jbmaine

You almost had fish and venison. Kind of an inland surf and turf.? As always, great video.

You know there are bass in there. you know they have to eat. Nothing wrong about putting the time in to figure out what works.

Go git the biggest pair of sneakers anyone makes. Toss them 12 ft. up a tree. If their gone the next day, there was a big foot there.

What a great post!! Sure brings back a lot of memories.

The pictures are from a cove in the lower end of a 900+ acre lake. We are more familiar with this lake than any other we fish. We used to see schools of minnows, yellow perch, sun fish, pickerel, bass you name it. The water used to have good visibility. My family had a camp on this lake when I was a kid. Our camp had a nice sandy beach, now it's all mud and silted in. This trip I think we saw one yellow perch and the pickerel we caught, nothing else. I also have been noticing that back in the day the boat launch always had several cars parked there from people fishing. Now we never see more than one or two parked there. ( we go past this launch dozens of times each year on our way to other lakes) All I know for sure is eight, ten years ago the bass fishing was the best we've ever seen ( with multiple 4,5 lb LM ) and after that spring flood it died to almost nothing. Last fall we did catch a couple of small bass there but they were very thin.

You could be right, that year we saw "rafts" of dead floating weeds 8-12 ft in dia. Had to keep an eye out that we didn't run into them with the boat. Never saw anything like that before.

Do you store the fishing rods on your yak vertically? If so there's your sight guide.

I've loved fishing for as long as I can remember. I know people that could care less about it. I'm bored to death with sports. Others love sports. It takes all kinds.

Hollow body frog or popper at night.

Hi All, We spent some time today on a lake that used to be our go to spot. Back in the day a dozen LM easy was our norm. Then one year there were spring floods and we think septic systems got in the water. The next year there were weed blooms every where ( think Sargasso sea ) and the fishing went down hill fast. Once or twice a year we hit it to see if it might be coming back. It's still a shadow of it's former self. Fished it for hours today with only one pickerel to show for it. How sad to see water like this being so unproductive

If you just need something as a visibility marker, I wonder if reflective stakes ( like for marking your driveway in the winter) might work.

Personally, I would never lie to my wife, but even if I wanted to I couldn't. It's pretty hard to lie to her about fishing when she's sitting right next to me in the boat.

When I was a kid we had a camp on a lake. Fished off the end of the dock or in a rowboat. Caught fish. Would I have caught more with electronics? Maybe, Who knows. I have decent electronics on my boat for a couple of reasons. For the price of repairs on my motor I want to know when I'm getting into skinny water. The second reason is probably valid for most of us. TIME. Up until recently I had limited time to fish. I wanted the advantage electronics gave me to make the most use of the limited time I had. If you have all that $$$ in fishing stuff you kinda want to catch fish, electronics help. I will say, fishing the places I spend a lot of time on I don't need or use electronics as much to find fish. Would there be as many people out fishing today as there is now, if we didn't have electronics. I don't know.

 my 3 rd cast i saw the line slacked in a weird manner and i didnt even think i just yanked it and sure enough it was a bass You didn't even think, you just set the hook Congratulations, That's a great step in fishing. Here's to the first good bass and many more

All great answers, Here's my take on the why. If the water gets too warm, bass will go deeper or find shade to stay cool. Sunny calm summer days. Visibility in the water is much better so bass get spooked. They find thick cover not only to stay cool but for protection. That to me is why I find bass easier to catch on overcast, drizzly, or windy days. They feel safer moving around. I used to striper fish in the salt water from shore. Go at night or early A.M. and they would be everywhere in shallow water. As soon as the sun came up, they would all head out for deeper water. I believe that was because as soon as the sun started coming thru the water they felt less safe.

I find an anchor a must have. You may never use it, but in the event of motor issues, etc. it will keep you from drifting into shore. Also if your boat didn't come with one, I really recommend a boarding ladder. Our boat has one on the stern, and it's really nice to know we have a good way to get back in the boat, should we fall out.

I hear ya, I spent many years trout fishing with a fly rod. I know there's trout down here but you mentioned " native trout" That's few and far between down here.

Dang, those are some nice fish, If I had trout like that close to me I'd be doing less bass fishing

What does the town say. If they have a pump going I would hope they know what their pumping.

This is just the kind of info I was looking for. Thanks

Feeling the bite can happen several different ways. The tic,tic feeling or the line twitch are some what self explanatory. the "mushy" I relate more to a gut feeling , or instinct. This is what I believe happens. When you use a lure, say a tube, you cast it out, let it hit bottom, then drag or hop it across the bottom. You do this multiple times. Your mind is processing all the information. It feels / looks like this as it's sinking. It takes this much resistance to start it moving. If it bumps against a rock you feel the change and may set the hook. If there is nothing there then, just by the solid feel, you know it had to be a rock. If you feel a softer change in resistance and pull up a weed then you know what going thru weeds feel like. Your mind stores all this accumulated knowledge. At some point something different will happen. You may not consciously notice the difference but your mind is screaming " set the hook " I have set the hook on fish only because my mind "gut " said to. I have also set the hook on brush, sticks, weeds, all manor of things, but more often than not, it is a fish. I would suggest sticking with one bait for now. The more you use it, I believe the better your mind/ gut/ instinct, will tell you there's a fish on.

The coffee's on, see you in a bit

Thanks A-Jay, as always excellent advice and info. I think one of the hardest things for me on this lake is there is abundant food everywhere, good structure everywhere. I have never caught a thin fish there at all, and they spawn all over the lake. It sounds like I just need to follow your guide lines and put the time in. Thanks again Jim

Hi all, This year I am determined to have better luck, develop better skill in catching deep SM. I finally have the time, boat, TM, electronics, to do it. However I could use some *** on finding all these fish. I fish a very good SM lake around 1000 acres big. I know it's full of SM, I see hundreds of them during the spawn. Now that the spawn is just about over, they are starting their move to deeper water. I have read, watched all kinds of info. on deep water SM, and know to try for them on drop-offs , shelfs, humps, etc. The issue I have is this lake is full of them. I idle along, watching the fish finder for hundreds of yards, and there are areas where the bottom never stays still. Its like watching a roller coaster. So, with so many places for them to hide out, what's the best way to find them? I'm thinking I just need to keep moving until the fish finder shows fish, then stop and try to catch them. I'm wondering that with so much bottom contour, they don't gang up, and seeing just one fish here and there, is going to be the norm. Any other thoughts on how to approach this? Thanks Jim

Hi all, I started the post bad year for ticks, and it got me thinking. I've always lived locally ( N.H., ME. ) and I'm soon to be 64. When I was a kid I was always out in the fields, woods and never got a tick. Never even heard of them, except they were a southern thing. Now their everywhere , same with possums, I see dead ones on the road from time to time. It must be a migration north. What else are you seeing out and about that you never used to see?