McClory: Pass that love of fishing on to the next generation

What’s the best part of fishing? You may enjoy the peace of a quiet steam, the thrill of “fish on” or the puzzle of finding the most successful lure for the day. Whatever it is – pass that thrill on to the next generation!Fishing is the most universal sport, from the kid with the bobber and worm to the guy in the huge boat rigged with all the latest electronics. They’re both after the same thing and both having fun.Remember, when you take young kids fishing, keep the experience positive. Pick a pond or lake known to have an abundance of active hungry sunfish, bluegills and perch. You want to make sure that as soon as the line hits the water the bobber will move and disappear. Locally Flax Pond and Browns Pond were our favorites, and they never let us down. Taking a kid out to troll for salmon or trout is not recommended, there is not enough action to keep their interest. My kids used to get bored after a while of waiting and get distracted by playing with the lures in the tacklebox, or sometime even the worms in the bucket. That was okay, because it kept them interested in going along and, when all else fails, make sure you have plenty of their favorite snacks to save the day.Last weekend we were at our place on Sebago Lake. Unfortunately it was basically a work weekend so I didn’t get a chance to wet a line. However, I did get a chance to speak with some of the local anglers that fish Sebago almost every day. The message from every one of them was that if you have been procrastinating about fishing southern Maine, now is the time, especially if you want to target lake trout. Limit catches are the norm every day, between 2 and 5 pounds. Fishing with two rods because of all the action is almost impossible, especially the first 3 hours of the day, but it continues most of the morning. Most of the fish are being taken by trolling a flasher and sewed-on-bait in water depths of between 75 and 90 feet. Flatfish lures fished in those same depths are also doing well.On the salt water front from the Kittery report, Mike at Surfland Bait and Tackle on Plum Island reports some great flounder fishing both in the river between the jetties and the sandbars as well as out front in 20 to 30 feet of water. Drifting seaworms is the key. “We’ve had runs of big fish that left (stripers), small fish that left and now we have a good run of big fish again that will probably stay because of the mackerel-fish up to 28 pounds. Pete Santini at Fishing FINatics in Everett reports stripers went wild over the weekend. Aaron Viera took a 56 pounder on a Honey Mustard Santini Tube-n-Worm rig while trolling around the B Buoy. Several other big fish succumbed to the tube this weekend. Also we’ve got flounder and mackerel just about anywhere you drop a line here in the harbor.uWith hot weather warming up lakes and ponds, fish kills may be discovered in some bodies of water. The sight of dead and dying fish along the shores of a favorite lake, pond or river can be distressing and can trigger concerns about pollution. Fish do act as the “canary in the coalmine,” so it’s natural to think a fish kill is an indicator of a problem with human caused pollution. However, the vast majority of fish kills reported are natural events. Natural fish kills are generally the result of low oxygen levels, fish diseases As pond temperature increases, water holds less oxygen. or spawning stress. Depletion of dissolved oxygen is one of the most common causes of natural fish kills. During hot summer weather, oxygen levels in shallow, weedy ponds can further decline as plants consume oxygen at night. This results in low, early morning oxygen levels that can become critical if levels fall below the requirement of fish survival. The result is an unavoidable natural fish kill, usually consisting of one or two species of fish.