Went out for 12 hours today..
 

I went out and tried my luck from 7 am to 7 pm and enjoyed the whole day on the water.. I tried in vain to find those large fish I marked Friday with out any luck.. I had a friend with me that wanted to go up to Lower Mud Lake so away we went and ended up going to Uper Mud Lake as well.. It was beautiful up that way. We saw a nice bull moose out in the bog as well. I caught I do not know how many largemouths today. Nothing very big however with my bigest today being a 15 incher that went maybe 2 pounds or so. I had my camera and asked my friend to take a picture of it for me with me holding it out. He messed up and I have no picture unfortunately.

I started the day without any live bait at all. The guy was out of it so I threw a bait trap out last night. I will be checking it in the morning. I did have a couple of heavey fish on but lost them in the lilly pads. He had one large fish on and lost his as well. We caught them all in the Maine River heading up to the Mud Lakes. We also caught to many to count Chain Pickeral.. It was quite windy at times which never help us out any that is for sure. I will post a couple of pics maybe tomorrow of the trip up into the Mud Lakes..

One of the better parts of the trip was we were out there all day and only used up around 5 gallons of gas with that nice 60 horse Yamaha.. I have a 6 gallon tank and I still have around a gallon or better of gas.. I have to say I love the way that motor runs.
I will be taking the wife and my son as well as a friend of his out tomorrow for most of the day. I am not sure where but maybe I will be going right back up into the Mud Lakes..

Sounds like a wonderful day..I'll be trying. Out my new rod tomorrow...

Question..what kind of line was you using in the pads? I don't use nothing less than 20 pound Power Pro...you can't break it with your hands..it would cut you first..

Do you eat any of the pickerels...I love the taste..very Boney but baked low with vinegar in the cavity makes them very Edible

I have been using 12 lb. stren on my every day casting rod.. I am using 14 Trilene on my baitcaster. But can not cast it good enough to reach back into those lilly pads and pickeral grass. I can only cast it decent with wieght added to it. I do not need any wieght down in there.

No Chuck as a rule I do not eat pickeral. 1) because of all the work to break the bones up so as you can eat it. 2) When I do eat one it is during the winter months when the water is colder. The colder water helps give them a better flavor as well as firms them up more. You are right about the flavor though. They are actually a great tasting fish just to much work to get threw all those bones.

Here are some of the pics I took of the area yesterday. The first 2 is an Eastern Painted turtle ( slider) I saw on land while getting ready to launch the boat.. The rest are of the Maine River and a Bull Moose that had come out in the heath that runs the entire length of the Maine River.. The bull moose stands roughly 7 feet at the shoulder and this shows somewhat how deep that grass is. Also the sun was not in my favor when I took this pisture..




This about what you see when traveling up the river.. The river looks about like this picture here when sitting in the boat..

The sun was not in my favor for this pic..

Thanks for looking! To me this looks something like what it was like the year I was done in Florida and visited Lettuce Park.. That was back in 1991.

Well I just got back from checking my bait trap and I now have a dozen live bait to use.. Hopefully I can locate those big fish in the lake now.. It is going to be sunny with a westerly 5 to 10 mile an hour wind with late afternoon thunder showers. Now if I can get a lunker to bite..

Cool photos! Hope the fish respond for you.

glad you had a fun trip! Thanks for the pictures, hopefully your next trip with the wife and others is as nice.

Thanks everyone..

The wife and I went out as my son and his friend had a chance to work. I took her up into the Maine River threw both the Mud Lakes . We saw quite a few boats in the river as well as Lower Mud Lake. They were fishing in a different area than what I have fished it in. When we came back down threw they were still fishing in that area. That gave me a new idea.

Yesterday I went out early and caught 17 nice size White Perch and some smallmouths out deep! Normally the bass are not in the deeper water yet. I also caught the smallest scrappiest largemouth I had ever caught.. It would almost all of it fit in the length of my hand.. LOL..

About 2pm I pulled into the doc to put my perch in a cooler on ice to keep them good and took the wife and our daughter and the next door nieghbor's little girl out fishing. They had a great time and we pulled into a small beach and had a lunch. It as around 90 out at least. The wind calmed down and it made for some good drift fishing. No bites though. Then when we left for the doc I struck a ledge sticking up just under the surface. that is in my Ouch! post..

Here is a few pics from yesterday..

The next pics ar of birds. (a loon, an eagle, and an osprey and an eagle soaring way up above)