| Well, the 6th annual trip
may have been the best yet. The weather was awesome! Yes, Roger
did come along, I guess the curse has been broken. I think this
was the most relaxing trip as well. The first day was cloudy and
a bit windy but tame by Saranac standards. Days 2 and 3 couldn't
have been better if we hand picked them with sunny cloudless
skies and no real wind to speak of. I even caught a bit of a
sunburn. The foliage had just begun to turn so the scenery was
beautiful. |
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| The water level was the
highest it's been thanks to a very wet summer and the remnants
of 3 recent hurricanes. This made for easy navigation on the
river and getting into and out of Weller pond. Just another
reason why this trip was so relaxing. After setting up camp on
our island, we hit a few favorite fishing spots. The fishing
wasn't great the first day but picked up nicely (for me anyway).
Roger kept his crown as the Perch King, he always seems to catch
a few nice ones. |
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| We enjoyed a few great
nights in camp. There's nothing like sitting around a camp fire
rehashing old Adirondack adventure stories and believe me we
have plenty of them. Now that's a fire ! |
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| On the second day we
awoke to a beautiful sunrise and there wasn't even any fog as I
recall. After a hearty breakfast we headed out on to the lake
after the mighty Northern Pike and whatever else would bite.
Mostly though we headed out to relax, and we did. We spent some
time in a creek mouth and Jon scored on a few nice bass. Roger
managed to land a decent pike. |
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| But the best thing of all
was the Bald Eagle encounter. We normally see one every year,
but usually at a distance. This year we were treated to a lesson
in how to catch fish the raptor way. The eagle cruised by us at
a fairly low altitude which is cool enough in itself but then
folded his wings, lowered his landing gear and swooped down on
the creek and snagged some lunch. IT WAS AWESOME ! He later came
back and landed high in a pine tree and graced us with his
presence for over an hour. I had to zoom in quite a bit so this
picture is not the clearest. |
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| After having an early
dinner back on the island, we headed back out to our secret
hotspot that normally produces some great pike action in the
afternoon. Well, it wasn't so hot this year. I'm not sure if it
was the water level change or what but it wasn't like it has
been the last couple of years. As I recall, we got a few bites
but didn't land any fish. So, before it got too late we headed
back into the creek mouth where we did so well the first day. I
landed a nice pike and then when the sun began to set, I tried a
bit of surface fishing for bass and it paid off. I caught 4 nice
largemouth's in less than an hour. I love it when a fish blows
up the water going after a lure. You should have seen the guys
scrambling for something that resembled what I was using after I
landed the 3rd fish. |
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| That evening on the way
back to the island, we were treated to an awesome site. The sun
had set but a red orange glow remained on the western horizon.
The moon had risen right over Ampersand Mountain and was nearly
full. The sky was cloudless. I attempted some photos but I
required a very still set up and we were on the boat so they
didn't come out. You'll just have to use your imagination. The
moon kept us company all night and the chilly air made for great
outdoor sleeping weather. The next morning we awoke to an eerie
fog that lifted quickly and revealed another cloudless day. |
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| Unfortunately, we had to
start the process of packing up after breakfast, it didn't seem
like it was time to go already to me. We made quick work of
breaking camp and had some time to do a little more fishing so
we headed back out on the lake for a while. We saw a loon and
watched him as he watched us and called to his mate with no
answer. There's something about the call of the loon, it really
speaks of wild America to me. I love it ! Well, we would have
loved to visit with him all day, but we wanted one last crack at
the fish so we headed to the creek mouth that had produced so
well. I decided to try the bass again and had a nice smallmouth
on the line momentarily but he got off. I actually got to see
him come from the depths and make the strike, that was very
cool. The water was very clear this year so we saw many of the
strikes on this trip as pike would chase our lures, hit them,
get off and come back and hit them again. Very exciting ! Jon
had a nice pike do this on the last morning but didn't land him.
I switched places with him so he could cast over the weed bed
that had produced pike the day before. Honestly, that was my
intention ! I was still throwing my surface lure for bass. Well,
wouldn't you know it, after a few casts and slow retrieves a
nice pike hammered that surface lure and I landed my best fish
of the trip. It could very well have been the same fish Jon just
missed. Sorry buddy. |
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| The ride back to the
launch was deliberately slow. The scenery was awesome and we
didn't want it to end too quickly. The mountains were watching
over us as usual, the occasional kayaker would cruise by and
greet us as they headed toward their own adventure. |
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Another year is in the
records. I can't express how much I love the wild places in
upstate NY, especially Middle Saranac Lake. I look forward to
this trip every year and I can only hope that we will be going
for many years to come.
Back to
Saranac Home
(part 1)
jump ahead to part 2 |
