Mainebass1984

I think it depends on each fish. I have caught some largemouth that fought insanely hard. Other times you just reel them like they are dead weight. I do think though that when its comes down to it pound for pound smallmouth fight harder. I like to target largemouth because they are bigger. Some of the truly large largemouth do fight very very hard. Now all we need to do find is huge 8 pound plus smallmouth. I am sure they would fight pretty well. Could you imagine seeing that thing going airborne next to the boat ?

I am still looking to get a New England 6 lb+ smallmouth. I really don't fish much for Smallmouth but I would like to mount one. I am still trying to catch that New England 10 lb+ Largemouth. I most likely will never catch either of those fish. It is fun to try though. Go to aim big. Go big or go home.

I have had some great luck with silver buddies. In cold water conditions they can produce amazingly well.

I love fishing in the late late fall and early winter. As long as the ice is think enough so that my boat can break through then I keep fishing. I have had good luck fishing in water as cold as 36 degrees. When the water is super cold like that I have found it is really really important to fish slow. You may not catch 20 bass a day when the conditions are that cold you have a good chance at catching quality size bass and maybe even the biggest smallmouth of the year. Lures I like to use when the water is super cold are a blade bait, jig, drop shot and sometimes a crankbait. I often find bass pretty deep during these conditions, 15-45 feet deep. Steep drop offs and bluffs seem to produce well.

Pit Boss

I understand they move around individually but during specific times you can find a majority of the population doing the same thing. Like during the Spawn for example. When temperatures are right it is in a basses biological nature to spawn. They don't spawn all at the same time but over a course of a couple weeks depending on temperature. There are early spawners, spawners and late spawners. During that time frame most of the bass will be spawning. Its the same idea as seasonal movement which I think is the original question. .

I am not sure ice fishing could make you a better open water bass fisherman. I think that when your ice fishing you can find very productive spots that are otherwise difficult to locate from a boat. When I am ice fishing I am drilling a lot of holes looking for subtle irregularities in the bottom of the lake or trying to locate that one weed bed that's still green. I then mark the spot with my gps and investigate the spot when the ice is gone.

Glad to see the Florida competition going strong. The Northeast Competition is on pause until spring due to ice. Looking to see someone break 110 inches this month.

Catt I am sure you studied plenty of research. When I was talking about studying bass in the above mentioned states I was referring to the research that I personally took part in. I graduated college with a bachelors degree in fisheries biology. I traveled across the US working as a fisheries biologist. I was the guy in the field collecting the data, working hands on with fish everyday. I followed radio tagged bass with an antennae. It was pretty interesting stuff and very insightful. We tracked each tagged fish everyday. That was when I was working at the Illinois River Biological Station working lakes, ponds, and rivers in Missouri, Iowa and Illinois. When I worked for as an AIS scientist in FL we didn't radio tag fish. We would mark them or place a numbered tag in them and record all there information. We would survey the lake, pond or river using nets, seines or traps and electrofishing from a boat. Electrofishing is a blast. Pretty amazing how many fish in an area that you don't catch. When I was working in Maine we worked with bass to some degree but we focused more on salmonids. When we did work with bass didn't tag them either we would mark them. We sampled the same bass at the same spot for three weeks and them for some odd reason it swam 3 miles down the lake to the complete other end. Bass movement is very interesting.

The rage craw chunk worked pretty well on the back of my jig.

I guess I will have to check out the rage rigged craws

Okay I will get in on this Caught Nov 7th 2013 23.5 inches long, 19.5 inch girth 9 lbs 1 oz Maine Jig 10 feet of water Offshore structure

Its all good.

I have caught fish on senkos in water as deep as 30 feet. It takes an incredible amount of patience to wait for them to it bottom. I am usually fishing it weightless texas style. If I am fishing a senko that deep it is usually during the hottest time of the year. As someone who does like to fish senkos quite a bit that hurt deaknh...It does take some skill... I like catching bass and love to catch big bass. My two favorite lures are a senko and a jig. I have caught big bass on both. In the past 5 years I have caught 22 bass 7 lbs or bigger. The senko caught 8 of those fish including a 8-10 and a 8-9. The jig has accounted for 5 of those fish including the biggest bass I have ever caught a 9-1. Everyone is fish senkos and jigs. They both catch fish. As far as fishing senkos goes I like to fish specific colors that have a subtle differences then the more popular colors. Senkos do catch more fish then a jig.The average size bass on a jig is bigger though. I have fished a few open tournaments and done well with both. I have got lunker in a tourney on a senko and on a jig. When it comes down to it its all about preference and having confidence in what your throwing.

I just got a shimano curado 200. Any opinions of this reel ?

I really enjoy fall fishing, from September until there is too much ice to break with my boat. It is one of my most favorite times to fish and for some reason I got them figured out pretty good. To bad I don't have them dialed in like that the rest of the year. This past fall the fishing was unbelievable. I can never expect a fall like that again. Generally this is how I would describe largemouth. I think a 5 lber is a big bass. 3-4lbs decent 4-5lbs "good one" 5-6lbs lunker 6-7lbs hawg 7-8lbs giant 8-9lbs ginormous 9+ unbelievably big

Anything in New England over 7 lbs is rare. I only know a couple guys that have caught legitimately weighed 8 lbers and only 1 9lber.

Its very interesting to hear everyone's opinion on jigs. I myself am a jig fisherman and have caught most of my biggest bass on jigs. I limit myself to a black, brown/orange and green pumpkin jig. I purposely do not fish a black and blue jig because everyone else does. Some of the lakes I fish get a ton of fishing pressure and everyone fishes a black and blue jig. I like to fish something just a little bit different then what they are used to seeing. It has worked wonderfully so far. I think most of the time color doesn't matter that much. There are times though when it makes a world of difference. A couple springs ago I was fishing 6-8 foot of water that had a clay bank along shore. I was catching bass every now and then. One of the fish I caught spit up a brown and orange crawfish. I switched from a black jig to a brown/orange jig and started catching fish every other cast. The color change turned the slow bite into the best bass fishing day I have ever had. I took a friend back to that spot the very next day. He wanted to throw a black jig and would not change to the color I was using. The orange/brown jig was out fishing the black jig 5 to 1. It became apparent to me exactly why those fish were feeding so hard at that spot at the time of year. During a certain time in the spring the crawfish would come out of there winter burrows, they make there burrows in clay banks. The bass were there waiting for them and didn't leave for 2 weeks. Those bass were so keyed in on that color it was unbelievable. There are so many different ways to fish a jig and so may different set ups to use. In the end I think it is all about what you have the most confidence in.

What would you guys consider a big bass in New England ?

That is a pretty good rule of thumb for New England as well. What about 8 and 9 lbers though ?

A blade bait such as a silver buddy or a sonar can be deadly. Slowly hop it off bottom. If you have a choice fish the warmest day of the week.

I use a live target frog. They have awesome crankbaits too.

I have had some pretty good luck in the past with a chartreuse crankbait in stained water

This is a great topic. The pictures are awesome. I guess a couple of the rarest fish I have caught would have to be a blueback trout up in northern Maine and the 9 lb 1 oz northern largemouth I caught a couple weeks ago.

I did pretty well that weekend. I posted about it on the catch and release competition for the northeast. I also posted about my last day fishing, "The Last Hoorah". Fishing was good I suppose the 15th was petty much a disaster but the 16th was good fishing. The 17th was my last day out and quite the adventure.