Fort Point State Park Pier..Picnicking and Fishing

On a fine morning a week or so ago, with the tide running just about perfect, I decided to take a boat ride to Fort Point State Park. 

Located in Stockton Springs, the park is situated on 120 acres, much of it bordering on the head of Penobscot Bay and at the mouth of the Penobscot River and built on the remains of the Revolutionary era, Fort Pownall.

Being very fortunate to be able to travel by boat rather than the road trip up Rt. 1, coupled with the fact that there is a public pier available to boaters, made the trip that much more enjoyable. 

(No worries about beaching the boat on a outgoing tide.)

I've been past the pier many times on my trips up the river in search of the elusive striper but never have I decided to tie up there.

The pier is around 200 feet long with a nice float and ramp and as you can see with no overcrowding and no signs prohibiting one of my favorite activities,  fishing from a pier. 

Located at the same spot as the old steamboat landing 

it offers a sheltered anchorage and groomed picnic area.

Perhaps that is exactly what is in the offing in the very near future with a bit of aforementioned fishing thrown in for good measure.

Picnicking and fishing..a pretty fine combination wouldn't you say?

Meet Bailey..Our New Project

With our last boy Zed, officially starting his "college education" to become a Guide Dog, we now have a new boy and start the process anew..

Meet Bailey..

Bailey was born on April 25th and has been integrating into our household for just a short time. But long enough for us to tell, including Big Ray,  that the new boy will be a project, but a fun project. 

Readers of maine-matters know that boating is a major part of our life style and Bailey could not have a better mentor to show him proper boat dog etiquette than our boy Ray. For instance, who has dibs on all toys..for now.

Of course as the little guy grows he will assert himself more and more and eventually Ray will accept him as an equal, almost...

So here we go again..number 15

Not all have made it. Some just don't want to do it. Just ask Ray. But Bailey seems to have the right stuff. And in another 14 or 15 months we'll find out. 

But until then..batten down the hatches!

Congrats To Zed

Congratulations to our boy Zeddy. 

He passed his IFT (In For Training) exam with flying colors. In fact we have been told through a highly placed source that he is a rock star at Guiding Eyes For The Blind.

Zed following his commands..

A very nice down..

Intense concentration..

A well deserved rest..

So now he is in the formal training program to become a Guide Dog but there is a long way to go for him. Many things can still happen to derail his career. He could get released for stress, or something physical or, as the pressure mounts on him as his training intensifies, he may just say no to it all.

But for now he’s on course and making us very proud parents..

Good Boy Zeddy!

Off To College..Our Boy Zed..The Bitter and The Sweet

Friday was one of those bitter-sweet moments in life that we all go through. Our boy Zed got "called up" and left home to start his new adventure in life. From the first day he set paw at home, some 16 months ago, we knew this day would come, for Zed is a Guiding Eyes For The Blind puppy.

And being such we always knew that his duty would come a calling. We always understood in the back of our mind that he was always a loaner puppy, his time with us would always be borrowed time. 

Always, always, always..

But no matter how hard we tried to keep that thought and worked really hard at keeping  our emotional attachment to Zed tempered by that reality..it never really worked.

From the first, we immediately found out that Zed was a special boy. He integrated extremely quickly into our home life and with his "Big Brother" Ray.  Ray does not suffer puppies gladly. And since Zed didn't pick on him, at least not much, the two of them would become good friends.

Zed was always up for a new adventure and accompanied us on many of our day trips along the Maine coast, always eager to meet new people, There was something about his demeanor that begged for a head scratch. Could that wagging tail have something to do with it?  He was very attracted to these lobstermen from Stonington or was it their lobster bait?

When the 2012 boating season arrived  little Zed immediately took to it without hesitation, but also needed a little assurance from his "mother".

Here they are enjoying their very first boat snug, one of many to come. 

This soon became standard ship board behavior and continued even to his very last boat ride.

Just a couple of days after this day on Lake Megunticook, Zed was gone.

Off for "college", to the campus of Guiding Eyes For The Blind in Yorktown Heights New York.

His next big test will be his In For Training exam and hopefully a new adventure of becoming a companion and of course guide to whom some blind person will entrust their life. It is for this higher calling that we say farewell to our good boy Zed. 

 Good luck Zed. We will miss you.

You have a special spot in our hearts.

The bitter with the sweet......

No Bugs..No Brookies..ButtaBass and Blownout

I have been so bad this spring about getting out to go fishing.

