Downeaster2010

When most of us were young we didn't have money for a boat, but did get canoes to start fishing. After a few years we moved up to some form of boat. You are going to have a lot more fun in a canoe or boat.

There is too much to it to just pass along. I recommend you purchase two books written by Dale Clemmons, whom is know as one of the best rod makers. I have built rod for over 20 years but no longer as my eye sight fails me on watching the fine thread. You will need several tools, most are very inexpensive. You can build a better rod than you can purchase, because you choose the parts and the blank. When I say that, I mean most often retailers skimp on 1 or 2 of the parts that make up the type of rod you want to create. Its only a few dollars difference on a good Fuji reel seat, vs an elcheapo. If you are thinking of building, you don't have to purchase a retail setup for your rollers etc. Most rod builders I know built there own. As for rollers that your rod will turn on. most of us use the rollers, that are associated with shower doors. They are ball bearing, and work well for thousands of rods. As for a rod drying device once a fresh finish is on. I made one out of a small motor used in an old humidifier. It turn the rod about 10 to 15 times per minute, while the epoxy is drying. Again, get the Clemmons books, and you can get a tackle crafting book from Cabelas. They include basic rod building booklet with there kits. There epoxy is very good.

I would imagine that the lake is low. It is just a flooded brook to start off with. Maine has been in a very serious drought on rain. None since the snow melt. All of Maine is in serious fire hazard. If Arrowhead is down don't bother to go, as 80 pct of it will be unfishable.

I have been doing it for 25 years, and it is my preferred method. You can make up your own designs, and colors no one else has. I use a fly tying vice to hold my hook while I tye the jig. Take your thread put on 8 or 10 wraps around the jig. Add some thread sealer to the threads to lock them. I use fingernail polish. Cheap and comes with the brush. then add one color, put on some wraps and then another color. Tie them off and then put on 1 more coat of sealer. Let sit for a min, and you are done. Takes me only a couple of minutes to do a jig.

Rubber worms when its sunny, and rubber worms when it is cloudy.

That is why you have to take care of you health. Outlive her and sell her stuff.

I have found that smallmouth generally move into shallow coves prior to largemouth. Early spring small coves heat up quicker do to sun penetration. most will be in the very back of the cove, and if there is a small brook there they could be up in it. They will start making beds once the water temp reaches 65 degrees. Most smallies will be the 1 to 2 lb class. They will generally enter the cove on the warmest water side, which could be 5 degrees difference than the other. When the fish enter coves in the spring they are not looking for shade, as much as they are warmer water. Small lures, and non aggressive baits can put them in the boat. Large, or noisy lures will spook the whole group. Within a few days of entering the cove from the warm side, cove temps will rise and they will filter out to the entire cove. Largemouth will follow, but it will be the bucks, and not the large females. Large females will stage just a short distance out in a little deeper water, until the bucks come calling.

I don't need a charger for my cranking battery, as my big motor does a find job, and I only have two digital sounders hooked up. My trolling motor is a 24 volt, and I have two new batteries. Like I said they are hooked up to the Minn Kota d210. Instructions come with the charger. I chose this one because of price. I would have gotten the d220 if i were on a trournament trail, because it charges both batteries at 10 amps. MY d210 charges at 5amps, and will fully recharge my batteries in 10 hours. Charging to full overnight is fine with me, and the charger is $100 less than the d220. Charging at a lower rate 5 amps will prolong the life of a deep cycle over a faster charge. Once charged but still plugged into house current, the charger will maintain the batteries. Just read up on them at the MinnKota web site.

My motor charges the starting battery, and maintains it. I purchased a Minn Kota D210 that charges 2 trolling motor batteries which are hooked up all the time. After a day fishing, and I get home, I just plug in an extention cord to the charger, and wham it charges both trolling motor batteries individually at 5-6 amps, and a full charge overnight. Charger mounts in the boat, and wiring diagram comes with the charger. So far I like it. I bought it on sale from Cabelas this spring for $109.99.

Sounds like a weak battery to me. You may have charged it, but if its got a bad cell this will happen.

I had a number of Ranger bass boats, and when I encountered my first Bass Cat, I wish I had bought one of them. Much more bang for my buck. Bass cat all the way.

My old Ranger was named "Cats Ass"

I learned 20 years ago, to shut the motor off and approach what ever your target is to be extremely stealthy, no wake or noise from the boat. Try a lizard and put it directly on the bed, they won't be able to stand it. Lizards eat a lot of their fry. They will try to move it off the bed or kill it.

In the clear water in the Northeast, I would say a white spinnerbait with copper blades, but never fish a river without a yellow mepps spinner when targeting smallies.

Yes it is, I had to step back to bass fishing, as everything for bluefin was way more. I was lucky because I used to build rods as a hobby, so built 3 130lb class bent butt tuna rods, that cost me about 300 each, then 3 Penn Senator II 130Lb class that cost over 1000 ea. Fill them with line at 100 per pop. Trolling squids rigs that had 15 seventeen inch squids at 10 each on a trolling bar just to get 1 rod fishing. It adds up fast. I had a habit of making all my own rigs so that saved me some, but gas in and out to the fishing grounds and in a short while you are broke. The squid rigs were for when the tuna were not hitting bait, so you had to troll, oh and then trolling you needed outriggers that went up 18 foot. Then on top of that the US govt said you needed liferafts, epirb, survival suits, nav gear, whew. I would have been way ahead if I just stayed with bass. I kept the tuna boat for 13 years, and when I sold it I was able to take the money and pay cash for a new bass boat dressed completely out. Now I am pouring lead, and plastic. When I quit before I was doing the lead jigs, but not the plastic. I guess it is cheap compared to the Tuna. Catching a bass is a great feeling, but when you hookup with a tuna its a heart attack. The thing I don't lack is experience and I think I will surprise a lot of the younger fishermen.

