MaineBassMan

Nice fat bass!

Been out twice already only caught 4 though! Saturday: no go Todays catch: The pictures make it look calm out there but there were white caps. I'm not pulling on the fish the weight was already locked in!

About time our Governor did something right! This is the first time I have seen the lakes out this early here and we usually have to wait until April 1st to go fishing and the lakes don't open up until the 15th of April. Thanks to our Governor he signed into law that fishing season will start immediately. My father and I went out Saturday but it was only 26 degrees out and our rods were freezing up and we had 20mph winds so we got skunked and called it a day. Well we just got back from our second bass trip of the year. It was a balmy 34 degrees today with the same 20mph winds again, but this time we stuck with it. Long story short we caught 4 Smallmouth total. All were caught on grubs in about 13 foot of water. My dad caught the first one of the season but I ended up catching the biggest one a 2lbs 15oz, just shy of 3 lbs. My scale is dead nuts on too; I have a certified 5lbs weight that I check it with. Our total for the day was a 4 fish limit of 10lbs 10oz. not bad for our first time bass fishing in March. The surface temp was between 38 degrees and 41 degrees. He are the pics, it's only going to get better! We caught nothing under 2 pounds. Saturday: no go Todays catch: The pictures make it look calm out there but there were white caps. I'm not pulling on the fish the weight was already locked in!

Great looking smallies guys!! I would post mine but I already did in one of my threads. My biggest ones were at 4lbs 05oz. and My fishing partner (father) was right at 5lbs.

Crap! I should of stoped in the Northeast section first cause I just made a post like this in the General fishing thread. There is open water around the edges of some of the lakes I fish and the Ice is very dark.

My, sanity is at it's breaking point! but I took a little ride to a couple of my home lakes yesterday and I couldn't believe what I saw. The Ice is very dark and there was some open water showing around the edges I think we (Mainiacs, Mainers) are actually going to be able to go fishing April 1st, first day of legal open water fishing and I actually have that day off . I have only been able to put the boat in once on April 1st in my short life. The lakes here in my general area don't usually open up until around April 15th and later, so it looks like a little longer fishing season this year. I have seen many "what are you your strengths" threads and I would have to say that mine is ice out fishing. I have my best days of the whole season in the month of April and it carries through to the end of June. Then from July to the end of the season I get spurts of good days here and there. Don't get me wrong I still have awesome days but I find it harder to locate and catch them. I'm heading down to the Bass Pro shops in Mass. this weekend to buy all my fishing tackle. I'm sick of buying lures online and when they come in they don't look anything like I expected. Going down there I will be able to look everything over before I buy. My first tournament is on the 25th of April so it looks good as fare as being able to do a little pre-fishing. Well enough of my ramblings, don't worry my fellow ICE LOCKED BASS FISHERMEN, the season is almost upon us!!!

SHHHHHHHHH lets keep Downeast over looked!

Boy the net makes the world a small place!, I know you and I am a member of the Maine Blade runners. My father and I joined the club last season. Welcome to the site and hope to see you at Grand Falls Flowage in April! I like the tournament schedule this season couple of cool new lakes. By the way what happened to your fishing partner last season he disappeared half way through the season?

Well my pb small mouth is only 4lbs 5oz, but I have caught 4 of them at this weight, I just can't break that number. I caught two of them this last season within 20 minutes of each other on the rage craw and jig. Now I've caught lots of upper 3 pounders to 4lbs 3 oz. I just don't know why I can't beat 4lbs 5oz. My pb largemouth is 5lbs 14oz caught on a jig and craw. Now I've caught a lot of small 5 pounders and high end 4 pounders but I can't seem to break 5lbs 14oz. Oops guess I have to add more info: Guess I'll go with my most recent Smallmouth @4lbs 5oz> 3,500 acre lake, May 2009, 8 feer of water, Black 3/8oz jig with an bama craw colored rage craw I believe, at around 9:00am, overcast and 15mph winds, clear water. Largemouth 5lbs 14 oz in a river, April 2008 I believe, 1/4 0z green bitsy bug jig with a pumkenseed craw, 5 feet of water, 11:00 a.m tanic colored water. Flooded conditions, snow melt run off.

When our water temp is that cold I do good with a suspending jerk baits or an unpegged, texas rigged tube dragged slowly across the bottom.

