March fishing in Maine

[Swamp Girl]

My only experiences with early spring fishing for largemouth were when I was a kid and my brothers and I would go way too early and it would snow on us and we'd catch nothing. Well, I started fishing for largemouth again at the beginning of August in 2022 and I had so much fun that I'm aching to get back on the water. I just don't know when that should be. 

 

Here on are the highs for my town from March 6th to March 23rd last year. What day(s) do you think would be best to fish if I had a similar stretch of temps in March of 2023:

 

6: 48

7: 46

8: 45

9: 32

10: 47

11: 44

12: 43

13: 27

14: 41 

15: 47

16: 40

17: 45

18: 63

19: 47

20: 48

21: 45

22: 40

23: 47

 

And what lures would you throw and where? The first pond I'm going to fish is small, only 11 acres, with a maximum depth of 16'. 

 

Or would you wait until April when the temps are mostly in the 50s? 

[gim]

I'd fish the warmest, sunniest days possible that time of year in Maine, and go during the warmest time of day too.  According to the numbers you posted from last March, the 18th looks like it was the warmest day of the month by far.  If you get another 63 degree day this March, and especially if the sun comes out, that would be my preferred day.

 

As for lures, do you have a way of checking the water temperature?  A jerk bait with long pauses is a favorite early spring lure/tactic of mine.

[T-Billy]

Early spring the fish like the same weather you do IME. A few days of sunshine and warmer temps, especially overnight can really get things going.  

[Dwight Hottle]

Katie your catching success will greatly improve once the water temps get into the 40's and speed up from 45-50 degrees. 

[Swamp Girl]

28 minutes ago, gimruis said:

I'd fish the warmest, sunniest days possible that time of year in Maine, and go during the warmest time of day too.  According to the numbers you posted from last March, the 18th looks like it was the warmest day of the month by far.  If you get another 63 degree day this March, and especially if the sun comes out, that would be my preferred day.

 

As for lures, do you have a way of checking the water temperature?  A jerk bait with long pauses is a favorite early spring lure/tactic of mine.

 

I bought a raygun thingy that takes the temp, but someone at Bass Resource said that surface temps don't matter much. I've been figuring on using jerk baits, so thanks for confirming that choice.

 

Thanks, Dwight and Tim.

 

Dwight, given that a lot of the nights last March were in the 20s and 30s, I'm thinking April might be the better time, unless this coming March is warmer than last March. 

[gim]

5 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I bought a raygun thingy that takes the temp, but someone at Bass Resource said that surface temps don't matter much.

Being that its a pond only 11 acres in size with a max depth of 16 feet, it will warm up and cool down rather quickly based on the local weather.

 

Surface temps can vary greatly from temp further down in the water column, but in your specific case, the temperature at the surface compared to it lower in the column is probably a negligible difference.  Water temperature in the spring is a very important item to consider, as @Dwight Hottle indicated.  A warming pattern will push the fish shallower, generate weed growth, and put fish in pre-spawn mode whereas a cold front shuts them down.

[Dwight Hottle]

22 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

 

I bought a raygun thingy that takes the temp, but someone at Bass Resource said that surface temps don't matter much. I've been figuring on using jerk baits, so thanks for confirming that choice.

 

 

Surface temp are what 99% of bass fisherman go by as that is what temp their transducer reports on their graph display. We all know that surface temp differ from bottom temps but most guys correlate their catching success to surface temp data. 

[Swamp Girl]

16' is about as deep as I'll fish. I prefer the shallow ponds and bogs. Deeper water is more likely to have boat ramps, which means people.

 

Some are only 6' deep, so maybe I'll first fish the shallowest of them in the evening of the warmest, sunniest March day or two. I would wait until April, but @Bluebasser86 and @Dwight Hottle and at @AlabamaSpothunter are driving me crazy.

 

If I get skunked, so be it, but at least I will have scratched the itch.

 

  

 

2 minutes ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Surface temp are what 99% of bass fisherman go by as that is what temp their transducer reports on their graph display. We all know that surface temp differ from bottom temps but most guys correlate their catching success to surface temp data. 

 

Good to know, Dwight.

[T-Billy]

Your IR thermometer isn't useless Katie. Surface temp matters more in shallow waters as it corresponds more directly with the water temps a little further down, in waters shallow enough for the sun to warm the bottom.

1 hour ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Katie your catching success will greatly improve once the water temps get into the 40's and speed up from 45-50 degrees. 

100% agree with Dwight on this. They're a little slow to get going in the early spring. I've had some awesome days with water temps in the low 40's and even high 30's in the fall, but it's normally a grind for me in the spring until I'm seeing surface temps in the upper 40's.

