fmoore

This may help: Crayfish of the U.S.

Sounds like a great day Jay!!! Saturday at Spofford was snowy and freezing. I got 7, nothing over 3. This pic was at the end of the morning (11ish) after it had started raining. I should have taken a pic of the boat while it was still snowing hard! Everything was totally covered. This was from tonight. I fished from 2ish until 5. Boated maybe 8 or so more largemouth and spent maybe 45 mins trolling and caught 5 rainbows just for fun. Water's 46 in some parts of the lake now. I'm crossing my fingers that we can get up to 50 by this weekend. Then things will start to get interesting.

Budget is the big determining factor here. You can spend anywhere from under a hundred bucks on up to several thousand. You do get what you pay for. You want the best unit you can afford because it will make a huge difference. To answer some of your questions specifically, you can get into a unit that points to either side of the boat for 1K+ (not practical for a 12 ft boat). Google Lowrance Structure Scan or Humminbird Side Imaging if you want to read more about that. With a less expensive fish finder you'll be able to see straight down (check the section on "cone angles" in the link at the bottom of my post. All of these units will hold bottom in any depth water you'll encounter around here. You can see fish on these units. They'll appear in the shape of an arch or a kind of upside down U. The more money you spend and the more features the unit has the harder it will be to use. If all you want to be able to do is see the depth of the water and water temp you can get an inexpensive simple unit. If you want to fish for smallmouth on deep structure you're going to have to spend more. It's all about budget and what you want the unit to be able to do (or what kind of fishing you do/will do). Two major brands in the bass fishing world: Lowrance and Humminbird Here is the link I mentioned earlier. If you read through this whole thing it'll be a huge help.

That weekend would work better for me. If we go any farther from here than Stumpfield this weekend I'm not sure I'll be able to make it. Just too long of a drive for me. I have to be home fairly early.

They were hanging on a sharp dropoff in 8-12 feet of water. It was taking a solid 10+ second pause to get them to bite and several came up and took a look and went back down. Slight color change and/or smaller bait may have worked a bit better. Scent helped entice bites too. Water was 41

Nice fish Shane. Can't wait to get into the smallie action out here. Found some mindblowing structure (with fish on it) on Spofford yesterday afternoon with the side scan but I haven't fished it yet. I feel like a little kid waiting for Christmas. Caught 6 largemouth and a pickerel on the jerkbait again. I'm really starting to enjoy fishing it.

Temp might have something to do with it but if they don't live in the area in which you're setting the traps, the temp won't matter. Usually the best places to trap minnows are the tiny little ponds. I'd get a few traps and put them at a few different places and keep trying new ones until you find a good spot.

Spent 2 hours on Spofford Friday night and got 2 bass and 2 picks on the hard jerkbait. It just iced out Wednesday so I was happy with that. Got wrecked yesterday on the river. 8-4 tournament. I had 2 for around 4 pounds. Winning bag was somewhere around 13 I think. Only 3 boats had a limit and the next highest weight was around 8.75. Most of the setbacks are down in the mid/high 40s now and the falling water did not help any. Only 3 boats out of 13 had a limit I think. We need a solid week of stable warm weather for this spring to really get going. Heading out to Spofford here in a few.

The water's really stained and the stuff we were fishing was pretty much in 5 feet or less. The main river is significantly colder. I had a great time Jay. And we'll have to do some smallie hunting prespawn so we can get on some real giants! This explains why there were so many trees in the water

Just trying to get some discussion going. Good input guys

Jay, I think your PM inbox is full. I sent you an email via the site. Let me know if you don't get it.

Going off the thread about the mistakes that beginning anglers make, let's hear what you do or see other experienced fishermen do that puts them a notch above everyone else. We all know that one guy who seems to always cash a check. Why him? What makes him win more often? What do the most experienced, most successful anglers do that set them apart from the rest (not necessarily technique-wise)? I've noticed that most guys who win a lot are very deliberate. There is a reason for everything they do and all changes, moves, etc are very well thought out and deliberate. Their minds are always thinking about the why, never just accepting the fact that something is the way it is with no reasoning behind it.

It's the body of water that Rt 9 crosses just west of the Rt 9/I 89 intersection in Hopkinton.

Look up "Mako Magnet" and "Tuna Magnet". Saltwater fishermen have been using these kinds of things for years. 99% of them will tell you they can't prove it works but can't prove it doesn't work.

Still have a little ways to go here before ice out. Took the boat out Thursday after school to play with the new HDS. The ramp in Hinsdale isn't open and I didn't have the time to make the run down to the setbacks from West Chesterfield. Ran down to the Bratt Retreat Meadows and this is what I found (not surprising as there was a bob house here just 4 days earlier):

The problem with repowering is that when you go to sell, you'll never get that money back in the final sale price of the boat. You will have paid all this money for the new motor but the cost won't carry over when you go to sell it. I'll never repower with a new motor again. A well maintained used one, maybe. But never a new one. Just doesn't make financial sense.

Prop pitch is the distance the prop will move forward with one revolution if there were no slip (think a screw turning into wood). Going up one inch in pitch, you'll lose about 200 rpms. The smaller prop will give you better hole shot and lower top end while the larger prop will give you worse hole shot but better top end. You'll have to experiment with how big of a difference there is and which one you like better.

I agree with the Invizx. IMO Seaguar makes the best fluoro out there, but that's a different topic. The leader should not depend on the weight of the main line but the application it's being used for. A little more info would help.

That'll happen to some extent with any dyed braided line. To the OP, it sounds like something under the water was abrading your line. For some reason a lot of people think braid is very abrasion resistant when it is not. Because it is made up of many little strands, the strands can be broken one by one very easily. As was mentioned, check your guides as well.

If it's that stained, I'd look for clear water. If you can find clear water with a little bit of current, even better. The bass should be moving up and hungry.

You have to put tension on it when you're spooling up - the more the better. If it's spooled on loose it'll dig in.

I spent some time at Powdermill after the get together last year as I had a tourney there in October. It does fish tough, but there are some big smallmouth in there in addition to the largemouth. You gotta think outside the box in that place in terms of location. I'll leave the location of the 23rd up to you guys. Like I said, I'd love to go to Stumpfield but I'm fine with anywhere.

I'd love to fish Spofford Friday. I have a tourney there Sat the 30th so I'll need to do some prefishing anyway. Either of those two places are good for me Jay. I'd choose Stumpfield just because I've never been there but either way I'm in.

As long as coaches have to be on the boat with the kids there will be no real way to ensure that any of the coaches aren't giving their kids tips or pointers during the day. I'm a senior in high school and having been fishing tournaments for several years now, having anyone on the boat besides my partner would thoroughly bother me, although that rule obviously needs to be in place. Did he give them information during the tournament? Maybe, maybe not. But as it stands now they broke no rules. Take this one on the chin and go get 'em next year.

You guys saying not to use padding must be out of the loop. As Al said, putting padding under the carpet is becoming commonplace for all major manufacturers. I'd call a few of the manufacturers and ask what they use for their padding.