Fishing Tackle Part 2 Buying the right stuff

   In part one I covered the mistakes I made buying gear for freshwater bass. I also went over how little you really need to catch fish. The key is to find lures that you are confident in. Confidence is brought on by success. In this post I plan to explain to you how how I took what I learned and applied it to other types of fishing. Though Largemouth and Smallmouth (collectively known as Black Bass) are the number one gamefish in North America I feel I covered that topic enough in the last post.

   Striped Bass are the number one species on the East Coast and trout are located in just about every state. I fish for these species a lot. I catch fish and do not need to carry around a sixty five pound tackle box to do it. More on stripers after the trout.

   Before I go on, I have to tell you how awful some of the fishing departments are in some stores. I can't tell you how many times I've gone to Dick's hoping for a specific lure only to walk out empty. This even happens at Bass Pro Shops to me so I do have to buy much of my tackle online.

   My trout box fits into my pocket. It is six inches long and about 3.5 inches wide. It has compartments. each compartment for the following; Rooster Tails, Kastmasters, Sinking Minnow, flies, Terminal Tackle (split shot, swivels)

  I carry four Rooster Tails. I have a White Coachdog and Yellow Coachdog in sizes 1/8 and 1/16 ounce. I have not fallen for the hype that I need every color of Roostertail. When they go on sale I buy two or three of each size and store them in a shoebox. I also don't use Mepps or any other brand. I'm not going to waste money when I have lures that work for me.

   Spoons- I carry a silver and a gold Kastmaster in 1/8 size. When there is a sale I'll stock up like I do with spinners. 

I take a small sinking Rapala in the color silver. Again, other colors and brands probably work, but I', sticking with what works.

   I take flies along for the casting bubble/fly combo. Since flies are cheap, I do take a small assortment. I could easily get by with using Wooly Buggers size 10 in either black or olive. For years I only used those two colors. However, I've thrown in a Size 12 Hares Ear and a big gaudy Royal Coachman for fun.

Along with the lures I bring a couple of clear casting bubbles and six pound Vanish for leaders for the bubbly/fly combo. I am sure (for example) Thomas Buoyant work just fine as does Little Cleo, but I do not need anymore gear just to "experiment"

Surf Bag-

   Fishing gear for stripers is big business for tackle shops from Maryland to Maine. Thousands of jobs and millions of dollars are spent on Striped Bass. To the credit of the shops, the gear sold at them is specific to their location. Cape Cod Canal shops sell to a different crowd than those in New Jersey. The baitfish is different, the canal has huge powerful tides, and much of NJ fishing is off of beaches and jetties as opposed to a seven mile long river with rock banks on both sides. 

   However, you would be surprised at how many different places I need to shop to buy the gear needed for New England. Like my trout box, I try to keep the amount of gear I need to a minimum. Stripers are not hatchery raised and can swim thousands of miles a year. I can find them on sandy beaches, rocky ledges, or the aforementioned canal. I use the same strategy as I do for Smallmouth. I try to cover each life zone.

  The topwater fishing for bass and blues is fun. I carry a couple "walk the dog" type lures such as Rebel Jumping Minnow and two poppers. Both poppers are homemade and painted white. The difference is, one of them only has one hook on the tail in case I run into blitzing blues. This way I only have to take a nasty blue off of one single hook

For the middle layer I carry a Cordell Redfin and a Daiwa SP Minnow. 

For the lower layer near the bottom I carry bucktail jigs from 3/8- 1 1/2 ounce. I find myself using the half ounce most of the time. I carry jigheads of 3/8 and 1/2 an ounce for use of soft plastics. The plastics are Zoom Flukes in albino color, Queen Cocahoes in a pearl color. I take along three and four inch shad bodies in black back. Notice I don't have multiple colors for each lure. Lastly I use white colored grubs as a trailer on my bucktail jigs. Sometimes I'll use the grub on a plain jighead when stripers are fussy. This has saved my bacon in the past.

  Along with the lures, I carry leaders that I make at home. So I need to buy swivels, leader material, and Cros Loc snaps. I carry a couple wooden egg floats, a headlamp, and a pair of pliers.

