MaineBassMan

Don't know yet? Just got mine installed and I'm now waiting for the ice to go out. I stumbled onto off shore bass fishing using my old electronics and was pretty darn successful so I can't wait to try this better technology. I'm actually going to learn how to use it and apply it! There are a few fisherman in my club that have them and I ask how they work and they say "Don't know how to use it yet" I can't imagine spending that kind of money and not using the technology!

Just waiting on the ice to melt. One of the lakes I fish only has eight inches of ice so it won't be long. Just got two new fish finders put in humming bird SI/DI combos can't wait to use them.

Another monster! You are making me go crazy in anticipating that first bite of the season! Those big ole Lobstahs work great up here in Maine too.

Send that warm weather my way! If our weather keeps up I should be able to land a bass in the boat by the end of March or no later than April 10th which is early for up here. Just need the ice to melt

What he said^^^

Wow!! what an awesome smallmouth you have there! I've caught 19 lbs 5 fish bag limits of smallmouth before but there wasn't any 6 pounders in that bag LOL. Oh one of these days, one of these days may the fishing gods shine down on me and bless me with a 6 pound smallmouth! Way to go man!

Welcome to the forum! I would go out as soon as you legally can. My favorite time to go for smallmouth bass is as soon as the ice goes out all the way to the end of June actually I chang my mind its pretty darn good all the way until the water freezes back up, lol. With the easy winter here, I have a feeling our ice will go out mid to late March which is really early for around here. My early season lures of choice are suspending jerk baits. You will have to vary your pause lengths between sweeps until you find what presentation they like. Sometimes I jerk the bait in real fast keeping a watchful eye out for any trailing bass. Once I spot them I will pause the bait and see what it takes to entice a strike, sometimes just the pause is all it takes. Other times I throw it out and just make slow steady sweeps of the rod, not a jerking motion, and then I will let the bait just sit there for 10-20 seconds. Most of the time when you go to make the next sweep you will feel the rod load up with a strike. My next favorite early season lure is an 8-9 foot diving crank bait. The key with this is to make sure that you fish it shallow enough for it to make contact with the bottom. If you can't feel the bottom move in a little shallower until you do. For the retrieve I cast as far as I can and then I crank as slow as I can and still be able to keep contact with the bottom. A lot of times you will feel the crank bait knock a rock or piece of wood and that will trigger the strike nine times out of ten. My other favorite early season lure is a Texas rigged tube bait with a heavy bullet weight, heavy enough to keep it on bottom. I like to make long cast in 8-15 foot of water parallel to the shore. You will have to vary depths until you locate them. Then all I do is drag it a slowly as I can. I only move my rod tip about 6-8 inches then I pause and drag it another 6-8 inches. This takes a bit of patience but usually pays off pretty good. As May rolls around and the water warms up a bit I like throwing white or chartreuse spinner baits. With these just vary your retrieve speeds and depths that you bring it through, smallies can’t resist. After the spawn and the water gets very warm they tend to move out into deeper water. Good luck and keep us posted.

You buy online and you can print it at home on your printer, very easy to do. Just remember to sign the printed license

Our lakes are so frozen over right now that you can drive your pickup truck on them. You won't see any fishing stories from me until the end of March or sometime in April all depends on when the ice goes out? I'M READY TO START THOUGH!!!!!!!!!

I live in "Downeast" Maine, Washington county. I have two main rivers and about a dozen lakes within one hour of my house that are just over flowing with bass, lol. Just make sure when you come here that you purchase a Maine non-resident fishing license, our Warden service doesn't mess around and they love to ruin someone's day. You can purchase one online here http://www.maine.gov/ifw/ this is the quickest and easiest way. Hope you have a great trip. Oh don't over think it, pretty much any body of water in Maine that has bass listed in them will most likely be a good fishery, some produce numbers and some produce size!

