MaineBassMan

You will be fishing in my neck of the woods. July bass around here can be tempermental and others times you just can't do anything wrong. I would suggest fishing wacky worms if the bite is a little off. You should have some suspending jerk baits, top water lures both hard and soft like horny toads, tubes, drop shotting rigs, lip less cranks, senkos, jigs and 3/8 oz spinner baits. In the morning or depending on weather I would fish the flats any where from 3-10 ft for cruising feeding bass. I would try top water, jerk baits and spinner baits here or a tube with a fairly fast retrieve with lots of action. If they ain't there I would look for submerged rock piles in deeper water, keep an eye out for bait fish on your fish finder. If you can find a good white perch hole you can usually find big smallies there feeding on the younger perch. I would fish the tubes, drop shot, jigs and lip less cranks here. Remember don't just cast and reel the lip less cranks or spinner baits give them some action and very your retrieve speeds. I find that the better fishing this time of year is in the evening when the temp starts to cool. The bass will start feeding agian and they love top water and spinner baits churned along the surface. You will see them jumping 3-5 feet out of the water after dragon flies. Have fun and good luck!! Post your results. Like mentioned above don't be a hot rod if you don't know the lake you will regret it when you tear off your lower unit. A couple of guys from South Carolina were putting a really nice boat (Triton with a 225 mercury) in my home lake and being the nice guy that I am I tried to warn them about our shallow rocky lakes. I think they had a problem with northern guys cause they didn't seem too friendly. Long story short I'm out fishing later in the day and they go flying by and I'm thinking oh crap because they are heading for a submerged rock pile. Guess how this ends? yep busted their lower unit, and I ended up towing them back to the landing. No matter where you take your fishing trip either north, south or out west listen to the locals it can save you a lot of headache.

I fish a lake where 90% of the Smallmouth I catch are by sight fishing and this is not only during the spawn. It depends on the water and the bottom make up of the lake on what color the beds are. Most of the lakes that I fish the beds are white in color, but this lake where I do most of my sight fishing the beds are dark almost black in color. On a flat calm day with a good set of Polarized glasses I have seen smallmouth as deep as 10ft. I don't actually look for the bass, instead I look for movement and the shadow cast by the bass. The bass in this lake average in the 3 pound range. As far as lures, try them all nothing is written in stone. For the most part when they are just cruising around I have done my best on a slow falling jig with a craw trailer, suspending jerk bait or a wacky worm. They are very skittish though because they can also see you. I usually watch their direction of travel and then lead them like a duck and cast about 20 yards in front of them. Depending on their mood I have had them take off like a bolt of lighting and slam my bait, and other times they will approach the bait and watch it. When they do this I keep the bait as still as possible and then wiggle my rod tip every so slightly and that little movement will usually trigger a bite. Some bass just won't bite. Beds in deeper water are hard to see so I usually keep and eye out for large rocks or logs laying on the bottom. Around here they will usually tuck their beds up against this type of structure. If they are bedding it really doesn't seem to matter what lure to use because they are very protective of the bed. The only problem I run into is that they will gently pick up the lure without taking the hook swim a few yards and then drop the lure. When they do this I usually down size my baits and hooks. If you can find a good sight fishing lake you will have a blast. Their is nothing like watching seeing the fish take your lure!! I use two different colors of polarized glass: Amber for sunny days and Yellow for overcast days.

Still waiting for open water!! WTRDOG is that boat of yours a Bass Tracker 190 TX? If so I have the same boat. I love mine how about you?

Awesome bass!!, the bass is almost bigger than Gavin! way to go!!

Of course you can, my friend and I fish even when there is still ice. He caught this one and half the lake was still frozen over. We just barely got the boat in the water and we were catching them right against the Ice in about 6 foot of water. We caught eight this day but this is the only picture I have of Ice and a bass in the same scene just for proof. Black magnum flipping tube Texas rigged with a 3/8oz bullet weight. Pretty much dead sticking and just barely dragging it along, About 5-10min retrieve to every cast. I believe the water temp was around 38 degrees. Actually, I found a few more , funny my friend didn't take any pictures of me with my bass.

This is the only 09 fish that I have a picture of. Landlocked salmon only 18 inches and skinny. It was a cold day believe it or not caught him just minutes before picture and was already solid.

Looks like a good time was had by all.

