Fishing Report August 27 2011

With the big news of Hurricane Irene going to hit New England later this weekend, I made a run up to New Hampshire to do a little pre storm fishing. Weather was beautiful, the calm before the storm, no wind, very hot and humid conditions.

There were a number of anglers out on the water but one nice thing was that the pleasure boaters were in the process of pulling their boats so the anglers had the lake to themselves. The morning started very nicely as my son and I was fishing and he was catching sunfish and my jig pattern was picking up right where it left off.

After a while of fishing he wanted to go do something else so dropped him off at the dock and I headed out to deeper water. There was panfish surfacing all over the lake and the fishing was getting better as the morning was going along.

Seemed that no matter where I stopped to fish, the fish were there and ready to bite and they were hitting basically anything that you threw out there. I was only able to fish a few areas as the fish that were there kept me there wanting to catch more.

They were biting on crankbaits, jigs, Carolina rigged plastics and small plastic worms. Did try some topwater but couldn’t seem to get any fish to go after that so didn’t pursue that too long. Had one location that was producing numbers of fish before I had to leave. This was a main lake point and was fishing in 15-20 feet of water and there was some good weed growth there as well.

Went out for a little while in the afternoon and the wind was starting to pick up a little but the fishing definitely was dying off as well. Did catch the largest fish of the day just before leaving and was fishing a jig in the weeds in 10 feet of water out in the middle of a cove. This was one of those days that you wish that you could stay out there and capitalize on, but with a major storm brewing, it was time to head home.

Fishing Report August 24 2011

I usually never get out fishing during the week but a fellow coworker has been fishing a local pond and been catching some nice fish so we made a plan to hit the water after work. Upon arriving at the lake, the water quality is very apparent as it is crystal clear and clean looking.

This is an either paddle or electric motor only lake and makes for a body of water that doesn’t receive high pressure as easy accessed lakes do. There was only one boat out this afternoon but the winds were blowing very hard so hugging the shorelines and back coves was the plan for not getting blown all over the lake.

We went right for the first island and worked our way around it and wasn’t 10 minutes I felt the tap on the jig I was fishing and the first fish of the trip was on. This 3.5 pound largemouth gave a great fight and was caught away from the island in 4-5 feet of water. Now that our excitement had been peaked, we were pumped for the rest of our trip.

As we were going along we were fishing different looking shorelines and I was switching between the jig and a plastic worm. We went over a submerged tree and I could see a huge bass lying underneath it in the clear water but when the corner of the boat came to close it disappeared. I was able to get an average sized bass out of the weeds on the plastic worm.

We get to the back corner of this cove and it was a perfect scenario, timber, pads, weeds and shade and you couldn’t find a better looking place. My partner said that this spot usually gives up a good fish and on that cast I had set into a bass almost as big as my first fish. Two good fish and now I am really pumped and want more.

The wind is starting to blow a lot harder and it is swirling all around no matter where you are fishing and boat control was a little tough. We worked our way all the way to the end of the lake and I picked up another small fish off of a log sticking out of the water on the plastic worm.

We wanted to go to the other side of the lake but when we tried the wind had another story for us so we turned back from where we came from and worked everything again. So on this trip back through the same areas, my plan was to fish the jig but instead of fishing the shoreline I made all of my casts out into deeper water and see if I could find any cruising deep water fish.

This had paid off as I was able to pick up two more fish with another that was a little less than 2 pounds. As the evening was winding down, my partner had a rough outing as he wasn’t able to connect with any fish but we definitely had a great time out there. I am already looking forward to making another trip out there soon and see if we can find some bigger fish.

There are a number of these town ponds that they allow you to put cartop boats into and the fish that swim in these waters are generally unpressured and grow to some very nice sizes. So if you have some of the waters around you, if the town allows it, try fishing them and you may be pleasantly surprised.

Fishing Report August 21 2011

This summer it has been tough finding time to get out fishing and this will have to definitely change once the ice season comes this winter. Went to a lake that I fish regularly and this was the first time out there this year. Normally numbers are not the catch but there is usually always a good fish or two in the fish caught for the day.

The lake has been getting a lot of pressure this summer from a number of bass clubs fishing their tournaments out there. This weekend for a change didn’t have any and the lake was fairly quiet when I had arrived. Calm conditions, cloudy with breaks of sun, cool when the sun wasn’t out but hot when it did come out. Water temps were in the mid 70’s and water color is pea green at the present time.

Normally I like fishing the milfoil patches but looks like there is a more stringy grass growing in the lake this year. I started in a creek mouth that has a large flat out in front and after working around from the weed edge to up on top, only was able to catch a very small lagermouth bass.

I went to another cove and fan casted the crankbait around in some deeper water but wasn’t able to locate any fish there either. I did pull a decent largemouth, biggest of the day, off of a point in the weeds on a Carolina rig. I moved to a back shallow cove with lily pads and fan casted a topwater frog and the waters there looked very good but came up empty handed.

The wind was picking up at this point and I had followed a shoreline casting a crankbait only to catch a couple of small bass. At this point I was seeing that the shallow bite was not going to come around and found a deep sunken island in the middle of the lake but got the same results.

At this point I figured that I might as well call it a day and headed off the lake by noon time. It was very nice to get out on the lake once again and wet a line after so long. Was hoping to get into a couple of decent fish but just couldn’t locate them on this trip. Wednesday I will be heading out onto a local reservoir with a fellow from work that has been catching some very nice largemouth this summer. Weekend coming will be heading to New Hampshire for a day or so and hopefully the coming hurricane allows for a full day of fishing.