Anyone Have Any Luck In Southern Nh Yet? (4/6/12)

[nhbassin]

Ive got a bunch of live target lipless crankbaits, and they certainly look nice, but I feel they provide an advantage over standard lipless crankbaits only if you are fishing in very clear water. I still prefer the $5-$6 red-eyed shad since it flutters side to side while falling on a slack line and comes in both rattle & non-rattle versions. The baitball crabkbait by livetarget is a whole different lure though, and I am very interested to hear how it works for you guys. Keep us posted.  

[Shane J]

Guess who's back? Back again.....

 

 

Ya'll miss me?

[JoyoftheCatch]

That is one nice fish

[Shane J]

Thank you, Joyofthecatch. That one was on a Blue Craw (the red you see in the pic, is from a dash of red dye marker I put on there to create a "Tequilla Sunrise " color) Rage Tail Space Monkey, 6/0 heavy wire Moaner Stick'r hook, with a 5/8 pegged Tungsten weight. We were flipping 4-6' trees, and she decided she just had to have it! Lot of fun winching those hoggies out of close-quarters trees!!

[Shane J]

This one was the biggest for me for the week. Caught this lovely lady on a New Rage Bug, also in Blue Craw, but in 12' water, and swimming the bait. The bass we found on this point were eating baitfish. Funny thing was, was Two casts earlier, I had a 7 or 8 pounder hooked up, but she got off on me. Then I got this doll, and she was heavier anyway, so I wasn't mad anymore!!

 

 

[Mainebass1984]

Awesome fish Shane. Totally jealous.

[Shane J]

Thanks, buddy! Yeah, it was great, as usual, and I'm ready to go back!! 

[Mainebass1984]

Back to the live target crank bait subject. They work well when you can match the hatch. A couple years ago I was fishing a crankbait in chartreuse and catching bass. I caught a nice smallmouth and it spit up a bunch of orange crawfish. I tied on a live target crawfish all started catching big smallmouth and giant largemouth every other cast. It was the best fishing I have ever had. It was in April. I caught 19 largemouth, 20 were over 3 lbs, the biggest was 7 lbs 12 oz. The one that wasn't 3 lbs was 2 lbs 15 oz. That same day I caught 12 smallmouth, 10 were over 3 lbs, the biggest was 3 lbs 15 oz. The crawfish were coming out of there winter hibernation along a clay bank I was fishing. They were insanely stacked there for 3 weeks. At the end of the day I had 15-20 crawfish in my boat dead. The photo doesn't give them much color but they were orange. Given the right conditions, at the right time, the live target crawfish will slam em ! I tried other crank baits at the same spot with very little luck as if the fish weren't there. As soon as I took as cast with the live target is was fish on.

 

Got to match the hatch. Of course they don't make this exact model anymore...

 

[Mainebass1984]

What was your lunker for the trip ?

[Shane J]

That's a cool comparison shot, and you're absolutely right in what you say. There is one exception that deserves mentioning. Going totally opposite in the match thing can get you bites in certain scenarios. Let's say you find baitfish at 15', and bass arches suspended. Suspended bass can be some of the toughest ones to catch, and the fish that can make a difference on a tough day, or when it really matters come tournament day. Lets just say those baitfish are bluegills, which a lot of times in our area, they are. The obvious says, throw a bluegill-colored crank, right? Not always. The reason a lot of people can have a hard time catching those fish, is because they are trying to match those fish, but then they are competing directly with the real thing, and let's face it, nothing looks more like the real thing to a bass, than the real thing. Sometimes if you go with something like silver or white, worked right in there with those fish, and it stands out enough to be the choice when a bass strikes. Weird, I know, but it works. I had a memorable day on the water a couple years ago, where the fish were off structure and suspended. There were gills, and when I worked anything down there with bluegill colored stuff... nothin'. Then I cut off the bluegill lipless I was using, tied on a Sexy Shad one, and instantly caught a 5 pounder. Within a few hours, I had 5 fish over 5lbs, plus 12 or so others between 3-4 lbs, all on the sexy shad crank, and we don't even have threadfin shad here. I'm not the worlds most avid crank bait guy, but the same can apply to plastics and jigs as well, and have numerous times where my best action, and biggest fish, have come on some non conventional color choices. Great post, though, Mainebass, and to answer your question, my lunker this time around was just over 10lbs. We lost a lot of time on this time around due to high winds, and extreme frontal and post frontal conditions for the first two days. We worked through it, though, and landed some beautiful fish. Big O got one about 11.5 lbs.

