nhbassin

Check out this beauty that I caught this evening on a chatterbait with a rage craw trailer. At 6 pounds 1 ounce, it is my 5th biggest bass ever. It sure made my evening!

June 7th or 14th works for me. Im in!

Got out on Powdermill Pond yesterday for my first tourney. Ended up 4th out of 11 anglers with a 5-4 limit for 2 fish. Biggest bag of the day was just under 8 pounds and the lunker was 4-11.

IM IN!!!

I read how that list is compiled, and there are a few B.A.S.S. members to represent each state, and they give their personal opinions on what lakes in their state are the best for fishing tournaments on. They also do their best to include every state on the list...otherwise half of them would be in Texas and Florida. Still cool to get the recognition though.

Thanks Jaystraw. Good to hear that we should be able to get under the bridge still.

Ive got my first tournament this Sunday on Powder Mill Pond. Anyone know how the water level is looking there?

Yeah, NEJitterbug is putting it together again, starting in May. There was bunch of discussion about it a few weeks ago in the "Anyone Have any Luck in Southern NH Yet" thread.

There ya go! Even if you didn't get any fish, it can never hurt to learn your baits better, so thats still a successful trip.

What is this, troutresource.com? Go throw some jigs and jerkbaits for some bass!

Nearly all ponds and lakes in the southern part of the state have at least a few feet of open water around the edges. Some people around the Nashua area have already been catching fish because the water is open on sunny/smaller ponds.

Aim for back water areas with shallow, slow moving water right now. If you can find any in the sun, they should be noticeably warmer than the main river. I know the Merrimack around NHTI in Concord has some good backwaters that I would target right now if all of the ice is off of them.

I aim for any shallow points or flats that are close to deep water. In my opinion, as soon as ice is out, largemouth will move from deeper water onto very shallow points or flats in the afternoons, once the sun has warmed the water up. Perch seem to get active quickly as the water warms up, so its tough to beat yellow perch jerkbaits or jigs in most NH fisheries in April.

I dont know if the forage has changed at Deering Res, but when I used to ice fish there 12+ years ago, nearly every big smallmouth I caught was a short ways off the big island with no houses on it, and many of them spit up craw fish once we got them through the ice. Let us know if you guys have any luck there.

I would love to, but at this rate we won't even have open water by the end of next month! we are definitely still making ice today.

Got two largemouth over 6 pounds last fall on a bluegill swim jig with rage craw trailer. That was my go-to bait last year, and will likley continue to be at the top of my list this season too.

I agree. Keeping it to New England would be cool since we all know each other, but I'm in either way.

Me and CLR9933 saw you out on the water this day. That was when we had back to back 80+ degree days in March. I can only dream for that kind of weather right now.

Ive got a bunch of live target lipless crankbaits, and they certainly look nice, but I feel they provide an advantage over standard lipless crankbaits only if you are fishing in very clear water. I still prefer the $5-$6 red-eyed shad since it flutters side to side while falling on a slack line and comes in both rattle & non-rattle versions. The baitball crabkbait by livetarget is a whole different lure though, and I am very interested to hear how it works for you guys. Keep us posted.

Boscawen at the hannah duston bridge Concord @ NHTI Concord @ Everett Arena Concord next to the Concord Monitor building Fishercat's Stadium in Manchester Bow (half mile south of the power plant) Hooksett @ Merrimack Street, right next to the d**n and just upstream of the bridge on Main Street. There are tons more, those are just the ones that I have fished alot. Its pretty hard to find the Merrimack in NH without a boat ramp real close by.

I was out on the ice yesterday in Merrimack and there were 16 inches of solid black ice, and another 14 of white ice on top of that. Unless your hitting up the Merrimack River, I dont think anyone will be on the water this month.

Neverett knows that for sure. He crushes it at the Nashua River all season.

I fished Deering Res a ton back when I was in middle school. Mostly ice fishing, but did some fishing out of a canoe also. The place was an awesome fishery, where we would get good numbers of brown trout, perch, pickerel, hornpout and smallmouth. The place was loaded with crawfish and we always did well using craws for bait aroud the 2 big islands. People also smelted there too, so there is plenty of food to create some big bass.

"State law prohibits the use of lead sinkers and jigs in all fresh water in New Hampshire, including lakes, ponds, rivers and streams. The ban prohibits the use of lead sinkers weighing 1 ounce or less and lead jigs less than 1 inch long along their longest axis." - NH Fish & Game The majority of bass jigs are more than 1 inch long, so you should have no issues. If you are using jigs under 1 inch long, definitely move up to a 1/2 or 3/4 ounce with a rage craw trailer and you will have much better results.