BassB8Caster

I agree with the above. Not the knots problem with copolymer. I use the palomar knot with 20lb P-line CX and have no issues. I would try another line.

Can't go wrong with keitech trailers. I have also used big hammer swimbait tails. I like them alot. Have been pretty durable for me as well. Check them out. Lots of colors to choose from and priced well. For me clear water means swimbaits. I fish big swimbaits with heavy gear. But smaller ones work as well. Clear water = bass can see well (including you). So be stealthy. Can mean everything between a 2lber and a 5 or 6lber. You don't need to move as much water so finesse tactics can be great. Being a new to you body of water (depending on your electronics availability) you will want to cover water. So swim jigs, swimbaits, spinner baits etc. If there is a lot of vegetation pick that apart with worms (I would go big) and creature baits and jigs. Good luck I hear it's a great lake with some good fish.

Yep. Those darn kayaks should start being a better kayak. Mine is just as dumb. I put it on the ground and it just stays there. Do you blame the gun as well? Ignorance is everywhere. It doesn't make it any more special because you are in your boat. Go to the super market, home depot, anywhere the is more than one person and you are likely to run into someone like that. It's the individual that does that. As long as you feel better about making a thread about kayaks. I'll go back to fishing out of my darn kayak.

Could also go to Wal-Mart and buy a laundry bag for cheap and tie it off to the kayak. I carry one with me for when I catch the new state record (or at least one worthy of pics and measurements).

It's hard to say. I have had fish (both lm and sm) just hit a topwater bait. Sometimes up in the air. I feel that it's either they do not want to eat it or are smaller fish. I do not think it's the size of the bait AT ALL. I caught about 4 13" to 15" smallies on a 9" slammer. So they will eat a big bait.

for me, my favorite budget swimbait is the yum pulse 4.5". I have had great success on a weedless weightless hooks in vegetation and good luck throwing it on a weighted swimbait hook for deeper presentations. I have also done well with them on an a-rig with a 5.8 keitech in the center.

Your story is eerily similar to mine in how the fish behaved. Much different than every other fish I have caught. I stopped in a small lake to call my wife after fishing and decided to walk along the small dam and look in the water while on the phone. I see a few trout swim by the wall. Keep looking around and see a couple bass. I go get my rod with a chatterbait on. Cast it out. One grabs it and I set the hook. Snap. Line explodes. Must have had a nick in the line. Go get my other rod with a square bill. Cast straight out. Slowly start reeling when I get that heavy feeling. Like I was caught on a branch or something. Never felt a bite. Keep reeling and it's slowly coming in. Then I see a head surface. Not the typical lm jump head shake. Like the fish just rose up above the surface to look at me. Now I know I have a good fish. Keep reeling as she is coming straight in. As she gets close to the wall she swims along the wall in front of me and I can see my square bill barely in her bottom lip. I start panicking....no. no. No. Easy. Easy. Then she just turns left and swims off to deeper water pulling my square bill free. Like she knew what she was doing. I got a real good look at her 3 feet away. It was all of 24" so around the 8lb mark. A GIANT for Maine. Needless to say, I'm fishing that lake this year looking for redemption. My lesson learned, is to always give it a hard hookset. Nothing worse than doing everything right and giving it a half hearted hookset because it just felt like a log, a branch or the bottom. Seems as the big ones just open up and take it in. Not always the blow up like on youtube. You cannot get that bite back. I may never get a chance at her again.

Yes and no. Some of these swimbaits have a cult following. Just because they get top dollar doesn't mean they fish to their price tag. I have seen Roman made mother's sell as fast as they are posted at $400 a pop. I have also read some reviews saying they do not swim that great and paint doesn't last long (not from just one poster either). Go look and watch the market on SU. quite often expensive baits are sold brand new, never casted once. People will and do buy based on looks. I now do not mind spending decent money on quality stuff. But I spend a lot of time researching them before I buy. And even though I have some apprehension about losing an expensive bait, I still want to use it. And will. I'm not buying a new car to look at it in the garage.

I have heard the name a few times over on the underground but never really looked into them. Wasn't a really common name thrown around (vs say 316 deps etc). After you commented to me I looked them up. Def a custom bait. Shapelooks rigid/stiff (maybe it has a wide glide, I have no idea) but I will agree, the paint jobs are stellar. Personally, I would be hesitant to throw $100 for one as there are more talked about glides for that money from what I have read. At the same time I know $100 isn't much for a custom bait either. If it swims half as good as the paint job it is a winner.

I do not. Having just gotten into big swimbaits, my collection is small right now.

Man thats completely across the state from me (W. Maine). what i do is look on google maps and find names of ponds in the area. Google that pond/lake maine fishing and a pdf should pop up of a survey done on the water. or look around on maine.gov website as they post all those survey maps. Can search on there by county then water body name. The survey maps will give you some depths of the water as well as fish in them. Just keep in mind most are very old. So use as a rough guide.

