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Well to be honest NHguy it was a football head jig rigged with a Gitzit. is what we got 90% of our fish on. I did get 1 on a football head jig rigged with a Kreature bait, all our bites were in 12ft-24ft of water. All using pretty light line, I was using flurocarbon. Surprisingly nothing was caught on blade type baits. If the water stays open much longer I may need to get my 2007 Fishing License.

Hey guys, Yea, you read the topic right. Simply put we had to break through 2-3 inches of Ice at the launch to get out and fish the main lake. Friday the 15th, I backed my truck into the ice to help break it up for our trip out on the water Saturday the 16th. With that done we were able to have m friend get his Tracker out and break some more Ice up that allowed me to get my Nitro afloat to finish the job and break a way to the main lake. Air temp at the time of launch was 37°F warmed upto 48°F, water temperature stayed constant all day at 35.4°F. Here are some pics of us getting out on the water via my camera phone. We had a great day 3 of us went out I caught 4, and the friends caught 6 and 7 respectively. Whats that saying? Never give up!?!

Hey guys, Yea, you read the topic right. Simply put we had to break through 2-3 inches of Ice at the launch to get out and fish the main lake. Friday the 15th, I backed my truck into the ice to help break it up for our trip out on the water Saturday the 16th. With that done we were able to have m friend get his Tracker out and break some more Ice up that allowed me to get my Nitro afloat to finish the job and break a way to the main lake. Air temp at the time of launch was 37°F warmed upto 48°F, water temperature stayed constant all day at 35.4°F. Here are some pics of us getting out on the water via my camera phone. We had a great day 3 of us went out I caught 4, and the friends caught 6 and 7 respectively. Whats that saying? Never give up!?!

I hear you there. My Marina is all frozen over. I actually backed my truck into the water this AM to breakup the Ice so it would make it a little easier to get our boats out tomorrow. This isnt a hobby, its an illness/addiction. I hopefully will be able to break my all time latest fishing date of December 19th, Now up here in New Hampshire thats saying something.

Well I had tried this once when I found myself alone on my first voyage with my "New to me Nitro", on a shallow ramp. Now I have a friend who has a tracker that ties off to his trailer and floats the boat then pulls up and gets in and parks the boat then the truck and trailer. Well lets say that it didnt work out exactly the way I had planned. I tied off about 5ft down the trailer from the winch, floated the boat pulled up and the boat following the taught line went diagonally across the trailer and put a large scratch in the hull, when it hit the lights on the trailer. So from now on I just undo the lock on the winch and let the boat unroll the winch and then pull up and have it slide back up unto the trailer. and I just ease down the trailer and hop in. So if anything learn from my mistake.

I know its an often overlooked piece of safety equipment for our boats, but necessary all the same. I was wondering if anyone could shed some light on a guideline system. IF I have a boat so many feet long with an engine some many horse power, what size extinguisher should I be looking at?

Well its finaly come to this I went out today in super cold conditions and well I did catch 1 2lb bass, Im calling it a season. I was out on Canobie Lake. We started the day out with Frigid water 33.8°F eventually warmed upto 35 °F. I snapped this pic of my Graph thought you guys might enjoy it.

Whats colder whats colder water to you is a relative term. To me anything under 40°F is cold and is difficult to get bite I didnt say impossible just difficult. So my Cold water baits for under 40°F, soft plastics on a football head jig. Worked SLOW SLOW SLOW!!!. Now thats some Cold water...

Ok, I'll paint the picture. We are at the launch air temperature is a brisk 36°F at 8:30AM today, with a steady to heavy wind, running down the length of the lake. We get the boat launched water temperature is a numbing 33.8°F. Water doesnt get much colder without getting chunky. I did end up hooking into 1 2lb bass in 15ft of water on a football jig head with a kreature bait on it. I tried tube, jig, blade, and trap. Water eventually warmed to 35.1°F. I snapped a pic off my Graph with my camera phone of the water temp for all you southern guys. Now thats cold water fishing!!! With that I am ending my season winterizing my boat and storing my gear. In another 3.5 months I will be at them again!!!

These architects/engineers that are designing these structures might wanna take a look at how northerns deal with snow weight. Build a steeper roof.

LOL Good one...

Well I got out again this weekend. The ICE has not arrived and my boat is still getting wet. We went out on my home waters of Cobbets Pond yesterday. We started out at 8am, air temp was a brisk 39°F. The water temp at the launch was a frigid 33°F and the main lake registered a mere 39°F which later warmed upto 41°F. Bite was tough early but I stuck it out long enough to land 5 fish and pull off the water to catch the 2nd half of the Patriots game. With an outlook on the weather it looks like this coming week might be my last to get out before ICE is clogging up the launch. Did anyone else get out? Howd you do?

One more question on this subject. I currently use 12lb BPS Excel line, I am going to switch to a 10lb Fluorocarbon line next year. My question is this I do use the Norman Speed Clips, I use them to connect to the split ring on the diving Lipped Crankbaits. I figured this would give great freedom of movement to the bait. Does anyone else use these or a clip/snap for connecting Lipped Crankbaits?

I was on the stretch of river by Mill Falls Dam. Fished it pretty good but just didnt seem to get bit. I had much better luck last weekend at Canobie Lake than at the Nashua River.

