Vermont Smallies

[TruckWreck]

So I'm new here and would love to have some fresh takes on jigs, rigs, lures and techniques for small mouth bass fishing in New England. More specifically southern Vermont. (Too busy to travel...) any and all info would be highly appreciated!

Lately I've been trying to get a little bit more into the science of fishing, however, there are so many completely contradictory articles on the internet to even bother reading anymore. I was hoping to hear from anyone who has any experience fishing New England. I simply can't see how lakes in the South West can be fished the same as ones in the North East seeing as how different the climates and general weather patterns can be. Regardless, onto whatever it is that I'm actually asking...

I'm curious as to where the bass go during the different times of day and the best techniques for catching them. Also, what effect does rainy, cloudy, windy, etc. weather have on them during those periods of time. P.S- I fish from the banks the majority of the time however I did just fix up my old Monark deep-V.

[webertime]

Harriman Res has a good population of Smallies but they move deep in the summer and can be hard to find there.  The CT river is LOADED with them.  Lake Morey is a good spot too. St. Catherine and Dunmore have healthy populations too.  I spent many a summer racing mountain bikes down at Mt Snow and Killington so I am familiar with your area.

 

Regarding fish in different parts of the country acting differently that is sort of true. It's not enough that I would not read/watch how a guys whacks them in a deep Cali Res and figure out how to adapt it to where I am.  A fish is a fairly simple creature, it wants to have babies, and eat in comfort.  So your job is figure out where they have figured out how take in the greatest amount of calories for the fewest amount burned.

 

Techniques that work up here:  Spring:  Pointer Jerkbaits and Keitech Swimbaits  Summer: Tubes, Shakyheads with little craws, Carolina Rigs with speedcraws, football jigs, and senkos.  Fall:  ALL heck breaks loose and fish with any of what I listed.  Last October 12th I got BIG smallies from a spot where you cast East and your bait is in 4-6ft, cast West and you are in 40ft.  We crushed them in 40ft with rigs and shallow with Pointers.   This sort of brings up another point...  Smallies up here are Fickle and as annoying as Teenage girls.  One day they are shallow eating fish, then a day later they are in 30' eating craws and will not be back up shallow for days.  If you ever make it up north let me know.

[HeavyDluxe]

Greetings from Windsor, VT...

 

The lakes around Plymouth, VT (Amherst, Echo, Rescue, Ninevah) have all produced good catches of smallies for me.  

 

I'm a bit of a two-technique-fisher...  I mainly dead-stick soft plastics or throw jigs.   I just dont get the time on the water to work on developing a lot of skills with various baits.  That said, I consistently catch fish so I think it works ok.  Good luck!