Pleasant Pond in Island Falls is an hour and a half drive each way from my house, but if I reminisce about the huge smallmouth bass finning around the lake, each road trip flies by. Forty years I’ve been visiting Pleasant, hand-lining for smelt on winter evenings, with perhaps setting a deep line for cusk. During the warm winter days we would set out tipups for trout and salmon, but it was early spring trolling for leaping landlocks our group truly anticipated each year. And then we found out about the bass fishing.

About 10 years ago my boat buddy hooked into a big fish during a late May trolling excursion. When it didn’t take to the air right off, we figured it had to be a big brookie. After several minutes of a hearty tug of war the fish was near the boat and made its only jump. A huge bronzeback bass, well over 4 pounds, exploded from the water twisting, pirouetting, and flailing, and spit the Rapala back at us and disappeared with a tail flip.

Before heading home we stopped at Birch Point Lodge and grilled Joe and Steve Edwards, owners of the lodge and campground and longtime anglers and guides, about the bass fishing. They allowed that some of the largest smallmouth in northern Maine were right there in Pleasant Lake, and they had wall mounts and photos of released fish to prove it. I was converted on the spot and have become a frequent visitor over the last decade. Although I’ve broached the 4-pound mark several times, that 5-pound wall-hanger trophy is still frustrating my efforts.

Stubborn smallies

Last week on a warm bright early afternoon we made our first visit to Pleasant Pond. As the electric motor quietly pushed us to a rock-strewn shoreline, we got our rods set up and rigged with top water plugs and diving, midlevel running noise makers.

It never ceases to amaze me how the gravel bottom strewn with rocks and boulders stands out in the 6 feet to 12 feet of gin-clear water. My partner and I beat the water to a froth as we paralleled a normally productive stretch of shoreline. Pop-Rs, Torpedos, Jitterbugs and Rapalas were used on the surface while moderate to deep diving Rattlin Rogues, Deepwarts, Husky Jerk baits and skirted spinner baits of various colors delved the depths. Not one strike did we feel over the first 45 minutes.

As I swung the boat shoreward to turn for another casting pass, several yards inland a motion caught my eye and a huge bass moved away from a gravel spawning bed. Stopping the boat, I spied a second good-sized smallie hovering near the cleared circle. We tossed half a dozen plugs and lures to the pair of fish, all of which were smugly ignored. My buddy finally cranked a gold willow leaf spinner with a five-inch pumpkin seed-colored grub past the bed. The big bass elevated toward the bait, watching closely, but let it pass and slowly settled back to guard his home turf.

Monitoring the big bronzeback reaction to the passing plastic grub – a sage piece of advice from Bill Norsworthy, a Presque Isle native who haunts large and smallmouth bass waterways throughout the state -popped into my head. Nesting bass often refuse to feed or stray far from their gravel hatchery, but if you want to provoke them and have one irate bass on your hands, drag an ugly rubber bait right through the nest.

My bass tackle box is full of lures and plugs, known as hard baits, many of which already had been offered, but somewhere in the back compartment were a couple of soft baits. In less than a minute I located two long fat plastic worms and a crawfish. Since it was very realistic, I hooked up the ugly black crawfish imitation and tossed it well beyond the bass bed and allowed it to sink. Then with a subtle scuttling motion I worked the bait right up into the edge of the bass bed. Like a streak the larger smallmouth, almost always the female, pounced on the intruder and I had a fight on my hands.

As I played the acrobatic bass, the mate swam near her all during the tussle, right up to the side of the boat. A quick weight was taken just before release and the brute was 2 ounces less than 4 pounds. Throughout the rest of the afternoon we took turns sight fishing bass beds with the crayfish and two brightly colored sluggos. Often we managed to catch and release both bass from each gravel bed, and we even retried a few plugs, but just like any good department store, the bass were taking plastic.

Hard and soft baits

Smallmouth bass enthusiasts throughout Maine often depend too heavily on hard baits. Understandable, considering most of the season some variation of wooden, plastic or metal lures will attract some action. Properly used, certain hard baits will create a surface commotion that drives smallies wild and brings on savage top-water strikes. Other hard baits rattle, knock and ping as they dive and wiggle from 2 feet to 20 feet deep.

During some periods however, if you don’t have soft plastic you won’t have results. After just such an experience, illustrated by the first part of the story, I talked to several hardcore smallmouth anglers seeking advice on stocking up on soft baits. My bass box is now loaded with a rainbow of colorful tube jigs, soft stick baits, bloodworms, salamanders and crayfish in multiple sizes. Previously, like many part-time bass casters, my stock of soft baits was a half-dozen bags of 3- and 5-inch grubs used with lead heads and single leaf gold spinners.

My short experience has shown, among other things, that even when hard baits are working, larger bass will be taken regularly on soft baits. When water temperatures are low, heavy rains have noticeably changed the height and-or color of a waterway or when weed and grass-chocked areas need to be thoroughly fished, soft plastic baits will produce action while all other offerings are pretty much ignored.

Why they work

Synthetic materials created by modern technology have helped anglers as well as space travelers. Color, smell, motion and texture all contribute to the high success rate of fake plastic worms, aquatics and other wigglers. Catch two bass on worms made several years ago and they would be decimated, for new plastics with brand names such as Snap Back, or 3X are far more resilient. New materials are a bit more expensive, but they last longer and are far more realistic.

Soft baits are molded so well they display features that make them near-perfect imitations of the real thing. Besides looking real, they have a very natural motion in the water due to the soft plastic composition. Appearance and realistic movement attract bass and incite them to strike, either from hunger or anger.

Using the smallmouth’s acute sense of smell is another trait of some soft baits. Fish are attracted to salt and garlic, so manufacturers have impregnated several soft baits with those smells. Berkley has gone a step further and infused its line of Power Baits with a substance that emits a fishy odor. Although many companies produce bottles of smelly fish attractant liquids to squirt on plastic baits, impregnated baits are quick, easy and less messy.

Last, but far from least, is the spectrum of bait colors available to attract or incite a smallie to bite. Let me tell you straight off, from sad experience, some colors are far more attractive to fishermen than to fish. Buy stick baits in white, black with gold flakes or a white belly with blue or purple sides and back. Popular and productive worm colors include black, black and red, and purple, in that order of popularity. Crayfish and salamanders should be on hand in pumpkin seed, watermelon (green and black) and black colors.

If your bass lures are mostly hard baits you’re missing out on some great opportunities for fast action and big fish by not having a wide selection of soft plastic baits. Stock up and experiment on your next smallmouth outing, the results will convince you. One final piece of advice from a friend who fishes the pro bass circuit: Fish slow and low, when you think you’re retrieving a plastic worm slow enough, reduce the speed by half. Every turn of a spinning reel handle and rod tip twitch actually moves a bait two feet, which is too fast! Toss out a soft bait, it’s the best way to a bass’ belly.

Outdoors feature writer Bill Graves can be reached via e-mail at bgravesoutdoors@ainop.com