A break from GT's, something completely different

[Nathan Tsao]

Wassup GTPopping,
Just got back from my annual fishing trip to my hometown on the mainland. I spent the last 17 days fishing from Boston, MA to Portland, ME. Most of the time was spent chasing Striped Bass on the flats of the Merrimack River, and throwing wooden plugs from the beaches of southern Maine at night. Due to the enormous amount of rain and lightning storms; the fishing wasn't really that great, but still managed to land over 100 striped bass in the 2 week period.

Aside from the Striper fishing, we spent a few days bass fishing on my old man's beautiful 21' Skeeter bass boat. We fished all a few different lakes in New Hampshire for both largemouth and smallmouth bass on Newfound Lake, Pine River Pond, Great East Lake, and Bow Lake. Most of the largemouth bass we caught were male fish that were tight underneath flooded shoreline brush. The larger females had finished spawning a few weeks before and were pulled off the shorelines and hanging in deeper water.
We only fished for smallmouth one day on Newfound Lake, and got some interesting video of good sized bass guarding their nests against our lures.
Unfortunately, this trip there wasnt enough time to attack the trout and landlocked salmon. Again, the flooding rains really caused the river to run high and dirty for most of the trip. Now its time to get back to chasing the ulua here in kona!
Here are some pictures from the trip. 

A typical Striped Bass while night plugging, about 36" long and 16lbs. Caught on an R.M Smith custom Needlefish.


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A small "schoolie" striper about 34" caught on one of BaitBallah's beautiful LUNCHBOX stickbaits made special for this trip


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Two more stripers 38"(18lbs) and 40"(20lbs) from Drakes Island in southern Maine. This night was the best fishing of the trip. I probably landed over 40 stripers on this night all between 10lbs and 20+lbs. All were caught on different Needlefish Plugs retrieving them very slowly through the breaking surf. The fog was thick, the night was jet black, and the stripers were destroying the plugs just behind the farthest breaking wave. The fishing technique was to wade waist deep in the waves and jump over the waves all night so they wouldn't fill the waders or cover you surf-jacket.


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A look at some east coast style plugs. First two pics are all various Needlefish plugs from various builders. The top left side are all from the late great LEGENDARY lure builder John Habarek aka "Hab's Custom Plugs". Since his death 7 years ago, his plugs have become highly collectable, but i considerate it hugely disrespectful to NOT keep on catching fish on his plugs; easily my favorite needle of all time. Some of the others include Beachmasters, R.M. Smith, SuperStrike, Stripersniper, and my last remaining self built unpainted Walnut wood needlefish that crushes big stripers in extra heavy surf at night.
The third photo is a few custom wooden metal lipped "Danny" style surf plugs, which are my second favorite thing to throw in the surf behind needlefish.


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My old man's Skeeter 21 i-series. What an awesome platform to fish from! Complete with stocked rod lockers and tackle lockers on the front deck. Also rigged with a Powerpole hydraulic post anchor system off the back which is an awesome tool for positioning the boat to sight-fish for finicky bass.
 

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A picture of our GoPro rig that we used to underwater video some smallmouth bass defending their nests of our lures.
Also a picture of my old standby 1/4 ounce jig-n-grub in the Candy color. Back in my days of tournament bass fishing, this one jig combo earned me thousands of dollars alone. It is especially deadly in the super clear water glacial lakes of NH and ME. This trip we mostly skipped jigs underneath the flooded shoreline brush and docks to post-spawn male bass that were guarding newly hatched fry.


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Typical New Hampshire male largemouth bass from Pine River Pond


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If you look closely at this picture you'll see the nest of a smallmouth bass. It's right in the middle, just below the bright spot on the large rock, and just to the left of the submerged part of the large rock. You can see a circular patch of gravel that is a bit lighter than the surrounding substrate. Sitting right in the middle of the nest is a male smallmouth guarding the eggs.
Newfound Lake in NH.


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Here is an underwater pic of a 3.5lb smallmouth standing guard over its nest. This fish is what we call "locked on" meaning that the bass will not move away from the nest no matter how provoked it gets. These fish are extremely easy to catch, and is quite honestly a bit boring after a few. Because of this, mainland states change the fishing regulations at this time of year to limit the amount of take of bass before and during the spawn. Also, tournaments are banned in NH during the majority of the spawning cycle.


