Mainebass1984

I have got 30 days of vacation I am using this fall. It is my favorite time to fish. I will be taking time off in Sept, Oct, and Nov. The biggest bass I have ever caught at night was in Oct weighing in at an even 7 lbs 0 oz on a spinnerbait. The biggest bass I have ever caught was in Nov at 9 lbs 1 oz. I love fall fishing. The fishing is great day or night. I often have great luck on low wind days which are common in the fall with lots of cloud cover. Rainy days can be amazing too. The areas I target vary quite a bit from Sept to Nov. I try and target isolated off shore structure like sunken trees a mile or so off shore in 15 feet of water in Sept and Oct. In late Oct and Nov I fish pretty deep sometimes as much as 40 feet deep. My go to baits are a weightless worm, a 1/2 oz jig, a square bill crankbait and a spinnerbait. In Nov I do like fishing a blade bait. I need to get some swimbaits. A-Jay what are your top 3 swimbaits and why ? I usually quit fishing when my boat cant break through the ice anymore. Usually around thanksgiving or so.

Ive been catching a few skinny bass this year in the waters I fish too. Sucks catching a big, long fish with no girth. 23 1/4inch fish with no girth. Should have weighed much much more then 5 lbs 4 oz.

It has been feeling like fall outside the past couple weeks. The leaves are starting to change. It was 43 degrees the other morning. The water temps are down to the low 70s. It seems like the fish have been thinking the same way. I have been seeing more and more shallow fish. I am excited for the fall bite. Late Sept through Oct the fall bite is red hot. November can be a magical time of year too. Big bass seem to bite really good in the fall. How many of you guys fish the fall ? How late in the year do you fish ?

I agree. If I had to choose just one lure it would be a jig.

Rivers are great places to catch big bass ! Most are under fished, have plenty of cover, and have plenty of big fish !

That is really cool. I saw a bass eat a swallow the other day. Then I caught the bass a 4-12 on a frog. It spit up the bird.

A "trophy" fish depends on many different aspects. Its definition changes from region to region and person to person.

I have yet to catch a double digit bass. It is very very difficult to do in Maine and Vermont. Biggest so far has been 9 lbs 1 oz. A 10lber would be close to a state record in all the northern New England states. The 9 lb 1 oz was a very very old fish at 16 years old.

My goal is for the number of bass I catch on average to increase and for the total number of bass caught over 5 lbs to go up as well.

I am never satisfied after a day on the water. I think there is always room for improvement and new techniques to learn. Losing big fish hurts. I do not know where I rank on your rating system. I have fish for bass 64 times this year. A total of 1122 bass, 20.7 bass on average, 38 bass over 5 lbs so far. I wont be satisfied until I catch a 10 lb bass from New England. I am sure even then I will try for a bigger one.

I went fishing after I got out of work at 4. I fished wit my friend Tim until dark which was about 815. The fishing was good. We were catching the out in 8-15 feet of water off of the primary drop off. The first fish of the day was the best. A 5 lb 2 ozer. Most of the rest of the bass we caught were 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 lbs. Did get a 3-0. Between the two of us we caught 30 bass.

Got this 5-2 after work today.

Top 3 from this past weekend. Maine doesn't have any bass. 6 lbs 8 oz 5 lbs 10 oz 5 lbs 10 oz

The last 3 fish were all caught super shallow. The water came up a lot where I was fishing because of the heavy rains we had got a few days before. The last 3 fish were all caught in less then 5 feet of water.

Fishing this past weekend was really good. My plan for Friday was locating fish for Saturday. My friend Chris wanted to go fishing. He fishes once or twice a year, when I take him. Fishing Friday was great. The details about Fridays fishing is in the who wants in thread. When I got to the lake Saturday it was as if I was at a completely different lake. The water level had risen 5 feet, water temp went from 78 to 62, clarity from 5 feet to 5 inches. The fish I found Friday were gone. The first 5 hours of the day sucked. We had 4 fish between the 2 of us. It was time to change tactics. We went shallow. Really shallow where the warmest clearest water was. Once we had them figured out our fishing success changed significantly. We started catching fish and big fish too. My friend caught the biggest bass of his life a 5 lb 2 ozer off a tree. Not to far from where he caught his big bass I caught a big bass after losing a lunker. The big bass weighed in a 6 lbs 8 oz. After a couple pics a few cast later my friend got a 4 lb 8 ozer the second biggest bass of his life. The fishing stayed red hot until dark. Had them figured out by that point. We had found a pattern and the next 2 spots which were very similar to that produce a lot of good fish. For the day we caught 24 bass, biggest was the 6-8.The rest of the fish were pretty good too, 5-2, 4-8 and 9 3lbers including a 3 lb 5 oz smallmouth. So after that amazing I had to sneak out after my nieces birthday party to get a few hours of fishing in before heading back to Vermont. The fishing was great again. My first bite of the afternoon was a 5 lb 10 oz After catching a few more bass on a jig with a rage craw trailer I caught a 5 lb 4 oz which I think I caught on Friday... It wasn't very far from where I caught a 5 lb 4 oz on Friday and it looks like it could be the same fish. After the jig bite died down the frog bite took off. I wasn't getting a ton of bites but when I did get a bite it was a good one. I pulled into one particular cove filled with reeds. All the lilies were submerged because of the high water. There were bugs and birds flying around everywhere. I watched as a big fish exploded on a small bird that was skimming the surface catching bugs. I couldn't believe it. I had never seen that before. I figured that fish must have been huge to eat a bird. I made a mental note of where it happened. After 10 min or so I had made it over to that section of the cove. I cast my frog out, plop, plop, KABOOM. A fish exploded on it and the fight was on. After a spirited fight I netted the fish. It was a decent fish a 4 lb 11 oz. As I was weighing the fish I noticed saw something out of the corner of my eye. Half way in between where I caught the fish and the boat something was quivering on the surface. I went over to check it out and I couldn't believe it. It was the bird that got eaten. The bass spit it up as I was fighting it towards the boat. I think It was a tree swallow. First time I have seen that happen. The fishing was great right up til dark. Not as many big fish as the day. I caught 15 bass including a 5-10,5-4,4-12,4-11,3-0 and a 3-2 smallmouth. It was an amazing weekend of fishing. I am ready to get back out there ! I also caught a red breast sunfish, kind of a rare catch in the area of Maine I like to fish.

