New Hampshire Nature Notes
by Eric Orff

Heavenly rain on a very hot earth.

Friday 08/04/2006

I woke to a steady rain this Friday morning. It looks like the last day of my week long summer vacation will be a wash out. The rain sounds so soothing to me this morning. Certainly not the rain I cursed a couple months ago, but a welcomed rain. The earth, and most of it's inhabitants were baked by near record temperatures all week long. You could almost hear the earth sizzle by Wednesday. It must have rained hard over night as I was surprised to read almost 2 inches of rain in my gauge this morning. I can practically watch the corn stalks leap skyward after this rain. After a very late successful corn planting, it sure is welcomed by the local farmers.

Luckily for me, I started this week of vacation with a few days at my camp in Maine. It was actually almost cool there on Tuesday with a nice breeze from the east bringing in sea air. Muscongus Bay is only 7 or 8 miles away and this finger of the ocean seems to sweep it's affect all the way to camp most days.

I spent some very welcomed time alone on the lake fishing early in the week. Sunday night the lake seemed to be on fire with nice bass. I caught a huge largemouth bass, then a few minutes later a nice smallmouth and close to a 4 pound smallmouth a few minutes later. I haven't even caught a small mouth bass in this lake in years. Back in the 1950's through the 1970's only smallmouth bass were in this lake. The lake is far more suited for large mouthbass and by the 1980's they had supplanted the smallmouths. I expected to see more action from the white perch as by August the juvenile alewives are swarming the surface of the lake surrounded by schools of white perch.

I did manage another day of striper fishing in Portsmouth on my friend Jean's boat. I started off hot there too. No sooner had I dropped a piece of cut herring into the Piscataqua than I had a striper on. All were running around 20 inches long. Too short for the 28 inch minimum. Still a good day to be on the sea. Except for just as we headed for the mooring, with it practically in sight, Jean's boat broke down. We had a couple of friends come by, just as we were drifting into a reef and before I could drop anchor. They quickly towed us back into safe waters and the short distance to the mooring. You just can't beat good luck right behind bad luck, just when we needed it the most!

My wildlife sightings have been sparse this week. Only a couple of deer at best. Usually I see a few flocks of turkeys in Maine. Bald eagles and ospreys were scarce this trip. Monday evening at dusk I encountered a huge swarm of swallows over the lake. Hundreds were in the air all around me. Some low skimming the water, but most in a huge cloud bouncing back and forth above and around me. It was like I was caught in this huge flock of birds whirling around in the vanishing light.

I did manage to find a blue berry rake to buy. A little over a week ago I was in an area that was blue with blue berries. I have had visions since of getting back there with rake in hand. A bushel basket dream, which I have a reputation for. Good things do happen when you expect them and are on a vigil for them. You can make an awful lot of your own good luck. I'm always looking for luck!