bass_masster

I have thought about this for a while. I use an spreadsheet with Google Sheets currently but...considering coding an Android app to track everything. App would automatically pull GPS location and weather data for time of the catch, barometric pressure, moon phase and add it to your entry. Could build a list of commonly used baits to also pull that in for each catch. Have also thought of a BT scale companion that goes with it, and overlays the weight (and weather/baro conditions if you want) to the in-app camera, allowing you to take photo with the weight recorded at the same time. Could also set the BT scale with a small NAND memory chip to store something like previous 20 weights or so. A lot of the fishing apps I see focus on the "social," aspect, which I mean, if you know serious fisherman...who wants to share where/when/how usually? I would want to build a personal fishing database over years, have it backup to Google Drive, and then maybe figure out a way to possibly project where/when/what lures would work best for given conditions. Unfortunately for that to even be anywhere near accurate I think I would need a massive amount of data points.

11lb 2oz bass was caught in RI over the pas few days, anyone know any more details? Supposedly it was kept. Surprised a pond in RI has enough biomass to support such a large fish. Maybe a DD bass in NE isn't such a pipe dream after all? Posted on the RI DEM site.

Glad to see I'm not the only one getting skunked, haven't had a spring fish this bad in at least 2-3 years

Used to fish it years ago when we were kids, had a slick way in too, and worked there for a time and knew some people, but haven't wanted to risk it anymore since, despite it being a good fish. Water is pretty dark/heavily stained but definitely good fishing.

Must have been either that bog pond near the big bend in the road or Clear Pond further up the road into Carver. I grew up fishing Carver and Wareham, some great fishing in that area.

Managed to snag two more on the Halloween jerkbait on lunch, cold and windy but they're still eating

Managed to get out yesterday for a bit despite sub-par weather conditions, wife was down to go. Plunked around with Spro BBZ1 rat swimbait for most of the morning with no luck, switched to jigs and spinnerbaits, still no luck. Found a deeper pocket with some bass it in with a jerkbait. Long twitches were key today, 3-5 seconds between twitching the jerkbait on a slack line. These new Rapala jerkbaits I picked up from Dick's on sale are awesome, love the action and the paint schemes are great. Hooks are sharp as hell too. I managed 3 little bass sub-2lbs and my wife snagged one as well on a ghost minnow jerkbait.

Wow, did not know that. If anyone has access to the Private Access areas, I have a 14' Mad River canoe with an open seat and I'm an extremely respectful sportsman Walked around ~13miles of shoreline in 2 days between Lakeville, Rochester, Copicut and Carver, not even s much as a bite this weekend. Fished jigs, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, swimbaits, square bills, usually spring stuff. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take the skunk, as much as it stings! Hopefully have better luck when this rain clears.

Nice slob, glad to see some large fish being pulled on the South Shore already, how deep were you guys/did you catch the fish?? I'm in the North End of NB, only thing I've found that I can fish and reliably pull fish out of is Copicut, there are freshwater ponds in Westport? Tried fishing the one near UMD with no luck either, figured everything past that would be coastal/brackish inlets.

Stuffed it behind the seat, was in the middle of de-layering (2 underarmour layers were a little too much), swimbait was just sitting out in open water, rod was laying on the gunwale, scared the hell out of me thought it was going overboard. Never had that happen before, a fish hitting a non-moving bait.

Yeah, you're right and this was surprising to me, while you'll usually catch larger sized fish on big swimbaits, I've had no shortage of smaller bass hitting them. Got this one in a 30* cold snap the other weekend on Spro BBZ1 Rat:

Upgrade to 10lb braid close to same diameter and worlds stronger.

South Shore MA here, it was tough for me early, then I hit my PB 6lb bass in May, then another drought of smaller fish until late Aug/early Sept, started to hit big fish again. Hit another 5.89lb bass Sept 4, but last few times I went after that were small or nothing. Hoping to turn that around soon here though. Also water levels this summer and late summer were noticeably lower than years past, and had to change up my fishing style for the common lakes I fished in some cases.

Wouldn't worry too much about it, have seen similar on a lot of bass and other fish near their spawn times. Looks like it's from rubbing on the bottom/rocks fanning nests or spawning sites. I've also seen sunfish and bass rub themselves sideways on sand/gravel in the water before as well, it looks like skin rubbing or irriation moreso than lesions or a disease.

Haven't be out in about 2 weeks but here is a trip from Sept 4th: http://bassmass.xyz/index.php/2015/09/04/unplanned-canoe-trip-yesterday-around-plymouth-pays-off-big-with-a-6lb-class-bass/ Scroll down to the pics if you don't want to read. Got one decent 3lb-er and one nice big beast at 5.89lbs on the scale, few ounces off of my PB

Thanks for the pointers, we'll be going for LMB and SMB specifically Sunday, try to get there at 5 for the 6AM start and hope to grab a boat. Good luck on your trip too!

Going to Quabbin this weekend hoping to get there early and rent a boat, anything in particular I should know? Have never been before

Interesting rig, was it set up on a drop shot rig, or weighted in any way? Hitting the Quabbin soon with my wife have had good luck there in the past, hopefully can put her on to some smallies and get her hooked! Used to live in Amherst before I sold my boat which was nice, but hopefully we can get there early enough for a rental.

Got out to a spot we haven't been in a few years on the South Shore, manage to land this hawg on a full size brush hog t-rigged and pegged with a tungsten weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG. Love the big brush hogs one of my favorite baits. Didn't have my nice digital scale but my crappy lip gripper had it somewhere between 5 and 6lbs, felt every ounce of that. Funny/crappy thing is, we were staring at MULTIPLE bass that had pounds in this one and were a class above, 6-8lbs. It was unreal, we could friggin see them but they wouldn't touch ANYTHING. Spent hours on them, and they didn't appear to be actively gaurding any beds. Absolute agony. Any one of them would have smashed my personal best. Have never seen anything like that, and had no idea there were fish that big.

ZOOM Flukes make great trailers:

HA! I like the cut of your jib

Nice, we fish Oxbow last weekend and only managed a few dinks, were you on the CT river or other local water bodies? Haven't hit up Aldrich Lake though, but that place usually hold some slobs.

I kill it with spinnerbaits, moreso in spring and fall than summer, but you can use them year round. I like to put some movement in my spinners, stop/start reeling, jerk it like a jig to slow it and flare the skirt. Lot of the times I burn it reeeeeal slow, so it's just bumping off the bottom. Also, running it through/bumping it off thick cover is great, it's a versatile bait you can fish different ways. Another is to burn it just below the surface and use the blades to make an almost wake-bait, and when you break the surface is sounds like bait fish being chased. My favorite are white or shad double silver willow blade Terminator spinners, and I top it off with a shad colored Zoom fluke as a trailer. Took me a while to get confidence in spinnerbaits as well, but not they're an integral part of my arsenal, just have to stick with them. Edit: lot of people use chatterbaits and spinnerbaits interchangeably, but I still prefer spinners, to me chatter baits are more of a jig-blend.

Had one in red, it was a great canoe, nothing special nothing too bad. Little on the heavy side compared to my Mad River 14 and not as stable.

Just got a white Terminator I ordered, love it, very well made and makes a ton of vibration/movement in the water.