[John/NH]

I spoke with a couple of friends today regarding chasing down more NH fatso smallies this weekend.

Both days look great regarding the weather: low 30's high about 50 with less than 20% chance of rain and limited wind conditions to deal with.

All of us have already fished Winni, Squam, Pleasant and a few small lakes. We may hit Newfound, Winnisquam and perhaps travel up to Mascoma over near the Vermont border. All the lakes we have chosen have some good smallie populations and memories of past late season silver buddy days.

It looks like we will have 3 or 4 boats gathering for some hours of outstanding activity and bragging rights to remember when winter arrives ( discussions around the wood stove or in the bob house when we put the boats away and go ice fishing).

I will post the lake(s) and results on Monday.

Almost time for heated rod guides - but that's another story.

John/NH

 

[John/NH]

As promised:

A small group of diehard bass fisherman ( 6 boats) in NH went to Newfound Lake, Bristol, NH this past Sunday. This lake has Smallies, Lake Trout, Rainbows and Salmon. Newfound is one of those places that can be either extremely difficult or on fire. The lake is very deep and in some places you could be in 50' of water and only 6' from shore. When we arrived ( 8 AM) it was approx. 21 degrees and no wind. The water temps ranged from 39 to 41 degrees. The sun felt pretty good on the old fingers - I hate fishing with gloves on. By mid day the air temps went up to the high 40's and no wind.

Now for the fishing:

It was very tough. Why?? = Our guess is that we all found fish but getting them to bite was discouraging at best. We all tried our best, used endless arsenals of tackle and all came up with the same conclusion = the fish had lock jaw.

All the fish taken came from 35 to 50 feet ( humps or drops) and primarily on silver biddies. My partner and I got 3 smallies in the boat ( all sisters = 3 1/2 to 4 lbs. each), about a 5 or 6 escaped on the way in ( long distance release) and it's only a guess on how many we rolled over ( missed at the hit). We also brought in 2 Lake Trout - no surprise - the lake is loaded with them.

One of the boats (Rob) said they had boated 10 for the day and that appears to be the best anyone did.

Putting aside the lack of activity, the day was beautiful, the scenery was magnificent ( you can see the snow cap on Mt. Washington) and the company was great. Unless we continue to get a break with the weather this may have been the last hurrah for 2003.

John/NH

 

[JOHN G]

John, I can see where you guys went wrong: you used Silver BIDDIES instead of BUDDIES! LOL......just busting you on your typo!

man, that was cold! I'm sure your fingers DID feel it, but you guys were out there.......my feeling on the weather situation in cold weather periods....

over 40 degrees, sun fully out, and little or no wind.....OKAY!!!

not comfortable but do-able........

the Sun is an amazing factor this time of the year....yesterday we saw that as even though the temps were just above 50, there was a breeze and if you were in the shade, right away you felt the difference....

50 feet deep only 6 feet from shore! wow, that is a true bluff!!!!!

 

[John/NH]

John G,

Nice catch. In defense of spell checker - is a biddie and old silver buddy.

Regards, John/NH