   You can clearly see that my bag is not overstuffed. I don't waste money on multiple colors of soft plastics or for that matter plugs. My bag is homemade and can't believe anyone would pay a couple hundred dollars for a surf bag. 

   At the beginning of this chapter about surf fishing I did say that striper gear is not the same everywhere. This is true in New England. What you have just read is my RI bag. However, what I take to the Cape Cod Canal is totally different. Since the main baitfish is mackerel and much bigger than the bay anchovies of RI my gear is much bigger. To the canal I bring one box that fits in my backpack that I wear while riding my bike. In the box are a couple SP Minnows, a slow sinking Sebile Swimmer, a popper I painted blue mackerel, a big pencil popper, big jigheads, and green mackerel soft plastic. I d bring a few smaller jigs in case I run across small bait and schoolies.

Much of this stuff can be bought at local tackle shops and at Bass Pro. However, not all of it. I need to change out the weak hooks of the SP Minnows and Jumpin Minnows. I buy strong saltwater hooks along with big unpainted jigheads at NJ Tackle. They also supply wire and split rings for making poppers and wiring my wooden eggs.

   At home I do have boxes of spare saltwater gear. However, unlike my Tupperware bin full of freshwater soft plastics, it will eventually get used assuming I live long enough. The reason, when I find a good deal or Bass Pro has a sale, I buy in bulk. Every year Bass Pro has their Fishing Spectacular in March. Zoom Flukes always go on sale. So I buy a few bags to replace ones I used the prior year. I try to keep ten bags on hand. 

  A few years ago, they had a nice sale n saltwater jigheads. I bought five or more bags of each. I'm still living off of them. The same is said of four inch white grubs. I bought so many that when I need to restock my surf bag I just go into my spare room and pull some out. 

   I hate paying for shipping so when I bought my stuff from NJ Tackle, I made a big order. I still have unopened bags of multiple sizes of treble hooks, split rings, wire, and one ounce jigheads. The same goes for my fly gear. When I buy flies I spend enough so I don't have to pay for shipping. So I do have more flies than I'll need but I'd rather spend money on flies that I own than shipping.

I could go on and on about each species I fish for but I'm hoping you have the idea not to spend money on lures you don't need. I promise if you think ahead, buy smart, use sales and online companies to your advantage, you can save money and space. You'll catch more fish because you'll use lures you have confidence in. Don't get sucked into the illusion you need every color of every size lure. This is what the manufacturer's want you t believe. It is their job to sell their product. It is not your job to buy all of their gear. It is your job t catch fish. 

 

Photo Upgrade- Stilt Sandpiper

 I went to Charlestown yesterday and birded with my friend Scott. There were a lot of shorebirds but they were almost all Semi-palmated Sandpipers. The best bird there was a Stilt Sandpiper. They are a fairly rare shorebird. I've only seen them about four times. I got some decent photos of the ones yesterday. It came much closer than the others I've seen.  

Fishing Tackle-Part 1- Learning the hard way by spending too much money

   Here is one of the most important tips I can give you when it comes to fishing tackle. Most fishing gear is designed to catch fishermen not fish. Read that again because it is important. Companies that produce fishing gear spend a lot of time, money, and effort to convince you that you need to buy their stuff. Ask yourself this, is there any possible way you could possibly need forty colors of plastic worms? Do you need fifteen colors of crankbaits in three different sizes?

Lets start with the biggest money maker in the United States...largemouth bass. For the purpose of this post I looked up how much is spent on largemouth bass fishing alone. The answer...1.25 BILLION. Now, that number includes things such as vacations, fishing guides, tackle shops, etc... This post is going to concentrate on fishing tackle. 

   We have all been to Bass Pro Shops and there are aisles and aisles of gear aimed at Largemouth Bass. I am not one to talk. I was seduced by the lure of needing all sorts of gear. One example was after watching a fishing show I went out and bought multiple sizes and shapes of purple plastic worms.  My reasoning was that I could experiment and figure out which sizes worked during each "application". Maybe the curly tailed worm might be more affective in muddy water. Maybe the short straight worm would work better next to cover. You know what, I still have most of those same unopened bags of different purple worms in my storage box! I fell for the advertising.

