Hey Rick,

I have a similar question, why the little guys are hungry and the older Salmon have lock jaw, I'm having a similar problem as you on Squam. However I find lately the little guys don't go for streamers much at all (for me anyhow) and the bigger Salmon "sometimes" do, but it's been "slim to none" pickens the past 3 weeks and tough all summer.

How do I come to that conclusion about streamers and little guys ???? well when I switch to spoons I get allmost all little guys these days, no bigger Salmon and no Bass, however on the down side, the Bass seem to like the streamers too.

It seems something very strange is going on this season Rick, I haven't caught that many small ones (runts) over the last in 3 years, maybe 3 total (actually I can only rememeber 1 or 2) this year it's been at least 3 a trip, all summer, with an occaisional (few and far between) bigger Salmon, but really quality fish. And I fish hard, 2 and sometimes 3 days a week, 5 to 7 hours each trip.

If the little guys keep biting next year and the year after, fishing should be better maybe ??????

Hang in there and keep on fishing. I bought a trailer so if all goes well, I'll be moving around a bit the last month of the season, but I still plan to fish my home Lake hard the last few weeks of the season.

John S.
(soon to be "un-landocked" on Squam)

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Replying to:

fished Sunapee last night for 45 minutes before the storms , boated 3 runts -45 down db's over blades.
fished wed night 530-730 / 6 lines / 3 runts , 4 bass , 1 redeye , 2 lakers 10/17" . 30-45 down on everything . most of the good fish on pink/silver db. cannot get away from the runts ,anyone got a good plan !?

Rick

tried your theory (breifly) tonight , 4 lines , 4 streamers . boated my best leadcore bass of the season , and 1 runt . swapped back to wonderbread and pink - - 3 more runts !! will try the theory for a am run before its busted . marking huge pods down deep with fish around - but still just hook the runts !! the lakers caught recently coughing up 2" smelt , maybe bigger bait ??
going to try a bait only run this week to test . last year at this time all fish were caught on shiners 30-40 down . have you tried that on squam ??

the saga continues

Rick

Gotta be the Lakes and the fish in em Rick. I was getting quite a complex on Squam, starting to think my boat was maybe a problem, maybe it was me, you name it. All my doubts were put to rest after a few hours fishing on Winni, I have new theory now, "too much bait, with only a limited number of fish" spells "0" many times. I've fished Winni 3 times in the past week, the amount of bait they have compare to Squam aint even in the same light year. Not sure how Sunapee is.

Why the runts and the Bass feed so much is still a mystery to me however.

I'm not very good "live fisherman", actually horrible, Popeye is supposed to give me a lesson one of these days. Adrien, after fishing Squam one time, felt it was a Live bait lake, I tried it a few times but I don't have the knack or technique.

Let me know how you make out, I still think, this time of year, small bait big, fish is, best flies this weekend were no more than 1" long, maybe less.

My report will atest to that later this morning as soon as I get caught up from a rough weekend.

Good luck,

John S.
As far as the Dr. Sampson, not me, I'm the one that needs a Doctor, my wife thinks a "head" doctor, me thinks she's right.

After thinking about, the bait in Winni Vs Squam (or any other Lake) it dawned on me that Squam has a limited amount of really deep water for Smelt to be comfortable in where Winni is deep allmost everywhere.

So Winni probably has tons of bait too, but with them being spread out more (more places to be) the fish are hungry and when they find bait they go on a feeding binge. And Winni also has a guite a huge W. Perch population that they seem to be going nuts for these days. So I think the overall bite is better in Winni these days as the bait is spread out more. In Squam the bait is all in two or deep 3 areas, it's a feast for them.

Sill no answers for the runts really being on the prowl, except maybe there are allot more of them at this time of year and maybe they school up more ??????

Wish we all knew more answers to this game, but I guess the challange is what makes it fun.

John S.