Caught this 4.10 last night. I had been fishing along the shore again with no luck and really no sign of any bass shallow yet. Same with another pond I fish which I got skunked on the night before. Both are relatively smaller ponds that aren't too deep. Finally started chucking my spinnerbait in the middle and got this one. Later on I blew the hookset on a decent one and missed it . Again, as I was leaving started casting off in the middle and a big fish slammed my spinnerbait. Had it for a few seconds then got off.

Bummed I wasn't able to get out tonight. Can't wait for them to start hugging the banks on the ponds I go to. Love when they come in before the pads and weeds start showing up.

I need to fish

13 hours ago, Sputterbug said:

spinnerbait

Nice fish!

What was your set up and why do you think you lost those hits?

Can't wait to be back in New England and fishing for the next two weeks!

@Banned User 1/2oz Strike king in white. One big hit late was on spinnerbait had him on for a few seconds so probably just didn't get it all. The missed hook set was on a worm. My boat was turning a bit as the fish was moving away with the line. I thought I had reeled up all the slack but didn't and just kinda whiffed🙂

Good night last night. Got this 4.1 and about six or seven others. The 4.1 was electric! Shot up out of the water twice. Got it on a weightless worm in maybe 3ft of water just a couple feet from shore. All the others happened in about a 30 minute window. All on a spinnerbait. One was 3lbs and the others were 1-2lbs. Most with big bellies. All where pretty close to shore and not too deep

Got out again today. Different lake the water was really low for this time of year, I think that was keeping them out of the shallows a bit. Did get a couple decent ones in a spawning cove but they seemed to be wandering not on beds yet. Water temps were hovering around 60, wind out the east made for a fairly chilly day. Probably ended up with 7 or 8 bass nothing big. Has to grind with a jerk bait for most of them but also mixed in a jog and spinner bait this time with some success. TOOOOOOONS of pickerel. I give up, I surrender to our pickerel overlords. My dad got two chunky ones over 3lbs one was just stupid fat for its length the other close to 25”.

A good multi-species day I got largies, smallies, white and yellow perch, pickerel, sunfish, crappie and spotted a pair of bullheads in the shallows which I rarely run into.

Can someone please find the thermostat for New England and crank up the temp ten or fifteen degrees?

PLEASE!!!

3 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Can someone please find the thermostat for New England

I've fished the Lakes Region over the last week. Water temps were in the high 40's in all but one shallow pond that was in the mid-high 50's.

1 hour ago, DogBone_384 said:

I've fished the Lakes Region over the last week. Water temps were in the high 40's in all but one shallow pond that was in the mid-high 50's.

It's hard to catch sluggish bass. We had several days in the fifties and one in the sixties this past week, but I expect the water to chill again with days in the low forties and nights in the twenties and thirties. Sigh.

It always makes for a weird spring when they get sooooo close to spawning just for the entire lake to get dragged backwards 10 degrees like this.

So do I bother wasting time walking the bank today at the cost of my back and knees or just spare myself the pain of the skunk and the physical pain?

4 hours ago, Banned User said:

So do I bother wasting time walking the bank today at the cost of my back and knees or just spare myself the pain of the skunk and the physical pain?

Can't imagine the sub-freezing night has them in the best mood, but wind is also back to prevailing N/NW sooooo what do I know maybe it's a buffet lol. Seems like Thursday is the pick of the week right now.

Some highlights of the past week. The warming trend earlier was pretty kind to me with a nice 4lber but I got stormed out on Sunday and yesterday was a total grind. Hopefully they’ll be active again by the weekend.

Those are nice ones, AA!

22 hours ago, Banned User said:

So do I bother wasting time walking the bank today at the cost of my back and knees or just spare myself the pain of the skunk and the physical pain?

You need to suffer. Add some rain and cold wind to.

42 minutes ago, MassBass said:

You need to suffer. Add some rain and cold wind to.

I call those "character building" days

5 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Those are nice ones, AA!

Thank you very much

4 hours ago, MassBass said:

You need to suffer. Add some rain and cold wind to.

"You got soft hands!"

In two hours, I caught three thick ones out of eight total. I'm surprised I did so well given the temps.

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

In two hours, I caught three thick ones out of eight total. I'm surprised I did so well given the temps.

Nice, what were you throwing? How deep were they? I've only gotten 1 single pickerel in my last 3 boating trips... It's getting bleak

49 minutes ago, NRJ1988 said:

Nice, what were you throwing? How deep were they?

I caught the three above trolling in 10' of water, another three in one laydown, and two casting to the shrubby edge of a bog in about three feet of water. It was the edge of a bog where I lost one that took line and spun my canoe. I caught all of them with a VMC heavy duty 5/0 underspin with a Yamamoto orange craw with *Barbie Magic Sparkles (NTM).

* Not a real thing

NTM = Not Trademarked

Seriously, they really like the orange craw. The other lures I've tried (Ned rig, T-Rigged orange worm, jerkbait, lipless, black and silver Keitech on a swim jig, etc.) haven't produced. They only want the big orange craw with silver sparkles.

59 minutes ago, NRJ1988 said:

I've only gotten 1 single pickerel in my last 3 boating trips... It's getting bleak

It's just so c-c-c-cold! I was expecting to skunk.

I L O V E orange on a craw. I'm not so sure the crayfish are the same in Maine but here outside of Boston all of them that I find have orange tips at the end of their claws.

14 minutes ago, AverageAngler said:

I L O V E orange on a craw. I'm not so sure the crayfish are the same in Maine but here outside of Boston all of them that I find have orange tips at the end of their claws.

To be honest, I've never seen any living crawdad in Maine, but I know they're here because I've seen their bleached exoskeletons on the bottom. I tend to cycle through the colors. For example, white and chartreuse were hot at the end of 2025, but silver and black were hot at the beginning.

Have you ever used the Yamamoto craws (Yama Craw)? I like the Crush City Cleanup Craws too. Although they're quite popular, I have less success with the Crush City Bronco Bug. My local bass like the swimming craw action of the Yama Craw and Cleanup Craw.

On 4/21/2026 at 8:35 PM, Swamp Girl said:

I caught the three above trolling in 10' of water, another three in one laydown, and two casting to the shrubby edge of a bog in about three feet of water. It was the edge of a bog where I lost one that took line and spun my canoe. I caught all of them with a VMC heavy duty 5/0 underspin with a Yamamoto orange craw with *Barbie Magic Sparkles (NTM).

* Not a real thing

NTM = Not Trademarked

Seriously, they really like the orange craw. The other lures I've tried (Ned rig, T-Rigged orange worm, jerkbait, lipless, black and silver Keitech on a swim jig, etc.) haven't produced. They only want the big orange craw with silver sparkles.

It's just so c-c-c-cold! I was expecting to skunk.

What a difference a few days makes.

Went out yesterday on the boat and caught 14 total fish in ~3 hours. 11 pickerel and 3 largemouth. Caught 11 of the 14 on a Vision 110 in the matte shad color, 2 on a bladed jig mini Max, and 1 on a bladed jig elite Evo. Not sure why it felt like the bite got "switched on" but I'll take it. Couldn't keep the pickerels off my jerkbait.

2 minutes ago, NRJ1988 said:

Went out yesterday on the boat and caught 14 total fish in ~3 hours.

Good job!