The Hegan!

Recently I traveled north, up past Lincoln, ME, to Baskahegan Lake. What a fishing experience, tons of Smallies and big Picks! More details and pictures to come this weekend.

Go Big or Go Home

The weather has still not brightened up, so I decided to pack up my kayak and brave the weather in the search for big bass. Last week, I decided to stop being lazy and paddle all the way to the back of the pond that I have been fishing at. This new spot is between the large trees that look like a gateway in my big blog picture. I soon discovered that my new spot was well worth the extra paddling to get to the back of the pond. There were stumps all over the place, and if you know anything about fishing, bass love to live in stumps. I would paddle over to a stump cast around it and inevitably a bass would jump out of water for my lure at every stump. Yesterday, after about an hour of fishing, catching small or medium sized bass, I decided to put a bigger lure on. I was also running out of fishing line, so I re-strung my pole with heavier line that I had bought earlier in the week. After the heavier line was put on and my bigger lure was tied on, I was skeptical anything would bite my much bigger lure. On the second cast, a pretty good sized pickerel hit my lure, so I knew it wasn't too big. I moved to a new stump, casted twice, and on the third cast aftering popping my lure a few times, the water exploded. My rod bent forefully, my line was extremely taught, and I knew I had a huge fish on the end of my line. I reeled hard and when I saw the fish swimming along side the boat, I was shocked. I didn't want t lose her, so I grabbed the line about a foot from where she was hooked and pulled her into the kayak. Anyone who has been in a kayak before knows that there is not much space, so I had probably a five pound bass sitting in my lap. I have not caught a bass as large as this one in a long time. I took the hook out held it up and took some great pictures with my phone. As I was doing so, there was another fisherman in a kayak about 100 yards away and I heard, "Shittttt, thats a nice one over there!" I held it up so he could see the immense size of her and then put a bungee cord cord through her gills, so I could put him back in the water to get a breath (or whatever they do). When he tried to swim away, his tail was so powerful it splashed up onto me. He made a few more attempts at ripping away while I was holding the bungee cord, and it felt similar to holding a young dog that suddenly lurches forward on a leash. When I was done taking pictures and she got her energy back, I picked her up, took the bungee off, and placed her back in the water. It was a great feeling to catch a fish like that. Fishing is all about having a great time and trying to catch the "mother of all fish." I finally caught a monster bass, and hope to catch even more throughout the rest of the summer. Anyone who reads this blog, and wants to go fishing, just let me know, and I will take you out. Its fun to go fishing, but its always more fun with extra company. I now know, the common saying, "go big or go home" applies to fishing as well. Here are some pictures (sorry they are kind of small they are off my phone) enjoy!

Water and Waves

Everyone is complaining about how terrible the weather has been, and yes, it has been terrible. There are a lot of fun things to do when it's sunny out, but there are also a lot of great activities to do when it is raining. The obvious ones are inside (movies, tv, reading, etc.), while time consuming and somewhat fun, these activities are just used to pass time until the sun comes out again. This blog is about nature and enjoying being outside, whether it is hot, cold, sunny, or rainy. All of my posts have been about fishing so far, but that is pretty much all I have done outside (other than work all day outside). But the other day I was in Portland (port city, ptown, pland, whichever you prefer) and met up with some of my best friends from highschool. They wanted to go surfing at Higgins Beach in Scarborough. I have been surfing before in highschool, but the waves were never really great and I never had a good opportunity to "pop up and get in the green room brah", if you know what I mean. We stopped by my friends surf shop, squeezed into some wetsuits, strapped down four boards, and headed to the beach in the overcast, drizzly weather. When I imagine surfing, I picture board shorts, sunny weather, blue waves, hot girls and of course brah's. But this kind of surfing was none of that. It was us and to my suprise about a hundred other surfers battling the cold water and astonishingly big waves. I have never been to Higgins Beach to go surfing (twice in highschool) where there was that many surfers and actually big waves. As I walked down the cold, hard packed sand, I was actually a little nervous, and excited. As I went deeper into the icy cold water, it became more difficult to get out to where the waves were peaking, but my adrenalin kept me going. Also, as I was trying to make it out past the point where the waves smash down on you, surfers were catching waves and coming at you with their pointed tip boards (which is not exactly welcoming). Eventually we all made it out, but ended up getting seperated due to the drag of the current and the smashing of the waves. It was so crowded that there was always at least four surfers in a 20 foot radius of you. I didn't feel very comfortable in catching a wave, eating it, and smashing into someone, so I tried to seperate myself a little. The first big wave I had the chance of catching, I did. I turned and paddled as hard as I could, and before I realized it, I was on the peak of the wave staring down eight feet at the quickly curving water. I was overwhelmed by the sheer force and quickness of the wave. I made a weak attempt to get up, fell hard, and was consumed by the crashing wave. When I was underneath the churning water, I just hoped I didn't slam into anyone or get hit by someone else's board. But I popped out of the water, took a breath, and paddled back out. Eventually I stopped trying to stand up during the first part of the ride, remained laying on my board (which is still fun) until the wave slowed, and then got up for the last five to ten seconds of the ride. I know that sounds pathetic, but given the circumstances, I was impressed with myself. The night continued on like this and when it was becoming dark, we all met up on shore and headed back to the car. There are many ways to experience what mother nature has to offer, sometimes we just need to grab a canoe, fishing pole, back pack, and in this case a board and get out there.

