MaineBassMan

Thanks for the kind comments, but your going to give me a swelled head if you keep them up ;D I have good days and bad days just like everyone else does. I love Toddy Pond for the fact that I know when I go there that I have a very good possibility in catching my biggest bass ever! However, it is a very tough lake at times. The bass can be very finicky, more finicky than what I'm use to. When you go there you need to try everything and they seem to be very picky on what type of cover they are going to relate to on a given day. For instance, those pictures I posted above were all on the same day and we caught those bass all in about one hour along 100 yards of shore. All bass were caught on crankbaits, they wouldn't hit anything else. We caught them casting parallel to the bank in about 8 to 10 foot of water bumping boulders. It seemed like we had figured them out and then the bite just stopped after our fifth bass. We had a total of 19lbs 14 oz for five bass. we fished for the rest of that day trying everything that we could think of and we just couldn't buy a bite. This was our pre-fish before the tourney, we felt good cause even though we caught only 5 bass they were a good five bass. Come tournament day that technique didn't work at all. I caught our one and only bass for the tournament on a jig casting in tight to the bank. It weighed a little over two pounds. Couldn't buy a bite after that. Following just behind us on the same bank was a friend of mine. He ended up catching 5 nice bass and a 6.41 lbs largemouth getting second place. All on the same shore we were fishing. Talked to him after the tourney and he said that he had to cast so that his lure would land on the bank and then he had to drag it down into the water. If he landed a few inches short he wouldn't get a bite. I was landing too short from the bank. Maybe if I had done what he had things may have been different? We fished our clubs fish off tournament, (our classic, you have to make it into the top 15 teams for the season), day one at Toddy. My father and I almost skunked out, but in the last hour I changed over to 3/4 oz Moon talker or Walker spinnerbait and started catching a few. I ended up isolating the bass to a particular type of structure. They wanted a rock or rocks with weeds or just one strand of grass next to the rock. If it was just a rock with no weeds, I would get no bites. If it was just weeds I would get no bites. If there was one strand of grass next to a rock bang I would get hit. It was to the point were I could call my next catch. I ended up having a nice 5-6 pound largemouth chase my spinnerbait up to the boat, he came out from two boulders that had grass between them, but he got spooked by the boat. :'( If I had caught that fish we may have won our clubs fish off. We ended up getting third place on day one. We fished Big Lake for day two and we managed to hold onto third place by the skin of our teeth and I only caught 4 fish that day. I felt bad for my father, it was a rough two days of fishing in very high winds and my father didn't catch one bass in two days of fishing. Check out our clubs web page--search "The Maine Blade Runners"-- we are either the largest or second largest private bass club in Maine. You can view last years tournament results and then you can see that I have good days and bad days. Last year was a tough year for my Dad and I as far as tournament fishing goes, we have done better in the past. I hope we get our mojo back this season! Just be open minded when you fish there. Just a tip- I haven't caught many bass out of the first Toddy. My best friend has a camp that he and I can stay at so I plan on fishing it a lot more now. It's too far for just a day trip for me.

I'm about two hours southeast of Danforth, Down in Cutler. Thats the best time to come up, my favorite months are May and June. Only one problem... If I took you to my favorite lakes I would have to kill you after we were done. ;D Just joking of course :

Thanks that was one of those "I hope it came out good pictures" then when I uploaded it I was like Yesss!! It looks like he got a makeup job just for the picture. Someone else got him during the season and ended up weighing 249 pounds dressed out.

Wow, I've had great luck on these for early spring Smallmouth and Largemouth. I just rig them texas style. I use them a lot for flipping the brush when the largies are in tight during the spring runoff. When they first came out I tried them that first spring on one of the first trips. My Dad fished a texas rigged craw in the same cover, I beat him 15-1. I hope they don't get rid of them.

Thanks, think I'll go drown myself in a snow bank now! >

Lucky for you the smallmouth haven't gone anywhere! The fishing is getting better every year. 8-)

Congrats!!!

Your surrounded by big fish! They must like you? When you migrate back north keep going and turn a little towards the Northeast and sit in the back of my boat!! Maybe you could attract some of those big bass towards my boat! ;D

My favorite jigs for smallmouth just because they are not expensive (you can buy lots of them and still afford other stuff) and they last pretty good are the Strike King Bitsy bugs and bleeding bitsy bugs in 1/4 oz and 3/8 oz. sizes.

Just a colorful fish eagles tried boarding my boat Which way did he go? Which way did he go George? a little cold? peek-a-boo Just another outing in Maine almost time I said I wanted to go bass fishing!! bully My pet Saw this guy standing on the bank, think I could of found him during deer season?........NOPE :' but someone else did!

I'm no pro but; my Father and I fish local tournaments and spring fishing is one of our best times of the year for placing in the money or winning. We usually target the largemouth because we have them pretty well figured out. We look for the warmest water on the lake (usually between 50-55 degrees, high forties works too), this is where pre-fishing helps. These warmer waters are usually found in smaller back coves or banks that have a flat leading into them. We have a good spring run off which brings the water levels up and it floods up into the shoreline submerging the brush along the banks. If you look at my avatar picture that is the brush that works for me. We look for banks that have the flooded brush, and target the banks that are about 2-4 feet of water at the edge of the brush. I like getting in fairly close and flip a 3/8 oz. flipping jig with a meaty looking trailer into the edges and into the pockets of the brush, most of my strikes come on the initial fall. When I say into the edges and the pockets I mean right in them. If the lure falls just a few inches short I will not get a bite. It has to land in it, and drop vertically straight down!! However, sometimes they don't strike so I let the jig just sit there "dead stick" for a good ten seconds or more, if no bite I wiggle it very slightly, if nothing I move on. I hardly ever get a strike on the retrieve, so I fish it where it lands. If I don't get bit I bring it in and flip about 6 to 8 inches further down from my previous flip, this doesn't seem far but you would be amazed at how many bass will hold together in this structure. I believe you have to hit them on the nose sometimes too! As far as smallies go we do pretty well throwing 6-8 foot crankbaits, suspending jerk baits, slow rolling spinnerbaits, and dragging tubs in about 8 foot of water along rocky flats and shorelines. However, this is Maine which is probably not like fishing in your neck of the woods so I hope it helps.

