Lake Umbagog-June 2011

Lake Umbagog, June 2011

On the 1st of June Caden and I went up to Umbagog Lake for a few days. Maggie and Aurelia were to join us but Aurelia was still getting over her first cold so maybe in a month or 2 we can return. Caden and I had a blast as usual. We did a ton of fishing (Caden outdid me as usual.)

Going up we were worried a bit. Lots of "weather" was in the forecast. We had the "weather" but we also had some great weather so it worked out okay. Water was 2nd highest it had been on record. At the State Park, the State boats were moored to trees in the campsites and the fuel pump was under water. The docks were kind of "everywhere". Caden and I drove up and passed through 13 Mile woods around 1pm. The ranger that drove up that morning said he cross water twice. By 1pm, we had 6 places to cross on the drive up through Errol starting at the dam by Poontook Reservoir. The bridge by 7 Islands was almost under water.

This was a first for us to see! The above is looking South with the dam at off to the left rear.

Another first for us was this Rosy Maple Moth-awesome eh?

And of course we saw plenty of Moose-this time only 1 adult, a VERY large Cow-around 800-1000 lbs that Caden spotted (no pics of her sorry, she was VERY wary, likely had a newborn with her and was breaking down thigh-sized trees as she ran! Seeing so many 1 year olds though was great news for the New Hampshire Moose Population. The year olds are all small in 400-500lb range.

As always, Caden and I did some fishing. Due to the high water, all our river-trout spots were either too high, had too fast of water (pure white water) or both... So we stuck to the lake. We had the small 15 foot canoe with us so we hit the lake a few times. Caden managed a total of 7 Small mouth bass including this beast which was a challenge for him to put in the boat on such light tackle. He did it though and it came home for dinner! He also caught a Yellow perch and a medium sized pickerel. Overall he had a GREAT result fishing. I of course, caught a small small-mouth bass and a young salmon both of which I released... Caden rubbed it in telling me back at camp at the lodge that with the weather change between the storms, as we went out between 2 storms I should have been trolling the surface and not mid-water or deep... When I looked to the rangers and other "adults" in the room for some support, they all slowly turned away or shrugged their shoulders! Go figure. Well, I can still spearfish the best, even IF Caden is the King on the Lakes and Rivers of New Hampshire!

And so ended yet another trip up to the place we call "camp"