[Nashua Nev]

Awesome info.   nice fish there too.   I suspect we will be seeing a NH version soon Shane.  Are there any contests this year to earn you the million dollars by catching a new record.  A million dollars can get you a nice place on a really nice fishing lake.   In any state.

What lake / s did you fish Shane?

[Shane J]

Thanks,Nev! I try to not actually blow up the lakes that He fishes, simply because he gets enough pressure, followers, and spot stealers, but he has a laundry list of lakes within a 16 hour drive of him, that he fishes regularly, and one of them is Falcon (only 8 hours from him), know what I'm sayin?

[Nashua Nev]

Nice  makes complete sense to me.  I know there is no one following me to see where i fish.   I gotta assume he has a lot of watchers.  

[Shane J]

Yup. Defense is a regular part of his game every time on the water.

[Shane J]

S. Texas, though, buddy.

[Mainebass1984]

That's a cool comparison shot, and you're absolutely right in what you say. There is one exception that deserves mentioning. Going totally opposite in the match thing can get you bites in certain scenarios. Let's say you find baitfish at 15', and bass arches suspended. Suspended bass can be some of the toughest ones to catch, and the fish that can make a difference on a tough day, or when it really matters come tournament day. Lets just say those baitfish are bluegills, which a lot of times in our area, they are. The obvious says, throw a bluegill-colored crank, right? Not always. The reason a lot of people can have a hard time catching those fish, is because they are trying to match those fish, but then they are competing directly with the real thing, and let's face it, nothing looks more like the real thing to a bass, than the real thing. Sometimes if you go with something like silver or white, worked right in there with those fish, and it stands out enough to be the choice when a bass strikes. Weird, I know, but it works. I had a memorable day on the water a couple years ago, where the fish were off structure and suspended. There were gills, and when I worked anything down there with bluegill colored stuff... nothin'. Then I cut off the bluegill lipless I was using, tied on a Sexy Shad one, and instantly caught a 5 pounder. Within a few hours, I had 5 fish over 5lbs, plus 12 or so others between 3-4 lbs, all on the sexy shad crank, and we don't even have threadfin shad here. I'm not the worlds most avid crank bait guy, but the same can apply to plastics and jigs as well, and have numerous times where my best action, and biggest fish, have come on some non conventional color choices. Great post, though, Mainebass, and to answer your question, my lunker this time around was just over 10lbs. We lost a lot of time on this time around due to high winds, and extreme frontal and post frontal conditions for the first two days. We worked through it, though, and landed some beautiful fish. Big O got one about 11.5 lbs.

 

Its a love/hate relationship when it comes to fishing for suspended bass. I would rather try fishing for them somewhere else. Sexy shad ? Its a killer color for me too along with chartreuse shad. We really don't have any bluegills where I grew up in Maine. Even in central VT we don't have a whole lot of bluegills unless your talking about Champlain of course. Thinking outside the norm is great. I like to do it all the time. That day though I posted about if you weren't matching those crawfish you weren't going to have a good day fishing. Attention to detail is very important, whether that is matching the hatch or going the complete opposite.

[Shane J]

Exactly!

[mhtranger]

That Live Target craw is the same color and size I use with good success. As the new color and model came out I found myself buying up all the old ones I could find even at the more expensive places. So now I have a pretty good supply. But now my downfall is the Rage craw and jigs. Thanks Shane. So now when I go to Bass Pro or anywhere I find myself picking up several bags of Rage craws and jig heads and skirts........

[Nashua Nev]

ever seen a white crawfish?  maybe thats why i lke  the white rage craw , and white baby rage craw so much i just never knew why.   for me they have been very successful in the Nashua river dark water.

[Shane J]

Yeah, right on. Good example, Nev.

[JoyoftheCatch]

Here is some of the new stuff I picked up at BPS. I caught on to the trend that Rage Tails catch big fish.  Ready to win some tournaments this spring.  I have a Tackle Warehouse order coming in later in the week and I just ordered a BPS CarbonLite rod.  Really excited for what this season has in store.

 

[Shane J]

Some good choices there.

[DevilDoc]

Just tie a good knot as I didn't and made an 11$ mistake when I first started! Yikes!

[Nashua Nev]

100 to 150 a month ,   wholly crap ,  i maybe spend $200 in a year, not including a new rod and reel every year.

[YungAngler]

100 to 150 a month ,   wholly crap ,  i maybe spend $200 in a year, not including a new rod and reel every year.

yeah it's overkill.  i buy more in the winter out of boredom.  i've been building a salt water arsenal this winter.  gonna get out on the ocean a little more this year.