Skip to main content

Grand Lake Stream on Opening Day 2015

When some blogs just talked about opening day of fishing season, Robin Follette and I LIVED it!

I drove four hours north the day before to hang out with Robin and go on a few adventures (those posts are coming, but here is a sneak peek).  The biggest was to stand in the Stream in Grand Lake Stream on opening day and try our hand at fly fishing.  We didn't really care about catching a fish but we were excited to see the groups of people that would be there and the excitement surrounding the beginning of fishing season. 

We met up with Brian Donaghy of Epic Adventures to help us with gear and guidance. When we pulled into the parkinglot, we saw Brian and only 4 or 5 other vehicles.  This was not the crowded fishing adventure that people said that it would be. Robin and I were the only women there with about 6 or 8 other guys who were there to hang out and talk to people or fish.

Grand Lake Stream
Fishing the stream
Fishing the stream

Robin and I got into our waders and got ready to head into the water with Brian.  We had to get up and over the snowbanks and deal with a few icy spots but we made it.  I was borrowing waders from Brian and had to come to terms with the idea that my boots would fill with water but the waders and neoprene would keep me warm.  What I did not think about was that my boots fit my feet with one pair of socks on.  Add a couple pair and the waders and my feet were almost numb from the lack of circulation well before we walked into the icy water.  If I am going to keep fishing more, I may need to buy a pair of proper wader that fit.

Brian and Robin
The only two women fishing.  We don't look too bad!
Wind, layers and a fly rod

The sun felt wonderful and it was warmer standing in the water than when we got out.  Almost instantly there was ice forming on our waders, the eye of the rods and even the lines.  We were more excited about the act of being in the water and fishing on opening day than anything else.  As Robin said, it was 'a great morning of friendship, fishing and conversation.' I could not have agreed more.

Here is to more days on the water, fish that will be caught and great conversations with friends while enjoying the incredible Maine outdoors!



Labels:

Comments

  1. RobinApril 03, 2015

    36° water never felt warm until standing in the wind when the air is 23°. Next purchase - breathable waders for real spring and summer!

    ReplyDelete
  2. penbaymanApril 17, 2015

    Love that spot..in about 2 weeks!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Taking Turkeys to Texas

There are a few less turkeys in Maine to hunt this year. A few months ago, Maine Inland Fisheries & Wildlife in partnership with the National Wild Turkey Federation , captured and released more than 50 birds into East Texas with the hope of rebuilding their population.   “Eastern turkeys are where the restocking efforts originally began,” explained Shawn Roberts, Director of Field Operations for the National Wild Turkey Federation, “We tried in the 1920’s but it didn’t work.  We tried pen-raised birds and that didn’t work either. The only thing that was successful was to trap birds and relocate them to good habitat.” “We started this current effort in the early ‘80s and we had to begin looking outside the state to see if we could get them moved in. We didn’t want to violate The Lacey Act so we had to come up with a way to compensate the states that were giving up a resource either by trading other wildlife or paying them monetarily,” said Roberts. Texas is on the very edge o
Post a Comment
Read more

Utilizing technology to make you more aware

Staci and I were roaming around the woods on a piece of property that she knew. It was snowing and we were chasing deer tracks to see if we could find some early sheds. It was a perfect day to be out in the woods and we were relaxed and not really paying attention to where we were going. We knew the border of the property and we knew that if we walked long enough we would hit roads or the bog and find our way back. We got to a point where we thought we knew where we were but we were not sure. Staci got out her compass to take a waypoint to make sure we were going in the right direction to get back to the truck. I took out my phone and turned on OnX. Within seconds we knew where we were, where the property borders were in relation to us and we could watch the dot (that represented us) on the map move as we walked out of the woods and got closer to the truck. In another adventure, my son and I headed out on a shed hunting mission.  When we got into the woods, I turned on the tracker
Post a Comment
Read more

Where are the women?

This week, my interview with Steve at The Maine Outdoorsman went live. Steve said yesterday 200 people hit his site viewing over 500 pages. That is a lot of people reading about little ole me and hunting. Why? When I think of women who are in the general public's eye and hunt, I can think of 2 - Country singer Miranda Lambert and Sarah Palin. Why only two? Why is the female hunter such a fascinating thing? (I should probably note that I do not have cable so any and all female hunters on the hunting stations are lost to me. I'll keep it to the general public because that's what I am familiar with.) People/media were fascinated by the fact that they could get footage of Palin and her gun, shooting (and gutting) animals but I feel like the nostalgia would be lost if they had the same footage of McCain. Lambert and her hubby Blake Shelton tweet photos of their kills, and comment on what/where they are hunting. I only know this because I follow both. That's it.
15 comments
Read more