What’s this??? A Texan smallmouth mixed in with a couple largemouth???

Seeing @Team9nine success on the jig has me very excited for the full moon coming on Tuesday August 1st.

 

It will be the first of two full moons in August and which makes it a blue moon and it is called the 'Sturgeon Moon' which has gotta bode well for big fish chasers.

 

I suspect things should fire up on Saturday evening when that moon gets to glowing and stay hot til Saturday morning up shallow.

 

I always catch giants around full or new moons.  ????

 

I fished a friend's pond, using his heavy canoe. It's a tandem, so I paddled backwards from the bow seat. It was great fishing in the evening, as I nearly always fish mornings. I enjoyed the evening light and the day growing darker instead of lighter.

 

I targeted a big girl I hooked a bit back, but I couldn't find her. I did catch 19 other bass in less than three hours, up to a chunky 18.25 inches. Here are a few of them:

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Pat Brown said:

I always catch giants around full or new moons.

 

When do full moon bass hit best? Just when the moon is shining or the rest of the day too?

I like full moon fishing at dusk and dawn and all hours in between ?

 

New Moon I find I catch em when the sun is shining.

@ol'crickety, most excellent catches, I love paddling my canoe backwards from the bow seat, that’s always what I do when solo. 
 

@gimruis, they are thick anywhere I found a logjam. The waters are shallow and clear so I can see everything , pretty wild. It’s shallow for a long ways near the banks, not something I’ve never witnessed in our “lakes”. At home it’s 10-75 feet deep when you take one step off dry land 

Got up to my spot after the moon was already below the western tree line, which is just how I like it, but couldn't find a better bite. Sometimes a skunk-beater is as good as it gets, and I didn't harpoon my finger with a treble hook this time. No siree. I'll take it!

7 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

At home it’s 10-75 feet deep when you take one step off dry land 

 

Whoa! That's steep and deep. Come to Maine and wade a bog. It's two feet deep for the first five feet from shore and then it plummets to five feet deep. 

 

7 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

I love paddling my canoe backwards from the bow seat, that’s always what I do when solo. 

 

 

I'm surprised that no one has never explained to us how we're sitting in the wrong seat and paddling the wrong way.

 

The canoe I used is so different than my Kevlar canoe. It's more than twice the weight and so stable I could Irish dance in it. My canoe feels like I'm sitting on a fence rail. 

 

Finally got back to Maine after nearly 2 years to chase some smallies. Never found any  big ones(3+), but got plenty of spunky chunks. Buzzbait and baby torpedo did most of the work, with a spinnerbait and a few other lures chipping in. 

You were here? Ya shoulda, coulda pinged me! We could have fished together. Where did you fish? The smallmouth I catch are ridiculously aerobatic. They fight in the air as much as the water. Did yours launch themselves, again and again?

Yea @ol'crickety I was there,however I was on vacation,and having read about your early morning adventures i can say i was probably  just getting out of bed when you're getting OFF the water.I was a bit north of you I'd guess , my fishing is mostly done somewhere between Lincoln and Millinocket.and oh yes they jump and many are lost but no less fun to see.

@keagbassr: Ah, I see. Yeah, I fish when sensible people are still sleeping. And you were north of me.

 

I too lose a lot of smallies when they rocket out of the water. They are banzai berserkers! I've caught thousands of chunkier, longer, and heavier smallmouth in northwestern Ontario, but Maine's relatively lean smallies jump higher and more than those far north smallies. However, your first photographed smallmouth is as chunky as an Ontario smallie. 

 

Anyway, I'm glad you came to Maine and gladder still that you caught bass. 

9 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

they are thick anywhere I found a logjam

Oh yes, they love logs and boulders.  They're actually classified as a rough fish (same class as carp, bullhead, etc) here in MN, there is no closed season, and the daily bag limit is 30.  I am not a big fan, but hey, if you want to remove them, have at it!

@gimruisI figured I was doing the world a favor, might as well get some meat out of the deal. If I had more time I would try to find some big bass but it’s a family vacation . Got lucky with the one nice bass hiding in a extra shallow river among hundreds of toobers

2 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

might as well get some meat out of the deal

How big are the ones you have on the stringers?  The ones I caught by accident never seemed big enough to filet and a lot of them had black spot parasite on them.  The state record is only 2.0 pounds here.

Pretty small but it’s more meat than none. Couple of them def had the black spot disease but you can still eat them, we have that at home too. It’s kind of a fascinating parasite life cycle, infects a snail, a belted king fisher, and then the fish 

I caught this same fish yesterday. This time on a 3/4oz red eye shad. I'm gonna go to a different spot tomorrow and give her a break. Also caught a few little spotted bass but they weren't as hot today as they were yesterday. Never feels bad to pull four pounds though.

