Northern first bass guess

[Swamp Girl]

Yeah, that Chucky is pretty confident too, but just wait until he meets Mr. Norris.

[1984isNOW]

Chuck Norris doesn't play with dolls

 

 

 

But when he does

 

 

He beats the demons out of them

[Jar11591]

I have to amend my guess. March has been extremely warm and the forecast has more of the same. Things may thaw within a week and I’ll be casting as soon as they do. Been a while since I caught a March bass. 

[WhatJustHappened]

12 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

 

Chucky-grade confidence.

 

 

 

We'll see, my ribs are pretty bad, but there's open water, with 2 new rigs and gear BEGGING for some action 😂

**** it is getting difficult every time I drive by.

Rods are going in my truck tomorrow.

I can usually get at least one... we'll see 😆

[softwateronly]

Ice came off late yesterday afternoon, but no luck before nightfall.  Today was warm and windy, got a few out in 18' fow but then found shad and bass in less than 2' fow on a windblown bank.  Underspin, jighead minnow, hair jig, and blade bait got the bites.  Got about 14 and one giant perch.  Here's the best...

 

scott

 

[Swamp Girl]

@softwateronly: Beauty! Plus, 14 this early in a season is smokin' hot comin' out of that cold water.

 

@WhatJustHappened: Fingers crossed for you, buddy.

 

[WhatJustHappened]

Thanks, Between the weather and my ribs(I really jacked them up a couple weeks ago) I wasn't even thinking about it..but I think I can cast, and I have NEW GEAR, which is really pushing me. Totally Bank. I'll Post, I actually expect to post, even if it's a Dink. 😆

[Swamp Girl]

On 2/15/2025 at 12:44 PM, Swamp Girl said:

I'm guessing March 20th, but I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't happen until March 30th.

 

Gosh, was ^this^ ever a swing and a miss. Our water is still mostly frozen and ten days from now, it'll still be cold as a glass of water chock full of ice cubes. 

 

[WhatJustHappened]

I never got a chance, ribs/work,St Patties with the Fam, and weather didn't cooperate.

Hopefully have a chance to go tomorrow, but schedule is pretty full... I'll have to get really lucky to even think about it.

Pretty sure I can cast ok now, I can get out of my truck without issues.

Looks like Chuckie dropped his draws...

[1984isNOW]

5 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

^

I was wondering how things were going up there. Hopefully they'll all get hungry around the same time and have a spitfire prespawn this season

[Craig P]

I was able to hit a  small local lake last week and caught 2 LM. Nothing of size but it was nice to catch a little earlier in the year than I usually do. Unfortunately, I went back the next two days and couldn’t find a bite!  Only gets better from here right? 

[Swamp Girl]

34 minutes ago, 1984isNOW said:

I was wondering how things were going up there. Hopefully they'll all get hungry around the same time and have a spitfire prespawn this season

 

So many big bass have been caught this winter and spring that I better hit a hot streak if I hope to contribute my fair share. This will work against me: I'm planning to fish a bog that I skipped in 2024. It has few bass, but big bass. It's so weedy and shallow come early June that April and May are my best chances to fish it. You know that I love a busy boat, i.e. lots of bass, but fishing that bog, I'll have a pretty quiet boat. Eight bass was my best trip there ever for numbers and one trip, I caught just one. It's tough to fish, but when I do hook one, there's about a one in three chance it'll be four to six pounds and I expect there are even bigger ones that swim there. Here is one from that pond:

 

[1984isNOW]

If I had a spot near me with those odds, it would be hard for me to fish anywhere else.

 

Never mind the fact that 8 fish in a trip would be what I call a great day. Have I mentioned how much I hate where I live? Am I just a freak who's way too into fishing to actually even appreciate it anymore? Am I greedy wanting bigger fish? I'm happy with less fish if they're bigger fish, but it feels like it's just so dry around here it's almost maddening.

 

I think I have an idea for a post haha

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

Am I greedy wanting bigger fish?

 

Nope. We all want that. Well, nearly all of us:

 

There is a trout angler down the road. He's the retired editor of perhaps the most beautiful fishing magazine ever published and as such, he's fished pert near everywhere: Iceland, New Zealand, Argentina, etc. He owns some land on a small stream that empties into the sea and that stream has tiny trout in it. He said recently, when asked, what his favorite place to fish in the whole, wide world was and he said that stream for those trout. 

 

And I get that, I think. He doesn't have to board a flight and take a connecting flight to a connecting flight to an SUV to a remote lodge to cast, always in the company of others. He can simply don his waders and walk out his back door and be with bright, wild brookies. The desire for bigger, more, and farther is gone in him and I don't pity him. I envy him. 

 

If I ever build on my waterfront lot, I might be just like him, happiest to simply walk down to my pond and fish for those bass, which aren't the biggest bass, but big enough and oh-so close.

 

8 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

If I had a spot near me with those odds, it would be hard for me to fish anywhere else.

 

Yeah, I'm a little surprised I didn't fish it last year, but I'd just bought my land and also landed my PB and so I focused on my pond and that PB pond. Plus, it's a tricky bog, wandering every which way with little waterfalls, rocks, beaver lodges, and more weeds than any other place I fish. So, there's current and plenty of cover, but they're still hard to find and they're so strong, which is a real challenge in a lightweight canoe in the midst of all that cover.

 

8 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

Never mind the fact that 8 fish in a trip would be what I call a great day.