   My tackle box for bass fishing must weigh well over forty pounds. It is loaded with dozens of topwater lures, crankbaits, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. I have tons of soft plastic worms, lizards, grubs, tubes, and flukes all in at least five or more colors.

    When I went to New Hampshire in May and July I did really well fishing for Smallmouth Bass.  I took a box of lures I thought I would actually use with me. So I selected the lures out of my forty pound box that would fit into a plastic storage box. I did very well fishing for Smallies. My worst day I caught six fish. I had two days were I caught twenty eight, and twenty respectively. The rest of the days I caught over six but less than twenty. By any standard, fishing was very good. You know how many lures I caught fish on...three. I used my Zara Puppy for topwater fishing and a jighead for bouncing off of the bottom. On the jig I used two different color grubs. They were a four inch purple grub and a four inch Kalin's green pumpkin. That's it. I caught around a hundred Smallmouth Bass on three lures. Most of the hundreds of lures I own stayed at home while I was on vacation. And even eighty percent of the stuff in the box stayed in the box!

   So, the question becomes, what should you buy. If you are a bass fishermen that started out as a kid, then you probably don't need anymore gear. But for the sake of argument here is how you should break down what you need. Look at a how you would break down the pond. You need a few lures for each layer. You need topwater lures, lures for the middle layer and lures for the bottom. I love topwater fishing and by far my favorite topwater lure is a Zara Puppy. Other good ones are Jitterbugs, PopR, SkitterPops. Middle layer lures would be jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. Also very popular are Senko Worms fished like a darting/dying baitfish.  Bottom lures would be crankbaits. Also needed would be plastic worms, grubs, jigheads and worm hooks. This sounds like a lot, but I assure you, you do not need the amount of gear in my box. Get yourself two or three lures for each level of the water. Get a couple grubs you feel confident in. Get a light and dark colored worm such as Tequila Sunrise and salt and pepper. 

Don't get caught up in all of the combinations of blades and colors of spinnerbaits. Get a white spinnerbait and a white/chart one in either 3/8 or 1/2 ounce. A combination of a suspending jerkbait and one that floats at rest will fill your needs. 

  What about colors? I usually go with baitfish colors for hardbaits. I do have perch colored crankbaits and even Fire Tiger. But overall, two or three colors is plenty for each level of the lake. I am positive, you do not need purple worms of five different shapes and sizes. 

   I once heard a fisherman say to bring five lures with you for a day of fishing. He promised "you will catch fish". You will learn how to use them because you will concentrate harder than if you change lures every five casts. You will also build confidence in the lures.  I believe this fishermen was right. If I take my favorite five lures covering the water column with me fishing, I know I'm going to catch fish. As I said, I only used three lures fishing for smallies. 

  On the other hand, I once heard a fisherman say "they are only hitting motor oil colored worms today". Ignore an idiot that says that. And worse, don't be the idiot that goes out and buys motor oil colored worms because someone said they work. Lets look at this logically. Bass are a fish with a simple brain. Last I checked there isn't any natural prey called "motor oil worm". So the bass will not be "keying on" that particular lure and they won't hit anything else. Sure, that color worm may be working for that guy. It is a color he feels confident in. But I promise, the bass will hit other lures/colors also. A lethargic bass may not be willing to chase a spinnerbait but if you drop a Senko in front of a bass, even if it is not hungry, it's going to suck it in. 

   There is probably more gear designed for bass fishing than all of the other fish species in the US. The companies that make it want you to believe you need every color of every size. Do not fall for it. The advertising is designed to catch you. You will want more, but as I said, if you go fishing with five lures you feel confident in, you will catch fish. 

   Part 2 of this post will be about taking lessons I've learned from buying bass gear and applying them to other species. 

I finally saw Royal Terns

 

Sue's photo of yesterday's Royal Tern

   I wrote a long post about Royal Terns for the Ocean State Bird Club so this will be very short. I finally saw a Royal Tern in Rhode Island Friday. Royal Tern has been the toughest species that shows up in Rhode Island every year. I've never seen one one in RI despite seeing them in three other states. See my post "Royal pain in the ass". 

