jbmaine

Hi all, Since getting laid off three weeks ago my wife and I have had the chance to spend more time out on the water and I thought I'd share how we are doing. we live in the Kittery area so have been hitting waters around here. Mousam lake- have fished this several times. A couple of weeks ago the water had hit 60 degrees and we started to see fish around the beds but with the cold weather the temp dropped back down to 57 and the fish disappeared. Yesterday the water was back up to 60-64 and we started to see a few fish. Only got three in the boat ( a slow day for us ) but one was a decent 2 1/2 lb SM. Caught it on a tube, the other two on a jitterbug. Square pond- Fished this for the first time last Friday. Water temp 58. Saw quite a few beds. Due to the wind we had a hard time fishing. We only have a small boat with no trolling motor so had to keep throwing the anchor out to stay put. We didn't pull any into the boat but a friend of mine was up there and got three or four. We are thinking of hitting it again in a couple of days. Side note- this is the worst black fly season I have ever seen. usually we only bothered by them along the shore line but this year they find us out in the middle of the lake. If anyone is interested I'll keep you updated on how we do, if you'd like to share how your doing, feel free and if you see a 14ft green lund WC deluxe with a 20 horse honda out on the water it's probably us. free free to swing by and say Hi. Good fishing JB

Thanks for the replies everyone. It sounds like it might be worth a look. JB

Hi All, I was wondering if anyone fishes Great East lake. The description of the lake sounds like it should be a good SM lake but I've never talked to anyone who actually fished it. Anyone here give it a try? If so how did you do. Thanks JB

Hi all, this is a kinda good news/ bad news type of thing. My work has been steadily downsizing the last year or two and I was always telling people " gee, if I get laid off I hope it's in the spring so my wife and I can get some serious fishing time in". Guess I should have been more careful what I wished for cause yep, i got laid off this week. Although I will be spending some time job searching i want to take advantage of my forced down time and get some serious fishing in. We usually spend our time fishing at Mousam lake. My family had a camp on mousam when I was growing up so I feel real comfortable there, can almost always catch fish, but the pleasure boaters can be a pain. I would like to take this time to expand our horizons, try new places. So I was wondering if anyone might like to recommend new places to try. i know I could just open the map and pick a place but I was hoping for some first hand experience on waters you've had good luck on. we're in the kittery area and am looking for anything reasonable for day trips. we've tried horn pond ( tough fishing for us) and Great East. We don't have NH licenses but would consider picking them up. Also Don't have a big boat so big waters might be a problem. Thanks in advance for any tips, thoughts, suggestions and advice you would care to share and if you ever see a green WC Deluxe lund with a 20 horse Honda it's probably us, feel free to swing by, I'd love to say hi. Thanks again JB

Thanks for the imput everyone. The book that came with the trailer said to tighten to 30 inch pounds. I don't have a torque wrench and it seemed a bit much to have to go buy one. I will readjust the nut back one position. Thanks again JB

Hi all, I've got a two year Karavan boat trailer I'm getting ready for spring. I repacked the wheel bearings and adjusted the castle nut. I brought it up untill the wobble was gone and inserted the cotter pin. I found both tires will spin free but one more than the other. I backed off and retightened it several times with the same results. I seem to be stuck at backing it off one cotter pin position and feeling a wobble or tightening it up one cotter pin position and not having it spin as free as the other tire. Is this a possible concern or am I just being a little paranoid? A trip up to our favorite lake is about 30miles. Your thoughts please Thanks JB

Thanks everyone, this helps alot. JB

Hi All, I am thinking of picking up some paddle tail swim baits. Yum money minnow or strike king shadalicious, 3.5 or 4.5 lengths. I also need to pick up some hooks. Looking at BPS they sell / lake fork tackle swim bait hooks/ eagle claw swim bait hooks/ davis x-swim lock/ luck"E" strike bass magic head hook and magic belly weight hook. They all seem similar except the weights are on different areas of the hooks. Does this make a difference? Any one better than the others? And sizes? I'm guessing 3/0 or 4/0 for these size baits. Your thoughts or recommendations please. Thanks JB

Hi all, The TYCO building across from the launch is now called COBHAM, I work there. but have never fished in that area cause I come down from out of state. However, I have heard some of the guys at work talking about good SM fishing under or around a railroad bridge close by. Good Luck JB

Hi Sam I usually take all the hype about "this lure is bigger, better and will catch more fish" with a grain of salt. But, in this one case, anyway, it seemed to work. Before trying the Coffee Tube we tried tubes by YUM and VENOM without so much as a tap. And as I said, once we tried the Coffee Tubes, we were picking up fish at a steady rate. Same color, same presentation, same spot... I can only think the coffee flavor helped. We were slowly dragging the tube across the bottom in about 25 feet of water rigged with a 1/8 oz and 1/4 oz weighted tube hook. We are hoping to get back up to the lake the end of this week and I'll let you know if this is a pattern or one time fluke. The Coffee Tubes are made by STRIKE KING. The colors were Watermelon with red flake, and a Goby colored. Both seemed to work. jb