Maybe your bass are more spooky but catching bedding bass in Maine is very simple. You throw anything into the bed and they will bite. Thats why during the spawning season the daily bag limit here is only 1 fish a day. You could put a real hurting on the fishery here if it was more. I personally think it should be catch and release only during the spawn, since there is no stocking program for bass here. I don't do it anymore but when I was a kid I caught this smallmouth that use to bed at the end of my grandfathers dock about a dozen times a day. That bass would bed in the same spot every year for several years in a row. Last time I caught him he weighed 4 1/2 lbs and then he never returned the following years. This was about 15 years ago. The largemouth here don't seem to be as protective as the smallies but they still bite pretty easilly.

This is the best advice and a good place to start BASS LIKE WATER!

I've had some of my best bass fishing while half of the lake was still frozen over. Actually almost got stuck in the lake because a big sheet of ice blocked the way to the landing.

Bass in lake

Beautiful lake there! That water is very clear, your lakes don't freeze over in the winters?

That sucks man! Whenever I take my boat to the mechanic everything comes out before hand!

We don't have any tackle stores in my area that sells anything good when it comes to bass tackle. The stores around here only supply the worm dunking/fly fishing trout and salmon fishermen and they don't have a clue on good bass tackle. So I do all of my shopping online. There are people around here that still consider bass a trash fish and they think that it doesn't take any skill to catch them. Then I've also been told that a 2lbs brook trout fights better than a 2lbs bass. ;D

Those are some great looking bass! I'm still trying to find a heavy enough jig to bust through the 14 inches of ice we have up here! :'(

I was at the docks just before weigh in at one of our small local tournaments a few years back. I think it was the first or second tournament my father and I had ever fished. I was taking the fish out of the live well and putting them into the tourney bag. We saved the biggest bass for last, and when I pulled him out he shook his head and I dropped him on the back deck. He flopped all over and I chased him like a fumbled football, but to no avail he ended up back in the lake and I think he would of been the lunker fish for the tournament. No one saw this happen so of course none of the other fisherman believed us. The lunker fish was worth around $400 dollars. This next one wasn't me but it was very comical still. My Father and I took my Grandmother (she was around 65 at the time) fishing. Long story short we were fishing in this cove that had some standing trees in about eight foot of water. We had just seen this huge snapping turtle right under the boat just as my Grandmother made this cast and got stuck in one of the trees. My dad and I were still looking at the snapping turtle in the water, as the boat drifted close enough to the tree, my Grandmother started to reach for the zara spook. She almost had when my father, (unintentionally) hit the trolling motor and with that we heard a loud "CA-SPLASH!!" We turned in time to see her enter the water, she went completely under, but just as fast as she entered the water she resurfaced and managed to re-enter the boat all in one sudden motion. I couldn't believe a woman of her age could move that fast. She said all she could think off was that snapping turtle and that scene in the movie JAWS where the girl is treading water and the shark takes her under, daaa dunt, daaa dunt, da dunt, da dunt, da dunt ;D!

My father's biggest smallmouth for the season was this 5 pound even. He caught it in a tourneymant too and It took lunker for the day. My biggest smallmouth was a pair that weighed 4 lbs 5 oz caught on the same day. Actually I just remembered that I caught three that weigh 4 lbs 5 oz My biggest largemouth was only 5lbs 2oz this season, weird fishing season. I actually caught two largies that weighed this much. They could of been twins. Caught a lot of nice 4 pounders though. The other 5 lbs 2 oz largemouth

Thanks, The only jealousy of the south I have is that your fishing seasons are longer, but I wouldn't trade that for our remote fisheries. There is something special about fishing in Maine, you wouldn't understand it until you tried it. The lake in the pictures is the most crowded lake I fish as far as house and camps go. I hardly see anyone else fishing there. The other lakes I fish might only have up to a dozen camps on the whole lake and very few boaters. That's why I'm a hunter too, fish all spring through to October then I grab the rifle and shotgun until Ice out.

If I do you'll see an article about a 28 year old man suddenly dies from a heart attack. I really don't think it will come from Maine either but it would be cool.

I understand your reasoning, but it only takes one.

Well they don't go dormant but you have to drill through 2 feet of Ice to get to them! ;D

I plan on trying out Cobbse, i hear good things about it, Its a long trip for me from Cutler so I would have to spend a weekend on it.