   I went to Quonny on Wednesday after reports all week. I got there early and looked for three hours before I had to leave to meet my friend Sue. That night, one was seen at 6 pm! Thursday morning my friend Barbara Seith saw them but I couldn't go down that day. So Friday I made a pilgrimage to Quonny determined to stay the day if I had to.

   That is exactly what I had to do. I got there at 8:40 am and spent the day staring at the pond. I did have to go into my car for about an hour because of lightning. I also left to get food at 3:15, but other than that I spent the day looking for Royal Terns. My friend Sue came to give me support and an extra set of eyes at 4:15. Around 5 pm a tern showed up that Sue spotted to the north. Sure enough it was a Royal Tern. We took some distant photos. Finally chasing this dam bird was over. As I guessed, my reaction was not of joy, just happy to be finished with this quest. The emotion was the same as finishing wrapping your last Christmas gift. No satisfaction other than you can move on and do something else. 

My favorite kind of snake

  I went herping today. I only saw one snake but it was a Black Racer which is my favorite snake species. I got lucky and it was in a place where I had an open view of it and it couldn't make a beeline to the water. I got to watch it for fifteen minutes. I took a lot of photos of it before it did make a break for the water. None of the photos are enhanced or cropped.

Dirty Deeds AC/DC Tribute Band

    In a span of less than fourteen hours I did two things on my bucket list (which I am trying to refer to as my "to do" list more often). Saturday I saw Copperheads which was really exciting. However, I was a little groggy on the drive down because I did not get a full night's sleep. Before making plans to go herping, Laurie and I had bought tickets to see the AC/DC tribute band for Friday night. The cover band played at the Stadium Theater in Woonsocket.

   I had wanted to see Dirty Deeds for nearly ten years. They are out of Boston and through the years have played clubs and bars in the area. Sometimes I'd forget to look up their schedule for months at a time only to find out they played in Attleboro two weeks before. Sometimes I knew they were playing but too far away. Dirty Deeds had been the entertainment version of Royal Tern for me.

   Last year, on a whim, Laurie and I bought tickets for the Queen tribute band "One Night of Queen at Bold Point. As we were walking in, we heard AC/DC music. Dirty Deeds was the opening band. There wasn't any mention of this on the tickets or the websites. It was bittersweet. Finally, I got to see Dirty Deeds, but we arrived after they played a couple of songs. 

   When I saw the lineup for this year's Stadium Theater shows, I saw Dirty Deeds was playing and basically gave Laurie no choice on if we'd buy tickets. The show was for Friday night July 7. I was pretty excited. AC/DC is my favorite band of all time. I know and love more songs by them than any other band. They have retired and I never saw them live. Seeing Dirty Deeds is probably the closest I'm going to get to the real thing.

   We got pretty good seats about twenty rows back but realized before the concert even started we would be squished in our seats. The guy next to me could have played guard for the Pats. So we moved up closer to the nosebleeds where there were less people. We asked an usher if the show was sold out and he said no. So we sat as far from others as we could..

The show started at 8 pm without an opening band. The band opened up with "Shoot to Thrill". They played about twenty songs. I knew all but three. They rocked with energy for two plus hours. They took a twenty minute intermission around 9 pm then played another hour. The show ended at 10:40.

Telling you all of the highlights would just be like reading off the back of an AC/DC greatest hits album. Some of my favorites were "Who Made Who", "Back in Black", "TNT", "High Voltage", "You Shook me All Night Long", "Highway to Hell", "Dirty Deeds", "Hells Bells", and others.

   Dirty Deeds ended the show with fan favorite "For those about to rock, we salute you". This is how AC/DC ends their shows. This always confused me because we already rocked. Now everyone is going home. It would make sense to play "For those about to rock" as the first song. I don't think I'm wrong about this. None the less, it was cool because they had canons on stage and they did fire smoke and confetti. 

   As for the authenticity, they are great. The guitarist jumped around all over the stage just like Angus Young. I dare say, he could play the guitar like Angus too. The lead singer wears the scally cap and looks an awful lot like Brian Johnson the lead singer for AC/DC. He sounds like Brian too. They were in every sense the second coming of AC/DC 

Below is a sample of the beginning of "Hells Bells". The visual isn't very good because we chose to sit pretty far back. However, the audio is good enough where you can tell you talented Dirty Deeds was. 

