My Ranger followed me over 'the bridge' to a Cape pond I've only fished once or twice.  I got one decent Larry on a @Siebert Outdoors swim jig w/4.3" Keitech on it early on and nada the rest of the trip.  I didn't really mark much and threw my normal assortment with a Kut Tail and Rage Menace added in.  I packed it in around 1630 hours.  

 

Water temps were 73.x, winds were light/moderate from everywhere, and air pressure was 30.3.

 

Dunno if I'm getting out tomorrow, but I'll be in NH fishing with Sean Snover of Reel Northern Bass (his YT channel) this weekend.  

 

Good luck to everyone else getting out there.

 

5 hours ago, Angler Andy said:

I left the paddles at home!

 

You're not alone ... been there, done that....

5 hours ago, Angler Andy said:

According to the solarclock, major feeding time was 07:28 am - 09:28 am.

 

I use Solunarforecast.com - they had 0732 to 0932 ... ha.

 

I don't live by it, but it seems to make a difference.  I believe there's some truth to it because my cats hunt a lot more during 'peak times' listed on their website.

2 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

I don't live by it, but it seems to make a difference.

Agreed.

Wed, Sept 17th.
Major Feed Time: 08:22 am - 10:22 am 
Morning Air Temp: 55°
Water Temp: Mostly 70° but 68° in some areas.
Wind: N-NE, Gentle breeze to 7mph
Partly Cloudy
Humidity: 96%
Sunrise: 6:28 AM

 

I went to a different lake than yesterday and was on the water by 7am. Water levels were really low, probably 3-3 1/2ft. This particular lake I went to last week and did not do so well. However, today was different.
The best quality fish I had this year. LMB: 1 beast (short of a pin), 4 big, 2 decent size, 1 junior size, 1 sunfish, 2 yellow perch, 1 pickerel. Also, got bit off by a pickerel.
Productive lures included: top water, crankbait, and a jerkbait.

The best bite of the day was when I seen some fish activity on the surface. I threw a popper and a LMB exploded on it. When eye contact was made between the fish and I, the fish made a run. I kept saying, "O, this is a good fish" as I reeled it in. It ended being the biggest fish of the day.

 

P.s. This time I had my paddles!

I caught a pretty smallmouth this evening. I like this photo because you can see the bass, my boat, some of my equipment, the water, and the shore:

 

It's been a couple of weeks since I last had an adventure on the kayak but I made it happen yesterday. I fished in the morning and evening at two lakes close by. The morning bite was quite tough; the past two days of colder weather pushed all the fish out of the shallows and I didn't mark anything in less than 10' of water. After a couple of hours of nothing barring some small perch I called it a day but only after shaking off on a good smallmouth trolling an A-rig in 25ft of water. Humbling.

 

I refueled and headed out for the afternoon/evening shift, and at this different pond the wind started to pick up a bit which definitely helped the bite. Nothing in the shallows still but I marked a ton of life suspended in 12-25ft. While I had a tough time finding anything, I did discover the power of the A-rig. On this day I normally would have skunked hard, but thanks to this bait I managed to catch a medley of quality white and yellow perch, and a decent largemouth bass all in 20ft of water suspended about halfway up. I had to cover a ton of water to find the one spot where they were at, but once I did I just passed through it a couple times to get my bites. The wind was pushing bait in and they were corralled on the deep section of the ledge, a true fall transition bite.

Sept 22

Overcast clouds

Temperature: 57 - 62°F

Water temps started at 67°F and warmed up to 70°F by 12pm.

Wind: Mostly calm - light breeze

Wind Direction: NE - E

Cloud Cover: 99%

Humidity: 81 - 89%

Sunrise: 6:32am

On the water by 7:10am.

Did not have as productive day as last posting despite being at the same pond. 

One big LMB on a fluke. One slightly larger than average chain pickerel on a spinnerbait, One small crappie on a crankbait, One small yellow perch on a crankbait.

The LMB made the day

Mostly suspended fish and the LMB by the edge of the lily pads near a drop off.

