Update on Smalle action ??, need some insight

[Bob S.]

I will be up on friday june 4, for a week of smallie action at long Island in Molto :emb: nboro, (at least I hope it will be full of action)!!!!! I see the water temp has come down a Few Degrees, down under 60'. I would like to hear from anyone who has been out on lake Winni recently fishing for smallies, and can tell me what the latest Smallie action has been. I am not looking for any smallie secret spots, but more of the smallie action/situation. With the water temp lowering, what is the smallie situation, are the smallies still on the beds, off the beds, post spawn, in 15 feet of water, etc?
Any strategy, or pattern working better than any others? In advance, thanks for your input. I am nervous we will be in a post spawn situation, having trouble locating and catching some decent fish, Any help is very much appreciated, Thanks !!!
Bob

[Caruso]

Bob, you have to be kidding me. It sounds like you are looking for smallies in August and it is June. There is no rocket science here. All you have to do is slowly motor around any island or inlet and look for the big white spot under the water near the shore, it is a Smalley nesting. Throw your lure over and catch a fish, it couldn’t get much easier. I think just about any lure works including a piece of yarn with a pop top on it. This past weekend we had 12 bass boats float by our dock and 8 of them caught the same fish in the same spot, kind of like shooting ducks in a barrel. The only sportsmen that missed were the ones that "hovered" their boat over a nest and jigged for the fish, maybe it was tired. Good luck ;)

[Grant]

Please don't snipe the fish on their nests -- the smallie population in Winnipesaukee is under enough pressure from the absurd number of bass tournaments. Give them a break and let them reproduce - that way there will be more for all of us later.

[Mink Islander]

Last summer, diving around Mink Island I came across a number of large schools of smallies. Also around the docks at Shep Brown's. My kids catch them all season long from our dock with relative ease. I don't see any evidence that the bass tournaments are depleting the population or that "fishing the beds" in the spring is hurting the population either.

[Grant]

With the number and frequency of big tournaments on the Lake, there HAS to be some serious impact on the smallmouth population. These guys catch, and then bring them in for weighing. They aren't released where they were caught. THAT impacts the population.

As for fishing the beds -- the only reason they bite while on the beds is to dissuade potential intruders from snatching the eggs or newly-hatched bass. Remove the guardian from the nest, and it's open for predation. The more & closer the potential predators, the less time it takes to wipe the nest clean. Wiped-out nest might not result in a visible impact on the population for a few years...but if there are enough people removing fish from the beds for a long enough time, the population will certainly decline. Granted, I ain't with Fish & Game, but I've been fishing & diving my entire life and honestly believe these things to be true. And, yes, I have fished the beds in the spring -- but not in the last 20 years.

[Jeff Furber]

My fishing partner was on Winnie last Sat, they caught a fair number of fish with some action on top water, Tiny Torpedo's, and small spinnerbaits, and some action of wacky worms.
They fished in the general area of Bear Island. Not to many beds and the water temp was about 60deg or so.