MaineBassMan

Went back out yesterday and on the very first cast caught a nice 4lbs 10oz LMB. Then I moved to another location and on the second cast caught a nice 5lbs 02oz LMB. I ended up catching 14 bass yesterday. My biggest 5 weighed bass totaled 16lbs 01 oz. I had to leave early because the wind was ridiculous, 20-24 with gust up to 30 mph. Here are the pictures of the two bass. I'm sorry the pictures didn't come out good, it was very windy and I was alone and the camera wouldn't focus. All bass were caught shallow and on the wacky worm. I forgot to mention that I believe that I had caught the Four pound bass last year and he only weigh 4lbs 01oz so he gained 9 oz. I know this because when I caught him last year I had unfortunately hooked him real bad and actually ripped one of his gills out on one end when I set the hook, not when removed it. The whole gill was hanging down and bleeding real bad. I almost took him home but instead I set him in the water revived him and he ripped out of my hands. I kind of felt bad because I thought he was a goner and I wasted him by not eating him. Well the four pound bass I caught yesterday had one of his gills hanging out and it was totally disconnected at one end and it was completely healed. It goes to show that they can survive some severe wounds. The 5 pound bass: The lucky first cast 4 pound bass: I tried to capture the wind but looks like I didn't. There were big white caps out there. I was in the lee when I took these, the wind was chasing me I couldn't get away from it. >

Awesome bass, nothing like a river smallie no matter what the size!

My dad, if it wasn't for him I may have never discovered this great sport.

Yep my thoughts exactly, thanks and I have lots of sick leave cough cough! ;D

Did you catch your LMB in tight to the bank? Your SMB, at least the bigger ones for me are not going to be as tight to the bank as the Largies. To be honest with you I catch my SMB on the same lures I use for LMB. I know some people say you need to downsize, but I don't. I catch them on 1/4oz., 3/8oz and 1/2oz foot ball jigs with craw trailers or chompers double tailed grubs. I've also used spinner baits, 10inch Berkly power worms and the new Rage Anaconda worms also 10inch, Berkly beast, Tubes, brushhogs, punch hogs, flappin hogs and cranks. When I target SMB I usually key into points or shorelines leading into points. I wear polarized glasses, so I can see bottom, and I'm looking for where I can see the bottom go from a light color to where it turns dark. Meaning the drop-off from where it goes from 5 feet to 8-10 feet fairly quick. I then cast whatever I'm fishing parallel to this change in depth and work it back using different lures and retrieves until I find a lure and action combination that works. I don't know if this makes any sense? but this is how I have been catching my smallies. I think you have seen my last couple of smallie post. Good luck and keep at it, you will finally find something that works. It took me awhile to figure out the early SMB bite, I didn't just go out and start catching them on the first outing. Well I did this season but that's because I put in many, many hours of fishing the last several years.

Cool!! sounds like you have a GREAT fishing partner in the making!! 8-)

Ya, and I always try to give them my best kiss,( I'm a gentleman, no tongue on the first date, ) hoping that they will come back for more, but they always take off as fast as they can never to be seen again. Maybe I need some breath mints! ;D I have the next two days off guess, where I'll be? Going to be real windy though 15-25mph with gust up to 30.

First bass over five pounds for this season. Caught it in 4.5 feet of water and the water temp. was 55.6 degrees. She was only 20 inches long but still weighed in a 5.31 pounds. She was a fatty and she fell for the old whack attack. She fought great too, pulled lots of drag and almost jerked the rod out of my hands. We caught about 12-15 bass in about 5 hours of fishing. Here are the pictures of her, don't worry she wasn't man handled too long and she darted off at high speed when I released her.

First bass over five pounds for this season. Caught it in 4.5 feet of water and the water temp. was 55.6 degrees. She was only 20 inches long but still weighed in a 5.31 pounds. She was a fatty and she fell for the old whack attack. She fought great too, pulled lots of drag and almost jerked the rod out of my hands. We caught about 12-15 bass in about 5 hours of fishing. Here are the pictures of her, don't worry she wasn't man handled too long and she darted off at high speed when I released her.