 

I caught a thick lmb this early morning. My camera isn't flashing and I don't know why. Sigh.

 

I fished 4 different NH waters from last Saturday through yesterday afternoon.  I had about the same results at all four.  I caught a few dink SMB, LMB, picks, and yellow perch that weren't worth putting on the scale.  I had two SMB just over two pounds, the highlight.  For the most part the fish were SHUT OFF.  A green pumpkin purple/green flake Hula Grub was about the only thing the smallies wanted.

 

The weather was spectacular, light winds, sunny, and in the high 60's durning the day.  Water temps were 71.x, 66.x, 71.x 68.x, respectively.

 

The highlight was fishing with Sean Snover of ReelNorthernBass (YT) in Meredith on Sunday.  He out fished me 4-5:1, but we caught roughly the same size SMB.  It was good to fish with someone that's as good as he is.  I learned a few things about changing technique and using Active Target.  I fish alone 99% of the time.  It was a huge bonus having someone else to kabbitz with while the fishing was slow.

 

 

29th Sept

Few clouds - clear sky

Morning Temp: 57°F

Water Temp: 70-72°F

Wind: Mostly calm - light breeze

Wind Direction: N - NW

Cloud Cover: 20%

Humidity: 91%

Sunrise: 6:40am

On the lake by 7AM.

Caught 7 LMB, 2 Yellow Perch (fat too), 1 sunfish, 1 Pickerel. 

I got bit off again by a pickerel but was it awesome because I saw grab the fluke tail, then reposition it within it's mouth. It happen right at the kayak.

Sometime later, as I lifted the lure out of the water for another cast, a small bass jump out and over the lure. Apparently, it followed it to the kayak and made a last ditch effort for the lure.

I kept hearing splashing but not seeing anything. As I scanned the area, I seen movement, then a splash. The bass and pickerel were up tight against the shallow shore. 

The yellow perch were suspended for the most part.

Most productive lure was the wacky worm and crankbaits thrown up tight against the shoreline.

  

Tough fishing this weekend. Could not find a good bite and covered a large amount of water trying to get anything to bite. Saturday I tried a local pond that gets pretty deep, and everything was out 15ft or deeper all suspended. Without the a-rig I would have gotten skunked again, but I managed to land a couple of rather large perch so overall it wasn't a total wash. I went out again on Sunday to a pond further north from me. It's depth maxes out at 12ft and is about half the size of the pond I fished on Saturday, so I figured I would have an easier time locating the fish. I was kind of right; I landed two bass on a fluke and bladed jig, but I lost two more on a keitech and the bladed jig. Of course the larger ones I lost but that's the way the cookie crumbles. Both bass were off the bank casting along the deeper weed edges.

 

Yesterday I did a hail mary trip after work to try to reach my personal goals of 20 bass a month, and thankfully I managed to break that number on a fast moving stretch of the Charles. I was at 17 bass and I needed to get to 20 to satisfy my ego. While the fish were small, I landed 8 smallmouth bass and 1 largemouth alongside a boatload of white perch and assorted sunfish. I lost two 14ish inch smallies though and that was rather sad, but I remembered the thing about the cookies crumbling and I got over it. Since the river was low, finding the deeper pools and eddies was the only way to locate the fish, but then once they were found it was every cast. A 2 inch swimbait, a crappie plastic, a whopper plopper 60, and a 2.8 keitech were the lures that got me my fish, with both lost fish coming off the keitech.

 

I'm really hoping for October to be a good one, last year I smashed my pb and I'm hoping I can find one similar in size. A topwater, bladed jig, and flipping jig are going to be tied on at all times for the next 6 weeks, let's get it!

Caught this girl this evening:

 

I ground it out for roughly 10 hours on the Cape with my Ranger.  Out of that I got a handful of dink SMB, LMB, and white perch.  I threw the kitchen sink and then some.  This has been most of my year.  I don't take my scale out anymore.

