Mainebass1984

I am in. I will be fishing a bunch this weekend. Some beautiful fishing the next week or so. Lets see some fish !

I fished an afternoon tournament yesterday from 4-8 pm. The fishing was great. We went to our first spot and immediately started catching fish. After 30 minutes or so we had our limit but nothing big. We were fishing around weeds beds and the adjacent flats out from the weed beds casting jigs, worms, and frogs. We stayed in the same cove all evening. My partner caught one over 4 lbs. I caught 3 over 3 lbs. My partner finished off our limit with our 5th decent fish. There were some culling issues and the scale he had wasn't accurate at all but we weighed in 16.66 lbs for 5 fish and finished in 1st place. First tournament win of the year for me. Heck yeah.

I fish a lot of lakes that are very busy on the weekend. There is always a bunch of people loading and unloading. It was around noon and we were just getting to the lake. Most people were loading there boats, done fishing for the day. There was a very old couple loading there small boat. It took them nearly 20 minutes to load there boat. We were two trailers back in line waiting. After the older couple had just pulled out of the launch the guy in the next truck and trailer yells out of his window. " I will show them how its done. " He backs down his trailer first try, like a pro. His buddy drives his huge ranger with a 250 mph engine and dual power poles onto the trailer. The guy in the boat yells " Okay. Pull it up." The guy in the truck is pulling the boat into the parking lot as the entire boat slides off the trailer, with a guy still in it, right onto the pavement. It made a terrible scraping crunching sound. My friend and I couldn't stop laughing. They heard us laughing. We couldn't stop. Hopefully those guys learned there lesson.

I usually will approach the area I want to fish from downstream and cast my lure upstream working my lure with the current back to the boat. I am usually fishing with the current or at a very slight angle to the current.

Frog bite has been heating up. Night fishing has been very productive lately as well. Buzzbait.

Last week an outdoor journalist contacted me about writing an article on night fishing. Yesterday afternoon I met him at the launch at 4 pm and fished until a bit after midnight. The weather was not ideal. A massive cold front had moved through the day accompanied by heavy rain. The lake level had risen over a foot the past 3 days due to the rain. The water temperature had dropped from 82 to 74 degrees. The wind was blowing out of the north west 5-10 mph with gusts up to 20 mph. We had already made plans and were going to fish regardless.. The fishing during the day time was pretty good. We consistently catching fish. By nightfall we had caught over 30 fish but none over 3 lbs. We had caught a couple 2-12's and a few more over 2.5 lbs. It was pretty cold after dark. The fishing after dark was not as fast numbers wise but the fish we were catching were better sized fish. after dark I caught a 3-10, 3-4 and a 3-0 on a buzz bait. The action died off around midnight when it got really really cold. After another hour we called it a night. I caught 34 fish by the time we left and I would assume we caught well over 50 bass. The article will be in this sundays Burlington free press.

Fishing has slowed down a bit for me numbers wise. Still catching a few big fish every now and then. I have been having great luck right before dark and night fishing as well. The day time bite has been tough form 11-2. Catching them on jigs, rubber worms, buzzbaits, and frogs. In my opinion the fishing is still good. It is only going to get better as we get closer to fall.

I like river fishing and do a lot of it here in Maine and Vermont. I have very good luck fishing out of the current behind trees, rock piles, jetties or in eddies created by another river or brook coming in.