Last Thursday, my wife and I spent the day fishing up at our favorite lake. This is a lake that we have fished for years and usually we are pretty dialed in on what works. However, this year has been kind of strange. So far, the fish don't seem to be where they are expected to be and although we had a couple of good days, most of the time we had to really work for them. We were fishing a stretch of shoreline that drops off pretty quick and we noticed that we were picking up fish on the fishfinder in about 25-30 feet of water. Each of us were fishing a different color/brand of tube, bouncing it across the bottom without much luck. Finally, for lack of any better ideas, I put on a coffee tube. We had bought a package of these this spring, but hadn't really done much with them. Long story short, I started catching fish. My wife switched to a coffee tube and for the rest of the day, we did well. The surprising thing is, that we caught small mouth, large mouth, and even a pickerel from the same spot all in about 25 feet of water. We much have caught a dozen fish, two pounds or better, and lost 5 or 6. The only down side, is a couple of the fish were deep hooked and I wasn't sure they made it. It was surprising how much they tried to inhale these tubes. Even one small mouth was spitting out small yellow perch when I brought it up to the boat and it still had the coffee tube halfway down its throat. I think next time we are going to try just running the hook through the nose of the tube, to try to get shallower hook set. I can't say for sure that it was the (coffee) that did it, but they sure weren't hitting any of the other tubes we were tossing at them. We are going to try for a repeat performance the end of this week and we will let you know how it goes. Jb

Thanks for the info, I was able to get the battery cable out by threading it under the floor. I will definitely look into the quick disconnect for next time. Yea, it is really warm here too! It is suppose to be in the 70's all week. Unfortunately, where I like to fish, they lowered the lake level so that the camp owners could repair their retaining walls before winter. All my fav fishing spots are now puddle deep! :-/ Again, my thanks.

I am removing my Honda motor for winter from my boat. Does anyone know an easy way to get the battery cable off. I unhooked it from the battery but don't see a connection to undo from the actual motor. I can't pull it under the floor because of gormets that the cable goes through. It's a Lund, with a Honda 20 hp. Any help would be appriciated. Thanks

Hi, we use the white with blue/black/silver- flake- senkos all the time with good luck. My wife will toss a white one while I toss a green one until we see what the fish like best. Good luck JB

Hi Dave, I bought a 2006 20hp Honda this spring and so far it's been great. It pushes our 14ft Lund with out a problem and will run all day on a couple gal. of gas ( or less). With less than 8 hrs. on the 15 you are looking at, it's not even broken in yet, plus it should have a 3yr warrenty. You could check the Honda web site to make sure it's transferable. Hope this helps. JB

IMHO everyone has the same right to enjoy a public body of water so long as they follow the laws. Around here I believe the rules are headway speed only unless you are 200ft away from the shore and other boaters. Sad to say, not everyone does this. It is so bad on the lakes we fish that camp owners have had to put up floats in front of their property to give their kids a safe place to swim. And it does seem jetskiers are the worst. I was talking to a marine patrol officer the other day and he said stopping reckless jetskiers kept him busy all summer. JB

Thanks for all the replys. It seems there are valid points on either side of this. The next time it happens my wife will move our boat back. My over riding thought at the time was, because he insisted on launching his boat, we had to wait for him to drive up and park his truck, walk back down, start his boat and take off before I could pull ours up and every one in que waiting to get off the water was stuck in a t-storm. My wife does everything she can to help me but because of hand and wrist issues she can neither drive a boat or a car. She can only fish for a short time before resting her hands and anything of any size she hooks I have to bring in for her. I did not mean to generate hard feelings by posting this, only to get opinions on if we did or did not do the right thing, and if not, to learn so we could do the right thing next time. Thanks JB

Hi ghoti, thanks for the reply. I am using a shimano compre spinning rod cps- 66mb med-power, fast action with 6 pound yo zuri hybrid ultra soft. I use the same setup to toss t-rigged senkos with gammy offset shank worm hooks and almost allways get a good hookup in the mouth/ jaw. Could different style hooks affect this? Thanks JB

Do I understand correctly that it sounds like we are letting the fish get the tube too far in before setting the hook? By setting the hook sooner would we have a better chance of getting the fish to the boat and not hooking it so deep? would a different hook help? Thanks JB

Thanks for the replys. If he had been waiting where we could have seen him or infact been in the process of backing down we would have waited. On this launch you can't see the main parking area from the water. The launch site is a big loop. from the main parking area you drive around to the launch, back your boat in and pull strait up to park. If he had been waiting at the bottom of the loop ( where everyone usually waits) we would have seen him and waited to let him pull in. But he wasn't and we didn't see him. Anyway this episode bothered us enough to put this in and see what other people thought. My wife and I like to be good neighbors where ever we go and wanted to see if we should have acted differently. Thanks JB

