MainelyBASS

I was fortunate enough to hit Mousam Lake as a few piles of fishing were moving up into 3ft of water. When I say piles, I mean piles. The timing was epic. I moved up with the fish, even got ahead of them at one point and had to turn around to re fish the water they were in. Boated over 30 fish, nothing over 3, but I knew I was dealing with the males and not the bigger females. They entered a cove and immediately schooled up around docks. The first 6 docks were loaded with fish. Once you got past the 6th dock, not a fish to be found. Foolishly I would speed up and fish more docks even further away from the ones I had success on earlier. Then my buddy made the great observation that the fish may not have gotten that far back yet in their transition. I used the big motor to drive back to the mouth and start fishing the same docks over again. Same results, 4 casts in a row landing a 2+. Water temps were 58 in the coves and 53 on the main lake.

The spinning is because the joint that connects the tail to the body is filled with weeds, or some obstruction. If the tail cant spin, the whole bait will spin.

Based on the tail, its a 4. The head isnt big enough for it to be over 5, but it could be in that ballpark. If my life depended on answering correctly, id say low 4's.

Northeast Fishing Adventures is the name of the channel if you want to check them out. The video you star in is called catching smallmouth on Little O.

We just started selling the Levante 6 weeks ago. We are seeing how they sell. We went from a full assortment of GLoomis stuff, to Megabass, so im thinking on the whole, people may not be too excited about it, but we will see. The Megabass hard baits and soft baits have been selling well, so there is hope that we will continue to bring in more Megabass products in the near future.

I work in the fishing department at KTP. I think they are pretty great there also, but I may be biased.

Somebody filmed you out on Little O catching that fish a few weeks ago. What a small world. My buddy has a youtube channel and he was out there filming for his channel when he saw you hooked up. He zooms in on you and watches you land the fish. I think he even shouted out "Nice one" or something like that.

Little Ossipee and Estes are the 2 lakes I fish the most in Maine. I live in Sanford so im 3 minutes away from Estes, and 20 minutes away from Little O. If you have any questions about either lake, let me know. By no means am I god's greatest gift to bass fishing, but 3 of my 5 tournament wins in 20 years have come on Little O...in 25+ feet of water all 3 times. Shoot me a message if you have questions about either Lake.

Swimg jig for sure. Built to come through pad stems and other grass. Ill go x2 with @TOXIC Paddle tail on the back of that, fished post spawn close to spawning areas. It will be a great bait to load up the boat with fry guarders, and possibly big females as they move off after spawn.

Do the new hooks match the size of the old hooks? If they are bigger, that will definitely change the way the bait moves.

If im forced to relocate to an area based on bass fishing, its not even debatable. The Belgrade Lakes area is world class for both Largemouth and Smallmouth. Theres a reason why Major League Fishing has come to Maine 2 times in 5 years to hold major events. Both times, they fished the Belgrade Lakes area. I live in Sanford, and love the Sebago Lakes region for my bass fishing, but if I have enough time and funds available, ill always make the ride to Belgrade.

What do you mean "pieces" of soft plastics? Are you not rigging a whole worm on a hook? Texas rigged, or wacky rigged?

There is only 1 correct answer to this question. White bubba shotted super fluke, 3" leader from weight to bait. 3/4 to 1oz cannonball weight. The heavy weight is important for 2 reasons. 1) Heavier weight allows you to work the bait faster. 2)Heavier weight allows you to keep the bait on the bed for the entire time that you work the lure. If you are working any lure aggressively enough, youre going to end up pulling it off the bed. Not with a 3/4 oz weight below a bait.

There are largemouth all over the lake. Ive always faired well on the north side of the causeway, but never won a tournament in that water. My only win on that lake came from way down south near the dam, along with the middle bay.

I love having one on the line when I fish swim jigs in grass. It keeps the little snot grass from getting caught up in my knot.

White swim jig. White Zoom Speed Craw trailer.

I dont know about 100% effectively, but it could work. The problem is that if you make a long cast and have a lot of fluoro in the water, it will make that mono sink, thus canceling out the effect you are looking for. You'd be better off just keeping your rod tip at 12 o clock and working a popper that way, keeping most of your line out of the water. Having 2 knots is increasing your odds at something failing and losing a fish. If you dont NEED a second knot, don't tie one. Just my 2 cents.