Copperhead Road

 

 Today we had an adventure. My friends Laurie, Charles Avenengo, and I went to western Connecticut to look for Five Lined Skinks. These small lizards are the only lizard species to live in New England. Spoiler alert, we did not see any skinks and this story is not about them.

   Our goal was to look for the skinks in the morning. Hopefully we would see one early then in the early afternoon try some other hills  that I know to have Copperheads. We have tried for Copperheads two times before and dipped both times. We went for them in October last year and also on May 5th of this year. Both times we had really nice weather that was perfect for snakes which made it that much more frustrating that we didn't see any. 

   Today, the three of us made it to our first trail about 9:30 am. We ate a quick snack and hiked up. We took our time and looked at every crevice and sunny rock ledge hoping to see a Five Lined Skink or even a Rattlesnake. I was willing to bet that in that part of Connecticut Timber Rattlesnakes slither in the hills. Spoiler alert number two, we did not see any Timber Rattlesnakes but it did give us an excuse to go slow and we were optimistic. 

   Our goal was to really check out the ledges at the top of these hills. Hopefully we would find a lizard scurrying around. After a short but steep climb we made it to our first overlook. The trees had grown up and there really wasn't any views to the valley below. However, we did stop and look down into the rocks below. While Charles and I were looking down on the rocky outcrops we hear Laurie say this as she is looking at the area on the summit.

Laurie said " This looks like a good area for a snake."

                Two seconds later

Hey! There is a snake!"

 

See the two shades of brown?

So Charles and I walk over and I get to Laurie first because I was closer.  I see a brown snake with hourglass markings and my first thought is Copperhead, but I say to them it might be a  Milk Snake because a Copperhead would be too good to be true. However, in the five seconds it takes Charles to get to me, I realize Laurie did indeed find a Copperhead!

   A little background on Copperheads. Copperheads are a venomous snake. Though they rarely kill people, they do carry enough venom that it is a possibility. They get to be about three feet long and are a thick bodied snake. They eat a variety of  prey smaller than themselves including mice and lizards. They live from the Florida panhandle to Massachusetts. Mass and Connecticut really are the northern edge of their range. While they may be in all suitable habitat in Virginia, up here they live in pockets of woods in very specific places.

   Copperheads bite more people in the United States than any other venomous snake. The reason is because they are so well camouflaged people step on them. The irony is they are very docile, especially when you consider they can kill you.  Most snake species will try to move away from humans. Of course, rattlesnakes will rattle and warn you of their presence. Copperheads, do not move in the hopes of not being seen. Their goal is for you and I to walk by them without us ever seeing them.

   So back to Laurie's snake...So  the Copperhead was only two feet off of the trail. There was a little small vegetation around "it" but it was pretty much in the open. It was so well camouflaged it really looked like the dead leaves that it was on. We found the head and started taking photos. Keeping in mind, that this snake really is an arm's length from the trail. So we are taking photos from two feet away. As we are looking at it, we realize "it" is two different shades of brown. One is dull and dry while the other is a brighter crisper shade which makes us realize that this snake might not be one snake but two! So we follow the outline of both shades of brown with our eyes and sure enough two heads! The snakes were intertwined around each other.

   So we are doing our best to take photos of both of the snakes trying to get an angle around a stump, a rock, and the brush. The Copperheads don't move at all and when one took a deep breathe we were very excited. So now we have two Copperheads at our feet and I am taking photos from right above them and I glance over about a foot and there was a third Copperhead minding its own business!

  It wasn't touching the other two but was about a foot away. It was the hardest to get a photo of because of the brush. Copperheads blend in so well in dead leaves that we had been looking at the other two for fifteen minutes before we even saw this one. We watched the three Copperheads for close to a half hour. I took photos from right above them. I realized I had gotten too close and took one photo, at most, eighteen inches away from the fangs of one. I realized I had enough photos and the snake very easily could have bit my hand. Lesson learned, luckily not the hard way.