I'm not saying that he isn't a legend, and yes I have learned some techniques from him and he is a great ambassador for the sport. I just would like to see him fish more "real" bodies of water. Just about anyone can catch huge fish if that is pretty much the only thing swimming in the water. I would rather watch Bill over Charlie any day of the week. I've noticed it seems like he has switched to salt water fishing too. Does he still have a bass fishing show? Summary: Bill Dance is a legend. Look at his tournament history. Bill is TEACHING, not trying to impress anyone. In order to teach, he must CATCH fish. If he didn't catch fish, people would ask, "why should I do that, Bill didn't catch anything doing it. That is what Bill's show is all about. OK, I'm finished. Once again I didn't say he wasn't a legend. Why can't he teach on a Real body of water, maybe he should teach that bass come in more sizes than XXXXX large. To me it"s like watching one of those lure ads where they are fishing in a fish tank full of very hungry bass going "look how many bass bit my lure on one cast". I see KVD on TV teaching certain techniques and we all know he is a legend too, and yet he catches everything from dinks to hogs. Guess what? I pay attention cause its real fishing. "If he didn't catch fish, people would ask, "why should I do that, Bill didn't catch anything doing it." Then you have people like me saying Why should I do That? Bills fishing in a private pond, not on a real lake. OK, I'm done stirring the pot.

A guy I know went ice fishing just recently(Maine), and there was still 24 inches of ice. :'(

I'm not saying that he isn't a legend, and yes I have learned some techniques from him and he is a great ambassador for the sport. I just would like to see him fish more "real" bodies of water. Just about anyone can catch huge fish if that is pretty much the only thing swimming in the water. I would rather watch Bill over Charlie any day of the week. I've noticed it seems like he has switched to salt water fishing too. Does he still have a bass fishing show?

I never under stood the big thing with Bill Dance, other than he is clumsy. I don't think that I've seen him fishing on a real lake. He looks to be mostly on private lake's and ponds that are inhabited with only huge bass. Lots of talent there!

I agree with fish!

I believe, that's why I wear a steel chastity belt that is extra thick on the back side, If you know what I mean , whenever I'm out hunting or fishing!!

Cool, must be nice to spend time with the pros. I like him too, he seems to be a real down to earth type of guy.

12 Days 15 hours and 23 minutes to go for first outing!! Reels all cleaned up and new line put on. I've got a feeling that I won't be able to launch the boat though, cause the road into the landing is still snowed in. I'm going to laugh when I snow-shoe in 2 miles carrying a 60lbs fishing bag, rod, camera, tripod and hip boots and find out that there is still ice on the water ;D. If there is open water I Should be in the fish. The last 3 springs that I have gone into this place the largemouth are stacked up like cord wood and they are willing to bite.

12 Days 15 hours and 25 minutes to go!! Reels all cleaned up and new line put on.

I didn't know there was such a thing!!? I only have 4 rods but I have 2 full tackle bags, and those clear plastic boxes full of lures in every compartment of the boat. Funny thing is I only use primarily Jigs with various trailers, 10"worms, swim baits and creature baits. I have a whole bunch of other lures that I haven't even tried yet because the above mentioned lures usually work for me.

So is the last one the 4 pounder ;D?, Sounds like you had a nice day.

Nice bass!!

That sucks!!, It's kind of like a few years ago my dad and I were fishing our favorite lake and he hooked into a nice smallmouth that was just under 5lbs,(4lbs 14oz), we took a picture and then released it. The next day we were fishing in the same area and some guy caught the same bass and didn't release it. That isn't what really ticked me off. What ticked me off is that he tied it to the side of his dock, and pretty much said he had no intention of eating it, just wanted to show it off. By the way there was a snapping turtle there helping himself to a nice fish lunch :'(. It takes awhile to grow a bass that big up here and to totally waste it like that sends me through the roof. Then there was another guy that was friends with my great grandfather and he fished a local lake that averages smallmouth in the 3 pound range and 4 pounders are not uncommon. This guy is primarily a trout fisherman but decided to go bass fishing. So he shows up to my Great Grandfathers showing off his stringer of 3 and 4 pound smallies. He leaves and then the next day I take a walk up the road and come across his stringer of bass in the woods with flies helping themselves to whole bass that hadn't been filleted. > I do believe that he had more than his limit, I was young then but if it was now the Wardens would be knocking on his door.

I can't stand him. He can't fish but yet he claims he can, I only see him catching dinks too. I try watchig his show but can't manage to leave it on. We get one New England fishing show and get stuck with Charlie Moore, no wonder why all the southern guys think we only have dink bass! :

13 days left to go

I can't think of any resorts off the top of my head. A good tent is all you need.

It's hard, and I blow a lot of money buying tackle through the winter months. I hunt all winter so it kind of helps take your mind off from the fishing, but it makes you enjoy it that much more when starts back up.

Awesome, I still have to Wait 14 more days! > My favorite time of the season is Ice out, for some reason I slay the largemouth even when there is still Ice floating around the lake. My first tourney is April 25th. Last year it was on the same date and it was freaking balmy out, 25 Degrees, but the fishing was great. The lake had ice on it the weekend before.