You going to hire a guide? Do you have a boat or are you going to fish from the banks? Kennebec River has good striper fishing and bass fishing. Penobscot river has excellent smallmouth fishing 50-100 fish days are not uncommon. Downeast Maine has a lot of great smallmouth and largemouth waters that recieve very little fishing pressure. May is a great month for bass fishing lots of fat, hungry bass feeding up before the spawn. You can go here: http://www.another site.org/bassfish/reports/maine/ and read up on some past fishing reports and get a little bit of an idea of where to go.If the link doesn't work just type in maine bass fishing reports in you web browser search.

Depends on the fisherman. 90 % of my larger fish come as soon as the Ice goes out all the way to mid June then it slows a little and then I start catching them again end of August through the end of October. However I still catch the bigger ones when it slows down just not as often.

They are here though! Been caught in our tournaments, and I have caught them.

I'm with RoadWarrior with this one. I hardly ever down size for smallies. I usually throw 1/2 oz. and 3/4 oz. spinnerbaits. I use the same tackle that I use for Largies on smallies, just because their called smallmouth doesn't mean that they can't eat big bait. I caught a 3 pound smallies that had big fat 9 inch Alewife stuck in his throat. They just slowly work it down their digestive system.

ICU812 you still breathing? Are you even a Mainer anymore? Thought you said something about moving? Never did get that fishing trip in motion.

He is just a mortal man after all!!! Way to go!

WoW!! way to go man!! I have about another month and a half before I can wet a line. Not allowed to fish rivers, brooks or streams until April 1st. The lakes are still hard but the way this winter has been going so far we might have ice out some time in March!! Usually doesn't go out until April 20th. So I've been cleaning rods and reels and blowing money on new tackle in the mean time. You had and awesome day on the water!

Great Job!! The hard part is over now, once you break the ice more 5 plus pounders start comming a little more regular. There was a time when four pounders were a myth to me and then I caught one after that I caught 10 more that season. Then one day I broke the 5 pound barrier and I caught two more that season and have caught about 3-5 every season since. Then one day I broke 6 pounds.........I haven't been able to that since! These were largemouth. I'm still looking to break the 5 pound barrier on smallmouths, I've caught a whole bunch 4 -4lbs 6 oz.smallies but haven't been able to hook and keep a 5 on yet!! but someday..... Congrats once again and post all the new ones to follow!

Nicely done! Thats a pig!

This should be enough, lol. This was a pretty bass thread and not your largest right? My father A friends biggest at 5lbs 08 oz

It is kinda of funny but it is hard to find one of those pretty smally pics when you want to. Every lake I fish the smallies have a little different pattern of colors some are really tattooed up and others are not it also seems that the early spring bass have the more brillant markings too! Here is a live well full of tourney smallmouths and you can see a difference between fish on the same body of water.

Wow!! Is all that I can say. It was a balmy 15 degrees today! I've got to wait a few more months before I can wet a line again.

Might not be prettiest coloring and might be funny looking as far as belly to length but I've never seen a 5 pound smallmouth that I thought was ugly!

That was a great video! This past summer I stumbled onto this technique while white perch fishing. It opened my eyes and it was a lot of fun. I applied this in a bass tournament on the same lake and ended up with a third place finish. Just a side note though, for those of you on a budget you don't need the latest and greatest fish finder to use this technique, however it does help! I have an older lowrance fish finder and by turning up the ping speed I was able to get the same results and my transducer is mounted on the back of the boat. With that said I will be up grading my electronics this winter. I plan on getting one like in the video for mid-ship and another one to mount to my trolling motor in the bow, probably one with down imaging. This is a very cool way of fishing!!! Thanks for the video!!

Do you realize how hard it is to get a bunch of Mainers organized to meet together? It would have been cool maybe some of us will actually bump into each other on accident. We Maine bass fishermen and Fisherwomen need to stick together if you ever go to some of these meetings the so called lake associations don't like us very much and are doing everything they can to shut our bass tournaments down and prevent us from bass fishing. I'm sick and tired of paying for a fishing license just to have the state spend it on all of the cold water species and then turn their backs on us bass fishermen!!!