Newsletter

The season is off to a great start, this morning I fished for stripers. They have been around for a week or so but this was my first real chance to chase them. I headed up the Saint George to my regular spring striper spot and had a fish on my second cast. This spot is very close to the head of the tide and the river feels much more like a freshwater river than the tidal flow that it is. The water is dark brown and still like many of our ponds. The reason for the stripers being there is the spring run of alewives, a herring that is heading up the river to spawn.

It has been incredible to watch the leaves come out over the last few days. On Friday beech trees had only buds and by Saturday morning there were leaves about two inches long. Other species of trees are popping out just as quickly today. I suppose that this relatively warm dry spring makes all of the difference. In a couple of weeks we will have all of our leaves for summer. The tulips in the garden are in full bloom and the dandelions are starting to bloom in the hayfield across the street. It is hard to be sure but when I look back on last spring all I can remember is cold and rain.

It seems almost impossible that it could be true. The idea that became Maine Outdoors has survived for 20 years. That first summer we offered only canoe trips on the Saint George River and it was one of the wettest on record. Not only did it reduce the number of folks that wanted to go for a canoe trip but I had promised Argy that we would go out to lunch every rainy day that I was not on the river. Not realizing that that there would be more rainy days without clients than sunny days with clients that summer. Needless to say it was not a profitable first year.