Rain and wind this morning; chilly enough that I started a fire in the woodstove to remove the chill from the house. A good day to be at my desk and not on the water for sure.

I promised a story a quarter about the history of this small company and while I am nearly out of time for this installment I made it! As you would expect a lot happened between 1997 and 2006. A Shift in the Waters

June is a third of the way over and I have been spending many of my days guiding fishing trips on the freshwater. Overall fishing has been very good and folks have been successful. But the most enjoyable part for the guy standing in the middle of the boat without a rod in his hand was the birdsong.

Today was my first trip down to the lower Saint George checking to see if there were stripers in the river. I’ll cut to the chase and tell you that yes they are here not in numbers yet but there are fish. My real story is that after checking below the harbor I decided to try above since in the past that was the best early season fishing.

Not the first family fishing trip of my season but the first one that looked like summer. Happy kids sure parents ooh and ahhing sure lots to see sure lots of fish? Well after while but they sure were grumpy!

We were in Newfoundland last week where winter still has a strong grip but we returned to spring. Green everywhere and after this morning warmer temperatures. The summer season is picking up providing lots of opportunities to be on the water with old friends and new clients. I have to admit that I am enjoying it more than ever and can't imagine st...

It is interesting to see the changes in the outdoors one day to the next at this time of year. This spring has been cold for a fact. Monday was chilly but sunny with little wind not unpleasant and the fishing was good. Tuesday a strong west wind made it quite cold. In fact I was so chilled when I got home that it took until supper before I felt wa...

I attended the Maine Tourism conference for the last couple of days. It got me to thinking. About my long connection to the tourism industry. Granted not many guides consider themselves to be part of tourism but that is changing there were a few working guides in attendance.  The simple fact is we are and have been since the beginning.

This morning we woke up to a coating of ice and frost. Not really a surprise it rained yesterday and well into the evening changed to wet snow. Temperature in the upper 20’s. Not unusual for Maine in late April. The morning was bright and clear if a little chilly with almost no wind. I decided to take advantage of my semi-retired status and go fis...

Last fall I wrote about an encounter with a big pike where my equipment was not up to the task of land one of those big fish ( An October Fish Story! ). This spring I have been on the hunt with heavier gear bigger flies and lures. This afternoon I succeeded in landing one!

Sorry no picture I was just too slow. My early season fishing trips are always eventful if a little on the chilly side. Yesterday I eased down the river into White Oak Pond not in any hurry just looking around and seeing where trees had fallen into the river or any other changes of note. As I took the engine out of gear I noticed a huge splash whi...

Enjoyed a delightful afternoon with this couple from Texas on a Guided Scenic Maine Coast Boat Trip for my first trip of my 40 th season. Breezy for a fact chilly in the wind but sunny and warm most of the time on the water. Even got to see an eagle sitting in the nest!

Spring (well sort of) is very slowly coming to mid coast Maine. Snow is mostly gone except where the plows piled it near the driveway. Frost is working its way out of the ground which means frost heaves and soft lawns! We have had a few warmish days and firewood consumption has dropped off significantly. The solar panels generate about three times...

I hope to se you all there on the 21st. We have a Thomas & Thomas rod demo Guide Story Slam and some BBQ! Win Prizes Laugh and eat! WIGGLING RODS -First try out the full line up of rods by Thomas & Thomas with their Rep Crosby Bean. Test his product knowledge all afternoon on Cobbossee Stream behind the fly shop. BRING YOUR WADERS!  (Wade at your...

I keep my first aid and CPR certifications current and have for all of my career. I can clearly remember my first CPR class when I was in my teens a while ago. Over the years I have had opportunities to upgrade and not just maintain my certifications but of late I have kept up only the minimums. I have had the range from Wilderness First responder...

Last fall I noticed that my website was getting a lot more visitors than normal. The vast majority of those were from Asia. A quick web search showed that lots of small sites like mine were experiencing the same phenomena. Late in the fall I got a mention in National Geographic and those visits skyrocketed. Interesting but not really of much value...

As I am working back through 20 years of blog posts; I stumble on some that are well worth repeating. This one of those that even after 15 years is still a fact. When I am guiding a party I prefer to keep some distance from anyone else. Not that I am anti-social rather I feel that my clients deserve to experience the outdoors as personally as I ca...

It appears that everyone up and down the east coast had quite a snowstorm yesterday. Here we had a lot of wind cold and some snow. The wind was the big feature for sure and I am thinking that we met the definition of a blizzard. The bulk of the storm went out to sea far enough to our south so that we skipped most of the snow.

The swing back to warmer weather is slowly but surely underway. Nature is taking its cues from the sun’s return to the north; as you can see in the photo the shift is dramatic. Back in late December the sun rose well to the south tucked to the right of the farm. Before long that sunrise will move out of our direct view entirely until next fall.

Still snowing lightly this morning and it is supposed to snow off and on all day. The overnight portion was a little less than predicted a nice refresh on our snow cover. The big news though is the temperature. Not over freezing but 27 which is close and well over the highs for the last few weeks. It almost feels like summer!

Rain and wind this morning; chilly enough that I started a fire in the woodstove to remove the chill from the house. A good day to be at my desk and not on the water for sure.