Wet and Wetter

I took my friends out fishing this past weekend. Two of my friends had little experience, so one was in the front of my canoe and the other was with my experienced friend. It took a while for them to get the basics of casting, reeling, staying out of weeds, etc. before they actually started fishing. The weather for fishing on Saturday was great. It was hot and sunny all day long. We didn't catch many fish, but we all got some sun and had a great time. But, my inexperienced friends were dissapointed they didn't catch a fish. We decided to give it another chance and brave the poor weather on Sunday. We loaded up the canoes, threw on some ponchos, and drove down to the same pond. Instead of being over cast and drizzly, it was simply raining. As we were pushing away from the shore, one of my two friends in the other canoe turned around too quickly, over compensated, and fell forward. Instead of falling out of the canoe, he awkwardly fell into the murky water, tipping the canoe, and bringing my other experienced fishing friend with him. It was by far the most entertaining and hysterical thing I have seen in a long time. My jumped up from the water in shock. They crawled out of the thick mud on the bottom of the pond and onto the shore. After the curse words died down, the realization of what just occured hit us, and my laughter could not be subsided. They emptied out the water from the canoe and I paddled around picking up their items that were floating in the water. I had to find and dig my pole that I loaned to my friend out of the muddy bottom. After everyone had calmed down, well as much as possible, we ventured out to catch some bass.
I caught a small bass, so I knew that they were biting, but my friends were not catching anything. After about an hour, my two friends, soaked and dissapointed, started paddling back to the shore. As they were leaving, my friend in my canoe started screaming that she had a fish. I didn't believe her, but two seconds later the evidence burst out of the water. She had hooked a huge bass and was reeling it in frantically. I had taught her how to cast, jig the lure, and set the hook, but not how to get a fish into the canoe. It was an exciting moment and when the largemouth bass came alongside the canoe, I could see that she had a very nice bass. I was trying to instruct her to keep tension on the line, but her confusion was not about the tension, it was how to get the fish in the canoe. The frantic reeling continued and the line was too taught. Before I could reach the bass or stop her from reeling anymore, the huge bass made the most of the confusion and the excitement and broke off from the line. After 5 to 10 seconds of frantic excitement, we were left with a broken line and dissapointment. After a few curse words and a couple of jokes, we gave up in frustration and paddled back to the shore. Although this weekend was not full of fish, it was full of great friends and hilarious stories.

Kayak Fishing

Tonight was the first time I have been kayak fishing in years. I went from 6 to 9 pm in cloudy drizzly weather. At first, I was using top water lures, but nothing was biting. I switched to a life like minnow that swims just below the surface of the water and it worked great. I caught six bass and four pickerel in roughly two hours. Although the weather wasn't great, the pond was calm and by nightfall I could see multiple bats flying around and the forest around the pond was alive with noise from bullfrogs, peepers, birds, chipmunks, and howling coyotes. Here are a few of the bass that I caught, enjoy!

Nature's Last Son's Purpose

This is my first blog post. The purpose of my "Nature's Last Son" blog will be to share the experiences that I have had growing up in the wilderness of Maine. Hopefully, readers and viewers of my blog will feel inclined to share their fishing, hunting, hiking, biking, boating, etc. stories with me and "Nature's Last Son" will grow large and vast like a White Pine in a forest. I have accumulated many outdoor stories in my twenty three years of living in Maine, and from time to time, I will recount these experiences in addition to sharing new ones. Maine's beauty comes from its green forests, clear lakes, and breath taking sunsets. Sharing experiences of its natural beauty is a great way to show appreciation for being able to live or spend time in such a special place.