Fishing July 17 2010

It was time to head back to New Hampshire and fish one of our favorite bass lakes. Weather wise the summer is continuing on with its heat and abundance sunshine, light winds and the waters are warming very rapidly and are reading in the low 80's at this point.

Was able to get out early and my son wanted to go along as well and he had multi-species on his mind as we set out onto the lake. After launching the boat and heading out onto the lake, we went around the corner and stopped at our first place of the morning.

This is a back cove that has a rock shoal that comes almost to the surface if you don't watch for it as it isn't marked. Stayed out in the 10-12 foot range and was fishing with a crankbait and only a couple of casts and the first smallmouth was coming to the boat. Was fan casting this area and seemed to be loaded with fish and a number of largemouth were caught as well but they were all mostly small fish.

My son was fishing for sunfish and they were surfacing all around us and he was having a great time catching one after another. We were in search of bigger fish so we left that area and went to the other end of the lake as there is a big flat there and looking for fish that may stay in the area after spawning.

Worked the deeper waters as well as the shallower flats and was fishing with a carolina rig and just couldn't get anything to bite. Left there and went to a small cove off the main lake and at time there are some nice fish in the weeds and rocks of this area but had the same results as the previous location.

We only had a certain amount of time that we could be out there and wanted to try one more location. This location is a flat in the main lake with water depths around 8 feet deep and there is a ridge that comes off of this out into the main body of the lake. Years past this area yields some of our biggest fish but lately has been dead. Always like to see areas come back to life and hopefully this one will.

There is one location here that is a small rock pile in the weedbed and if you can locate that, the bigger fish of the area usually congregate there. Was fan casting a carolina rig looking for this spot and the line went tight and went to set the hook and broke the first fish off. Felt like a big fish and through out a buoy marker while I retie. Cast back into that area again and another good bite came on and boated a decent 2 pound largemouth.

Kept working around that area and had a numerous bites and they were all feeling good but between the break offs and loosing fish on the way back to the boat, made it very frustrating. It was getting that time that we needed to get off the lake and even though we missed a number of fish, we felt it was a very productive day for the middle of July.

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