fmoore

Looks like everyone's been slaying lately. Awesome guys! After a morning of cleaning the boats I hit Spofford Lake for the afternoon. I didn't get any pics because I was alone and I didn't want to take the time to set the camera up but I ended up with 11 smallies to 4 pounds 3 oz and 12 largemouth to 3 pounds 9 oz. I tried to leave the fish on the beds alone but all the big smallies were on beds. I caught multiple smallmouth over 3 and 2 over 4 off of beds. They absolutely annihilate Yamamoto Fat Baby Craws Caught one pike on the craw, too. That was weird :-?

Water temp was between 59.7 and 60.4. There's so much cover there, yet the pond's so barren at the same time. I saw 8 or 10 empty beds all in the same place and two bass doing their thing on top of a stump...? :-? That was a little odd, but I definitely saw correctly, trust me! I really want to get back there, but it seems to be a confusing place. I just hope I can find some weeds in there at some point. That would clear things right up. I hope. One thing I did like in there was the excellent perch population. Bass candy! I think the old stream channel may play a key role in finding fish there......

Went to Child's Bog for the first time tonight. Ended up with 4 bass, biggest going about 2.5 plus some picks and perch. I was a little overwhelmed fishing it. Everything looks so good and there are literally hundreds of stumps everywhere. I think what really tripped me up though was the lack of vegetation. Seems like even in the summer there's not much in the way of vegetation in there. It was just a little hard for me to put the pieces together tonight... Anyone know more about the place? I'd really appreciate some info if anyone has fished it.

I can only cast with my right hand, but I can reel with either just fine. For slow presentations like fishing a jig or drop shot, etc, though, I need my dominant (right) hand on the rod to be able to work the bait/feel bites.

Thanks UNH...I put my time in, I work hard at it and I'm getting better. It's a good feeling. Boat's been down for a week with a gearcase oil leak. I had to wait for the part to get here. Felt good to get back out. Good luck to all of you going to the get together tomorrow.

Got out on Spofford Lake today and I got 5 largemouth and 4 smallies while my friend caught 1 smallie plus a stocky pike. I guess I can't say the bite was tough but it was a little off. Lots of small fish. The bigger bass were on the edges of flats in water temps of ~58.

As far as I'm concerned a heavy fluoro leader is better for pike fishing than mono. If you must go with wire, though, the AFW stuff is good.

Thanks guys! nhbassin - the tourney was on Spofford Lake. Jaystraw...big healthy largemouth - nice! Good fish everyone. It was a little too hot for me today, but I'd say all in all it was a great weekend to be on the water no matter what. I went back to Spofford today (it's my home lake) and caught another 14, mostly dinks, but added this 4 pound 13 oz fat girl plus a pick and a pike. It won't let me post a bigger pic because of the size limit thing...

We caught all the fish in less than 6 feet of water. The smallies were caught on a flat in about 5 fow near a weed bed/drop off (I think they're beginning to move up to spawn) and 5 largemouth over 3 came off 1 rockpile in 6 fow. It was catch 1, come back in 10, catch another type deal. We got another maybe half dozen largemouth off docks and in the channel running through a 2 foot deep flat in an isolated cove. They were very finicky though. No downed trees or any heavy cover of that nature in this lake so it made the day a bit more difficult. I caught all the largemouth but 1 for the day and my partner caught the two smallies. He wasn't pulling his weight! lol

No offence taken. I've since opened the gaps of the hooks and I'm having no problem with hookups now!

Green Pumpkin for sure. At least in my neck of the woods.

Nice Sausage. Lots of fun when you get into fast action trout. Fished a tourney today...ended up with our limit of 4 for 17.52 pounds. A 4.81 smallie and a 4.56 largemouth were our big fish for the day. We ended up taking first and lunker. I don't have a pic of the fish yet but I'll post up when I do. Tough day though. No fish between about 8:30 and 2:30. We were lucky to get right on them in the morning.

Bilge pumps aren't a good idea for a livewell. They are not designed to run for long periods of time as real livewell pumps are. Not a big deal - it will just wear the pump out a little faster. If I were you I'd be leaning towards using the bilge pumps to fill the cooler, then using an aeration system to get the fish oxygen. Every so often you can replace the water in the cooler with the bilge pumps.

I would highly recommend the SX. I absolutely love the reel. I would have more than one if it weren't for Tackle Warehouse selling the 2009 Premiers for so cheap. When they have sales the Premiers are a great deal there. But I would have no reservations about buying an SX.

I don't know about the algaecide, but I do know that a bad algal bloom can cause fish kills. Simply put, what happens is when the alga die they begin to decay which uses up the DO in the water, leaving none for the fish. This is in a very bad case, of course. Hopefully you get some more responses....

I've been catching both smallies and largemouth on a Zara Spook in S NH as of late

Thanks guys! I fish out of a 1989 16 foot Deep V Tracker. Not my first choice, but my dad bought it new so it costs next to nothing (for me anyway). And as to the pike, my tourney partner's 8 year old son just caught an 11 pound 3 oz...2 oz bigger than mine. Looks like I gotta get a bigger one

Started out at the CT River around noon today. Missed a few fish, caught a couple pics and a smallie which was in 4 feet of water a 1/2 mile back in a setback :-/ All bites came on jigs Picked up and went to a lake a little closer to home around 4ish. Ended up with 6 smallies and 2 largemouth there. All but two smallmouth came on a Zara Spook! Can't beat the topwater bite.

Spent a few hours on the CT River this afternoon. It was a dinkfest, but lots of fun. Two over 3 pounds, three or four over 2, with 13 total. All on wood in 2-4 feet of water on a 1/4 oz Bitsy Bug. Lost/missed at least a half dozen fish. Gotta stop that!

On the CT River in Hinsdale. The fish have just about fully moved off the shallow wood and are hanging in a little bit deeper water now. It's been a slow transition since early last week. Can't beat those fast action trips Jay! Nice!

Nice fish Shane! I fished for about 2 hours tonight after the wind died down and ended up with two fish - one just over 4

Maybe check out http://www.fishswami.com/ I've never used it, but it seems like a good system.

x2 All you need is a hose clamp. This method works perfectly.

I'm in!

A lot of my spinnerbait fishing is done around downed trees. Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between a branch and a fish. I just keep reeling to determine if it's a fish or not. If it is, I'll just give a long sweep to the side with the rod. Point is, not much hookset is needed when spinnerbait fishing. Just keep reeling and sweep the rod to the side.