29 minutes ago, thediscochef said:

I caught this same fish yesterday. This time on a 3/4oz red eye shad. I'm gonna go to a different spot tomorrow and give her a break. Also caught a few little spotted bass but they weren't as hot today as they were yesterday. Never feels bad to pull four pounds though.

 

You're not going to catch her again today, eh? So, where exactly did you catch her? Be very precise.

 

Actually, I'm glad you're giving her a break. You're not just a good fisherman. You're a GOOD fisherman. 

 

P. S. - I love those four-pounders too. That's when they start to feel special. 

2 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

You're not going to catch her again today, eh? So, where exactly did you catch her? Be very precise.

 

Actually, I'm glad you're giving her a break. You're not just a good fisherman. You're a GOOD fisherman. 

 

P. S. - I love those four-pounders too. That's when they start to feel special. 

the exact same spot on the south side of the Isle du Bois boat ramp, yesterday she hit at 7:14AM and today at 7:17AM. The hits were within 20 yards of each other. I feel kind of bad because I know she has to be worn out by now, plus all the hook wounds. I did a good job of keeping my hooks in the right places but still. There was a tournament weigh in there tuesday night, it's realistic possibility that fish has been caught three times this week.

9 hours ago, PhishLI said:

Got up to my spot after the moon was already below the western tree line, which is just how I like it, but couldn't find a better bite. Sometimes a skunk-beater is as good as it gets, and I didn't harpoon my finger with a treble hook this time. No siree. I'll take it!

Tough night for me last night too. We had some storms roll through. I had to haul butt to the ramp and ride em out in the truck twice. Only managed a handfull of dink LM and a 2# eye. I thought maybe the wind on the front side of the storms might get 'em chewing, but... NOPE!!!  All good though. Tough bites make us appreciate the good ones.

5 hours ago, TnRiver46 said:

Couple of them def had the black spot disease but you can still eat them

Ya I know its safe to consume, I just can't get past it visually.

19 minutes ago, T-Billy said:

I thought maybe the wind on the front side of the storms might get 'em chewing, but... NOPE!!!  All good though. Tough bites make us appreciate the good ones.

Same here. Everything set up perfectly. Very low light with a nice southern wind is always very good news to me. Worked four zones with 6 baits over 3 hours, and my photo'd catches all came very quickly, but I couldn't find anything else other than a few basslings on mini jigs in those areas until I moved down. The water's quite low here already with the drought, and they're scattered again just like they were this time last year. Tis what it is.

2 minutes ago, PhishLI said:

Same here. Everything set up perfectly. Very low light with a nice southern wind is always very good news to me. Worked four zones with 6 baits over 3 hours, and my photo'd catches all came very quickly, but I couldn't find anything else other than a few basslings on mini jigs in those areas until I moved down. The water's quite low here already with the drought, and they're scattered again just like they were this time last year. Tis what it is.

10-4. Been dry and stable here for awhile, with not much wind. Last night the pressure was falling fast, blowing 10-15 straight onto the wide, slow tapering point where I've been catching those good ones. It's got a 150yd long strip of hydrilla in the 4'-5' range with a hard edge, then some stubble on the outside out to 8' or so. I got there with HIGH hopes. Everytime I think I know what I'm doing.......... LOL.

2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

I thought maybe the wind on the front side of the storms might get 'em chewing, but... NOPE!!!  All good though. Tough bites make us appreciate the good ones.

 

Love ^this^ attitude. 

 

2 hours ago, T-Billy said:

Been dry and stable here for awhile, with not much wind.

 

We've been just the opposite. We're wet and roiling and the wind never stops blowing. 

High 80s with dewpoints in the upper 70s made it miserable outside, but storms just south of me brought some cloud cover, so I made a dash to a small lake to try and catch a few - tomorrow is high in the upper 90s with heat indexes in the 100s. Managed a baker’s dozen which wasn’t bad since this spot has a big year class of bass running 14” or better - decent sized fish. You rarely catch dinks but you rarely catch big bass, either. Today’s largest was 17.5”, and most fish here run between 1.5 to 3 pounds. Everything split between wacky and Ned today.
 

 

 

 

4 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

most fish here run between 2-3 pounds.

 

^These^ fish remind me of teenagers. They're not as bulky and strong as they'll be in their twenties, but lawdy, are they scrappers.

 

4 minutes ago, Team9nine said:

Everything split between wacky and Ned today.

 

Are you bouncing a Ned rig off a weedy bottom? I haven't used a Ned rig once this year fearing I'd be weed fishing.