LL Bean Spring Fishing Expo

The annual LL Bean Spring Fishing Expo is being held this weekend in Freeport, ME; see this PDF for a schedule of the events planned. My father-in-law (Tom), the girls and I all went up to scope it out. Tom taught me to fly fish about three years ago on the Dead River here in Maine. It is a hobby which I am now virtually addicted to. My older daughter has little interest in fishing, but loves the look and feel of flies. She wants to learn to tie flies someday so she can make them for Tom and I. She is a wonderful artist with a fine eye for detail, so once her motor skills have matured I suspect she would be great at fly tying. My younger daughter loves to fish. We got to a local pond at least once or twice a month during the Summer to fish. She had hoped to try a small fly rod at one of Bean's junior programs. Thanks to poor planning on my part and a lack of information from Bean's we arrived too early for the fly tying and my youngest it too young for even me to show her how to use the short rod. In the end, my youngest picked out a new fishing vest which fits her better than the hand-me-down from her big sister. We also picked up some differently sized bobbers.

Everyone up here is edgy for Spring to get underway. The snow pack is deeper than it has been in the past few years. Thought it is melting fast, there just seems to be so much of it. How long to ice-out? How long until we can see the brown grass? How long until the Spring plants start to sprout? How long until the road to camp is drivable? By the way, "camp" in Maine refers to a hunting camp or a small cabin up in the woods. For the more affluent camp can be a fancy house on a lake or even, in rare cases, a fancy house on the coast. Spring cannot get here soon enough.