 

Winds were stiff from the SW.  Water temps were 67.x - 68.x and air pressure was 30.4.

 

I talked to a couple guys at the ramp as I was coming off the water.  They said they caught a few 2# bass.  The older guy's son is interested my Ranger.  I gave them my # and told them I'd meet them so they could run my boat if they were really interested.   With any luck he'll buy it.  It's time to get rid of my boat and stick to small water on my kayak.

Coming into prime time. Water temp is still a little high. Right time, right place and you can have a banner day!  😎

On 9/30/2025 at 12:29 PM, AverageAngler said:

my personal goals of 20 bass a month

 

Head to Maine where @Swamp Girl lives.  You'll meet your goals in a few hours.

Nice one this morning. Estimated four-pounder:

 

So an old  girl caught an old girl?<G>  Way to go lady. A really nice fish for your area, Keep it up and you will have a 6 or 7 pounder by the end of the season.

17 hours ago, Kirtley Howe said:

So an old  girl caught an old girl?

 

Yeah! I once read that a 19-inch lmb in Maine can be 20 years old. Imagine surviving 20 winters under the ice and 20 summers of eagles, ospreys, and herons. Speaking of 19-inchers, here's one I caught this morning on a white spinnerbait with shad-colored Keitech, one of 12 bass landed on a cool morning with nearly no wind:

 

 

I'm at 1,348 for the year and hoping to catch 1,500 total before my canoe goes on the sawhorses in my garage for the winter. 

 

Kirtley, I only caught one six-pounder this year, but I caught dozens of four-pounders and In Fisherman says that a northern four-pounder is equivalent to a southern six-pounder, so....

 

@Swamp Girl I wanna be you when I grow up

I loaded my kayak in my truck and headed to Plymouth for the afternoon.  Caught a 1.5 pound white perch straight away on a emerald Rapala PXR Mavrik jerkbait (ya'll might consider picking up a couple of these ... they make a great V110 replacement).  I crossed to the big water in search of some big smallies.  I nabbed two that just made the 2 pound mark.  The first on a coppertreuse Ned and the second on a dirty perch Slo-Flow on a drop shot.  Both were 30' deep.  I hooked onto a really good smallie late in the afternoon on a clown X-Rap, but it got off while airborne. 

 

I marked a lot of big targets suspended in 35 - 40' but couldn't get anyone to commit to anything I threw.

 

Water temps were 71.x, winds were light from the S, and air pressure was 30.2. 

 

With any luck I'll get back down there tomorrow.  I figure I'll reach @Swamp Girl's 1,000 bass in another seven or eight years.

 

ADD: I just logged onto TW.  The Mavrik's on sale for $12.88, which sure beats $24.99.

6 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

I hooked onto a really good smallie late in the afternoon on a clown X-Rap, but it got off while airborne. 

 

We have ^this^ in common. I've hooked some smallies that seemed to bounce off the surface of the water, as if it were a trampoline. They spent so much time in the air that I didn't have a chance. It's nearly impossible to see the hook on a fish that's doing aerobatics.

 

6 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

I figure I'll reach @Swamp Girl's 1,000 bass in another seven or eight years.

 

My fish-catching rate is steadily slowing. I caught 2,044 last year and it was only ten years ago that I could launch every morning at four a.m. and fish every evening too until dark. 100-bass days were common when I could fish that long, but I no longer can. it's not just that my energy is fading.  My arthritic thumbs become clunkier and clunkier. All of me does. I used to be so smooth in my canoe, managing all my gear. Now I've become a stumblebum and untangling gear is a larger and larger part of each morning. I rarely fish the bogs anymore that hold the biggest bass because I'm just too weak to reach them. Bog bass like this are becoming a memory, as are 70-bass bog mornings:

 

 

Time is tapping my brakes.

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Time is tapping my brakes.

 

I'm only 28 and I still think back to a stretch in high school I did two back to back 15 hour days in my kayak one summer sunrise to sunset on a local pond. I don't think I have those in me anymore haha. 