Definitely depends on where you want to stay. If the where is flexible, the Belgrade Lakes are the capital of bass fishing in Maine. You can fish for largemouth or smallmouth depending on what you are feeling on a given day. If you are staying in the Portland area, Little Sebago, Moose Pond in Bridgton, and Panther Pond are all very good largemouth fisheries. Thompson Lake is an excellent smallmouth fishery that is 20 minutes from Portland. Tricky Pond is also a good smallmouth fishery that is 20 minutes from Portland.

If fishing from shore, you may want to consider looking into the KVD 1.5 shallow crank. Doesn't dive as deep and is great for small grassy ponds. All the sizes have their place on the water, but they all are going to dive 4-6ft roughly. The 1.5 shallow runner will stay closer to the 1-3ft range which wont get you snagged from shore as often.

No giants yet in Maine, but I caught my first fish in February, and caught 5 yesterday. The string of mild days pulls fish up out of the winter holes very quickly.

I am a Booyah Pad Crasher guy. Caught my PB during a tournament last year on a white pad crasher. It weighed 7.8lbs. The Pad Crasher is the most affordable frog, along with its durability and all the right colors, I will continue to use these over the other frog brands.

I have a serious addiction to jerkbaits, and to make matters worse, I work at Cabelas. Without even exaggerating by 1, I have 51 jerkbaits. They are pretty much from all the different manufacturers, but what I have learned is that the Rapala Shadow Rap, Lucky Craft Pointer, and KVD Jerkbait are the 3 most consistent when it comes to being able to just take the lure out of the package and fish without defects or adjustments needing to be made. I have tried them all due to the fact that I could afford some of the higher priced ones using my employee discount. My 3 faves as I mentioned in order are Shadow Rap, Pointer, and KVD Jerkbait.

I have a pond in Maine that sounds nearly 100% identical. Nobody really even knows its there because its out in the middle of the woods. The deepest spot is about 8 feet, and the lake bottom is 100% grass. Not a rock, stump, or any other cover for fish to use. I dont fish the pond when it gets choked up with the emerging weeds, but from April until June, the lake is on fire. Strike King KVD 1.5 shallow is my best producer out there. It only runs 1-3ft deep so it stays just above the grass for a majority of the areas I cover on the pond. If you do seek out the KVD crankbait, pay attention to the model because they make a 1.5 and a 1.5 shallow version. The shallow version has 2 advantages. The obvious is its ability to be fished above shallow grass and the second is the tight wobble that it has. The tight wobble is great for cold water because it looks more natural. My color choice is chartreuse with black back for stained water. When the crankbait is ineffective in spring, ill switch to a double colorado spinnerbait and work that slow above the grass. The other baits I have done well with on this type of lake is chatterbaits. With cold, stained, shallow, grassy water, the chatterbait makes so much sense. When the water worms up, there are a lot more lures that can be implemented on shallow grassy lakes. Senkos, topwater, swimjigs, frogs, and many more.

Yep. Mixture of TNT baits jigs and some other ones. TNT jigs dont have the rattle holders, but there are some TNT jigs in that box.

Tournament season has been rough, for me and for everyone else also. Per usual, someone always catches enough to win, but all the weights are down so far this season. On 3 prominent bass lakes, the winning weights have been 18,16, and 14 in that order. Kezar lake always puts out 20-22 lb bags and a 6 or 7lb lunker. This year it was 18.4 and lunker was 5.4. At Moose Pond in Birdgton, usually 18-21 is the winning weight, this time around it was 16.4. Lunker usually weighs in around 6-7, but only 4.6 this year. Lastly, on Lake Arrowhead, 18-21lbs is usually the winning weight, Sunday it was 14.4. Lunker usually goes 6-7.5 lbs and it was only a 4.9 that took it Sunday. I personally am doing awful, but be are entering our clubs smallmouth lake swing. Fishing will be deeper and more finesse which suits me much better, as I am hoping for a turnaround in the standings, currently barely in the top 10 for angler of the year points.