 

You sound like @PhishLI now, who has reminded me many times how easy I have it...and I do, up to a point, but last October, when I landed my all-time biggest bag, which was in the mid to upper twenties, I noted in my trip report how I was the only one out there, the only one who launched on that cool, foggy morning, carrying my canoe down a rocky and muddy slope and the only one who paddled upstream for miles to reach those bass.

 

It's not like that spot is a secret. It has a public parking spot, but I've seen how even young men, with the most strength, balance, and energy they'll ever have, pass on the mud, rising at four, the cool, wet mornings, and paddling miles.

 

And if you want the comfort of fishing from a big, comfy, fast boat or even a tricked-out kayak, you're passing too on that river, for the first would be impossible to launch and even if you hired a crane to launch, you'd hit a rock or run aground in a New York minute. Even the kayak would be so hard to launch, weighing what it does. To reach some places, you have to fish with less: less speed, less comfort, and less equipment.

 

8 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

Have I mentioned how much I hate where I live?

 

Bass can be caught in urban areas. I used to catch fine smallmouth bass in downtown Columbus, Ohio and I've seen videos of guys catching thick largemouth in downtown Chicago. Of course, @softwateronly catches BIG smallmouth in downtown Chicago, as do others. And I've seen videos of good bass fishing in Central Park in NYC.

 

Of course, I don't know your situation. 

[1984isNOW]

15 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I envy him

I can feel you on that

 

15 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

tricky bog

Definitely sounds like it, maybe it wouldn't fish it as much either... but it would be nice to have the option haha

 

15 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

some places, you have to fish with less: less speed, less comfort, and less equipment.

Real talk

I'm happy to compromise given the opportunity, still feel stuck on the worst of both worlds over here in NE MA

 

Maybe i just gotta eat some of my on the water time and start driving farther away. Just sucks losing time to driving, plus being far from home in case there's ever an emergency or anything, not that I'd be able to get back very quick I suppose anyway

 

15 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Bass can be caught

Maybe i just gotta get out more haha, this is why I posted my other thread, heading there now to see what I missed while I was away.

 

Always a pleasure Katie, I respect and appreciate what you have to say

[Swamp Girl]

8 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

Always a pleasure Katie, I respect and appreciate what you have to say

 

Thanks. That means a lot to me. 

 

8 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

still feel stuck on the worst of both worlds over here in NE MA

 

Okay, I know the territory. I used to live in Brighton and Brookline. Your turf is people, people, and more people. Plus people. And roads. And buildings. Buildings full of people. 

 

When I was young and strong, I fished in northwestern Ontario and as good as the fishing is in Maine, if I could, I'd still fish northwestern Ontario instead*. My happiest place is a lake with no homes, no people, and no other boats and there are few delights in this world for me that are greater than portaging through the woods and seeing blue glimmering through the trees. Then you reach that shore and cast to see if there are fish in that lake and it's fish on!

 

*I focused on northwestern Ontario because there's an area there where smallmouth abound and they were my favorite fish for several decades.

[1984isNOW]

50 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

people, people, and more people. Plus people. And roads. And buildings. Buildings full of people. 

Pristine waters don't exist near me haha

 

I'm thinking I might actually pay money one day to have somebody take me fishing for monsters in Texas or Fla

 

Or maybe monster smallies in NY on St Lawrence

 

Or maybe I could put the money towards more gear and take myself fishing in Texas or New York 🤔

[Swamp Girl]

3 minutes ago, 1984isNOW said:

Pristine waters don't exist near me haha

 

I'm thinking I might actually pay money one day to have somebody take me fishing for monsters in Texas or Fla

 

Or maybe monster smallies in NY on St Lawrence

 

Or maybe I could put the money towards more gear and take myself fishing in Texas or New York 🤔

 

All good options. I'd consider Erie and Ontario too for monster smallies. If you could fish morning and evening, you might enjoy 100-bass days in Maine, which isn't that far away. 

[JackstrawIII]

My best fishing day of 2024 was April 28th here in NY... which happened to be the first day that I brought my boat out (it was a cold spring, and I don't like being cold). Hoping that things warm up quicker this season, as I'm itchy to get out and start the party. We still have ice around the launches in many places, but it's disappearing steadily. 

 

All that to say, I'm guessing I'll catch my first bass (from my boat) around April 15th. I'll likely hit up a few shore fishing spots on my way to work before then, but that's when I'm going to "officially" start the season. 

[DaubsNU1]

I don't remember making a guess...but yesterday, 22-March-2025, I landed my first LMB of the season.

 

Water temp was 46 degrees. Fish was on a flat near some standing timber in 3' of water...right next to a creek channel that drops to 12'.

 

Bluegill colored 3/8 oz. spinner bait. Fourteen inches long, 1lb-8oz.

 

Three casts later I had another strike, but failed to hook up. 

 

[Swamp Girl]

@DaubsNU1: Way to go, buddy! We're getting 4.5 inches of snow tomorrow, so I'll be using a snowblower instead of a paddle and pole. Just imagine the woman below singing these lyrics:

 

Someday there's a bass for me

Someday there's a bass for me

Peace and quiet and warm water

Bass wait for me

Someday

 

 

[NanerTheFisher]

im from massachusetts, i get my first bass of the year in february-early march, though i have gotten them in january. That is... if there's open water.

[MIbassyaker]

There's enough open water around me now that I could be out there. Still about a month away from being able to spare the time, though.

[MN Fisher]

35 minutes ago, MIbassyaker said:

There's enough open water around me now that I could be out there. Still about a month away from being able to spare the time, though.

I could target them from the shore using finesse tactics....but it's illegal to target them for another 46 days here.