Fishing near Franklin in Merrimack County, NH

Check Prices

• I used a white rocket shad while trolling.
• Truth be told I didn’t really bother measuring them out this time, conditions aboard the kayak are a little cramped for that. Maybe I should drill a measuring board to the side. I’m going to guess that this guy was around a pound and a half. I managed to pull in all three bass on my usual power worm/brass weight rig. If I didn’t have the feeling that I’m hardly to the only person to use this combo then I’d patent it!
• This one was caught on one of those purple jelly worms that I used extensively throughout the year. Once again I was using a bullet weight and an offset hook with a Texas rig.
  
• I used two kinds of Powerbait here. The first were small "Red Shad" worms. The other were blue salamanders. Both were rigged "Texas Style."
• These are the fish from the second night on the damn. There may be a repeat photo in here somewhere. I apologize, they were taken with different cameras and are stored all over the place on my various devices.
• jerk baits
  plastics
• large shinner weighted
• jerk bait
• tiki
• dillie

Creature Check Prices

Minnow Check Prices

• This is the first fish I have ever caught using a tip-up device. My other ice fishing catches were done using my normal bass road sitting by a single hole in the ice. I much prefer to do things this way! It was just a small Chain Pickerel however. For bait we were using some live shiners we bought at a local shop. This is also the first time I have ever used those!
• Here is the first pickerel I caught. Came up early in the day. Nice to have some action early to keep you interested. As usual, it took a live shiner.
• Here is the fish I caught, which was the first fish of the day, an okay pickerel. Everybody was using live shiners on their tip ups and jig rods.
• Dead
• 15 feet off ground

Topwater Bait Check Prices

• Black Jitterbug
• reble pop r
• Mostly J7 and J9 rapalas both in Black and Neon Orange
• Popper and around 7"

Lizard Check Prices

• Same as train track 2
• zoom 6" pumpkinseed
• I caught this on the same type of blue lizard that I have been hammering the Largemouth with. I was twitching it along the rocky bottom when this guy decided to play.
• I caught this little guy on the same rig that I caught the Smallmouth on. A blue lizard texas rig.
• I used those blue lizards again in this shallow area. They always seem to produce well in this lake one way or the other.
• Thry just don't stop biting those plastic salamanders.
• Although I got some nibbles on the plastic worms, all of the fish were landed on those plastic salamanders again!
• Gr pumpkin dipped tail
• Rubber worm, spinning bait on the edge of the pond, jig middle of pond

Jerk Bait Check Prices

• wacky rigged senko
  
  smallies and larrys

Stick Bait Check Prices

• black/yellow heddon spook
• 3-5' jerk bait
• deep diveing jerk bait

In-Line Spinner Check Prices

• 1/8oz Rooster Tail
• all between 7in and 4in
• 1st was 6"
  2nd was 1-1/2lbs
  3rd was 10"
• Also included in mess of fish attacking the fly spinner was this large sunfish. To be honest, I'm not entirely sure which species it is. I'm guessing it's a Bluegill, due to it's size and lack of red on the gill cover, or blue "war paint." I forgot how much fun catching these fish on light tackle was! The picture is not so good, but it was dark and this was the best I could do.
• While plying the northern end of the lake by the mouths of the inlet streams, I tossed around one of those Joe's "Fly Spinners." While I didn't get any trout, it turns out that Sunnies and yellow perch couldn't get enough of it!
• Panther-Martin classic - holographic tiger green
  Rooster Tail - yellow & green
  Rooster Tail - orange
• using all types of lures here on this day.. just too cold too chase the hunt,,, lazy b****es

Dry Fly Check Prices

Nymph Check Prices

• Prince & Copper John
• Copper John, under a EHC

Worm Check Prices

• Senko
  1st Smallie was 12in 14oz
  3rd Smallie was 6in
• Senko
• Senko - one 8in, two 10in, and one 12in
• 4" BP Roadkill senko style
• 6" bl/bl or watermelon Senkos wacky rigged Deadsticked
  