Hey NH guys. I tried the Nashua R. yesterday. What the water temp was I have no idea, as I wasnt in my boat. The river was running a lil high because of the recent rains. approx. 1ft above what I am used to seeing it. As for fish sorry to say we had a tough tough outing. I caught 1 perch and the friend I was with caught 1 perch and 1 bass, like I said TOUGH. Well I hope you guys had more success than I did. I think I am planning on going out this sunday to either Canobie Lake or Cobbets Pond. Hopefully the bite will be allot better.

Heh, Well the name of the game was downsize and SLOW. I caught all of my fish on 1/4oz football jig head with some GY soft plastics. The action I ended up having success with was just shaking the line enough to make the soft plastic tail wiggle ever so softly. Fishing shallow was out of the question, I think I caugh my shallowest fish in 12ft of water. The depth and contours I was looking for was 10-18ft of water with some steep rock drop offs. If I found that, I usually caught some fish. I hope you get some fish. The Jig is easily my go too bait. I have huge amounts of confidence with it. If all else fails that is what I am throwing.

Hey guys managed to get out on Canobie Lake yesterday. I got 4 fish, 1 3lbs and another around 2.5 lbs. It was real slow but hey we got out on the water and caught some fish. Water temp was 45.2°F and it didnt move from there all day as it was pretty cloudy.

I fish with a number of rods out on the deck usually about 6 rods. The rod locker hides the other 8 rods, what can I say the Bait Monkey owns me. However, I will say there is one rod that the lure doesnt change, Castaway Jig & Worm Rod 6ft 10in MH, Diawa TD-Z left hand retrieve , Pline 20lb Flurocarbon, 1/4 oz Black & Blue Hi-Tek Tackle GMW (Get Me Wet) Jig w/Uncle Josh #11 Black Pork Frog. Nuff said..

Well I must thank you all, for all of your input. To clarify when I refer to crankbaits I mean the lipped variety. I have quite an elaborate collection of lipless crankbaits aka Traps, ranging in size from 1/4oz to 1oz. Cordell Spots, LC DVRs, Rat-L-Traps, Frenzy Rattl'r, SK Diamond Shad are what makes up my lipless crankbait arsenal. I also have allot of confidence in using these, especially in colder water. I guess the problem I have is when I am using a lipped (diving) crankbait for example, Deep Little N, diving it in the 8-12 ft zone, on the outside of submerged grass or down a rocky point. I am guessing its the line having to much stretch in it. I just have a hard time feeling what my bait is doing, which usually ends up with me reverting back to a 1/4oz or 3/8 oz JP, my confidence bait. I would say I am well aware that for a better chance of getting bit that the bait has to come into contact with some structure, rock, wood, or grass. I will admit that other than the infrequent pauses, I wasnt imparting as much action as most of you have suggested such as twitches and rips. So I think with the harder/low stretch flurocarbon that I hopefully will get a better feel for what my lure is doing. I also know now that a steady retreive will not get the job done, that I need to add more action to the bait. I also thank all of you for listing the baits that you have confidence in I have already added a large group of them to my BPS gear wishlist.

Hehehe. I just spit water all over my KB laughing from that. Thanks for the laugh...

I have no problem with the lipless variety of crankbaits, personally I like the Cotton Cordells the most. I will give the Yo-zuris a look into..

As my season is winding down to a close I cant help but look forward to next year. When I do there are always a few things that I would like to work on to improve my fishing arsenal. The crankbait is something that has always elluded me. I am aware that confidence is a main part of the factor and having none at this type of fishing doesnt help me. My gear for this is a 7ft Castaway Soft Touch Series Rod paired with a Diawa Millionaire reel with a 5:1:1 ratio, this year I was using the 12lb BPS mono. I have a medium sized selection of Crankbaits mostly of the Norman variety DD22s and Deep Little Ns, along with other brands. Colors I keep it somewhat simple Shiner/shad colors, Firetiger/chartreuse colors, crayfish/crawdad colors. Other than thinking I would switch to Fluorocarbon in maybe the 8lb to 10lb range. I wasnt thinking of changing much. For waters I fish mainly clear water with hardly any wood, mostly grass (Milfoil/coontail). Any tips, pointers, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would have to say it has to depends on the conditions of that day, that you are out on the water. I think it has allot more to do with the water temperature than what month it says on a calender. In New Hampshire I am dealing with water temps under 45°F, possibly under 40°F. So I would have to say my topwater fishing days have long since past. I got some top water action first thing in the morning on a Spook, when the water temps were in the 50°F -55°F range, about a month ago. The way they were hitting it 2 misses right in a row and I finally got him on the 3rd strike in the same cast told me that they wanted a moving top water. I switched to a buzzbait and no bites. I then switched to a prop bait and scored 4-5 fish on that one flat. Hope this helps.

Well this is what I was trying on the 5th. I started out with a 1/2 oz RattlTrap looking for some active feeders. I had some bites the week prior when the water was 46°F. I also tried popping and deadsticking a straightailed worm, Deadsticking a senko, 1/8 oz hair jig, 1/2 jig and pig. Also tried popping a 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz silver buddy off the bottom. Well to this it was no avail I didnt get any bites. I am hoping better luck next week, anymore suggestions are welcome.

I remember vaguely Denny Brauer commenting, that he doesnt profess about sinking Christmas Trees for brush piles. He uses and recommends using hardwood trees/limbs or Cyprus. I hope this helps.