   We left the snakes and went to our next overlook. We didn't see any lizards or any more snakes, but it wasn't for the lack of trying. When you see three venomous snakes two feet from the trail and they are three feet long, you look at the ground differently. All three of us watched every step we took from that point forward. We had to go back the way we came so we stopped at our new friends again for ten minutes. They each moved about a foot but were where we had left them.

   When we got down to the car we drove to a different trailhead and hiked another hill to look for lizards but came up short. No matter, I got to see a species that was on my bucket list for two years. Laurie and I had already invested over twenty hours of our lives searching for Copperheads, so it was more than just a lifer for us. It was a species we really wanted to see. Charles had only seen Copperheads one day in his life despite being a very experienced herper. We had a two and a half hour drive each way and honestly, it flew by. The conversation was so great and we all had stories to share. We learned a lot from and each other and really enjoyed each other's company. It was an epic day!

More photos below. Basically, photos taken from different angles of snakes that did not move. 

Some highlights from NH

This was my first Smallmouth at 
Umbagog. The lure is 3" long. 
The fish was not much bigger. Not
the start I was hoping for.

    My Fourth of July getaway was kind of a disaster. I stayed on the NH/ME border from Tuesday June 26-July 2. The plan was for me to go up on Tuesday and secure a campsite. Laurie was coming up Friday night and for us to stay until Tuesday. The weather was so bad we came home early Monday morning.  

   After getting a campsite on Tuesday, I planned on fishing Wed-Friday for Smallmouth and trout. Every day that I was up there it rained. I might have a pleasant morning and then afternoon thunderstorms would roll in. Other days it rained from morning till night. There was not one twenty four hour period without rain. The best two weather days were Friday and Saturday. Though I did wake up Friday morning to rain, it cleared up and was a nice day. Saturday was nice from morning till night. Laurie and I had a good day at Grafton Notch (see post below) but it did rain Saturday night and by Sunday morning our campsite was a quagmire. 

   Other bad things that happened were- my camera broke. It got wet and it no longer works anymore.

  Sunday morning I woke up to water dripping on my face. Overnight our big comfortable tent started leaking. Luckily, I had my backpacking tent but after four days of rain, it was damp and uncomfortable to sleep in Sunday night. My back tire started making a squealing noise Sunday evening. This of course worried me that I'd be spending five hundred dollars to fix it. The good news is, the squealing stopped and I drove home Monday morning very relieved. Lastly, I almost got into a fight with two rednecks who decided to swim with their dogs in the exact spot I was fishing. 

   I tell you all of this because I promise honesty on my blog. This was not a fun vacation. Much of it sucked. While people post on social media the best versions of themselves or their lives, I can not do that with this trip. While I try to live as adventurous a life as I can on my budget and physical abilities, I don't want you to think that my outdoor pursuits always end up in big fish, beautiful views, or paradise. This is one example of a big pile of suck. 

   However, over the course of almost six days there were a few highlight. Even as each pitfall came at us, we tried to make the best of each situation. The two exceptions were the argument with the rednecks which I dwelled on for days that someone could be so rude. The other being the car trouble. I worried I might not make it home, and if I did, I'd piss away most of the rest of my savings. 

Below are some highlights of the trip. They are not in chronological order since they are from three different cameras (mostly my phone, but also my pocket camera and my big lens before it broke). 

   The highlight would have been the moose but I saw it five minutes after my tire started squealing so you can imagine my nerves being two hundred miles from home. Also, my camera was broken by then and the light was low so my little 5x zoom was not cutting the mustard. 

   On Saturday after Grafton Notch we stopped at a church bake sale and bought some goodies. One treat was a homemade Snowball. It was chocolate cake balls rolled in frosting then coated with coconut. Pure deliciousness.

  The fishing wasn't bad. I fished three lakes including Lake Umbagog on Friday. My bast day was Thursday when I caught ten smallies. I caught a few decent fish but no monsters. Some of the fish were pretty small.

A mountain lake with the Presidentials and clouds 
in the background

Aphrodite Fritillary Butterfly at the lake

My best moose photo aka garbage

I was very surprised to catch a largemouth so far
north.

I was hoping to catch a pike so I brought my 
camera on a tripod to capture the moment. No
pike but did practice my skills with my camera's
timer.