 This is a BIG fish time of year though. @A-Jay will be along shortly with a video to prove this point. ?

 Stable weather can be tough to come by in the spring, but if you get a few days of sunshine there will be some fish very shallow on wood and chunk rock. Small craw imitations are your friend under these conditions. 

[casts_by_fly]

I'm a little south of you here in NJ, but March is my usual start at ice out.  The past couple years its been the first or second week of March .  We don't have ice right now, but the water is ~35 degrees.  I'm sure there are fish to be caught, but the water's been that cold all winter and we've not had any good air temps to keep me warm enough fishing it.  When the water temps hit 40 and the the air is 45-50 and sunny I'll start.  At least if I'm not freezing I can focus on not catching fish.  As other said, a sunny afternoon, especially if its the second or third sunny day in a row without freeing temps as night, is where I'm targeting.  That will help warm the shallows a couple degrees and get things moving around a little.

[Swamp Girl]

I am so excited, Tim. I'm also equipped with neoprene boots and long-sleeved neoprene top. Still, I won't fish the bigger bodies of water until Mayish to stay safe.

 

52 minutes ago, casts_by_fly said:

At least if I'm not freezing I can focus on not catching fish. 

 

^This^ made me laugh, casts_by_fly.^

 

Say, Tim, I just had a red crawfish-colored Rapala Rippin' Rap arrive today. Would you throw that?

 

You do realize that you and I are about 600 fish and 30 big bass behind Alex. We should throw A-Rigs with fifty arms. There will be so much drag that we'll need winches to retrieve them. 

[casts_by_fly]

2 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I am so excited, Tim. I'm also equipped with neoprene boots and long-sleeved neoprene top. Still, I won't fish the bigger bodies of water until Mayish to stay safe.

 

 

^This^ made me laugh, casts_by_fly.^

 

Say, Tim, I just had a red crawfish-colored Rapala Rippin' Rap arrive today. Would you throw that?

 

You do realize that you and I are about 600 fish and 30 big bass behind Alex. We should throw A-Rigs with fifty arms. There will be so much drag that we'll need winches to retrieve them. 

 

Patterns with red and craw in them account for half of my catch through the end of May.  Last year it was a red/brown/black/orange chatterbait and a demon colored OG6.  I picked my PB smallie on a similarly colored red eye shad, plus other fish.  I grabbed some Siebert swim jigs in fire craw since swim jigs worked well last year on the whole.  I have no doubt the rippin rap will produce for you.

[Swamp Girl]

Thanks, @casts_by_fly. Like I wrote in my lede post, I have no experience catching largemouth in the spring, so I appreciate specific recommendations. I have some Damiki Axe Blades too that I'll be using. They're not red, but Alex has had great success with them in cold water this month. 

[AlabamaSpothunter]

9 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

I am so excited, Tim. I'm also equipped with neoprene boots and long-sleeved neoprene top. Still, I won't fish the bigger bodies of water until Mayish to stay safe.

 

 

^This^ made me laugh, casts_by_fly.^

 

Say, Tim, I just had a red crawfish-colored Rapala Rippin' Rap arrive today. Would you throw that?

 

You do realize that you and I are about 600 fish and 30 big bass behind Alex. We should throw A-Rigs with fifty arms. There will be so much drag that we'll need winches to retrieve them. 

Meh.....when you catch 50 fish seemingly every trip, and when Tim is catching fish the size of ones that belong in the ocean, I think I'm the one who's got catching up to do ?

[T-Billy]

28 minutes ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

Meh.....when you catch 50 fish seemingly every trip, and when Tim is catching fish the size of ones that belong in the ocean, I think I'm the one who's got catching up to do ?

Some seriously good sticks hang out around here, ya never know who's gonna go on a tear next.

[T-Billy]

49 minutes ago, ol'crickety said:

Say, Tim, I just had a red crawfish-colored Rapala Rippin' Rap arrive today. Would you throw that?

I've never tried the red baits, but lots of folks swear by them in the spring. Give it a whirl, and let us know how it works for ya. I know red can be lights out at times.

 A couple springs ago I was going down a bank fishing chunk rock with a tube, and doing well. A guy pulled in a little ways behind me and started following me down the bank throwing a red jerkbait with a bright orange belly. He was catching as many as me , with a bigger average size, from my used water. 

[PourMyOwn]

I'm in NH, and as soon as the ice is out at the boat ramp I'm fishing. Some of my best days with a jerkbait came when the north end of the lake still had a thin layer of ice. 

 

My tackle box during ice out for largemouth is jerkbaits, rattle traps, and football jigs. 