The fishing Saturday and Sunday was really good.. Details in the any luck in NH thread. Fish # 3 22.25 inches 6 lbs 8 oz Fish # 4 21.5 inches 5 lbs 4 oz Fish # 5 20.5 inches 5 lbs 10 oz 107.5 inches

Was able to get out fishing this afternoon for a few hours. I got to the lake at about noon. It was mostly sunny with calm wind. The water was up a bit from the recent rain. The bite was pretty good. My first fish of the day was a good one. A 21.5 inch 5 lb 4 oz largemouth on a 1/2 oz jig with a rage craw trailer. Fish # 1 21.5 inches 5 lb 4 oz Here is a picture of the kind of places I like to fish. It is also where I caught the 5-4. Fishing was consistent for the entire day. I was getting them on jigs, worms, buzzbaits and towards the end of the day frogs. I love a frog bite. So much fun watching them explode on it. I went into a small cove with a lot of thick lilies to take a bathroom break. I decided to take a cast with my frog just for the heck of it. My frog hit the water an I popped it twice. A big fish exploded on it. The fish missed sending my frog airborne a foot or so above the water. As soon as it hit the water the fish exploded again. I set the hook and the fight was one. It went completely airborne twice as I fought it to the net. It weighed in at 5 lbs 10 oz, one of the bigger fish I have caught on a frog. It was just shy of 21.75 inches. Fish # 2 21.75 5 lbs 10 oz The frog bite was on fire. In the next couple hours before dark a 4-8, 4-2, 3-14, 3-2, 3-0 largemouth fell to the frog. A 3 lb 4 oz smallmouth also took the frog under in 6 feet of water and weeds. It was an amazing afternoon of fishing. Landed 21 largemouth and 4 smallmouth. Hopefully they will be as cooperative tomorrow when I bring my friend Chris with me.

Looking forward to fishing this weekend in Maine. Rage craws work best in my opinion as a jig trailer and have caught huge fish using them.

That is one heck of a smallie ! Congrats

Going back to Maine this afternoon for at least 2 full days of fishing maybe 3. Hopefully the fishing is good.

No doubt man those are ginormous smallmouth. Friggin huge. Getting 5 in the 6 3/4 - 7 lb class in a single 8 hour tournament would be extremely impressive. I would like to see it happen.

The most accurate formula for calculating the weight of a bass is ((length x length) x girth) / 1200 I have weighed fish on my scale then used the formula to see how accurate it is. You would be surprised how accurate it is. I would guesstimate the fishes weight in picture as being around 4.5 - 5 lbs as has been already stated.

34 lb 5 fish bag of smallies ? That would be very impressive. Any pictures of the 7+ smallies your catching on tubes off that wreck ? I hope your using a scale. My opinion about keeping fish : If you want to keep bass and stay with in your legal limit then who am I to tell you that you shouldn't ? As long as everything your doing is legal then that's fine. I don't keep any bass to eat, ever. I don't think they taste very good personally. I have kept 3 bass to mount in the past 16 years and none of them were the biggest I have caught. Would I be a little bummed out if I saw an angler keep his limit of 5-7 lbers ? Yeah I would but, he isn't doing anything illegal. The angler can do whatever they want with the fish they caught as long as they keep it legal. I don't use live bait. I did when I was a kid but I haven't used live bait in a very very long time. In my opinion it is more difficult to catch fish on artificial lures. I like the challenge.

Several reliable techniques right now will catch fish consistently. It all depends what you want to do. There are so many variables depending on the lake your fishing, water clarity, cover/structure your fishing, weather, etc. Personally I would start with a frog, a jig, a rubber worm and a crankbait tied on. Frog fishing is really fun. Find the thickest nastiest weeds in the lake and toss a frog right into the middle of it. You shouldn't be disappointed.

There are bass in Maine ?