Mainebass1984

You got a 12.5 and didn't take a picture ? I would have taken a dozen pictures, weighed her several times, measured the length and girth before releasing her back. I would be ecstatic to catch such a fish. It would be a state record in every New England state except for Mass.

I wonder if anyone on here has caught (and weighed) a 10 lber in New England ? Some pictures of 10 lb plus New England bass would be awesome. I know a few guys have got 9s.

A 9-4 was caught a couple weeks ago in the southern area of the state. It was 24" long with a 20" girth.

Well done. Nice fish.

It gets a lot of pressure at times. That lake can completely shut off even when there isn't any other boats fishing it. It is tough sometimes to get bites. You can fish hours with no bites and then get 3 5s in 3 casts. It is a grind it out lake most of the time. This weekend there is an open out there. I wont be fishing it. Check out the weigh in.

Lower Bay and Upper Bay are my go to areas. I have got lunkers in both areas. There are giants in there. A 5 lber is a good one. I saw a 9lb 9 oz largemouth weighed in a tourney in 1998. My friend weighed in a 8.01 around 5 years ago in a tournament. My personal best came from here. I know of two verified officially weighed fish over 10 lbs from here. It can be super tough place to fish but there are giants in there.

Keep going out there ! I was at Kezar Lake yesterday fishing around upper bay. It was a deep bite. My friend and I caught almost all of our fish on drop shots in deeper water. I did get 3 smallies on a big zara spook first thing in the morning, biggest was 2-13. We fished 630 until 3 and caught 24 bass mostly smallies. If you were fishing in less then 15 ft of water you weren't catching fish.

You chose a great week to fish. I am sure the fishing will be great then. I purposely take a week off in October every year for the fall bite. You should have no problem catching a ton of 2-3 lbers. Topwater action on winne is incredible.

This is my favorite lake to fish. I used to live on the lake and grew up in the area. I have fished it many many times and done plenty of tournaments there. In my opinion it is the best place for big bass in the state of Maine. The area you will be fishing isn't a bad area. I've done really well and caught some lunkers in the north end. If you want smallies I would fish a topwater popper or a spook in 25 ft of water out form the northern shore. There are some largemouth in that section of the lake to. The mouth of the biggest river has some weeds around either side of it. Other then that, there isn't much for weeds I that area of the lake. Id fish a jig, casting to cover and structure. I will be out there all day Sunday.

Bass season doesn't start for me until the ice melts..... Since April I have caught 576 largemouth bass on 41 outings, 21 % have been larger then 3 lbs. I usually target bigger fish so my numbers do suffer a bit. Biggest so far is 7-10. Last year ended with 952 largemouth bass, 18 % over 3 lbs. Going to try and break the 1000 marker like in years past. Our season is limited by ice. Most years I can fish from April - Nov. I really don't target smallmouth very much but so far have caught. Ive caught 59 smallmouth, 20 over 3 lbs. Biggest so far is 4-12.

I have never seen that before. That's pretty crazy. Are you sure it was a goose ? I thought that geese don't dive ? It was my understand that they are waddlers not divers ? Either way, that is pretty crazy they swallowed your bait. Unfortunate for the bird. Guess you never know what youll see on the water.

Keep on fishing a yamamato senko weightless on light line and its only a matter of time before you get bit

Almost all ponds in the area have bass. The less pressured ones can be pretty good.

Otter ponds

I have several of the sunfish. It walks incredibly well. I bend the hooks up a bit for better hook ups. It doesn't cast as well as a frog though. I also have several of the live target field mouse. They get a ton of hits and walk well also. Dynamite at night.

