Anyone catching them in maine yet?

MEbasserJQ · April 13, 2009

I made it out on the water saturday 4/11. caught my first fish of the 09 season. 2lb LMB on a blade bait. Anyone else have any luck?

MaineBassMan · April 14, 2009

Not yet. I've been out once so far on one of my hot spots for ice out fishing and didn't even get a bite. I think it has to do with the flooding there though, water is way up and current is too fast. I will be going out Wednesday, which looks to be great weather wise, to a lake that just opened up and I usually do good on smallies as soon as the ice goes out there.

Imgonnamissher · April 14, 2009

Do you mind me asking what your ice-out tactics are? I don't usually end up catching any bass at all until mid May...I was hoping to put an end to that this year.

MaineBassMan · April 15, 2009

For large mouth i usually catch them tight to the bank in flooded heaths on jigs in about 2-5 foot of water, flip it in let it sit motionless and Wait for a bite or the line to move.

Small mouth I usually catch them in 8-10 foot of water just off from bedding areas. I have caught them on jigs and suspended jerks, but my best luck comes from a tube, black for me, but you may want to play with colors. I rig it on a 3/0 hook texas rigged with a 3/8 oz. bullet weight. cast it out parallel to the bedding areas in the 8-10 foot of water and let it sit still, reel in the slack line. After about a minute I barely drag it a couple of inches slowly, without it leaving the bottom and then let it set again. I may get a couple of ticks or see my line start to move, I let them have it a long time before I set the hook. Some reason they like it exactly like this too. Friend and I were fishing same exact tube and both of us were dragging them like mentioned above. However, mine was rigged with an internal weight and his was texas rigged like above he had eight smallies to my none. I gave in and rigged mine like his and on the first cast I caught one. Ended up tied at the end of the day, but that little change made all the difference.

Some may have better luck with other tactics but this is what works for me, it got me 5th place two years in a row fishing a 40 boat tournament, may have won the one last year if I didn't loose my big fish.