappointment. :( I suppose if you've never seen a Bass Pro or Cabella's it'd be cool, but it was a total let down. Prices on things I know about were 15-20% higher there than other places I know of. The rest of the town is just a collection of supposed "outlet" stores that are also 20% overpriced. :mad: Stay away from Freeport.
Back to Booth Bay.
We picked that town because it's one of the main lobster catching areas and has a good tourist setup with shops, restaurants and such. Nice town.
One of the first things I noticed was their tides. I noticed live barnacles on dock pilings a good ten feet out of the water. WTH?!! Didn't take long to see what was happening. This is on the Gulf of Maine. Where we have tides of 1-1.5 feet, their tides average 10-12 feet! Not too far from the Bay of Fundy if you're familiar with it. Most of the boat docks are floating with hinged ramps. A LOT of water goes in and out of those harbors twice a day. Fun to navigate, I'm sure.
Learned about and ate lots of lobster. :p
I was curious about their lobster industry and it's pretty interesting.
The lobstermen place their traps all over the place without regard to channels, anchorages, anything. If its water, there's a trap there. Every lobsterman can place 600 traps and there are no rules on where they can place them.
Here's the main shipping channel into the harbor, filled with traps. Quite a challenge to navigate through them.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01198.jpg
Here's a lobster boat. Smaller than the bay workboats I'm used to seeing.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01191.jpg
And some more.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01253.jpg
The trap.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1614.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1615.jpg
Notice that the trap has two sides. The left side in the above pictures has the bait and is called the "kitchen". The right side is called the "Parlor".
The lobster enters into the kitchen, eats his fill and then because he can't get out, goes into the parlor. The lobstermen check their traps every other day and the setup is so the lobster is filled with food before he enters the waiting chamber. Partly so he doesn't starve but also because they are cannibals.
The Maine DNR folks have managed this fishery very well. Better than I have ever seen. Turns out that they are essentially "farming" the wild lobsters in the open ocean. There is a strict narrow slot limit on them that preserves the spawning stock. The average catch per trap is over 20 lobsters, but on average they only get to keep one. The returned lobsters go right to the next trap, eat dinner, and then wait until they're released again. They actually get most of their food from the traps.
Originally, they came into the harbors because the bottom is rocky. Ideal places to shed their shells. But because the groceries are so plentiful in the traps, they just hang around. They said that Booth Bay Harbor's bottom is pretty much covered with lobsters. They do go out to the ocean in the winter, but they still feed off of the traps that are placed there.
Little tidbit about a lobster. If you turn him over, he'll thrash around and try to get you. If you tickle his belly right below the carapace, he'll have an immediate orgasm and go right to sleep. For example, the one in the following picture could use a smoke. :D
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01250.jpg
Sooo, if you want to make an lobster's day, you now know how. :D ;)
Seals. They have LOTS of seals up there. They come into the harbors to eat the lobster and also hang around.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01235.jpg
One interesting thing. A tired seal will climb up on your dock and rest. It's against the law to disturb him. You can't get closer than 150 feet to one. In other words, if there's a seal between you and your boat, go eat lunch or something, because you can't disturb the seal. Think I'm BS'n? Saw this sign all over the place:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1631.jpg
Back to lobsters. For years, I've heard about "Lobster Rolls" and had no clue what they were. I do now. It is the claw meat, a small amount of mayo and put in a funny looking hot dog roll.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1619.jpg
No spices or anything. I thought it would be boring but it wasn't. The claw meat actually tastes like something. Never really cared for lobster that much because it's boring... but the claw meat in a lobster roll is really good. :p
Had a beer with a with a lobsterman and while chatting up his business, I mentioned I caught blue crabs in Maryland. He said that he was down in Maryland a few years ago, and he said, "They put some kind of awful "Cajun Spice" on them. Didn't know what it was, but you couldn't taste the crab from all that crap they put on them. Besides that, they're too much work to get to the meat. I'll stick with lobster."
:D :D :D
Was a fun trip. I'll go back to Booth Bay someday. Good place to go. Moose Head Lake?... maybe. Freeport?... no way.
As a parting shot, my fiancé, with a parting toast.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1620.jpg
R-
.
We were in Maine eight days. Got back last Saturday. This was delayed because I was rigging my new Revo all week. Priorities. :rolleyes: :p
We went to Maine mainly because some friends invited us up to their cabin on Moose Head Lake.
I had never been to Maine before but my fiancé went to the coast years ago. We spent 4 days on Moose Head and 4 on the coast.
Moose Head Lake.
Beautiful place but difficult to fish. I had never seen water like this. It's a large lake, 5+ miles wide by 35+ miles long and in some places 300+ feet deep. The water was perfectly clear. There were many times fishing where I thought the water was maybe three feet deep but it was actually 15+ confirmed by the fish finder. The bottom was mostly covered with rocks, as the lake was created by glaciers.
Here are some picts:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01165.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01148.jpg
BIG lake.
The target species are large landlocked salmon and lake trout. Large lake trout. Well, it turned out that the big boys stay deep most of the year and the only way to catch them was to troll all day with deep diving lures. We did it for about a half a day, didn't get squat, and I decided I wanted to spend my vacation a little differently.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1524.jpg
BL and a lawn chair. My kind of vacation. :D
Played with the smallmouth and small trout from shore and from the boat.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1504-1.jpg
Caught lots of smallmouth and a few were decent size but I didn't keep any. We already had meal plans and I really didn't feel like cleaning fish. :rolleyes:
The last day there I caught a decent SM and I grabbed the book to see what the minimum size was, just for grins. It said that smallmouth bass, crappie and any member of the pike family are considered "destructive, invasive species" and fishermen were encouraged to kill as many as possible. :eek: :eek:
I'd been throwing them back for 4 days. :rolleyes: Oh well.
