Mr. Aquarium

I do not. I know they work for trout, salmon and panfish. Glow jigs for perch crappies and sunnies through the ice. Glow spoons and glow beads for trout, salmon and lakers

I never had electronics either not until recently, but there can be a weed bed, a rock pile that you don’t know is down there. yeaaaa dude fishing ain’t a cheap sport!

That’s if you bring it to the state. But if you catch it do all the measurements and not bring it to the state you’ll be fine. I wouldn’t make it official but just knowing that I caught it is all I need

Yep sounds about right! The guys that bust ass don’t catch the true giants but a drunk guy randomly throwing a spinner bait will get that record

If I caught it, I’m BS’ing the place I caught it. The Quabbin sounds like a great spot to say where I caught it! d**n straight I’m not telling where I actually caught it

Agreed 10000% I fish a lot of smaller ponds. I would take 1000 pictures and videos with the fish and release it. if people found out there would be 100 boats out there. I’d also feel really bad for killing such a beautiful fish. I’ve caught a 7lbs bass at one spot, said it was another, these guys were hammering the spot every night!

@DogBone_384 nope never especially online

I’m in MA. I had ice out fish, jerkbait, crank bait, glide, and shakey head

It’s worth it!!! Big place but there’s giants there!

I can’t tell ya where I caught my giant largemouth, but I caught my PB smallie in the Quabbin. I hooked another absolute giant smallie at the Q, on a 6 inch hudd in 15 feet of water. Inhaled it. Wachusett and the Quabbin are the best chances for records for both species and a variety of others too. So much food, structure and water in those places I’ve had some giant pickerel inhale swimbaits too. I had one inhale a 7 inch real prey whole, I have a problem with hook sets when I see the fish bite. My brain is a bit slow. Same place a few days later, I was using a 10 inch real prey, set the hook when I felt the bite, thinking it was a giant bass. Wrong a d**n pickerel ate a 10 inch swimbait. Didn’t get the hook though, it ate the tail to right behind the hook

@DogBone_384 thanks buddy! Appreciate the kind words. My 2 personal best for MA 8lbs 2 ounce 22 inches LMB i caught a 7lbs 10 ounce that was 22.5 inches 6lbs 9 ounce 21.5 inches SMB. Maybe someday I’ll get that record. Both would be very hard. I’ve heard stories of both fish being seen or caught. Seen a picture of an 8-2 smallie caught. heard stories of absolute giant giant largemouth being seen or following baits up. I’ve had a few that my jaw just dropped they were so big even hooked a few just absolute monsters. some of my 7s I wished I’ve had a measuring tape. I’d like to compare my 8-2 to different giant bass I catch in different ponds.

Never fished a monka. I also need to use more crank downs

Me too. Excited to throw it more!

I’ve caught topwater bass every month of the year. I’ve had some decent bites from November- March.

Happy to help. Just get out and experiment, never know what will work. Bring 4 baits, 4 rods or pack a small tackle box. Just go get lost and keep casting. When I go out I cast out everywhere. Yea targeting structures will work, but you never know where bass may be. I’ve caught some giant bass in the middle of nowhere. Casting out into the middle of the pond away from all shore structure. Maybe there was something they are holding on down deep who knows. This was at a smaller shallow pond. Some places I do target structures, like points, brush, humps, drop offs, weed beds. I remember one night I fished for 6 hours on the kayak grinding away for nothing targeting bunch of areas with baits. Come back to the launch and caught a 20lbs bag from shore most of them were on a t rig rage craw. For topwaters most of them are big and expensive. I love DS custom Ninja wake, Psycho Gill, Psycho Trout the 9 inch Ms slammer started it all for me, 7 inch slammer is great, buzzjet, Livingston walking boss, Matts mead head, Lemires sea fly, Gillionare, Sherpa,Spro BBZ Rat, savage gear rats bats and ducks, Jackal Mikey, there’s so many good topwaters to use at night. The DS custom ninja wake, Psycho Gill the buzz jet, whopper plopper, jitter bug are my favorites! I tried for a topwater bass tonight! I saw a bass at sunset come out of the water chasing something. 100% a bass it was close by.

