Fishing near Gilford in Belknap County, NH

Check Prices

• large shinner weighted
• 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.
  
• 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.
• I used two kinds of Powerbait here. The first were small "Red Shad" worms. The other were blue salamanders. Both were rigged "Texas Style."
• I used a white rocket shad while trolling.
• jerk bait
• drop shot powerbait smelt
• drop shot rig
• drop shot

Creature Check Prices

• Brush Hog

Minnow Check Prices

• 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.
• 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.
• 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!
• 15 feet off ground
• Dead

Topwater Bait Check Prices

• Black Jitterbug
• reble pop r
• Popper and around 7"
• Mostly J7 and J9 rapalas both in Black and Neon Orange
• Zara spook puppy
• zara spook puppy
• Scum Frog black hollow body
• hollow body

Lizard Check Prices

• I used those blue lizards again in this shallow area. They always seem to produce well in this lake one way or the other.
• I caught this little guy on the same rig that I caught the Smallmouth on. A blue lizard texas rig.
• 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.
• zoom 6" pumpkinseed
• Although I got some nibbles on the plastic worms, all of the fish were landed on those plastic salamanders again!
• Same as train track 2
• Thry just don't stop biting those plastic salamanders.
• zoom Chartruese lizard
• 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

Spinnerbait / Buzzbait Check Prices

• i was fishing a homemade tandem rig...weedless green minnow bait and a spinnerbait ...hooked the bas on the spinnerbait...i don't know if the other lure helped or not

Frog Bait Check Prices

• Zoom Horny Toad in Watermelonseed

Stick Bait Check Prices

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

In-Line Spinner Check Prices

• 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!
• 1/8oz Rooster Tail
• all between 7in and 4in
• Joe's Flies spinner

Dry Fly Check Prices

Worm Check Prices

• 2 decent sized red worms sent to the bottom.
• 1st was 1-1/2lbs
  2nd was 1lb 14oz
• Towards the end of the day I did a bit more fishing up near the boat launch. There are actually some nice mudflats up near this area, and before the summer weed growth it's a good place to tangle with bedded smallmouth.
• wacky-rigged yum dinger
• I made two trips to Manning Lake, but only managed to catch one smallmouth on the first night. Like all smallmouth, he was a spectacular fighter for his size! I love catching these fish.
• The weightless Senko once again netted some Smallmouth Bass, but only one was of measureable size. Fortunately, that fish was my nicest Smallmouth so far! At 19 1/2 inches, I could submit this one to the NH catch and release trophy program. My scale read around 3.5 pounds, but considering this fish had the girth to go with the length, a fish like this should weigh over 4 pounds. Perhaps my technique is wrong, or the weight charts are all full of baloney. Either way, it was an awesome fish!
• These numbers are the best I can figure for the number of Smallmouth I caught at Manning Lake over this period. This doesn't even include Dad's haul of a similar number! Everything was caught on the weightless rigged yamasenkos. I caught a range of sizes, but some of the biggest were pushing three pounds on the scale and 19 inches.
• Overall, I caught six smallmouth. A few were small, but most were in the 2 1/2 pound class. It seems witht he warmer water of late the bite is a bit more active, and the fish seem to be fighting harder. I hooked into one fish at the end of a full 40 yard cast, and he fought every step of the way back. Some of these fish went airborne a few times, overall making a nice fight.
• Using the weightless Senko rig, I did manage to pull up a few chunky Largemouth bass. One measured at 17 inches or so, the other at 18 1/2. They were caught on different tdays. The bite was slow, so these fish helped keep the line taught.
• The first day I caught two largemouth and two smallmouth. Both largemouth were decent fish, 2.5 to about 3 pounds. As usual with manning lake, everything was caught on Senkos.

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

Lure (Other) Check Prices

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

Hard Swimbait Check Prices

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

Jigs Check Prices

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

Crankbait Check Prices

• minnow looking crankbait....
• minnow type Lure
• tried one of my new Lures. small bait fish looking Lure
• chrome crankbait
• deep runner crankbait....

Bass Jig Check Prices

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

Wet Fly Check Prices

• Trolling with lead core line

Nightcrawler Check Prices

• One average nightcrawler and one small red worm sent to the bottom beyond the drop off.
• Silver/Copper 2-way spinner hook.
  Neon Orange 2-way spinner hook.
• Silver/Copper 2-way spinner hook.
• trolling with nightcrawler and a 2-way spinner rig 2 weights near the swivel
• Small "trout size" worms were the bait of choice here.
• The same worm/jig rig that brought in the bass caught some perch as well.
• I took mthe advice from a local bait shop employee and put some nightcrawlers on the end of some jigs.
• slip sinker rig
• i cut nightcrawler in half and fished with alittle weight 10-12" up the line
• nightcrawler with weight.fished the bottom of the water

Jigging Spoon Check Prices

• brass dotted harry lure

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

Panfish Jig Check Prices

Other Check Prices

• Rainbow Powerbait (floating), off bottom.
• Worms & Orange Powerbait.
  
  Silver/Copper 2-Way spinner hooks, bobbers & bottom fishing.
• Rainbow Powerbait.
• 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!
• Orange floating Powerbait pellets about 3.5' off the bottom.
• Squid