I caught this
 

I paddled 1/4 mile down a stream and caught this on a small pond about 400 yards in dia hope the pic shows up first time i have tried to send a pic

Nice Bass, Petriheil!! I expected to see ice and 3' of snow, must be having a warm winter this year in Maine!! :D Dom

Nice bass! one heck of a fish! How long was it and what did it weigh?

gd

not sure of length was 4 1/2 pounds we must of caught a 200 bass out of that pond from 1/2 up to 5 pounds we only kept 2 bass all summer did catch and release. still not sure if canoe pulss the bass in or the bass pulls the canoe to them

That makes me hungry, down here we have to limit our intake of freshwater bass due to Mercury content....nice uh, good looking fish

rough guess the fish about 22 inches long cant wait for the ice to go so i can sling the fishing pole

Awesome bass. Takes a long time for cold water bass to grow that big, so your catch and release practices are commended.

Makes me hungry though, lookin' at that fish :)

DWW

i never take more than 2 fish out of a pond a year and most ponds i never take a fish im worried about those that dont follow the law and take more plus i dont know how many people will fish a active pond and how many take the legal limit. i want to be able to go back

Cool. Your personal fisheries management plan is similar to what mine was back in the days when I fished in up-state New York. Yours is better, actually. That is good.

Pray for an early ice-out :)

DWW

i caught him with a open face reel. is a bait caster reel easy to learn i have heard a little about them but i see the pros useing them on tv . why ? are they better

Bait casters aren't hard to learn. Takes a little practice to get comfortable with them.

Bait casters give you the opportunity to control the reel, the line, and ultimately, casting accuracy.

Bait casters are my prefered weapon for pinpointing spinner baits in the timber or weed pockets.

DWW

I switched to a left handed bait caster last year after using a spinning rod all my life . I could cast the right hander's but was not getting the hook sets like i could on my spinning reels.

Took about 4 times at the lake before i could really get the accuracy down and one terrible birds nest that ended the first day at the lake. I switched baits without resetting the adjuster and bam a birds nest.