Boomstick

www.takemefishing.org maintains a list of federally maintained lakes with their known species there. You can use fishidy to find what type and size of fish people are catching, and where they caught them at. Then google maps is useful. They don't let you zoom in too far, but you can see what the overhanding branch situation looks like and find potential spots on a lake that way. In Massachusetts, I can search for a lake name, followed by map, which will give you a map with some info on known species and often they mention locations with shore fishing access as well. There's also one guys blog of south county lakes (I normally go the other way to Vermont, I've had better luck and while it's a further distance, it takes the same amount of time due to less traffic as well).

Up in the northeast, I find that dual willow blades are generally the most effective (although like I said in my prior post colorado will often target larger fish -- and indianas are becoming my slow rolling spinnerbaits of choice in stained water!). We do have an abundance of clear water as well so the flash is rather important. As for colors, I generally use at least four: white, white & chartreuse, black with colorado blades for night fishing and sexy shad or War Eagle's mouse. Mouse and sexy shad are generally effective in most water, white for clear water and white and chartreuse for stained water. Brown should also be effective in stained water, although to be honest I've hardly tried it.

You only need about 4" of water for a drop shot, but when it's that shallow and I don't already have a drop shot rigged up, I will usually go to the ned rig instead with the exception of mornings and evenings. At times when fish are active, fishing a drop shot, nose hooked near the top of the water column can be EXTREMELY effective.

My personal theory is that I will use black in dirty water, low light conditions or fishing rather deep and junebug in clearer but still stained water. But I could be wrong on any given day.

I have heard of people doing it, but I'm not going to try. Personally, I don't go below 40lbs with braid on a baitcaster (I might consider 20 or 30lb line on a deep cranking setup once I get a boat).

I have a Daiwa Triforce 5'6" UL rod with a Daiwa Crossfire 1000 rod for ultralight. It's a cheaper trout/panfish setup, but quite smooth and you've never guess I only paid about $50 for both the rod and reel.

I think you will like the baitcaster once you learn it. It's more fun to me than a spinning reel to me as I spend less time between casts. As you prefer smaller and lighter lures, I would see if you can swing a Mojo Bass 7'1"M/F plastics rod or a Dobyns Fury 703C (although if it was me personally, I'd try some jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, etc and buy a MH/F rod, and they pair nice with a ned rig or drop shot on a 2 rod setup).

I never hold the line between my fingers because of how I hold my rod & reel, although it may be possible to adjust. I generally prefer a split grip when slowly fishing a jig or soft plastic and letting it sit because I can balance it in my hand in a way where the slightest movement in the line will make it go tip heavy, at which point I set the hook. A couple of times I looked away from my line for a second and detected a bite this way. I'd probably be better off pinching the line as stated, this is just how I learned to do it.

I started really fishing a couple years ago, bought some lures and cheaper gear. I didn't even know at the time that I'd love fishing as much as I do or even that bass would become my favorite species to fish for (I thought I'd be targeting channel catfish mostly, because they're tasty!). Once I figured out that I'm in it for the long haul, I then did some research and bought myself a higher end casting rod and reel -- and then added several more both for each of my kids and myself. If I was starting off again, I would seriously consider the Shimano SLX combo which I've seen for sale (as posted by another forum user) for as low as $129.99. While I'm sure I still prefer the gear that I have, I'm fairly sure that I would be comfortable adding new rods for specific techniques before upgrading them. Also, I would start off with no more than 2-3 rods. My suggestion would be to buy the MH/F SLX casting combo (run 40lb braid which will handle jigs and frogs in moderate cover just fine), a ML/XF spinning combo for drop shots and neg rigs and the medium SLX casting combo. This will cover most scenarios very nicely, and next year you can get a heavy rod for frogs in heavy cover. If you were not regularly fishing from a boat, I would say skip the medium combo for now as well, but having regular access to a boat gives you many more options.

I did not mean to imply they don't have large ones, just not the large number of large ones that they used to.

I can hardly see it past the smudging but is that symbol the derivative aka a calculus symbol? I was a math minor in college (and short of what I could transfer, I was probably a course or two from being a math/dual major), but it's been years since I've used this in a daily basis.

That would be great if I had an extra casting rod. Mine are all paired with reels with appropriate line

She is actually good with a spinning reel.

Thanks! I actually went with the 2000 for my ned rig and drop shot rod, partially because the slightly wider spool and also because I can run 10lb line on that if I ever used it for something else -- and it was $15 cheaper. Great reel (and it also doesn't loose line loops and gets great hooksets!) But in this case, I'll definitely step up to the BG2500 for the extra 9lbs of drag if nothing else.

Oh right the 3500 probably is a little big, it runs larger than some other reels. I have a 3500 sized Pflueger President and that's about the perfect size. The 2500 or 3000 (which are about the same weight) look like they'd be perfect.

Based on Dobyns recommendations, the 704SF and 705SF both look like they would do nicely, the 704SF is better for Texas rigs and the 705SF is better for frogs, both for jigs and spinnerbaits. It's a little more than I normally spend on a rod, but I can probably find a Daiwa BG in 3500 size for $70 or less again and save on the reel. I did the same thing with my drop shot rod and couldn't be happier.

Swim it or let it sink and reel it but I'd keep that narrow head off the rocks because it will get snagged. That is what football head jigs are good for.

