On our last day at Millinocket Maine I went fishing with my Air Force buddy Kirk Small on Millinocket Lake. It was a perfect day with comfortably warm temps and negligible wind. We motored across Millinocket Lake on Kirk's beautiful pontoon boat and dropped a couple lines in the water, trolling for salmon or whatever bites. As you can see from the pictures above and below, the tackle he uses for trolling is substantial. Notice the footage counter on my reel.
The line appeared to be braided with a hefty nylon leader. Mine had a silver spinner and a treble-hooked lure. Kirk's had a copper colored spinner, and he was using a spotted colored white lure. We trolled for a while and then the first of three hits on my pole, but they either were hitting on the spinner or something because it resulted in no fish in the boat. Couldn't have been the fisherman LOL. That's my story and I'm sticking with it!!
The next bite was on Kirk's pole and resulted in a Maine Pickerel, one of the Pike family. I'm used to catching Northern Pike and this fish was very similar. They are usually long and slender, a good fighter, but boney. We usually did not keep them unless they were huge. This one was probably about 18 inches long or so and we released it after snapping some pictures. Look at the beautiful markings on this Pickerel.
As we trolled around we continued to be amazed at the beauty of Mount Katahdin and the surrounding area.
Kirk took me over to just off shore from the Sandy Stream Beach. He said this place would be packed with folks during the upcoming Fourth of July weekend.
We continued to troll different parts of the lake, and then motored over to an area around some islands and tried still fishing for white perch. We saw several schools of them hitting the surface, but they were not to be found anywhere around our crawlers.
White Perch fishing with night crawlers.
Captain Kirk at the helm. I did not look to see if his boat registration number
was NCC1701 (Star Trek reference) ha ha
Just one fish in the boat today but we had a great time with a great friend! We sure appreciated Kirk taking us out in his boat and also driving us all around while we were here. It was great finally meeting Pam and spending some time showing us the areas around Mount Katahdin!
We said our goodbyes, I loaded up my fishing gear and noticed my right front tire appeared to be down a little. I got in, turned on my TPMS (tire pressure monitor system) and sure enough it was quite low. I was not far from our campground so I proceeded on and arrived back at the camper. The tire pressure had dropped even more, so I got busy changing it out with my spare as Doreen engaged the campground office. The site we are in is booked for the next six weeks and they have no other sites available, so we are leaving tomorrow one way or the other. Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with a local tire store and I also have compiled a list of nearby tire facilities including Houlton and Bangor, both about 70 miles away.
I travel with a hydraulic jack, 1/2" battery-powered impact wrench, 4x4 cribbing and the other resources I need just for situations like this. What I did not have was a 1x6. There was not room enough for a 4x4 and the jack under the truck and as I jacked up the truck, the jack sunk in the mud. Luckily the campground maintenance guy had one and it worked perfectly. I will too very soon! I got the right front wheel off, installed the spare and found the issue. A rock shaped like a spear tip had punctured straight into the tire between the treads.
So tomorrow we will get this resolved, hopefully with a new tire on the front. Then I will come back to the campground, hook up the coach, go to the dump station and take care of the nasty, and then head northeast to Aroostook County and Grand Isle Maine, our next stop.
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