Maine Click on table headers to change the sort order. Click location link for more information. Species Weight Location Angler Date Photo Atlantic Salmon 28 lbs 1 oz Undisclosed Howard Clifford 10/9/1980 Black Crappie 3 lbs 4 oz Sibley Pond Wayne S. Morey Sr. 9/12/1986 Blueback Trout 4 lbs 4 oz Basin Pond Merton Wyman 1958 Brook Trout 9 lbs 0 oz Square Pond Mark Collins 5/15/1997 Brown Trout 23 lbs 5 oz Square Pond Robert Hodson 3/6/1996 Chain Pickerel 6 lbs 8 oz Androscoggin Lake Joseph Arsenault 2/11/1992 Cusk 33 lbs 4 oz Perkins Cove, Ogunquit Kenton Geer 10/11/2002 Fallfish 3 lbs 12 oz Sibley Pond Wayne S. Morey 9/12/1986 Lake Trout 31 lbs 8 oz Beech Hill Pond Hollis Grindle 1958 Landlocked Salmon 22 lbs 8 oz Sebago Lake Edward Balkely 1907 Largemouth Bass 11 lbs 10 oz Moose Pond Robert Kamp 1968 Muskellunge 26 lbs 8 oz Glazier Lake Allen Dufour 3/22/2001 Northern Pike 31 lbs 2 oz North Pond Lance Bolduc 3/1998 Smallmouth Bass 8 lbs 0 oz Thompson Lake George Dyer 1970 Splake 10 lbs 3 oz Mount Vernon Daniel R. Paquette 5/8/1993 Sunapee Trout 4 lbs 10 oz Lower South Branch Pond Wayne Dillon 6/1989 White Perch 4 lbs 10 oz Messalonskee Mrs. Earl Small 1959 Whitefish 7 lbs 8 oz Sebago Lake Neil Sullivan 1958 Yellow Perch 1 lbs 10 oz Worthley Pond Chad Mostats 8/1989

Count me in again! I thought that I missed out on the one for 2010! Glad to know that I didn't. Good luck to all.

Anybody have one of these on their boat with the I-Pilot feature? Been looking at it lately, thinking about replacing the Minn Kota I have now with this and converting my boat to a 24 volt system. Those of you that have one what do you think of them?

Thanks, Probably one you never heard of. It's not a "known" lake. Lets just put it this way; it's named appropriately.

Nice fish!! Geeez its January 23rd, I'm looking outside at a foot and a half of snow and about 14 inches of ice on the lakes and your talking about catching your first topwater fish! I'm going to go cry in my beer :'(

Cabin fever setting in and I'm thinking about fishing. I was looking back through some 2010 fishing pictures and came across one of my trips. It wasn't even a bass fishing trip, instead I went fishing for white perch for a fish fry. Ended up catch a nice batch of white perch and a nice fat and tasty sunfish. The most memorable part of the trip though was feeding the eagles. We we surrounded by about eight Bald eagles and we decided to feed them some of our smaller perch. So we would throw out the perch and try and time the camera shot to get them grabbing the fish, this is not an easy task!! These are two of the better pictures. It was just a fun day on the water. Sometimes it isn't about catching the fish. : the sunfish ATVing picture

If its anything like fishing here? I like throwing 6-8 foot diving cranks in about 8 foot of water. Make sure the crank is making contact with the bottom and try a nice steady slow retrieve, and when you bump a rock let the crank sit still for a second or so and then continue the retrieve. This has worked very well for me on smallmouth. Don't over look suspending and floating jerk baits and tubes. Be patient and use the lure enough to allow it to catch a fish. Don't throw it just a few times and think that the fish are not biting, they are.

WOW!! and yummmmm I want whats in the pan!

Great looking fish there Mike!! I've never targeted bass through the ice. Ice fishing is the only time that I become a salmon and trout fisherman, Hope I didn't say that too loud! :-?

If you want to please the ladies and have great fishing you better stay in southern Maine. If you wan't to get away from other tourist and boaters leave southern Maine and go Downeast or around the Bangor area, less traffic and great bass fishing.

I catch Maine bass all the time with the same lures that the pros use. I even catch them here with 10 inch berkley power worms, Lizards work fine too. I throw some funky looking plastics that look nothing like the natural food sources up here and still catch bass. They will work on a given day just not all the time!

We have got hammered with snow this past week.

Plenty of love for Maine, its just that most of us Maniacs are playing outside in the snow and don't get on here very often. That's a fine looking bass. Fished there a couple of times this year (2010) caught two nice five pounders there and a four. Fished two tournaments there this year too, but we flopped in the first one and got third in the second one. One of my friends caught one just under seven pounds in the first tournament and won that one with an 18 pound limit. Great fishery but it can be finicky. It's about a two hour drive for me so I only go there a few times a year.

X2, except I like the Rayburn red color. I like throwing it over the tops of submerged weed beds, letting it sink until it hits the tops of the weeds and then ripping it of the top and repeating over. Works great along ledges and rock piles too.