A Shoutout for NH Fishermen!!!

[Walkingboss]

You might be surprised by what constitutes a 'joke boat'...As far as I'm concerned, such a boat doesn't exist. There was one good ole' boy in Alabama that took a tourny fishing from a canoe! Anyway, there are many ways to get started. My boat pales in comparison to most of my competition, but it's the fish that count.  Notice what I'm fishing out of in the picture to the left.

On a different note....I have a tourny on Squam Lake this Sunday.  I've never been on Squam before.  I've heard great tales of smallmouth fishing there, but largemouth are going to win this tourny, I'm pretty sure.  I've heard Squam holds some good largemouth, and have one tip from a friend, but would appreciate any input you all may have regarding this.  I'm assuming Squam is a very clear lake with moderate to minimal vegetation, like Winni.  Back bays and silty bottoms are where I'll look for the largemouth, but on these types of lakes, the largemouth are usually only found in certain lake areas.  Any clues?

[llPa1nll]

Its gotten pretty cold these last few weeks at night. How are you guys catching them? Are you still getting them on summer patterns or have you switched over to fall patterns yet? As always tight lines...

[jaystraw]

I had been catching only a few fish, but the ones I've been caatching have been fairly shallow for the most part. I've also had a really hard time in the mornings before 9:00am or so.

The last couple days have been better.

I've also been catching more stuff on spinners (rocket-shad), and less on plastics. Also, the topwater bite has been on with the black jitterbug. I've caught both largies and smallies on the jitterbug lately.

I caught this smallie this aftenoon. Weighed a little over 2.5 pounds and fought like a monster. I love smallies!

[Walkingboss]

Its gotten pretty cold these last few weeks at night. How are you guys catching them? Are you still getting them on summer patterns or have you switched over to fall patterns yet? As always tight lines...

Last weekend I fished not summer, not fall, but winter patterns to barely squeak my limit at the tourny.  I was vertical jigging and drop shotting in 45' of water for smallmouth.  The largies were still shallow and could be seen in the weeds at Squam, but couldn't get them to bite.  Tried everything with no success and then started cruising around looking at the graph and found the fish suspending just above mid-lake humps.  Saturday's coldfront was a killer.

The weather has stabilized this week and I suspect the fish will be starting their annual fall feeding frenzy shortly.  Jerks, flukes, spinners, traps over the flats should be hot.  Jigs on inside turns off point drops should get your lunkers.

I'm off to Maine this weekend to fish a great lake near Sebago....Can't divulge it quite yet as bass fishermen seem to be clueless to its location and I'd like to keep it that way for now...I'll just say that it's very near to W. Poland.

I hope you all haul more than water this weekend.

[jaystraw]

Had some excellent smallie fishing today in the canoe. It was a little windy, but I still managed to catch a good amount of nice sized smallies. I caught them mostly on senkos, but I did catch a nice 2 pounder on a Heddon Torpedo (it drives the smallies crazy). I had a lot of other hits on the topwater, and even caught a bluegill on it.

This is one of the smallies I caught on a senko.

funny thing was that the smallies were VERY aggressive today (well more than they have been lately). They were also VERY shallow. I caught one in grass almost on the shore. It could not have been a foot of water where I tossed the senko, but it produced a big smallie.

Here's a pic of a 2.5 larry I caught on a senko this morning..only larry all day, but lots of smallmouth :  all fish were caught pretty shallow

[llPa1nll]

Nice Fish JayStraw...

[Walkingboss]

Fished/partied all weekend in Maine.  Caught mostly largemouth in 8-15' of water, with a few holding tight to shoreline cover and and some others shallow along reed/lilly beds in the late afternoon (windblown shore ONLY).  Water was 66 degrees +/- and lightly stained (visibility @ 10-12'.  Spinnerbaits along windblown shore, jigs on shoreline cover, and GYCB twintail hula grub in deeper water.  Best fish were out from shore.  Smallmouth, the few that I did get, were deep.  18-25' on minimal structure.  Grubs again.  I've got to say the smallies will be swarming like yellowjackets soon.  Hope I'm there for it.

[jaystraw]

wagn and I had a nice, but tough day of fishing. Went to Pleasent Pond in Francestown and only caught a few fish. Better than getting skunked, but an extremely slow day of fishing. Caught this smallmouth just off the shore off a rocky point, as were all the fish we caught:

[jaystraw]

I had another windy but successful afternoon in the canoe. Caught a nice sized Larry...about 3.5 pounds. Here's the picture:

Also caught about 4 nice 2 pound smallies. Here is a pic of one of them:

And I caught about 4 really big pickeral. Every one of them tried to bite me while trying to dehook them. Darn pickeal!

[wagn]

Got out today also for a few hours at the piscatequog river. Had one of the best days that i've had all year. It took me an hour and a half to get a bite but as soon as i found them i really slayed them. I could only get a bite on a senko, and 4 of my 9 bass were in the same small lillypad patch The patch was about the size of a car. My biggest bass, over 4 pounds, i caught in an isolated milfoil patch no bigger larger then a trashcan lid. That was a cool fight because i could see him buried up in the milfoil and it took 12 casts before i could get him to bite. All of the fish were on one sand flat no deeper then 2 1/2 feet. Once i figured out the pattern i consitantly caught fish until i had to leave. Exept for that one lilly pad patch i went around looking for isolate milfoil on a sand flat and there was a fish in every one. To bad i wasn't fishing a tounament, today would have been a pretty good limit for me

1over 4 pounds

2 over 3 pounds

and all of the other 6 were between 1 1/2 and 3 pounds

One of the best days i've had fishing in a long time

me trying to hold the 4 pounder

just before measuring him

all of the fish were caught in this back cove on a shallow sand flat

[jaystraw]

Nice fish wagn!!!!!