Not enough time..too cold..too busy..too many excuses..

So yesterday morning I decided that I had exhausted all acceptable reasons not to go fishing, geared up and made the short run to Searsmont. Under normal circumstances YOU would NOT find me fly casting in the rain but that indeed is what I found myself doing.

And I found it to be peaceful and soothing, surrounded by the lush greenness of a mid-May spring day and the accompanying plops of raindrops falling on my head.(Catchy phrase there, maybe I should think about writing a song...)

Anyways..Yearning, really just dreaming to possess even a tiny portion of  Issac Walton's power of observation,  it finally dawned on me that there were no bugs and no rising brook trout.

 Perhaps a dry fly wasn't the right choice. Maybe they were lurking below, waiting for a morsel of food, riding the undercurrents.  Changing to a wet fly, I cast toward the opposite bank, letting the flow of the stream carry my offering into the pool below me. And then...BANG!

Fish on!

The way my ultralight fly rod was torquing this had to be an exceptional brookie! And when brought to net, it was revealed...

a nice little bass.

Not what I was hoping for but fun to catch on light gear just the same.

After releasing my first catch of the season I moved on down the bank of the stream to where in the distance the water was moving over rocks and forming rapids.

but unfortunately no time.

That work thing always seems to get in the way of fun.

So having broken my fishing funk I'm looking forward to returning very soon. Perhaps some warm evening when the bugs are buzzing and the brookies are biting.

And  I did return yesterday, not with my fly rod in hand but to watch the Annual Searsmont Village Memorial Day Parade.  After the parade I wanted to see what the stream looked like, having endured 10-14 days of off and on rain and a weekend of downpours...

BLOWNOUT

 The "large" body of water in the foreground is actually a field. The stream I fish is in the background, just beyond the group of trees. Guess I'll be waiting a bit longer.

A Bit Of The Old Days..

On my way to work a few days ago I came across this scene. A bit of nostalgia harkening back to a simpler time when man and beast had a more intimate connection to the land..

You don't see this much anymore..

But it's nice to see that it still exists...

A Few Hours Well Spent.. Lake St.George

We decided to take advantage of the nice weather Sunday last and head inland, away from the persistently cold wind off the ocean. Although great in July and August, it makes it very uncomfortable to be in an open 17' boat cruising the salt water this time of year.  
(As I write this the air temperature outside is 38 degrees.) 

And realizing that our plan of island hopping was blowing away we said good bye to Penobscot Bay..hello to Lake St. George..

Arriving at the boat launch, just west of the state park, we found it to be over flowing with vehicles and boat trailers.  Of course they were the smart ones. The ones who got to the lake early to take advantage of the much more productive, but colder, fishing time of early morning rather than the warmer,  but later start time that we chose. Accepting the fishing handicap that we imposed on ourselves, we were just happy just to be on the water and enjoying the re-charging effect of the bright, early May sunshine.

It wasn't long however before I did manage to get a streamer overboard under the watchful eye of Big Ray. 

Or was he keeping that eye on his kibble pouch?

Even our loaner puppy was wondering what the heck was going on..

This is Gil and he is with us for a little while until he goes back to Brooksville and his regular puppy raisers, Kathleen and Steve.  He's a very good boy, especially when he's sleeping, and loaded with puppy exhuberance, to the sometimes annoyance of Ray.

Gil has adopted Ray as his big brother (Ray isn't convinced that it works for him) but they make quite the contrasting looking pair, side by each..

After trolling around and about for some time, we decided the boys needed a break from the boat riding so they could stretch their legs and get some sniffs in.

We put ashore on an island and let the boys do their thing. Gil watching Ray go for a swim, decided to give it a try for himself but needed a little enticement...

But even with that he was a bit reluctant to push off and take that initial puppy paddle stroke. Sizing up the situation he used his problem solving skills and tried using the fallen tree as his solution to his dilemma..

However it wasn't long before he found himself back on shore shaking his coat after taking a bit of a plunge off the tree and having discovered that swimming wasn't all that hard to do after all...

Back on board, we took our time returning to the boat launch, enjoying the warm May sun..especially Gil

Gil is, as I've said, a guide dog in training and we have been fortunate to puppy sit him for a short time. In a little over a month he will be returning to Guiding Eyes For The Blind for his In For Training test and hopefully a new chapter in his life as a full fledged guide. 

Good Luck Gil