2 years ago i was super reluctant to spend $10 on a bait. My first "big" splurge was $22 for a Spro BBZ 40 rat. That thing has caught bass for me day 1. Next was a whopper plopper at $18 or so. Fast forward to this winter, i came across swimbait underground forum. The rest is they say history. I made my biggest buy this winter, $70 for a Baitsanity 9.5" glide. I also upgraded to a $100 XH okuma swimbait rod as well as a Daiwa Tatula 200HD reel. I love swimbait fishing and decided to go all in for big bass. I have made a few replies to members on here in regards to spending more money than they wanted for a few baits. They decided to make the splurge and were extremely happy with the results. I have since traded that glide for a 9" ms slammer and have picked up a few other baits. I have yet to catch a bass on a big bait (been out 4 times), but i have high confidence in knowing the bait im throwing has a track record of catching big fish. But dont just go buy any and all expensive baits. You only need a few of different varieties to cover your bases. I will say that these more expensive baits are high quality. I will admit apprehension of losing an expensive bait. The more i used it, the more confident i got in it. With the right gear a big bait will cast and handle like other baits. Dont push the limits. Use proper line, proper weighted rods etc. If you cannot cast within 5 feet of an object, well....good luck. Its pretty hard to argue the success of Butch Brown and the deps 250, the history of the ms slammer etc. Quality of 3:16 hardbaits is top notch. Would i ever spend $400 on a roman made mother? Nope. But i would (and will) buy a $50 dowz swimmer, a $100 deps 250, a $100 mattlures mag gil, etc. Those baits produce and they are built to last.

I just ordered vmc treble hooks on basspro.com. search 1112202. $9 shipped for 25 hooks. Size 4.

Kinda depends what you are throwing. You hear both sides of the argument. Some say you want a low gear reel. With higher ratios slowing down isn't as good as controlling the bait with a lower ratio reel. Then you have those who talk about the need for a higher ratio for getting those fish to the boat. When a bigger fish swims at you (any fish really) you need a fast reel to catch up. I fish 7" plus swimbaits (2.5 oz to 6 oz) from a kayak with a tatula 200hd with a 6.4 ratio. I love this reel. It is extremely smooth and I have no issues with it. Plan to buy more in the future. At times I still have issues catching up to a fish that bites and comes at me. I crank like crazy until I have the fish in the net. This is my first big(ger) swimbait reel. So can't speak for any of the others.

I just did. Thanks

I have had great success with square bills and topwater for smallies. A sprobbz rat works great as well.

Pick up some rope and an anchor. Pretty cheap and solves your issues with current

Hey everyone. I recently found out via YouTube I won the last tackle giveaway. Glenn told me to message him via YouTube messenger or Facebook. Having never used YT messenger I googled how to send a message. It said to go to their (bass resource) YT page and under "about" click send message. This option was not there. I do not have Facebook. So thats not an option. I replied to the YT message saying i won hoping Glenn would see it. I dont want to direct message him on here as im sure he is bombarded with messages. Can anyone help me get a hold of him? Thank you very much. Justin

No. Basically did all the action with the reel handle. Nice. You will like it! Rats are also great if you get rising water conditions. Around cover. Remember bass have no idea how big they are. They will eat a bait up to atound 50% of their size. If it looks good to them and they can get it in their mouths they will try. Look up butch brown and you will see how effective the deps 250 is. But throwing big baits is a whole other category. Unfortunately this "fear of losing a bait or getting tangled" keeps many fisherman from catching their pb. Some of the big girls find security in some pretty tight places.

I hear ya on the taxes. Some towns are insane. From my searching in the past, most towns list their tax rate (search town mill rate). Or call town office. The Belgrade lakes area gets a lot of praise from everything I read.

I have caught probably 20:1 fish (rat vs whopper plopper) . That bbz rat flat out catches fish. It's crazy how much bass attack that thing. Super easy to fish too. Cast out and crank just fast enough to get it swimming. You can crank it down too. But I haven't had much luck that way. But I fish it slow 95% of the time. The clack it makes plus the swimming action is lethal. It is very durable too (tails will break tho). Comes with extra tails. You can have high expectations and it will surpass it. Don't take my word for it. Search around. Watch videos. If you spend money on quality baits you will get your money's worth. Do you think deps 250's catch big bass?

I looked at it the same way before I got one. Now I'd buy another one in a heart beat. I want a 50 size. Remember it floats. So if you break off it will float.

depends on how you look at it IMO. There are great bass spots from 100 acre ponds to big lakes. If i remember correctly you have a boat. That makes a difference. I live in Norway (oxford hills area) and love all the small ponds i can take my kayak to. Little fishing pressure and some great fish in them. Im talking nearly 10 good ponds / small lakes within 20 minutes. If i were boat fishing that would cut the accessability way down. One big issue i see around me is access to the water. Most have access. Some have none or only via private property. If i had to consider a boat, i would be down to 3 or so lakes within that 20 minutes. I do have Kezar Lake and Thompson Lake right next to me, which are two of the best in the state. If you have no problem driving an hour to fish i would say anywhere in the state (for the most part) would have that. Look at a map and look around augusta. Tons of great lakes right there from Monmouth up to the belgrade lakes area. Picking a place to live is much more difficult. I will tell you this, the real estate market is nuts right now. You will pay top dollar for garbage. It may vary slightly location to location. I have my house on the market due to this (plus the fact we have out grown it with 2 new babies). Good to sell, bad to buy. Rents in turn are high and hard to find. If you ever find yourself in my area, let me know if i can help in any way. good luck.

go buy a spro bbz 40 rat in morning dawn color and throw that early mornings and late evenings (im confident enought to throw it any time). I think your topwater luck will change.

Appreciate it. I remember you commenting on that earlier in this thread. I fish alone a lot and poles are high on my priority list.