  Gr pumkin C rigged lizards dragged slowly
• The Bass pictured here is the biggest Bass of my life so far! 19 inches, almost enough to qualify for the NH catch and release trophy program. When I first hooked him, I thought I had bottom, until the bottom started pulling back!. A couple headshaking minutes later, and I pulled this beast into the kayak! I can't wait until next year for this fish to grow even more!
• Though I fought with about five or six Pickerel throughout the day, their teeth kept cutting through my light line. I did manage to land two of them though, the one pictured here being 20 inches and 2 pounds, my biggest in recent memory! Though I would normally use some kind of a hard lure for Pickerel, I was relying on my soft plastic rigs to slink through the weeds. Once again, all fish were caught on “Red Shad” Power Worms.
• This is the one Bass I caught during the day, somewhere around a pounds and a half. Red Shad Power Worms once again did the job here, with the Texas Rigs being able to slice through the weeds quite nicely.
• I picked up some purple jelly worms at Bass Pro the other day and tried them out at the lake. I did manage to catch one good bass on them. Looks like those still do produce.
• On the last day we headed out in the canoe and fished much of the shoreline. We had some bites, but the real action came when we headed over to the other end of the lake, my favorite spot. Here I immediately hooked into a nice two pounder while tossing around a big purple jelly worm, rigged the same way as most of my baits. Dad also finally got some much needed action over here as well. He hooked into one medium size bass early on, but it slipped off just as he brought it to boat side. He did manage to land a nice 17 inch 2.2 pounder however! Both of his fish were hooked on a small blue soft plastic crawdad lure.

Plastic Swimbait Check Prices

• zoom white flukes
• white zoom flukes
  green yamamoto wacky rigged worm.
  
  booyah boo jog / craw trailer
• white zoom fluke

Hard Baits Check Prices

• 6 & 7 inch on Rooster Tail and Crankbait

Soft Baits Check Prices

• Dropshot
• Dropshot - Too many of these suckers
• Dropshot, and C-Rig
  4 Keepers, and 2 Shorts
• 3 Keepers
  1.47lbs, 1lb 2oz, and 3/4lbs
  
  Also 2 shorts
• Shakeyhead, and Dropshot. Between a 24" 3lb fatty to 12"
• All on the Dropshot 1lb 15oz, 1-3/4lb, 1-1/2lb, 1-1/4lb, and 1 just over a lb
• Shakey Head - a 1lber and two 10"ers
• Drop Shot, and Shakeyhead all between 15"-12"
• Dropshot and in the 7" range

Lure (Other) Check Prices

• Rooster Tail
• 5" senko in bluegrass color, weightless

Hard Swimbait Check Prices

• crawfish Lure
• crawfish lure
• crawfish lure
• i used the bigger crawfish Lure this time

Jigs Check Prices

• jig & worm
• same
  i was trowing a jig and my son was throwing a worm

Crankbait Check Prices

• chrome crankbait
• minnow looking crankbait....

Bass Jig Check Prices

• white zoom flukes
  and brown and green jig with green craw trailer
• shakey head
• jig, fluke,worm,crankbait
• black/blue boo jig, no trailer, skirt cut back

Wet Fly Check Prices

• Trolling with lead core line

Nightcrawler Check Prices

• reg. worms
• There were so many weeds here that pulling a normal lure through simply was not an option. We dropped some worms down hoping maybe a pickerel would latch on. Alas, we draine our supply of worms on these little guys!
• The other reason we exhausted our supply of nightcrawlers.
• Small "trout size" worms were the bait of choice here.
• i think i caught a pumpkinseed on a nightcrawler might have been a bluegill
• I took mthe advice from a local bait shop employee and put some nightcrawlers on the end of some jigs.
• The same worm/jig rig that brought in the bass caught some perch as well.
• trolling with nightcrawler and a 2-way spinner rig 2 weights near the swivel
• Silver/Copper 2-way spinner hook.
• Silver/Copper 2-way spinner hook.
  Neon Orange 2-way spinner hook.

Topwater Bait (Popper, Plug) Check Prices

• Green with black spots jitter bug
• zara spook

Marabou / Bucktail Jig Check Prices

• I was using the same jig/nightcrawler combintion as last time.

Grub Check Prices

• Bass Pro Brown with blue flake curly tailed grub
• Brown curly tailed w/ blue flake weightless
• Brown curly tailed w/ blue flak weightless

Live Baits Check Prices

• Worm

Other Check Prices

• Orange floating Powerbait pellets about 3.5' off the bottom.
• Rainbow Powerbait.
• Worms & Orange Powerbait.
  
  Silver/Copper 2-Way spinner hooks, bobbers & bottom fishing.
• Rainbow Powerbait (floating), off bottom.
• Curious about the trout-like fish I always see swimming by the boat ramp, I tossed in some powerbait on a light rod to see what they were. Turns out, they were some suckers! You know, they fight pretty hard for their size. I'll keep this spot in mind the next time I need some lake trout bait!
• Squid
• power bait baby