Someone soon is going to land an over 40", 25 lb. bass. As far as I know it hasn't happened this year. However, more and more keeper size bass are being caught. We are now at the time when it is not uncommon to land several fish between 28" and 32" each outing. The bigger fish show themselves once but are not easily hooked and are even harder to land. They are capable of straightening out hooks and very adept at "throwing" it back at you. Eighteen pounds, 36" is the biggest fish I have boated. The other day a friend of mine landed on successive casts a 38" and 39" fish. Slug-o's are the best way to go if you want to catch big fish. It's not that the big bass won't attack other lures or flies, it's just that the slug-o is the most reliable lure for big fish.

When you are out on the water don't forget to take your Big Eye polarized sunglasses. They will help you see those big bass swirl under your lure. You can get them at many New England tackle shops or by going to bigeyeeyewear.com.

We are certainly catching fish but this past week was not the "breakout" week I was expecting. Fish were caught between 12 and 28". On Saturday a friend hooked onto a "monster" bass using a slug-o. The fish pulled hard enough to move his 16' boat before getting off by straightening the "heavy duty" slug-o hook.

On Thursday several members of the Yale Fishing Club joined me for the afternoon. We caught plenty of fish on the fly rod as well as spinning gear but only a few were 25 to 28".

For the next several days the tides will be perfect for both a morning and evening outing. Low tide will be between 6 and 10 making for a good outgoing tide as the sun comes up and again as it goes down. Stay tuned for my next report. I expect it to be a good one!

The spring bass season is underway. We had two excellent trips this past weekend. Saturday being an outstanding day and Sunday a good one, the difference being the tide. The sluggish outgoing tide restrained the bass activity on Sunday. Even so, we boated in excess of a couple dozen fish ranging in size from 12 to 28". The spinning rod is the way to go if you want consistent action on bigger fish. On Saturday, we were getting a swirl on almost every cast. This was true for about 1-1/2 hours of the outgoing tide. The overcast skies and light wind made a positive contribution. This is ideal weather for this time of year - actually this is the most favorable weather for fishing at any time.

Though Saturday was an outstanding day, engine problems tried to disrupt the outing. thanks to Jack F's very positive attitude during this disruption (catching lots of fish I am sure helped his disposition) we were able to "muck" our way through this mishap without much interruption. I am grateful to three fishing buddies for helping me out - Rick for the tow, Tom for taking Jack on board while Kurt "trailered" me a back up boat!

I am pleased to report tht the engine problem was a minor fuel issue and turned out to be an "instant" fix.