Merc1997 is correct about the catsup, but it is the vinegar in the catsup that cleans up the blades. Just put them in a vinegar solution for a few hours. Also, I used to clean up plugs and spinner blades with tooth paste. It has just enough grit to clean up blades and lures, but not enough to ruin the finish.

Although my tag on here is a minnow, I am anything but, when it comes to bass fishing. I caught the bug early on in 1972, when a friend of Jimmy Houston returned to Maine after going to Oklahoma University with him. He knew all about spinnerbaits and rubber worms, of which no one in Maine had a clue at that time. Most of us purchased 8 inch Mann's worms at the time, as there were huge bass all over Maine that had not been fished. It was easy to go out and catch 25 five pounders a day, with an occasional 8-10 lbs largemouth. Those were great bass fishing days in Maine. I purchased a Glastron bass boat, and joined a club. It turned out with 30 members I had the only original bass boat, and not a put together. I served as club President in 1981-82. I left the club scene to fish the East coast circuit for a few years. in 1995 I left bass fishing to chase Bluefins like you see on Wicked Tuna. I did the same thing, and found out that you put even more money into that than bass fishing. Now I have come full circle, back to pouring my on jigs, and now pouring my own rubber. I suspect I will join a local bass club in June for the comraderie with fellow anglers. I turned 70 last fall, but am still young at heart, and a go getter when it comes to hunting and fishing. Luckily I had a good work career, and retired in 2004, to hunt and fish full time. I moved to an area of Maine where there are many lakes and ponds. The lakes here are all clear water, with some that have a visibility down to almost 20 ft. The water looks like stuff you bottle. So the next 10 years of so, I hope to be chasing the bass again. There are a lot of bass boats and bass fishermen here now, but most have confidence in just a few chosen lures. I find I have strong confidence in 15-20 different setups. We will see how I stand up to the younger guys this summer.

Near Cow island, lucky you. White spinnerbaits with copper blades for Winnie.

When a state makes a law like that, and fishermen test the waters fishing beds. This is when a state makes a new law stating no bass fishing until after the fish have ceased to spawn giving a known date.

I fished a tournament in the 80's, that had severe weather, and lightning. It was a scarey day, and the fish were definitely shut off. It was early spring we were all wet and cold. One of the tournament members got hit by lightning, having the rod knocked from his hand. He was uninjured, picked up the rod and kept fishing. He won the tournament, but it could have been tragic. I will never enter another tournament where conditions are forecast like that.

Over the years I have won a lot of money finesse fishing worms. I fish gin clear water. When fishing shallow, I will use a 1/16 oz worm weight, and a 1/32 if I can find them. I have even purchased the .177 pellets that are made for the pellet guns, and drilled a small hole in the heads. I spray painted them all black, and they catch a lot of fish on my worms 4-6 inch. Regardless of what you think a 6 inch worm will catch a finicky bass of very respectable size, when it won't even look at a worm of 7-8 inches. Its just not that hungry for a big meal, but a small delicious looking 4-6 incher is just right. The small worm weight is critical for very soft entry, less splash, and slow fall. I have fished many different baits over time, and have confident in 15 or so. But my money bait is the worm or jig.

Normally bass are spooky in the spring, as they are just coming out of the winter doldrums. Fish smaller lures, and smaller baits than you would during the waters have warmed up to 65 degs. The fish are looking for warmer water, to feed in, and are nervous. One bad cast with too large a lure, will send them all scattering for deeper water. I fish very clear waters so I have to be very stealthy, using small lures, and slow boat movement.

You can use any fish bait oil. It is better if you add Anise or Garlic scent oils. For 6 bucks you can generally get the fish oil in any tackle store, or Walmart. I used to fish the bass circuit in the 80's and 90's then quit to chase Bluefin. Now after 20 years I check my old rubber worm stock, and all of my worm, craws etc, are still in perfect condition. I added some worm oil and bingo back to new condition. If they are stiff, or worm, you can always melt them down and repour them into a different form using a homemade mold or a POP mold. I melted a lot of mine down and repoured them into Senko's.

I was in the Coast Guard, and had just returned to Maine after 3 years there. It was 1972, and a friend at that time had just returned from Okla University, where he went to college with Jimmy Houston. Well none of us in Maine had a clue how to catch a bass other than throw a Rebel, or a Daredevel and see if you get lucky. Well, my friend taught myself and another how to fish for bass with rubber worms and spinner baits. At this time, rubber worms and spinner baits were completely unknown, and no store had anything even similar. You couldn't even find a baitcast reel and rod at the time. We had to order our rods, reels, fishing line, and worms, all by mail from Bass pro shops. They had a big catalog and we would dwell over the stuff in it. We would fill out the order blank, then mail it in, and wait anxiously for the package to return. Bass fishing in Maine was in its infancy, and largemouth and smallmouth were in many of our lakes and ponds and extremely big fish. A typical outing we would catch 50 fish, and sometimes 25 fish a day between 5 and 8 lbs. Maine has many water with large fish, and we would travel 50 to 80 miles without batting an eye, to fish 1 pond in the morning, and a different one in the afternoon. Those were what I called the good ole bass fishing days.

I know that changing the oil on my motor can be messy, but I stumbled on something neat and it could also work well for other motors making changing the engine oil simple. Check out this video. The item is only $15 online. www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzqlgZro-wU