This past weekend I did some fishing with a good long time friend I hadn't seen in awhile. The plan was to fish as much as possible. We met Thursday evening to try a bit of night fishing. I usually don't have very good success when there is no moon. There was no moon Thursday night but we were going to try it any way. We started fishing around 830 and fished until 1130. It wasn't very windy but it was pitch black. My friend Aaron was fishing a frog and I chose to fish my usual night time arsenal, spinnerbait, chatterbait, and a buzzbait. The fishing wasn't exactly easy but we managed catch 8 bass before calling it a night. Biggest bass of the night was a 2 lb 15 oz. On Friday we got out on the water at 8 am. It was a pretty nice day temps were in the lower 80s with not a whole lot of wind. The water temperature was 80 degrees. The fishing was pretty slow for most of the day. Picking up a fish here and there. We hadn't caught much by 1 pm. While I ate my lunch I was deciding where to fish next and how to adjust my approach for the remainder of the day. After much though I decided that I would fish a deeper weed bed, my favorite sunken trees and a new spot I found that I like to call frog heaven or obvious reasons. It was time to motor. Once we arrived at the deeper weed bed I told my friend to cast out. He did and quickly caught a 2.5 lber. A few casts later I hook into a lunker on the very edge of the weeds. It instantly goes air born and I tell my friend to get the net. It is a big fish and head shaking. It ripped of some drag as I hoped it would come off. As the fish gets to the boat my friend quickly nets it. It is a very well built 6 lb 3 oz that I caught on a rubber worm. After such a slow morning it was nice to get that lunker in the boat. Over the next 30 min or so we caught several more nice bass but nothing of any size. It was time again to move to another spot, my favorite sunken trees. There is a series of sunken and submerged trees in this pond which I very much like to fish. We pull up to the first tree and it looks as good as ever. I tell my friend Aaron that I hadn't caught any fisf off of it this year. He asks me why we are fishing it. It was a simple answer : because I have caught giant bass here in the past. Aaron is fishing his beloved senko and I have chosen to fish a jig. The tree is a bit deeper in 12 feet of water. On my second or third cast I can feel the jig going through some very thick tree branches and I feel a tick. I set the hook on what feels like a good fish. It gets wrapped around the tree but I manage to get it free. It was a good fish weighing in at 5 lbs 0 oz. We continue to fish that tree and fish the rest of my favorite trees. We caught some fish on the other trees but nothing 3 lbs or bigger. It was tie to make a move. It was getting a bit later. It was about 6 pm or so and time to go to frog heaven. "Frog heaven" is an area where there is a very subtle unobvious channel with tons of thick lily pas as well as some mifoil around. I take my first cast with the frog and before I have the chance to even move it once a fish inhales it. My friend wasn't even able to cast and I had already had a fish on and in the boat a 4-11. After unhooking and weighing that fish I take another cast near where I had just caught that fish. The frog lands splat on the water and a fish makes a wake over to my frog and explodes on it before I could even twitch it. This fish weigh in at 4-10. My friend then catches a 3-4. We were catching fish nearly every cast at this spot, all on a frog. I ended up catching a 3-9 and a 3-0 before leaving the spot. My friend also caught another 3 lber before we left. We caught a lot of fish there before leaving once it was too dark to see. I ended up catching 14 largemouth and 4 smallmouth for the day. My friend Aaron caught 6 largemouth and 2 smallmouth. The next day we decided to fish an unpressured lake. It was a 500 ft walk down a goat path to get to the lake. It was a pain getting my boat and all my gear down to the lake. I couldn't have done it by myself. It was a bit windy 5-10 mph out of the west and 80 degrees. I had never fished this lake before so I had no spots already in mind. I could see some tree out on 15 ft of water though. We went over and fished them with no luck. There really wasn't anything else to fish on this pond except for weed. We caught some fish but nothing really good. I did manage to find a rock pile where I caught a 3 lb 3 oz on a rubber worm. We had been out there for 5 hours and my friend wasn't having much luck. He wanted to go somewhere else. after deciding on another pond for the veing bite we were motoring over to the launch. We had to go right by the deep trees. I told him we had to fish them before we left. The first two trees sucked. We caught nothing off of them. We pull up to the 3rd tree and I let my friend take a coupe casts with his beloved senko on the tree before I cast my jig onto it. I pull the jig up and over the submerged base of the tree and before it hits bottom my line jumps.I set the hook hard into a nice fish, weighed in at 5 lbs 0 oz. At that pond from 8 am til about 1 pm I caught 10 bass and my friend caught 2. After that fish we still decide to go to another pond. After stopping and getting a pizza we are at the next pond and unloaded within an hour after leaving the past pond. The wind is still blowing but we fished a few places out of the wind. The fishing was much faster then the last pond. We were catching a lot of 2-2 3/4 lb fish. It was fin fishing. My friend caught a 3-6 and I caught a 3-11 both fish from the same off shore flat. We fished until dark 30 but didn't get any lunkers We finished the evening with 19 bass in the boat in about 6 hours of fishing. It was a very fun and productive weekend of fishing. Hopefully everyone else had just as much luck.

Its got to be the jig for me. I most likely would have a rage craw trailer on for this time of year. Jigs win tournaments all across the country every month of the year. It consistently produces bigger then average fish.

I heard they were catching the smallies deep in 20-40 feet of water lately. Fish are in there summer patterns now.

Meeting a friend of mine from college to do some fishing this weekend. We will be night fishing tonight and then 2 12-14 hour days on fri and sat. Sunday morning to finish of the fishing weekend. Hopefully will catch a fish or two. Would really like to get into some big big bass.

I would never fish with that guy every again. I absolutely hate drinking and driving as well as littering. Drinking and driving is not only putting his life in danger, your life but also every one around you as well. It is just plain DUMB. He could kill someone and would have to live with that the rest of his live. I am not against drinking A COUPLE beers while out on the water fishing. Drinking responsibly is one thing and getting drunk is another. Each persons body digests alcohol differently and at different rates. As long as you stay within in the legal limit I don't see anything wrong in my opinion. If your going to be on the water for an entire day, 12-14 hours, have plenty of water and food, how many beers is too many ? 2 ? 4 ? 6 ? You got to know your limits and be a responsible adult... Getting drunk is not allowed in my boat. I cant see anything good about having a drunk person in the boat. Someone gets drunk in my boat and they will be left on shore until I am done fishing. I really hate littering. It is a mindless careless ignorant thing to do. That guy would have got a piece of my mind for sure. Either he would have trolled over and picked up his litter or he would have been swimming for it. Cigarette butts... man oh man seeing people toss them aside... Nothing will get me angry or in a hostile mood quicker. It is trash. It is littering. They do not decompose quickly. Fish and other wildlife will eat them and it is terrible for them. Don't be a lazy butt faced slob and dispose of your cigarettes butts in the trash. I would never fish with this guy ever again. He probably wouldn't want to fish with me either. I would speak my mind and he would know EXACTLY what I think of how he is acting.