[llPa1nll]

Good job figuring out how they were biting...

[baboosicbass08]

Well this makes the 3rd week i haven't been out last time i did was Potanipo but i got skunked there too, whatss working for you guys now

[wagn]

Thanks Pain. It feels good when your struggling and find a way to turn it around.

Baboosic, lately i've been finding fish very shallow, sometimes in just a foot or two of water. I've just been looking for the warmest shallow water that i can find in the lake, and that's been working pretty well for me.

Went out today to Haunted lake with Jaystraw. Had a decent day. I think we got 9 fish overall, only 3 that would be considered keepers. Everything we caught was on plastics. I couldn't really find a great pattern, mostly we just covered as much water as we could.

here's the biggest i caught today

[jaystraw]

Yep, wagn caught the monster of the day. The fish were not super active, but we did OK.  When the fish are not even really biting that well on senko's, you know it's an inactive day!!

Here's the pic of me with my smaller fish:

[jaystraw]

Went out this afteroon in the canoe. No luck at all except 2 big pickeral on senkos, and then I caught a 2.5 pound larry under this overhanging birch tree on a creature bait (first time ever). When I looked at it, I noticed it had a black mark on it's bottom lip, and a depression. Also the upper lip is all torn up I got a pic and here it is. You can see the black spot under my thumb:

When I happened to look a this pic next to one I took of a big larry from last week from the same pond, I noticed it might be the same fish. Notice the black mark on the bottom lip, but not as pronounced.

What makes me sad is how skinny the fish is today compared to last week. It was released quickly the first time I caught it, but it looks rough.  I wonder if it is the same fish, and why it's so beat up?

[jaystraw]

Awesome fishiong yesterday in the canoe.  Caught about 10 smallies and 3 big pickeral.  All the smallies except 2 were over 1.5 pounds, and 4 were over 2 pounds.  Great day!

HEre is a cell phone pic of one ofthe the 2.75 pound smallie I caught:

[baboosicbass08]

where u catching all these smallies jay? i've only caught 1 smallie this year the rest were larrys.

[jaystraw]

I caught those at Gould Pond in Hillsboro.  Gotta love smallmouth ponds!!

I think they are a bit more active than the Larry's right now for some reason, but it depends on the day (see my report from 10/2)

[mdntridr]

fished Deering Reservoir today.  Man, what a tough day fishing.  In 6 hours fishing I caught 4 tiny bass, a few perch and pickerel.  When lunker of the day aint even a bass you know it's tough fishing   Anyways, I went everywhere, and can only assume that the bass are in deep water because there wasn't a gosh darned one above 8 ounces to be seen anywhere.  If anyone's had success on that lake can you tell me where and how?

Greg

[wagn]

Had the same problem today. Only went out for a couple of hours but all i caught was one small bass and a yellow perch. The water was 71 degrees and the day was really warm. I would have figured that the bass would have been up shallow. Guess i was wrong. There's always next time

[jaystraw]

I had essentially the same problem Friday, yesterday and today.

On friday my buddy and I went to a pond that does not get fished much at all.  I caught a dink off the launch waiting for my friend.  He caught one about 20 feet after we launched.  We did not catch another fish in 1.5 hours until I caught a 2 pound larry trolling a Rapala on the way back to the launch.

Caught one smaller LM (1lb or so) at Milton 3 Ponds yesterday in an entire day of fishing(9am-4pm). My buddy caught about 5 small bass (all under a pound) and a couple small pickeral. We also covered the entire accessable water to no real luck. The fish we caught were on Rapalla's left to sit as topwater baits with a twitch every now and then. I tried plastics to barely any bites....

Today I only caught 1 big pickeral and 2 decent smallmouth in a few hours of fishing from 9am-1pm. I caught the pickeral and one smaller smallie using my buddy's Rapalla topwater technique. I caught the other bigger smallmouth on a senko.

Tough weekend!

[llPa1nll]

Well I havent posted lately and today I just had to get out on the water. Boat was in the water at 7am on Cobbets today, in a heavy downpour, came in at 6:30pm with a light mist. The rain came and went all day with a few heavy down pours. I havent had a day like this in quite some time and thought I would share. If anyone else braved the conditions of heavy downpours and rain so cold it had fog rolling of the lake you were rewarded. Conservatively Id say I caught atleast 30 fish today probably more like 40 but hell I cant keep track. For big fish and there were a few I myself caught 1 3lb SM, 1 4lb LM, 1 5lb LM.  They all came on topwater except for the 5lb LM, he was caught on a jig. Well hope you guys had as good a day as I did. Im gonna rest my arm now before it falls off.

[jaystraw]

Nope..I did not have that good a day.

Caught about 5,  2-3 pound pickeral and a 2 lb smallie trolling a rapalla on my way back to launch.

Happy to catch fish, but I wish they were all bass!

[Tokyo Tony]

Any of you guys shore fish at Boston Lot Lake near Hanover?  I love that place - heading up this weekend from CT for my fraternity reunion weekend, and I always hit this place up.  TONS of smallish smallies.