DogBone_384

Looks like I'm adding Maine to my travels next season.

Mine came yesterday. Water temps are just about to hit the 40’s … one of the first baits I’m using.

I can't say I'm done yet, but it's almost Thanksgiving, so I'm starting this thread to see how the membership's done this year. What technique worked best for you? What technique didn't work? Any big news, PB, new species, great trip? Let's hear it!

The way my fall's been ... I guess I've moved away from catching bass.

Ha ... one of my LV500's is at the bottom of the lake.

I got @Fishing Rhino and his Nitro out to Cape Cod today for 1/2 a day. He caught one SMB and one rainbow trout on his favorite orange/brown Senko. I spoke to one guy coming off the water when we arrived. He got a dozen in 40' on a blade bait. Water temps were 51.x.

Welcome to the forum... good to have another active member on this thread. If you go back and read from the beginning, there's a wealth of information for our local waters. I'm taking @Fishing Rhino out tomorrow. He taught me a lot when I got back into fishing. He's in his 80's now so I take him. Payback. Agreed.

In the last 10 years since I got back into fishing my best days are 5 - 6 bass. I can think of only one occasion I found 14 SMB in one spot in March. I DO live in the Boston area and have to travel to fish good waters.

C'mon up to New England. 6 bass for one trip is often a good outing. Except for Maine ... right @Swamp Girl?

Kistler Helium 7' M/F.

That was my trip in Plymouth this afternoon. I followed my Lowrance's waypoints to start and came up with 3 decent pickerel on a chartreuse jointed Rapala but nothing else until the 9th inning when I tossed a 3/8 green/red flake @Siebert Outdoors jig into a laydown. I let it sit on the bottom and shortly after felt a 'tick' and watched my line start to move. Up came a 4_8 LMB that had some pretty good fight left in it. In addition to the Rapala and jig, I threw a 2.8" Keitech, blade bait, jerkbait, and Senko. Water temps were 53.x when I launched and 50.x when I left. There was one more guy there, Ken, I think, who caught 3 bass & 3 picks. He said he's on BR but didn't mention how much time he spends browsing. I think we should get a group together for a full day/weekend of fishing and BBQ sometime during Spring '25.

... I don't know how to handle it .... MUST GO TO SAFE PLACE .... ...... kettle pond full of SMALLMOUTH in Plymouth! ....

Awwwww dambit gumby … I’m back to an amateur ….

?!?!?!??!???!?! That makes me a PROFESSIONAL. Cool!

I have a lot of waters with both. I find SMB roam more, prefer deeper, rockier homes than LMB. I catch them both with the same baits much of the time except for tube baits. Look up Tony Bean's The Last Smallmouth. You can find the e-book pretty cheap. It's a great read.

No, not for Christmas. I buy what I 'need' whenever that 'need' arises.

Tell me about it... My wife's Filipino... Rice is a staple in our house! Good luck cutting down on it. My grandfather taught us that. He was born in 1899 and made it to 1990.

Nothing fancy, a couple catfish on Cape Cod, a tiger and brown trout from Plymouth. @Mr. Aquarium told me the tiger is rare.

My season was similar. Bass numbers and size were down compared to years previous. I made up fir it by catching 3 species I never caught before.

^^^^^^. THIS ^^^^^^

90% baitcaster. I'll use a spinning setup if it's windy or if I'm throwing small jerkbaits / flukes.

I'd say it's the monotony or lack of diversity with my salt water fishing. I live on a peninsula south of Boston, just outside a shipping channel. Outside the shipping channel it's flat and shallow. I'll spend a few hours pedaling my kayak for maybe one or two schoolies if I catch the tide right. I avoid fishing my neighborhood on weekends because of the boat/jet ski traffic. I use many techniques when fishing freshwater, which is more interesting to me.

I live about 300 yards from the ocean. I do more green/brown bass fishing than for stripers. It's more work for less return in the salt for me.

^^^^^^^

I took another trip to VT/NH. I fished VT Tuesday and Wednesday and New Hampshire Thursday morning. It was a pretty lackluster trip. The weather was great, but too great for the fish. I managed a fat rainbow trout and a handful of dink picks/LMB in VT and one good pick in NH. Baitfish were abundant in the shallow vegetation in VT and NH was void of activity. I marked plenty of targets 20' and shallower, but couldn't get anything decent to commit. Water temps were 55.x, air pressure was 30.4 when I showed up and 29.9 when I left the Granite State. I'm not quite done for the season. I have to get at least one fish in open water in December. Overall, it was a decent/fair 2024. I picked up a few good fish in the late Winter, early Spring. Summer was dink city and this fall was almost void of bass. Good luck to the rest of the membership still getting out there.