BurrStone

@webertime: I'll be on St. Albans bay in the spring. Good times await.

Ironic I live in CT and go to Washington County ME for smallies every spring, making up in volume what we give up in size (compared to CT-Candlewood/Lillinonah). One could point to Lake Champlain, Lake George, St Lawrence River but that's all relatively big water. Adirondacks maybe ... Tupper, Saranac. Pricey lodging, though. If I had the money I'd go the guide route around Clayton NY and fish the St. Lawrence.

Candlewood and Lillinonanah in CT fit the description but any waterfront real estate at those locations will cost a fortune. But hey you live and work where fortunes are made.

I fished there the day you posted this. Tough day, but caught 4 smallies and a white sucker - first ever at that place. Gruesome fish IMO. Plenty of species in there. Curious how you did.

Grubs x2.

Enjoying these updates, Dave.

Great week of fishing. Caught them everywhere, on almost anything. Best one was 22" but many were in the 16-18" range.

Thanks Tatsu Dave. I saw you on the other thread and figured you'd recognize this spot. I'm looking forward to the trip.

I'll be there this time next week w/a few days of fishing. Anyone know about this body of water? I'll have boat.

I fish these lakes with some regularity and have good days & bad days. I fish mostly plastics, finesse fishing. I always have a chance fishing Lillinonah with a roboworm drop shot, which seems to work well there. But that lake has the snaggiest bottom anywhere I've ever fished. Laydowns are everywhere which is good, but man ... As far as Candlewood also drop shots, ned rigs, heck I caught my PB smallie there last spring on a grub. Have had good luck w/t-rigged senkos working shallows, too, at both lakes. Best thing to do is keep moving ... that's what the smallies are doing.

Quonnipaug is a good place to wash your lures but that's about it. You need to head up rte 8 past Torrington. Lots of good, small ponds up there. Burr Pond, Lake Winchester, Stillwater ...

Not a Mainer but spent 10 summers up there as a kid. This year = 2 week-long trips. Washington County in June, Kennebec County in July. Love the bass fishing in Maine.

Been a long time fan of Cabin Creek. Their salty spider parts on an 1/8 oz jig are hard to beat for smallies. They make some great craws, too.

My UHD 93Sv comes preloaded with lakevu g3. 1' contours, basically, wherever you go. Then there are the Garmin "elite survey lakes" available with the ultra download. I checked Garmin's list for their ultra coverage and in CT other than Candlewood none of the places I fish are listed with that feature. From what I can tell reading through all the marketing-speak it seems the elte survey is really what you're buying this for. Or did I miss something? Maybe it's worth it just for Candlewood. But there are some rock cribs just below the waterline where I fish in Maine. I would pay $200 to avoid those things! But that lake isn't listed. Hmmm.

That's the best part of the story right there. I caught my first decent bass with the same setup, back around 1975. Also, I have the same tackle box, 13.5" end to end ... just got back from the garage attempting to scale it out and I'm calling that an 18"er.

Just checked Amazon. Could use a good fishing book. Kindle edition is $3.99. Paperback is $298.99. Yikes.

If you prefer the layout of the Ranger I'd say that's some pretty important criteria. It's one reason I rarely go out on my buddy's boat.

Same here.

A few years back I put in at Wilgus w/canoe and a buddy and floated/paddled & fished all the way to Hoyt's landing in Springfield. We did the trip in early May and caught tons of smallies, a few walleye, some rock bass and suckers. It was a 15 mile stretch with some dead spots here and there but right around Wilgus we had great success, and further down around Jarvis island. Another place in VT which I think allows camping is Somerset Reservoir near Mt. Snow/Wardsboro. That's a big lake that sees little pressure. Full of smallies. I've only fished there on day trips by kayak but once ran into another crew coming back from what had to be a multi-day excursion in 2 canoes. Its surrounded by forest. Not a house in sight. 10 mile dirt road in/out. Go prepared.

I normally drop shot with a spin-shot type hook. I pre tie FC line from the spin shot to the weight. Then I take about a half dozen of those setups and hook them lengthwise onto one end of a piece of 3" floaty tube/pipe insulation with the loose ends of the lines held in place on the other end with a rubber band. If I run out of those I tend to go to a regular drop shot hook w/palomar knots. Spin shot hooks are great but they add to the time you spend tying knots.

I like Tackle Supply Depot. But I'm in CT so I get stuff the next day vs. a week later from Tackle Warehouse. Plus they're really good guys.

I work with a guy who has a camp there. He's a trout & salmon fisherman. When I asked him about bass I was told there aren't any in Rangeley and they want to keep it that way. That said, it's a beautiful lake, great area for a family trip. Last time I was there we hiked up Saddleback for great views.

I have a 2019 rt178 w/60 hp 4 stroke merc. It works fine for me, i usually fish alone or with 1 partner, and the money I saved on the motor went into electronics which do more for my fishing than those 15 hp would do. If I fished tournaments or lived somewhere with bigger waters I'd probably still be saving up for a boat!

I fish the Maine waters just on the other side of (and on) the New Brunswick border. We're usually fishing impoundments where there's submerged wood and average depths of 8-10'. Which limits our options. But between surface lures and texas rigged weightless senkos we're catching smallies all day long. Pretty sure there are similar waters on the Canadian side.

I second that. They've got some nice Phoenix and Vexus boats over there. Great guys.