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In this pic, you may be able to see the characteristic red eyes of a smallmouth during the spawn cycle. Most of the year the bass have a standard brownish/gold eye, but while they are on nests, they exhibit glowing red eyes. Freaky!


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Here is a video of the bass from the above pictures. I tried hard to actually NOT catch this fish, but my dad didnt want me to cut the hook and ruin his lure. You can see just how aggressively this fish defends its nest from the lure, and then again after we catch and release it. We filmed 6 different spawning bass this day, but this video came out the best and best illustrates the behavior of a male bass. This male fish was almost 4lbs, which makes me think that the larger female (which had laid eggs and left already) was a real monster probably well over 5lbs. My first time uploading to YouTube. let me know if the link doesn't work. ENJOY!

[Dan Konig]

A great read Nathan, thanks for posting.

Always great to get some insight on a style of fishing I haven't tried before, and certainly keen to give it a go next time I'm in the US!

Dan

[Mark Harris]

Excellent report Nathan and great to learn something about a fishery which is unfamiliar.

Some of those needlefish lures are really good looking. I assume they are floating and you just work them like a pencil with a skittering effect?

[Nathan Tsao]

Howzit Mark,

Needlefish are a strange lure that has it own unique style of presentation. Most Needles are actually sinking plugs, but ride from the surface to a few feet down. I always carry a variety of sink rates from Floating to heavy sinkers.

Needlefish technique is actually all about SLOOOOOOOW; and also almost exclusively fished at night. Typical needle technique is to cast the plug cast the furthest breakers and retrieve it dead still with no action. The amount of current and surf determines your retrieve speed, but the idea is to retrieve as slowly ass possible while maintaining contact with the lure. Most needlefish will have a slight side-to-side action, but its really the motion of the current and waves that make the needle sway gently through the water.

It still amazes me at how well the fish will find a needle in the surf. The lure really doesn't do a whole lot, and the presentation barely moves the plug at all sometimes. Somehow the fish just cant resist these plugs though. Usually the best needle-fishing comes when the night is jet black and foggy enough that you cant see your hand in front of your face.
It's a truly magical experience to be standing in the ocean at night, getting pounded by waves, and enveloped by thick fog while catching fish on a ridiculous wooden stick with no action.

If you work a needle quickly, they are pretty much the same lure as a Carpenter Pandora (glorified needlefish with a heavier wire). Many of the heavier fast sinking needlefish, designed for use in ripping currents, would probably work well on GT in deep water.

[Mark Harris]

Very interesting Nathan. From looking at the pics I immediately assumed floating.  Thanks for the excellent insights into an unfamiliar (to me) form of lure fishing.

[braddrew]

Hi Nathan,

Great read, thanks for the story and pics - the Jersey Bass Guide boys has been talking up the virtues of needlefish for the last few weeks on their blog, it's good to see that they seem to be as effective as they look. I wonder how they'd go against some of the aussie beach fish like salmon or jewies?


Brad

[Aaron Concord]

Hi Nathan,

I just wanted to say thanks for a great read!

I do enjoy seeing stuff on large mouth/small mouth and 'linesiders".

We do have a few parallels, fish wise here in Australia, though the tackle that has been designed just around these three species makes my mind boggle at times!

Again, thanks for sharing a great read,

Aaron.

[Richard Ghalayini]

Wow Nathan what a great read man I always enjoy different fishing trip adventures from different parts of the globe especially bass I love the way they're so territorial of their lair and their eggs great video too well done on your efforts our bass are sort of similar meaning in territory that is as when at time lures being thrown at them is hit in spite of like get lost i'm not interested and ours also get those fiery red eyes too as when I caught them I use to mock them and laugh out to my mate look how mad this one is look how redder his eyes got fish with attitude i love it hahaha  also ours spawn downstream to the brackish salt water they may nest im not too sure how their process is in the saltwater have to look into now lol we live and learn everyday.

Regards Richard

[joe sciberras]

         hi Nathan  so good to read about some thing different far out pics  joey