Hello, I know this subject comes up from time to time but I thought I'd put this in and see what you think. The lake my wife and I like to fish has a really nice public launch that is used by both fisherman and recreational boaters. Generally if there is a boat already at the dock we assume they are either putting in or getting ready to leave and wait until there is an opening for us to either put in or take out. The launch can be busy at times, but usually with a little bit of common sense and courtsey things go pretty smooth. The other day we were out on the lake fishing when a thunderstorm was starting to form and we thought it best to get off the lake, everyone else had the same idea and when we got to the launch we were in que with about a half a dozen boats. When our turn came, we put up at the dock. My wife stayed with the boat while I went up to get the trailer. When I drove down to the launch, (about two minutes later) there was a "gentleman" trying to put his boat in and was in a lively dicussion with my wife. He was insisting she had to pull our boat back to the end of the dock so he could put in. She was basically telling him she wasn't going to move and he could wait his turn. He instead went ahead and partially backed his trailer in, almost hitting our boat, and then pushed his boat at a 45 degree angle off his trailer, climbed over his trailer and got in his boat then drove it around ours and tied it off at the end of the dock. Meanwhile, I am sitting there waiting to back my trailer in and half a dozen boats were circling waiting to get out before the storm hit. The "gentleman" mentioned he was waiting for a while to put his boat in and figured it was his turn, even though nobody else there had seen him waiting. Normally, we are pretty easy going and will wait a bit longer rather than cause hard feelings, however in this instance, I would think commonsense would dictate giving the right of way to people trying to get their boats out to avoid a thunderstorm. My wife and I have been talking about this and feel we were right, but was wondering what you all thought. I'm sure some of you have been through something similar and we would really like your thoughts on if we were correct in our actions. Thanks. JB

Hello, My wife and I are just learning to fish tubes. We have read all the info we can find on them and believe we are rigging them correctly. the bass certainly love them but two out of three bass we hook we lose before getting them to the boat and the ones we get in the boat are hooked deep. So far I have been able to get all the hooks out but worry about damaging the fish. I can only assume we are doing something wrong, resulting in deep hooksets and lost fish. Any suggestions you can give us to correct this would be greatly appreciated. We are using Yum 4" mega tubes with 3/0 Owner Phantom tube hooks, rigged with the hook exposed. Thanks JB

Hello, My wife and I really enjoy bass fishing and up to now have only fished for L.M.B., however we would like to expand to smallie's. There is a pond we are going to in the next few days that is known as good smallie water. The only things I know about the pond is it is about 400 acres, has a rocky bottom, max depth is 30+ ft, and there is perch and some trout in it beside bass. I have read posts on good lures for smallie's and we have most of what is reccomended. My question is how do you aproach a new body of water? Is there a method you use to short cut the time it takes to find where the fish are holding? For example, fish the shore line first, then work out into deeper water, drift down the middle or some of both. Sorry if this is a vague guestion but all of our experience to date has been for L.M. on muddy bottoms in shallower water. Fishing rocky bottoms in colder deeper water is new to us. We will be fishing out of a boat and the pond is in southern Maine. As always, thanks for your help J.B.

Thanks for the replys. this is the most fish we have ever caught at one time. they were stacked up like cord wood tight under the bushes. I don't think we fished more than a couple hundred yards of shore line. the lake we were fishing is in sourthern Maine. JB

Hello, the last few days the weather has been less than ideal but my wife and I managed to get some time in on our faverite lake. We found the bass tight in to the shore under over hanging trees and shore line bushes. We were tossing senko's and although we got hung up a lot it was worth it cause the bass were hitting better than I've ever seen. On Fri. we were fishing the shore line in a big cove picking up some one to one and one half LB bass when my wife tossed a senko over a tree limb and into a bush. We couldn't shake it free so we ran the boat in to untangle it. As we came in to shore we both saw a big bass scooting out from the shore line and thought " O man, there's a big one we missed". As we got closer we saw the end of her line running back out into the water. Her senko had dropped down out of the bush, hit the water and was inhaled by this bass. While she was getting the line untangled I managed to grab the other end and haul in the fish. It weighed a good 3 1/2 LB. My wife just got a new P.B. and one of the biggest LM I've seen come out of the lake. The fishing was so good that despite the threat of Tstorms we headed back out on Sat. Talk about another great day. Same shore line, same senko's and a lot of fish. Towards the end she managed to skip her senko under some tight bushes and darned if she didn't hook another big one. We got it into the boat and it weighed a good 4 LB. She broke her record set just the day before! In one of the pictures I am holding it up as she was worried she would drop it. all told we spent about 7 hrs on the water and picked up around 30 fish ( all released alive) Sorry for all the pic's but this was about the best fishing we've ever had and we wanted to share. Thanks for looking