Someday I won't look constipated taking a selfie.

Common shiner. 

It doesn't look it, but this Fallfish was about a
foot long. It took a four inch grub with that
tiny mouth .

One of my dream lakes to fish, Lake Umbagog.
I only caught six bass but at least I didn't go home 
skunked.

White Admiral Butterflies were everywhere. They must 
came out of their cocoons all at once. I saw over one hundred.
This was one of four at our campsite.

This snowball bought at a church fair 
was so good it almost made me religious...almost

I caught this beautiful brown not two minutes before my argument
 with the Rednecks who started
swimming right where I hooked this fish

I worked hard to catch any brookies.
This was only one of two I caught.
The other was the same size.

Grafton Notch State Park and Step Falls, ME

   

Screw Auger Falls

One of the places I've always wanted to go was Grafton Notch State Park in ME. As a map nerd, I'd seen it in the ME Atlas and tried to figure out a way to work it into a vacation for years. It however, always seemed too far from anywhere else I was going. I went up to NH/ME border last week and one day I fished Lake Umbagog. I used GPS and assumed it was going to take me past Gorham/Berlin and up Rt 16. GPS had other plans and when I punched in the Umbagog boat ramp it had me go east into Maine for twenty miles and then up Rt 26. I was pleasantly surprised to find out my campsite was only an hour from the boat ramp. 

   While on Rt 26 I passed Grafton Notch State Park. I had no idea that was going to happen. There were pulloffs for Screw Auger Falls, Moose Cave, and Mother Walker Falls. Instantly I realized I would be back when Laurie came up from Friday night until Tuesday for the holiday weekend. I didn't go exploring these sites figuring it would be more fun with Laurie. I kept driving to Umbagog where I only caught six Smallmouth Bass.  

 

 So on Saturday, which was definitely the best weather day of the trip, Laurie and I left for Grafton Notch about 7 am.  We knew that this would only be a half day trip and we did have plans for the afternoon to explore a Presidential Range lake We drove to the furthest pull off  first and worked our way back. So we went to Mother Walker Falls. It was tough to get a good look at the falls because of the vegetation. 

  Next we went to Moose Cave. This wasn't much either. It was pretty much just a triangular hole in a piece of granite. I thought at this point we'd be driving back by 9 am. I was getting worried that Laurie would wonder what the hell I dragged her all this way for.

Calling Moose Cave a cave is like calling your
cereal bowl a canyon

   Next we went to Screw Auger Falls. I swear I've been to what feels like a Screw Auger Falls in every state. I'm pretty sure this is the second one I've been to in Maine. Despite the lazy naming, Screw Auger was quite attractive. There are two falls with a twist in the river between them. there are multiple sunny ledges and view points to enjoy the waterfall. Since we were way ahead of any planned schedule, we stayed over a half hour.

  On our way to Grafton Notch  we saw a land trust property called Step Falls. We decided to check it out on our way back. Since our three roadside stops had taken us less than an hour we had plenty of time. The property is owned by the Mahoosuc Land Trust. It was a mile round trip to the falls. We really didn't know what to expect. We walked down a wide pine covered trail to the water. The trail did have a lot of roots so we had to watch our step, but we were at the river's edge in about ten minutes. 

   

For perspective, there is a 
woman in blue about 2/3
the way up in the photo.
Step Falls

   The stop was pleasantly surprising. The reason the falls is called Step Falls was because the river drops over a hundred feet in steps. The steps are not far apart and it is almost one big waterfall because of the steepness of the hill. The largest step which is near the top is about twenty feet. The trail parallels the river the whole way to the top of the falls. There are plenty of side shoots that bring you to the river.

   We stopped at most of the steps and enjoyed each fall. It was a short but steep climb to the top of the falls.  We stayed at the biggest fall for fifteen minutes. There were many people at the falls but it never felt crowded. If we saw people at one plunge pool we just moved up to the next one. 

   When we came down the parking lot on this beautiful Saturday was just about full. Google says it does fill up on nice weekends. I can see why. Step Falls absolutely made our foray into western Maine well worth the trip. A combined trip to Grafton Notch and Step Falls just a few miles away was one of the few highlights we had on this rainy holiday weekend.