Quick trip before work today and caught my biggest for the season. It was only 20inches long. 5.31lbs / 11.10 state record = 0.47837 x 100 = 47.84

Thanks for the good lucks!, 11 bass is a little slow around these parts, not bragging just telling it like it is. Maine is a very over looked fishery, our bass are not as pressured as yours.

I like the tiger stripes on the two that you are holding in your avatar.

Thanks, My Great Uncle and I went back on the 20th and on his very first cast he caught this 4lbs even bass. He ended up taking the dollar that day, ($1 for biggest bass of the day), and we ended up catching 31 bass. Same thing again, all bass were in the high 2lbs range and a lot in the 3lbs range. Our five biggest bass on the 20th weighed in at 17lbs 10oz. Not as good as the 17th but still good to say the least. I would have taken more pictures but My Uncle can't operate a camera at all.

Only went out for 4 hours today because my Father and I have our first tournament tomorrow. We only caught 3 largemouth and 8 smallmouth slow day. My dad caught all of the smallmouth and one of the largemouth, he caught them all on a suspending jerk bait. I caught the other two largemouth using a 3/8oz green flipping jig with a green back orange bellied craw. My second largemouth was the biggest for the day weighing in at 4lbs 07oz. Water temp was 47.8 degrees and he was right up against the bank in 6 foot of water. Well, I'm washing up the truck and boat for tournament and then I have to get some sleep. 4lbs 07oz

My first largemouth entry and only my second largemouth for the season. 4.44lbs / state record 11.10lbs = 0.4 x 100 = 40

My best for 2009 so far: 4lbs 5oz

2008 Bass Tracker 190TX 90HP Mercury Optimax

I have posted these in the Northeast and Tournament/fishing trip topics, but I think I should of posted them here. So I'm sorry if you have viewed these already. To be honest I think this was the best smallmouth fishing day of my life so far and I'm still in a little bit of shock. I actually think that I lost my PERSONEL BEST smallmouth that day, He looked to be in the five pound range. Unfortunately my treble hooks popped right out of his mouth when I had him about a foot from the net :'( oh well right! My father and I went back to the place I fished on Wednesday and had an Unbelievable day of fishing. We caught exactly 40 smallmouth today and lost about 5 big ones. All of them were well over 2lbs and we caught 10 that were over 3lbs. We caught two 4 pounders. Our 5 biggest bass were: 4lbs .05oz, 4lbs 01oz, 3lbs 130z, 3lbs 11 oz and 3lbs 09oz for a total of 19lbs 07oz. This is one of our better days. Not bad for Our second trip of the season. I'm having a hard time on deciding whether to go back to that lake tomorrow or go an extra 30-40 minute drive further to this other lake that has the same quality of smallmouth but is a much larger lake. These bass caught me off guard. I usually do my best at this lake with tube baits and jigs. I fished those for about an hour with no bites. Then because of my nice polarized glasses I saw a big school of 6-8 inch smelts swim by, A SMALLMOUTHS FAVORITE SNACK, I didn't know this lake had smelts. It does have some very impressively sized crawdads and that's why I fish the tubes and jigs. When I saw these smelts I decided to match the hatch and the closest thing I could find was a Rapala suspending Husky jerk bait. I tied one on and on the fist cast caught a nice three pound smallie. I played with different presentations. The water was on average 45 degrees so I thought a few good jerks with long pauses would work best and I did catch a few this way. However, I soon found out I actually did better by using my polarized glasses in the mix. I would cast out and do a quick retrieve with lots of jerks keeping a watchful eye on by bait. When my bait got within 15 yards of the boat I started seeing schools of big smallies chasing and swiping at the bait. I would then pause the bait and watch 6-10 bass sit and observe my lure. Then I would give it a small twitch or two and one of the bass in the school would loose their nerve and hammer the lure. It was just amazing. Looking back at the action and if it continues on tomorrow I think I am actually going to try some top water. I caught about 5 bass when my lure was just barely under the surface and the bass came up from underneath in about eight foot of water. Here are the pictures, there may be some duplicates and we didn't take a picture of all the bass we caught we were too busy fighting the wind and catching bass.