[scbassin]

Lookie here young lady I assume those temps are the highs for the day If that is the case That Temp is somewhere between 1 & 4pm so the water temp will not increase much at all. It might take 3 to 4 days to come up a degree depending what the lows are. So go to the northern side of the pond & cast a 1/4 oz spinner bait up on the bank & bring back to the water. when is in the water give a couple of small pops & then bring it back to you slowly. Make sure you are not to close to the bank as the fish will spook easily. You could try a jig & a jerk bait also but be careful because a splash will spook them. This past Saturday a friend of mine caught a 8 lb bass in less than a foot of water & a 10+ lb in 3 feet. I saw the proof. The water temp was 51. I am going to see my Cardiologist in the morning. I don't what he says I am going the lake Wednesday for at least the rest of the week.Tight Lines

[JHTR20]

Last year just after the ice went out I caught largies from shore casting a yellow panther martin inline spinner parallel to a chunk rock bank.  Slow cranked.  Best fish was over 3lbs.  Never felt it hit, rod just loaded up and at first I thought I was hung up.  Nope, once it pulled back.  Only reason I tried that lure was reading a really old Bassmaster article about inlines during a power outage.  

[Swamp Girl]

@scbassin I agree that the temp might be really slow to climb given that the highs are posted are usually only for an hour or two and the nighttime lows are in twenties and thirties for several hours. I think it's interesting that both you and @JHTR20 suggest a slowly retrieved flashy lure. I'll drop some of those in my early spring tackle box too, so thanks!

[padlin]

Is there open water in March in Maine?

[Swamp Girl]

22 minutes ago, padlin said:

Is there open water in March in Maine?

 

I hope. Our water didn't freeze until January, so I'm thinking the ice isn't real deep.

[Smokinal]

I'll be out as soon as my trailer doesn't ride on top of the water.

I'll only need 2 rods...one with a jerkbait and another with a Dark Sleeper

[Fat Ika]

On 2/6/2023 at 12:32 PM, ol'crickety said:

My only experiences with early spring fishing for largemouth were when I was a kid and my brothers and I would go way too early and it would snow on us and we'd catch nothing. Well, I started fishing for largemouth again at the beginning of August in 2022 and I had so much fun that I'm aching to get back on the water. I just don't know when that should be. 

 

Here on are the highs for my town from March 6th to March 23rd last year. What day(s) do you think would be best to fish if I had a similar stretch of temps in March of 2023:

 

6: 48

7: 46

8: 45

9: 32

10: 47

11: 44

12: 43

13: 27

14: 41 

15: 47

16: 40

17: 45

18: 63

19: 47

20: 48

21: 45

22: 40

23: 47

 

And what lures would you throw and where? The first pond I'm going to fish is small, only 11 acres, with a maximum depth of 16'. 

 

Or would you wait until April when the temps are mostly in the 50s? 

@ol'crickety I hear ya! Every year, always trying to improve bass fishing from the bank after ice-out. In northern IL, we deal with similar weather in March. Here's my experience that I've improved upon over the past 25-30 years.

 

If fishing hard bottom, I'll work the bottom with a football or finesse jig using a plastic with a dense body that doesn't have too many appendages to catch air..............looking for max casting distance and minimal plastic action. Neds and blade baits can fall into that mix as well. Also, have success creeping hard bottom with various soft swimbaits, whether it's a paddletail of various sizes and rigging or a larger wedge tail swimbait. Regardless of bottom comp/structure, I'll also always try out a suspending jerkbait and try and figure out the whole cadence to get bit. When it gets a bit easier after a trend of few warmer nights, I'll still stick with those baits, and if there's some decent wind, mix in a flatside.

 

If fishing soft bottom, jerkbait still plays along with tight wobbling shallow crankbaits, usually a shad/minnow style as my ponds are not deep enough to work most flatside over soft bottom/grass.....slow of a retrieve as possible with the crank subsurface, varying cadences.

 

Deadsticking/slowly working a drop shot with a bouyant plastic to hover over any gunk, is what I'll focus on mostly in softbottom areas. 

 

Also, deadsticking/slowly working a dense/aerodynamic texas rigged plastic I can bomb from the bank, if the bottom composition doesn't stick to the bait.

 

With a nice warming trend in soft bottom areas or late March, I'll usually have some success on wind blown banks with paddletail swimbaits with an underpin or not, spinnnerbaits, swim jigs. Again, various swimming cadences, with twitches, hops, pauses, to see what works best that day.

 

All my experiences comes from clear to gin clear water. Hope some of this info may help you. 

 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@Fat Ika Thanks! You fish s-s-slowly. I'll remember that. What does a hit feel like when they're so lethargic?