I arrived early at the lake with calm sunny conditions with a number of boats trolling the deep water in search of trout. Air temps were mid to upper 70's with high 80's to come later and the water temps were a surprising 73 degrees but because of the deep water here, 60 plus feet, which keeps the lake a little cooler from the hot summer we have been having.
The water here is gin clear and without any wind figured that the shallow dock bite might not be a good place to start searching for smallmouth bass. Opposite side of the lake there was a rock shoal that I worked with a few different baits that consisted of a carolina rig, crankbait out on the deeper edge and also a weightless senko style bait. There didn't seem to be anything searching the rock cropping for a meal.
Moved off of this shoal and there was a fairly good sized flat going out into the lake. Fan cast this area with a crankbait as well as worked it over with the carolina rig with a couple of different style plastic baits. In the 15 foot range there was a little vegetation that grew off of the bottom up to 6 inches in height and was hoping that the fish were cruising looking for a meal.
The far end of the lake is more of a shallower flat as the deep water is on the north end through the middle of the lake. Moved down to the far end of the lake and was hoping to find more weed flats and see if maybe I could find a largemouth bass since the smallmouth were a little allusive.
Concentrated on water depths of 13-20 feet of water and was figuring that with the hot summer and clear water these fish may be in deeper water. Fished mainly the carolina rig and kept switching the plastic baits trying to find one that maybe these fish wanted. Was fishing a french fry type plastic in 15 feet of water and felt a good bite.
Set the hook and the fight was on and wasn't quite sure if this was a bass or a trout as the feeling wasn't quite what I was use to. I had hooked this fish on a long cast and it surfaced right away but couldn't tell what it was. Finally as the battle was coming to an end, I could see that it was a nice smallmouth and boat a chunky 2 pound fish. Worked over this area for quite some time in hopes of finding a school there but that wasn't going to happen.
Not sure if I will get back to this lake anytime soon but wouldn't mind going back when fall gets here and the fish start feeding for the winter season. This lake does get busy after the noon hour and the landing is one of the best ones that I have been to in New Hampshire so far.
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1 comment:
Very nice! I really dig smallmouth bass...what a fight on these fish. Great catch man.
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