 

I wish I could re-fish those days. It was on A1 and a weird summer where the vegetation didn't really grow but the lilypads did. So you had the entire pond looking almost crystal clear with no major weed beds for them to hide but when the sun came up they flocked under the small clusters of pads and you could almost call your shot. Of course, young inexperienced me was fishing nothing but a wacky rig on a 4'6" Ultralight spinning rod and 15lb braid. You can imagine my hookup and land ratio was not spectacular. I think I still got 25 bass each day though. Would kill to go back and fish those days with a jig and proper gear lol. I definitely broke off a couple big ones. 

2 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Of course, young inexperienced me was fishing nothing but a wacky rig on a 4'6" Ultralight spinning rod and 15lb braid.

 

Wow, were you ever outgunned! I came to lmb fishing from smallie fishing and my medium rods, which had landed thousands of smallies up to 5.5 pounds, just couldn't land lmb in weeds.

 

I caught this perfect girl this morning at my pond:

 

It’s that time! Even with the warmer than average temperatures the fall bite is in full swing. I made a post in the main forum asking where people planned on fishing and I learned a lot. I took the knowledge from there and applied it to my most recent trips.
 

Saturday was quite busy but since I’m addicted I managed to squeeze a cool 40 minutes down by the river spot from last week. A handful of bass and a handful of assorted panfish meant two handfuls of fun.

 

Sunday I had the afternoon to myself and I headed out to my favorite spot. The sun was high and the wind was non existent. This place has tons of vegetation, and even though the air’s hot the water temps were dropping and a lot of what was once vibrant had begun to die off. I found some transition points involving rock and wood and had a decent bit of success there.

 

I caught two bass off a concrete bridge using a whopper plopper and a whiplash shad and caught another dragging a flipping jig through some submerged timber. Finding lively areas and covering water was key to my success, as I had long stretches of water where there was absolutely zero activity. I hooked into a BIG one at the bridge on a little keitech and fought it for a couple of minutes before she popped off. Bummer, It felt like a 4-5lber and my 6lbs test was stressing out.

 

Just as the sunset was passing the horizon I paddled over to the same spot where I caught a 5.75 lber back in August and casted around 20’ parallel to the emergent weed bed. The water was 3-4’ deep and the vegetation there was still alive due to the two nearby brooks that feed into the cove. I saw a large motion near my whopper plopper and as I reeled it in I had a feeling that something was going to take it. Sure enough the motion was a bass and a massive blowup makes my lure disappear. I set the hook and - woahwoahwoah, this was big. When the hookset meets an equal and opposite reaction from the fish you know that it’s nothing to mess with. She pulled line and gave me plenty of stress trying to maneuver her out of the weeds but after a 2 minute fight I landed another 5.6lbs tank. A year ago to the day I also caught my pb of 6.75lbs at this body of water, something cool to note.

After a quick weight and photo shoot  I let her go… aaaand of course I forget to measure the fish. For sure a 21” but I guess no way to know exactly. Does anyone know how lenient the fish and game is on the pin program? I kind of feel silly for not doing a measurement but the fish swam off with a thunderous kick so I don’t feel too bad lol.

13 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

My fish-catching rate is steadily slowing. I caught 2,044 last year and it was only ten years ago that I could launch every morning at four a.m. and fish every evening too until dark. 100-bass days were common when I could fish that long, but I no longer can. it's not just that my energy is fading.  My arthritic thumbs become clunkier and clunkier. All of me does. I used to be so smooth in my canoe, managing all my gear. Now I've become a stumblebum and untangling gear is a larger and larger part of each morning. I rarely fish the bogs anymore that hold the biggest bass because I'm just too weak to reach them. Bog bass like this are becoming a memory, as are 70-bass bog mornings:

 

 

Time is tapping my brakes.

Time will eventually slow all of us down, making the most of what we have is what makes the journey of life so fun.  Looks like you’re giving us young ones a good example of how to live right! With enough time, dedication, and luck, perhaps I will join you and many others on this site with 1,000 bass seasons.