I finally caught some bass. Seven in all. I tried a worm, bladed jig, and fluke, but caught none. I caught five on an underspin and two on a spinnerbait. I caught my first three where I launched. Here's the first, a beautifully marked bass and my first 2025 bass:

 

 

Then I caught a bucket mouth:

 

 

Then this well-shaped bass:

 

 

Then I had the dim idea to paddle the length of the pond, trolling a bladed jig. I caught nothing trolling, nothing at the far end, and nothing on the way back. I fished a point, a flat, two river mouths, deep water, and shoreline. This took about two hours with no fish. So, I returned to where I started and caught four more, starting with these two footballs:

 

 

I finished the evening with a couple smaller bass:

 

 

For the next two weeks or so, now that I know the water is finally warm enough to catch bass, I'm going to focus on big bass bogs. I don't expect to catch many fish, but fingers crossed I can catch a big girl or three.

 

I estimate a 15-pound bag, a good start to the season!

LETS GOOO!!! It's really and truly spring when @Swamp Girl catches her first bass. 

 

Those are some really pretty, dark fish, too. Congrats! 

Awesome! Knew you’d be on the board after today. And some quality fish as well. That spinnerbait really does damage in cold water! 

10 hours ago, Jar11591 said:

Awesome! Knew you’d be on the board after today. And some quality fish as well. That spinnerbait really does damage in cold water! 

 

They were my first @Siebert Outdoors spinnerbait bass!

 

10 hours ago, IcatchDinks said:

Those are some really pretty, dark fish, too.

 

Agree! I like 'em dark.

 

I forgot to share that I heard loons, owls, and ospreys. The frogs were also singing...LOUDLY.

Yes, ma’am! There is what we’ve all been waiting for! The ice has been broken, and the floodgate of bass catching is about to begin.

It's officially on like Donkey Kong now that it's Katie fishing season!!!!!!

 

Such beautiful fish as always, and I'm glad you knew better than the bonehead who suggested throwing that bladed jig around 😆

 

This is officially the calm before the storm 😎

Congrats on your first bass of the year! Those are some beauties.

12 hours ago, AlabamaSpothunter said:

I'm glad you knew better than the bonehead who suggested throwing that bladed jig around 😆

 

Ha! I don't know if I ever told you that I caught this bass on a Deps Sakamata Shad, the lure that YOU suggested. She was a BIG bass for Maine and me:

 

 

Maine bass love the Sakamata Shad, which is why I own a small box of Sakamata Shads now. They're expensive and delicate, so I don't use them every trip, but I'll be using them in the big bass bogs. They're so soft that big bass bite hard on them.

 

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Maine bass love the Sakamata Shad, which is why I own a small box of Sakamata Shads now. They're expensive and delicate, so I don't use them every trip, but I'll be using them in the big bass bogs. They're so soft that big bass bite hard on them.

 

 

Let's go!  Katy on the board - we can all finally issue a sigh of relief in unison - it's definitely spring time!

10 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

I finally caught some bass.

Congratulations!  I'll be roaming around NH & VT with my Ranger the first week in May.  I'm hoping to find water temperatures in the high 40's to low 50's up there.

8 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

Congratulations!  I'll be roaming around NH & VT with my Ranger the first week in May.  I'm hoping to find water temperatures in the high 40's to low 50's up there.

 

The water was cold yesterday. I didn't get a temp, but I kept testing it with my fingers and my feet were numb again from the cold coming through the canoe's hull. I could also tell it was cold because I had several bass hit my lure short. I'd feel a hit and set the hook and then retrieve my underspin with the Zako half pulled off the hook. And I was using a short Zako! So, they were too cold I think to fully engulf the lure, even though I was slow rolling it.

 

Anyway, good luck in NH and Vermont. Will you be catching smb or lmb? I think you'll do great. The second week of May was when the bass really activated for me in 2025, but you'll be fishing inland, where it warms sooner than the coastal North Atlantic. Inland New England gets their sixty and seventy-degree days before us. On the plus side, we can go an entire summer without one ninety-degree day and we have more mild fall days. 

 

Ah, sorry about the lengthy explanation. I see you're a New Englander, so you already know everything I wrote.

And it has finally started. 

You got some good ones for sure WTG 

1 hour ago, Swamp Girl said:

Will you be catching smb or lmb?

 

The bass will tell me, but I'm targeting smallies.  Sean Snover, from ReelNorthernBass, put me onto a couple good SMB waters in VT.

56 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

The bass will tell me

 

I love this approach. I wish I'd been listening yesterday. I launched from the north shore of my pond and caught three bass in 15 minutes off that shore. I should have stayed and fished that area, but instead, I went with my plan, which was to paddle as far away as possible from the north shore and fish the south shore, which is generally loaded with bass. Of course, I caught nothing again until I returned to the north shore. The bass were talking, but I wasn't listening. I even fished a rocky flat for smallmouth on my excursion, a place where I've caught smallies, but that whole paddle was a bust.

 

#let'slistentothebass!

So it begins!

Sweet! And just in time for me to go visit frog country on thurs.

@Swamp Girl  Beautiful Bass Katie!!!  Get an X Large box of band aids for your thumb...your're gonna need it!!!!

Awesome!