The frog bite was on fire this past weekend. Water temps were n the low to mid 70s where I was. The lily pads and other emergent vegetation has really started to come in thick. I noticed some fish blowing up real shallow this past weekend. I could see they were corralling large schools of fry and bowing up on them. they were shallow. Really shallow. Sometimes in foot of water or less. I could see fish making wakes as they moved around super shallow. I thought they were pickerel or small bass. It didn't take long to figure out that they weren't. After I cast a frog in the vicinity of the blowups I was catching fish on nearly ever cast. they were averaging around 3 lbs. It was very fun and the first real frog bite I have had this year. On Friday I caught 25 bass, 6 between 3-4, 1 between 4 and 5 ( 4 lbs 14 oz) and 1 5 lber. Another 6 fish were between 2 lbs 13 oz and 3 lbs. On sat and sun I experienced a similar frog bite on 2 different bodies of water. The frog bite is ON. HAs anyone else been tearing up super shallow on a frog ? Get out there and fish a frog !

What happened ?

Are the results posted online anywhere ? You doing the tourney on Moose ?

Hooper tourney ?

It is safe to say in most places in New England the spawn is over. I have been seeing bass fry in all the ponds I fish in Maine and Vermont. Water temperatures had been into the low 70s until last weeks cold weather brought them back down into the low and mid 60s. Emergent weeds are starting to come up or are already emerging. It is time to switch it up from Pre spawn spring tactics to post spawn early summer tactics. Immediately after the spawn I tend to target the thickest greenest vegetation I can find, targeting primarily largemouth. This past spring the fishing was excellent. A lot of big fish were caught by my friends and I out of my boat. In total 6 bass over 7 lbs were caught out of my boat. A 7 lb 10 oz lunker was the largest. A total of 6 6 lbers were caught as well as 7 5lbers. I had a couple of amazing days with my buddy Shane J where we had over 30 lbs for 5 fish, including 2 days when we caught 2 7s between us. We were mainly targeting the first drop off adjacent to spawning coves. Most of the larger fish, including the largest, were caught on a rage tail swimmer. It is an excellent bait. Several other very large fish were caught targeting the same areas using a deps OG side swimmer. Although it is a costly lure it just plan catches hawgs. I did catch a few larger fish on Jigs and senkos as well. Unfortunately I didn't have any good crankbait days like I have had during the spring in past years. I experimented a bit more with a weedles 68 hudd and caught some quality fish on it, a 6 lb 14 oz largemouth was the first fish I caught on it. I will be fishing it MORE. It was a great spring and set up for a banner year for fish over 7 lbs. It is time to switch it up and hopefully stay on the big fish. Immediately post spawn can be tough. I am getting a full weekend of fishing this weekend so hopefully will be able to figure something out. I am hopeful the summer months will be just as productive as this past spring. Hopefully this past spring was good to everyone.

There are plenty of ponds in NH that have bass that don't get pounded. Some of the ponds are relatively unknown except by the locals. The harder they are to get to the less pressure they get. A small, hard to get to pond has the best chance for a 10 in my opinion. A good food base such as big golden shiners, rainbow smelt, yellow perch or stocked trout is a must. The size of the bass population in relation to the amount of forage available plays a huge role. The waterbodies with the best growth rates tend to have a smaller population.

There are bass in Maine ? I wonder how many guys on here fish in Maine. I sure do, a lot.

Fish are on beds now. Most of them will be done spawning when you are up there. From the Crown Point bridge south it is mostly largemouth. I would recommend a frog, soft body swimbait, jig or senko. From Shelburne Bay North is split smallmouth/largemouth. Be prepared for both. As a co angler you will most likely have zero input on where you fish. I would be prepared for anything from punching thick mats to drop shotting 35 ft. Champlain is an awesome fishery. Gonna take some serious weight to win it.

I think that smaller harder to reach places that receive little fishing pressure have a better chance at producing trophy bass then the more popular easy to access big bodies of water. A double digit bass in New England would have to be a very old fish, a place that receives little fishing pressure that is very hard to get to would provide a better place for them to get old.

In 2013 I caught a 9-1. I had a dorsal spine and scale aged. The dorsal spine which is the more accurate of the two was aged at 19+ years with "a high likelihood" of being older by the bass biologist for the state of ME. The scale was aged at 16 years old. The scale was aged by a VT fisheries biologist. He said that as the fish grew the growth rings became more difficult to read which is very common with older fish. He said it was "most likely" a few years older then the 16 growth rings he could clearly see. I would guess a 10 lb class fish would be 15 - 20 years old in New England.