NH_Bass_Tard

Jaystraw, are you still planning on going to powder mill or did you decide against it?

WRB, thanks for all the advice I'll deifinitley give it all a try. I try to stay away from the spinnerbaits for the same reason you said, the pickerel are all over them. Your right about the pickerel being in the weeds, because the thicker we get into the milfoil, the more pickerel we catch. We usually catch most of our summer bass on the edges of the milfoil. The water clarity really isn't that great. If your in 3 feet of water you cannot see the bottom. Its a stained green color. The reason I found out there were trout in there is because on one day we caught 2 rainbows. It's the only time it has ever happened. We caught them where the channel is narrow right before it opens up into the main lake. The water is around 15-20ft in that spot, its not shown on my map. I guess you could say it's upstream.

Nice Jaystraw, I've been determined to figure this place out so hopefully you can come up with something. Yea from my experience it has been very difficult to pull in numbers, but it sure does have some monster bass in there. That's the only reason I keep going there. I also enjoy the challenge of trying to figure out the pattern's and secrets of this place. My map I know for a fact isn't completely accurate. I'm just basing it off of what I've when the water levels are down and at I'm seeing on the depth finder. Im unsure of whether the creek actually splits apart toward the top. Good luck this week!

It is a small lake, but it has been challenging. When I fish at natural lakes I catch way more bass then when I go here. I've been trying to figure this place out for a while. The bass have a very funny behavior here, far from predictable. Not sure if this affects anything but here are all the species of fish: LMB, SMB, Rock Bass, Blue Gill, Crappie, Yellow Perch, White Perch, Pickerel, and Trout. I wonder if all these different species affects their behavior?

Based on information I have gathered from fishing here the past couple days and also from what others have posted I have edited the map and marked the areas I feel are the most likely spawning sites and they are numbered and marked in red. The spawning were based on protection from the wind, depth, and bottom contour. The wind is primarily from the North and West. The reason I'm doing all this is that this is my first time fishing during the prespawn and spawn and I want to make sure I get it right. Here's what I came up with:

Well I'm not sure if that is typical but we just had 4 days of hot weather that was 80+. I fish in a shallow reservoir that warms really fast, it really depends on the body of water you are fishing. Depth and water clarity will determine how fast the water warms and what is typical for a certain time of year.

Nice that's how to pull em in! What kind of areas were you guys targeting??

yes, the warming spell has come with blue skies.

I went out today and could only catch pickerel. It's been like this for three days in a row. Since sunday I think me and my dad have probably caught around 40 pickerel, 0 bass. The water temp. was 66-68F. Not sure where the bass are or any sunfish for that matter. Seems too early for the spawn. All I know is that I'm absolutley stumped!

Well the past three or four days we have had weather in the 80's accompanied by high pressure. During this span from friday until today, I've the water temp go from about 52-54F to 66-68F. The pressure right now is currently dropping and some cooler air in the 60's is on its way. The reason I brought this topic up is because since this warming trend with high pressure, the bass bite has really really slowed down. We were having good look in the shallows and around areas that seem to be potential spawning sites. Now the only thing we can get to bite are pickerel. The pickerel are very aggressive right now, yesterday we caught around 10 and the day before around 20. The bass seem to have disappeared.

From everything I've learned about high baro. it's supposed to pull the bass tight to cover or send them deep and it shrinks the strike zone.

I had the same experience yesterday. The water temp was the about the same. All we managed to get were pickerel. The past two days the bass have been nowhere to be found, but the pickerel bite has been incredible. We were hitting areas that looked like likely spawning areas with different presentations and retrieves. I wonder if the high pressure had anything to do it?? the barometric pressure was 30.33 at the time we went out.

I know that high pressure can make bass become less active and send them to deep water or into tight cover. But what happens when they are in their late prespawn activities of bulding nests and plumping up? do they follow their normal habits or are they unaffected and keep going about their business? Whats the right strategy to take in this situation?

Another reason I need to know the likely spots where bass will make their beds is because the water is stained. You can't see the bottom in 3-4 FOW. So if I am going to target bedding bass and late prespawn bass I kind of have to do it blindly. If I can narrow down the productive areas it will make things much easier.

Yea, well the problem I'm having is that there are so many shallow areas with hard sandy bottoms. I was reading somewhere that bass prefer to spawn close to the bank, is that true?

yea, I think it depends on the body of water. Almost all my fish have been shallow, but I fish at Powder Mill, which is a shallow reservoir with barely any deep water. So I'm guessing the bass there are more shallow oriented and may even spend the winter in shallow water 6ft and under.

Based on the info and pictures about this place, I was wondering what you guys thought would be the most likely spawning areas. Today the water temp was about 60-63 so the spawn is arounf the corner and I need to get prepared.

Went out today and didn't catch any bass. I thought for sure today would have been good. Caught like 10 pickerel though. The water temp was between 60-63. Its about that time for them to start making their beds, right?

Thats a nice fish. I'd definitley say that Hillsboro is considered southern NH.

Thanks guys. I also got this 3 pounder:

Went back to Powder Mill Pond with my dad and this time it was me who caught a monster. Again it weighed 5lbs 14oz, kind of a coincidence. Here it is:

Those giant fish on the surface are most likely carp.. Im pretty sure they can be caught on bread balls. Those fish have been known to get as big as 35-40 pounds.

WOW! that's a nice nice bass. Good Job on that. I need to catch me a fish like that.

Gotta question that has to do with pickerel. If you are catching pickerel in a certain area, does that mean that bass will probably shy away from that spot? because I've heard that LMB don't like to compete with other species for food. For example, I've heard that if SMB are present in the same body of water, LMB bass won't go deep because those are the areas that SMB usually inhabit. And they won't be able to compete for forage because SMB are obviously faster and better swimmers.

Ya pickerel make me mad. There is no rhyme or reason to their behavior. You can catch them in the most random places. One time I was trolling and the pole that I wasn't using had a spinnerbait on it and the line was in the water just enough for the spinnerbaits blades to get moving. It was only about a foot from the boat and out of nowhere a pickerel slams it and almost rips my pole into the water. It seems as if they follow no distinct pattern or behavior. They just kind of cruise around and attack anything that moves.