I got out today. While I didn’t get any big fish I fished a shallow pond I knew it would warm up. They got active right at sunset. I got them on a shakey head with a yum sure shot and a lucky craft live pointer. Most of the fish were tight to shore

I got out today after work shore fishin. I hit a shallow pond. I love shallow ponds on days like today. Early spring warm up im going shallow! Not sure what the water temps were. I managed 4 bass and 2 pickerel. All bass were small, the picks were fat and decent size. I got my first fish early, I missed one on the shakey head then next cast I hooked up. Slow bite until sunset. I missed a nice fish on a red craw crank bait. Got the rest of my bass, a nice pickerel and a few hits on a lucky craft live pointer. Also got a nice pickerel on a DS glide bait. felt great to be out again. First trip of the year

Depends on where I’m fishing! Deeper place- Im more finesse. I fish bottom. I use tubes, hair jigs, jigs, blades, Ned rigs Shallow- Im more reaction strike, my shallow places are weedy so it’s hard to use bottom finesse baits. I use jerkbaits, soft swimbaits, glides, jigs, lipless, even wake baits, t rigs, chatters. shallow places will get em more active in the cold especially on a warming trend. I live in MA. One of my best days I had all year in 2024 was on my first trip of the year. Sometime in January it was a big warm front temps went from cold to 50s, heavy wind and rain. After the storm they moved up really shallow. It was a shallow weedy pond, they pushed up deep into shallow trees and were crushing jigs like it was prespawn! I’ve had crazy winter bites in shallow ponds in the cold on warm ups. if it’s cold and been cold so no warm ups but open water that’s when I go to deep places. The deeper ponds are more stable than shallow ponds. shallow ponds- warm quicker, more affected by weather deeper ponds- longer to warm. More stable. some of my biggest bass have been caught in early spring

I’ve caught all sorts of bass and crappies on slammers. They crush. I’ve caught 1lbs bass on 10 inch slammers.

Don’t really have a bait of the year. The bite sucked for me. Couldn’t figure out the bass in the spring and then the stripers in the summer. No patterns what so ever. Every time I fished it was a grind. I fish for everything that’s hitting from salt to fresh. If I had to choose a top bait it would have to be my jigs. It did the best for all species I targeted this year. Bass, stripers, big trout, sea bass, fluke and scup

Take a look at real prey swimbaits, he makes soft rigged swimbaits from 3.5 inches to 10 inches. He matches a variety of bait fish, shape color and action. His hairs get chewed

You got a 10# from New England? That’s impressive. I’m in MA would love to break 10. I’ve caught an 8 and a few 7s I love slammers. They crushed fish up here in New England. Got a former Pb of 7-8 on one and many fish under 7

Welcome I live in the area. Edavile is a great spot

I just got some over winter. Very excited to try them out. I bought 3 rigs. All hog farmers. The regular, the mini and the micro. Stocked up on heads, lead free bass jigs and beast coast swimbait sleds. Then stocked up on Keitech and beast coast slow flows. Really excited to throw them early spring. I have a feeling it will crush em

I love solid colors for night time bass. I’ve caught bass on white, red, black, orange, chartreuse, purple, golden shiners, pretty much any color you can think of. I think it’s more about action. Sometimes they want a multi jointed bait with rattles others they want a single joint silent and the only noise is the knock or squeak from the joint. You can have the right bait but not the right retrieve. So make sure you switch up. Sometimes they want a random pause mixed in, sometimes they want a steady slow retrieve, other times they wanted slow twitched meaning you don’t have a steady retrieve, you just twitch and pause. there’s so many topwaters that will work, big jitterbugs, crawlers, buzzbaits, frogs, whopper plopper, wake baits. As for non topwaters, I use more natural colors. I use apinner baits with Colorado blades. any plastic for t rig and jig trailer with good action and thump. Rage plastics, rage craws, rage menace , brush hogs, any craw and creature baits will work. Chatterbaits because of the thump. For big soft swimbaits I like Huddleston and real preys. They have a big thump on the tail. I go slow most of the time but have caught some big fish fishing a topwater faster. I love fishing charters like a jig, lift a pause, kinda like you would with a blade bait! I’ve caught bass all winter long at night on topwater here in MA. 2 years ago my first topwater bass was on January 2nd.