Going up to Moosehead for 5 days next week, my first time to this lake or even fishing in Maine. Looking for any insight of what to expect and or what to do. Any community holes, Baits to try or colors, Depth's to target, areas to target. Any information to help me speed up the process of finding fish. Heck I will even take info on what area's suck and to avoid. Eliminating bad water is 3/4 of the battle.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Make sure you have the weed sticker for your boat.
Sure hope you"re going for trout or salmon
Is it that tough up there?Originally Posted by Ruffhills
My brother went up 20 years ago and said the smallie fishing was good, stupid fish that never see lures. But that was a long time ago.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Thank you for the heads up, I did not know you needed those stickers.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Fished Moosehead maybe 15 years ago and can’t remember much except did ok with spinnerbaits. Of course then I threw the spinnerbait a lot so it would stand to reason.
Red Sox in 6!
last couple of years theyve held roundups there. They've wanted to get the smallmouth out of that that lake for years. Not saying the lake is void of them but if I were in that area and wanted to catch some sm I wouldn't be looking at Moosehead.
Have you fished any lakes near there? any recomendations? You can PM if you have a honey hole lake.
Goberment giveth you smallmouth, Goberment declare Smallmouth invasive and they taketh away. "We are here to help" sounds so nice but yet it can be a scary threat from the goberment.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Check out Indian Pond. I fished it for a weekend June 2020. There are some nice smallies in the there.
Had a good time and caught around 20 fish each of the first 3 days. Took the forth day off as it was hot as heck and no wind at all. The 5th day was a full reversal 70 degrees and blowing 20mph I had to hide from the wind and post front conditions only caught 5 fish. But we did catch some big smallies, my dad caught a 5.04 smallie which made his week. I caught about 10 smallies over 4 pounds best 2 were 4.82 and 4.54. I could not get them to hit a moving bait all week. Everything came on a drop shoot or a jig or tube on the bottom in 15-25 feet of water. Beautiful lake and we stayed at an awesome house right on the lake. The fishing was good but a bit boring (I know catching big smallies is not boring really but), maybe monotonies is a better word. The lake did not offer a lot of variety while I was there. There was basically no weed to be found any where, its all deep rock bottom fishing. Maybe more variety in spring or fall when the water is cooler and they are chasing moving baits more. It was a good trip and worth while but not a place I would rush back to. The 5.5 hour ride and lack of anything for the wife to do doesn't help sell it as a vacation spot either.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Good job figuring out a new piece of water and getting some good ones.
Nothing wrong with them smallies at all. You did good and congrats to Dad..... A win for all, well maybe not the Mrs.
Glad you had a good trip and glad Dad got a big smallie, see you on the water soon.
1990 374V Ranger Still kickin' bass after all these years
Thanks for the kind words guys. I will say good electronics defiantly helped with finding spots and bait off shore. Side imaging made finding rocky points a lot easier, Mega 360 made staying on and targeting those spots easier, and Panoptics gave me confidence when I saw bait on certain spots. I can't see bass on Panoptics i am not that good with it, but I can see bait pretty well with it (seeing a large ball of specs fluttering all over the screen when you are not moving is pretty easy to notice). I also can not get proficient using it in the down mode to vertically fish. I basically just use it in forward mode to see bait and to see the height of the bottom of structure I see on mega 360.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
I have wanted to try that lake for a few years, haven't made it up there. Did you have anything for charts, I have a chip that has Moosehead and looks to have good detail, what were the roads like closer to the lake?
I bought the Navionics chip because it had HD map of Moosehead and it was great very accurate with all the markers. The roads from 95 up to greenville are good (little bumpy in areas with frost heaves). Going around lake and north they get a little narrower and curvy and bumpier. Couple good launches around the lake you can use to explore or hide from wind.
2020 Ranger 521L, Merc 250 Pro XS
Thanks
I heard talk of good smallmouth fishing in the Lily Bay Area but that was a while ago. Great area. You’ll have fun
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