Congrats! I finally got a bass on Friday. I bass fished a rainbow trout (ned rig) the week before. It rained on Saturday night, was still cloudy with a very mild occasional sprinkle and cloudy skies. I threw a spinnerbait into a fairly weedy area and saw a lot of water moving behind my spinnerbait. I went to reel and turns out I hooked into a smaller fish with a larger one following. I had another that jumped out of the water to get my spinnerbait as well right after it hit a weed but missed the hook.

If you don't mind driving roughly a hour to the west, there are two great lakes with largies and smallies (Vermont has many great smallies -- don't forget about the smallies!). First there is Lake Bomoseen, which at one point was known for having large largies. Currently, the LMB population is not as large as it used to be as the ice fisherman have taken so many out of there that they aren't producing the large offspring at the same rate anymore. They're still known to have good smallies though. Also there are two docks around the state park, I believe they are both owned by the state park but could be wrong. Just south of Lake Bomoseen there is Lake St. Catherine which is one of my favorite lakes to fish. If you don't have a boat, you can go to the state park and there is a v shaped peninsula along the top right by a chokepoint and you can fish off both sides of it. If you throw a moving bait there in the morning or evening, you're pretty much guaranteed a fish. You can also rent kayaks, rowboats and canoes at the state park and up the eastern side of the lake north of the state park, there's some of the best cover of the lake and the deeper spots are to the south should you try to target a large one. There's plenty of docks on the eastern and western sides as well. To the west and north, there is Lake Dunmore. It's the clearest water I've ever seen, and while it's a difficult lake to catch bass on, I would say it's also probably the best lake to catch a state record sized LMB (currently holds it). There's also many trails around the state park, one to silver lake where you can fish for trout. To the west and south is Emerald Lake. I caught a pretty decent smallie there a couple years back. You could try Lake Pinneo in Queeche VT or the CT river as well. Lake Pinneo looks like a very nice lake, although I haven't fished it yet.

Well I'm not in southern NH but I had some success in southern VT this weekend. Three bass chased my spinnerbait hard and I landed one (one missed my hook and the other was right after I hooked the one I got). I would imagine they're starting to chase.

That's what I've been trying to do, hence why I was looking at buying her a spinning rod due to her having no success with it and getting frustrated. I just figured someone will say buy a casting rod, so now you have context why I don't. Thanks! She has used braid on the M/F rod that she's been using, and definitely prefers that over the M/F which I have 8lb mono on. The braid generally handles better on spinning gear, so I use it on almost all my spinning gear.

That's around what I normally spend for a rod too! Thanks I was looking at those too, but never got my hands on one to check for myself.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking too. I always hear you can't get a hookset on a spinnerbait with a spinning rod, but I would think on a MH spinning rod with a larger reel and braid, it should be more than adequate. I use a MH/MF composite rod and don't have any issues myself! Also between both my sons and myself, I believe we have a total of 10 casting rods in the house she can learn on as well -- and as of his birthday it will be 11 because he's getting a MH/F for his birthday this year (he has a MH/MF spinnerbait rod because he really likes spinnerbaits and crankbaits so that's the happy medium for both).

When I bought my house, I had a late 60s oil boiler and no hot water tank - it literally heated the water in the pipes with no mixing valve and put it out my faucet around 150 degrees, so you could easily get a first degree burn by putting your hand under the hot water. When cleaned, it used 30 gallons a month just for hot water for the family, and when not cleaned (when I was converting to gas and trying to use the remaining oil anyway), that number jumped to 120 -- just for hot water alone. I spent a total of $6000 on oil that year and kept my heat at 60 until pipes started freezing. I will also add heating oil was over $4/gallon that year. I have since converted to gas, and I kept my thermostat at least at 73 last winter primarily because my feet are extremely sensitive to cold as a result of chemo (even with three pairs of socks on) and I still spent under $2000 for the year on gas. My house is small, but plank so I can't really insulate it any more than it already is. I did not get a "high efficiency unit" but got a traditional unit that burns the gas and not the fumes and the efficiency is very close to most high efficiency units without having radiant flooring. My installer explained how the high efficiency units are fussy, often need to be cleaned like oil and they had a lot of known issues plus they cost more upfront then they'll likely ever save in their lifespan. I'm not too worried about gas exploding. For what it's worth, modern natural gas in large amounts does not ignite like gasoline for your automobile does and while occasionally there are explosions, they are rather rare -- and it seems more often they are large commercial units, not newer residential units. In a new and well maintained unit, I should be fine. When I bought the house, I was expecting to switch to a gas stove as well, but as it turns out the electric stove that came with the house is actually very good and the oven is the best oven in any place I've ever lived. But generally gas stoves are usually much better for cooking.

Hey guys, My girlfriend's birthday is coming up and she's been coming fishing this year and really enjoying it. I was going to get her her own rod that she can use -- she has been using a M/F spinning rod, but where we were fishing, it's a little underpowered for the weeds -- and really will be once they start to grow in. I have tried to teach her a baitcaster, but she had a very hard time and got really frustrated, so I am looking for a spinning rod that could handle weighted soft plastics, 3/8oz jigs and maybe even a chatterbait or a spinnerbait. Has anyone ever tried any of these techniques on spinning gear? I get the impression that most med. heavy spinning rods are more inline with a medium casting rod that runs slightly heavy as well, and I'm aware it would need a larger reel to help with hooksets. I'll probably also use braid for the same reason. I almost feel like I should buy her a casting rod (she'd have more fun if she learned it anyway) but I'm not sure if she has the kind of patience to learn and that I won't be buying myself a present.