The lake was really pretty and unspoiled. It's out in the boonies, for sure. 3 hours to the nearest real store. An hour from Canada. Wildlife acted strange... they aren't used to humans. Red fox, red squirrel and chipmunks would come right up to me, wondering what I was.
There were many totally isolated houses on the lake. Not only cabins, but nice houses too. No way to get to them except by water. For example:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01161.jpg
That one is on an island but there are lots on the shore too. No roads where they are.
I was curious how they built them. Turns out that during the winter, when the lake freezes, it becomes the local interstate. Building materials are put on big sleds and folks just head on across the lake with their 4x4s. They lug the stuff over in the winter and build in the summer.
Ice fishing is a big thing there, as is snowmobiles and such. -20 F is normal. No thanks.
Saw a number of moose. Big ugly docile critters. They eat water plants, like cat tails. At sunset they would come up to the road to eat in the ditch where water plants were growing. Took pictures but none of them turned out. Should have had my tri-pod. (Low light blurs.) :rolleyes:
Here's one that was easy photograph:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1490-1.jpg
:p
As I mentioned, that whole area is boonies, or near wilderness, and any dive you check out has it's own character. One place we ate at, called the "Stress-Free Moose" had this on their outside wall.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1483-1.jpg
:D
Off to the coast:
The area between Bath and Bar Harbor is a nice place to visit. We stayed in East Booth Bay, 10 minutes from Booth Bay Harbor. There are number of small towns there along the coast, mostly supported by lobster and tourism. We also stayed in Freeport, home of L.L. Bean. What a disappointment. :( I suppose if you've never seen a Bass Pro or Cabella's it'd be cool, but it was a total let down. Prices on things I know about were 15-20% higher there than other places I know of. The rest of the town is just a collection of supposed "outlet" stores that are also 20% overpriced. :mad: Stay away from Freeport.
Back to Booth Bay.
We picked that town because it's one of the main lobster catching areas and has a good tourist setup with shops, restaurants and such. Nice town.
One of the first things I noticed was their tides. I noticed live barnacles on dock pilings a good ten feet out of the water. WTH?!! Didn't take long to see what was happening. This is on the Gulf of Maine. Where we have tides of 1-1.5 feet, their tides average 10-12 feet! Not too far from the Bay of Fundy if you're familiar with it. Most of the boat docks are floating with hinged ramps. A LOT of water goes in and out of those harbors twice a day. Fun to navigate, I'm sure.
Learned about and ate lots of lobster. :p
I was curious about their lobster industry and it's pretty interesting.
The lobstermen place their traps all over the place without regard to channels, anchorages, anything. If its water, there's a trap there. Every lobsterman can place 600 traps and there are no rules on where they can place them.
Here's the main shipping channel into the harbor, filled with traps. Quite a challenge to navigate through them.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01198.jpg
Here's a lobster boat. Smaller than the bay workboats I'm used to seeing.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01191.jpg
And some more.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01253.jpg
The trap.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1614.jpg
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1615.jpg
Notice that the trap has two sides. The left side in the above pictures has the bait and is called the "kitchen". The right side is called the "Parlor".
The lobster enters into the kitchen, eats his fill and then because he can't get out, goes into the parlor. The lobstermen check their traps every other day and the setup is so the lobster is filled with food before he enters the waiting chamber. Partly so he doesn't starve but also because they are cannibals.
The Maine DNR folks have managed this fishery very well. Better than I have ever seen. Turns out that they are essentially "farming" the wild lobsters in the open ocean. There is a strict narrow slot limit on them that preserves the spawning stock. The average catch per trap is over 20 lobsters, but on average they only get to keep one. The returned lobsters go right to the next trap, eat dinner, and then wait until they're released again. They actually get most of their food from the traps.
Originally, they came into the harbors because the bottom is rocky. Ideal places to shed their shells. But because the groceries are so plentiful in the traps, they just hang around. They said that Booth Bay Harbor's bottom is pretty much covered with lobsters. They do go out to the ocean in the winter, but they still feed off of the traps that are placed there.
Little tidbit about a lobster. If you turn him over, he'll thrash around and try to get you. If you tickle his belly right below the carapace, he'll have an immediate orgasm and go right to sleep. For example, the one in the following picture could use a smoke. :D
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01250.jpg
Sooo, if you want to make an lobster's day, you now know how. :D ;)
Seals. They have LOTS of seals up there. They come into the harbors to eat the lobster and also hang around.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/DSC01235.jpg
One interesting thing. A tired seal will climb up on your dock and rest. It's against the law to disturb him. You can't get closer than 150 feet to one. In other words, if there's a seal between you and your boat, go eat lunch or something, because you can't disturb the seal. Think I'm BS'n? Saw this sign all over the place:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1631.jpg
Back to lobsters. For years, I've heard about "Lobster Rolls" and had no clue what they were. I do now. It is the claw meat, a small amount of mayo and put in a funny looking hot dog roll.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1619.jpg
No spices or anything. I thought it would be boring but it wasn't. The claw meat actually tastes like something. Never really cared for lobster that much because it's boring... but the claw meat in a lobster roll is really good. :p
Had a beer with a with a lobsterman and while chatting up his business, I mentioned I caught blue crabs in Maryland. He said that he was down in Maryland a few years ago, and he said, "They put some kind of awful "Cajun Spice" on them. Didn't know what it was, but you couldn't taste the crab from all that crap they put on them. Besides that, they're too much work to get to the meat. I'll stick with lobster."
:D :D :D
Was a fun trip. I'll go back to Booth Bay someday. Good place to go. Moose Head Lake?... maybe. Freeport?... no way.
As a parting shot, my fiancé, with a parting toast.
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s216/BubbaBlue_P-S/100_1620.jpg
R-
.