I have had great success using a palomar knot when using mono and braid. Extremely rare to have a knot fail or get broken off and I like to fish the thickest nastiest weeds and trees. I hadn't been broken off this year at all until I started using fluorocarbon for a couple specific situations. Looks like I will be using a new knot for flouro. The Vanish is getting trashed. I am going to pick up some Seaguar.

I was most certainly getting more bites on 8 lb flouro then 12 lb. I can see bottom very clearly in 20 feet where I have been fishing. If there is any small advantage in transparency I am going to use it. As I mentioned before I almost always tie a palomar knot. I do thoroughly wet the line when using any knot. Is there a different knot I should be using ?

Conway Lake ? Why ever would you guys want to have a tourney there ? Surface temps will be at least around 80 degrees by the end of the day. Fish are in their summertime patterns. Bunch of 2-3 lb smallmouth. There are a few largemouth as well. Let us know how you do. I am very interested to find out how you guys do.

I do realize 8lb fluorocarbon is not ideal for heavy cover. Usually when I fish heavy cover I use 50 lb power pro. The particular place where I have been fishing it is in open water right on a drop that goes 8 to 30 feet. The problem is that along sections of this drop off there is very thick pond weed that grows up off bottom 10 feet. I always tie a palomar knot and moisten it before tightening it. I guess this leads into another question I ask myself. Should I cast into that heavy cover which is sometimes woody knowing that I may not be able to get the fish out but at the same time feeling as if the best chance of getting that bite is with the light line and fluorocarbon ? Or should I cast 12 lb mono knowing the chance of landing that fish is better then using 8 lb fluorocarbon ? I do have the utmost confidence if I hook that big fish with 50 lb braid that its coming in the boat even if I am breaking trees on the way to getting it in the boat. Another question. What is your favorite fluorocarbon brand ? I had been using Berkley vanish. I have been using this line for a month or so now. The number of bites I have been catching has dramatically increased over 12 lb mono fishing the same lure. I have caught some quality fish using it too, including a 5-0 and a 5-2, fishing in very thick weeds. I was liking the line very much until it was seemed like it was getting very very brittle. I lost 2 very large bass that broke the line after getting into heavy cover but it seemed to break way easier then it had been. I had been keeping the rod and reel in my truck. Does prolonged exposure to sunlight cause fluorocarbon to break down ?

That lake has an amazing amount of 2 - 4 lb largemouth. There are well over 40 mid lake humps in that lake. Some are rocky but most have weed growth on them. The ones with heavy weed growth seem to be better this year. Got to get away from shore this time of year.

How has that hudd been working out for you ? Have you been getting any big fish on it ?

I recently started using 8 lb fluorocarbon. At first I loved it. I was casting a bit further and getting plenty more bites then when I was using 12 lb mono. I also like how transparent fluorocarbon is in the water. The past couple times I have been I haven't been quite as impressed. I am not sure why but the line seems to be brittle. One little nick in the line and it breaks very easily. I would also say in my opinion so far it isn't the best idea to use it around heavy cover as I have had a couple big fish break me off n some very thick stuff. I was wondering what everyone's opinion is on fluorocarbon and there experience with it.

Lets stock every fish every angler wants every where they want them. Lets just forget about endangered species and let them all die out. Screw it, who cares. No harm can come from it. Its all a conspiracy anyways. Invasive species don't do any harm.

I love fishing pine trees. I have caught some huge fish off of them. I have caught some big big bass off of pine trees that had fallen in the water the day before, still had all of its needles. There isn't a whole lot of cedar trees where I live so I don't have the opportunity to fish them often. If I saw one though I would definitely fish it. I will fish any tree that's in the water. In my opinion cover is cover to a bass. The thicker the better.

Yup Good luck

When trying a new spot I always start by using the lures I have the most confidence in.

Where is the data that supports your claims ? As I have said several times invasive species impact the entire ecosystem and change everything forever. I find it humorous that people think they know how to manage fisheries better then the people that have spent many years in college obtaining a degree and have years of experience in the field. This is a common problem everywhere across the country. In my experience most people aren't educated on the subject or understand it fully. Under most cases I wouldn't point out the fact that I have BS in fisheries biology, a BS in Aquaculture, and years of experience working as a fisheries biologist in Illinois, Florida, Maine, Alaska, and Vermont. Saving endangered species or at the very least attempting to do so is something that we must do. We are responsible for almost eradicating an entire species. Everything must be done to preserve any endangered species population even if it isn't very popular with the public.