Thanks for the replies and complements. I'm having a hard time on deciding whether to go back to that lake tomorrow or go an extra 30-40 minute drive further to this other lake that has the same quality of smallmouth but is a much larger lake. These bass caught me off guard. I usually do my best at this lake with tube baits and jigs. I fished those for about an hour with no bites. Then because of my nice polarized glasses I saw a big school of 6-8 inch smelts swim by, A SMALLMOUTHS FAVORITE SNACK, I didn't know this lake had smelts. It does have some very impressively sized crawdads and that's why I fish the tubes and jigs. When I saw these smelts I decided to match the hatch and the closest thing I could find was a Rapala suspending Husky jerk bait. I tied one on and on the fist cast caught a nice three pound smallie. I played with different presentations. The water was on average 45 degrees so I thought a few good jerks with long pauses would work best and I did catch a few this way. However, I soon found out I actually did better by using my polarized glasses in the mix. I would cast out and do a quick retrieve with lots of jerks keeping a watchful eye on by bait. When my bait got within 15 yard of the boat I started seeing schools of big smallies chasing and swiping at the bait. I would then pause the bait and watch 6-10 bass sit and observe my lure. Then I would give it a small twitch or two and one of the bass in the school would loose their nerve and hammer the lure. It was just amazing. Looking back at the action and if it continues on tomorrow I think I am actually going to try some top water. I caught about 5 bass when my lure was just barely under the surface and the bass came up from underneath in about eight foot of water.

It makes sense to me. A 5 pounder is nice anywhere you go but up here a 5 pounder is going to be older than a 5 pounder down there. I catch a lot of 3 pound bass each season, but I only catch about a dozen or so 4 pound bass and only 3-6 5 pound bass. I think I would have a heart attack if I ever caught a 10 pounder, do we have them? yes but a whole lots less of them compared to the southern or western states. The biggest bass I've seen caught was my Dad's 6lbs 10 oz largemouth. When a bass can grow just about if not all year long you are going to have a better chance of catching that huge hog, versus fishing where they only get to grow part of the year and pretty much go dormant throughout the winter only feeding when something comes near them.

I'm double posting because I don't know if you guys check out the other forum categories, so if you do I won't double post anymore. I went back to the same place that I went on Wednesday but this time my fishing pal/tournament partner, (My Dad), accompanied me this time. Long story sort we caught exactly 40 smallmouth all over 2lb 10 of which were over 3lbs and we caught two 4 pounders. Our biggest 5 bass were 4lbs 05oz., 4lbs 01oz, 3lbs 13oz, 3lbs 11oz and 3lbs 09oz for a total weight of 19lbs 07oz. This is starting out to be one of our best season and we are only two trips into it. 8-) Here are the pictures, there may be duplicates and we didn't take pictures of all of the bass we caught because we were fighting the wind and too busy catching bass.

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My father and I went back to the place I fished on Wednesday and had an Unbelievable day of fishing. We caught exactly 40 smallmouth today and lost about 5 big ones. All of them were well over 2lbs and we caught 10 that were over 3lbs. We caught two 4 pounders. Our 5 biggest bass were: 4lbs .05oz, 4lbs 01oz, 3lbs 130z, 3lbs 11 oz and 3lbs 09oz for a total of 19lbs 07oz. This is one of our better days. Not bad for Our second trip of the season. Here are the pictures, there may be some duplicates and we didn't take a picture of all the bass we caught we were too busy fighting the wind and catching bass.

My second smallmouth entry = 4.31lbs / 8lbs Maine state record = 0.53875 x 100= 53.88 Sorry Math was not matching your weights because I was doing pounds and ounces and you guys are recording in pounds.

I caught them 5 - 8 feet of water. I actually saw some of them cruising along the bottom. I caught the biggest one using a One-Two punch, I cast the jerk bait out and retrieved it real fast giving it lots of action. I saw the big bass chasing it so I set my rod down and threw a 3/8 oz. jig with a chompers twin tail grub trailer at him and I watched him hit it on the fall.