Black bass are on the fast track to becoming New England's No. 1 sport fish. These hard-hitting, voracious feeders will strike a wide variety of baits. Their ferocious fighting style has surprised many an angler used to less aggressive fish. Luckily, there are thousands of waters throughout the Northeast that are teeming with big bucketmouths and bronzebacks.

Each state's fisheries biologists carefully monitor this important resource. Naturally reproducing bass populations are most common, but stocking programs come into play to supplement bass numbers where necessary.

Biologists from every state report that bass are thriving. Daily creel limits, length limits and slot limits are the most common tools used to manage the species. These regulations are adjusted frequently, so always check the current law book before heading for the water.

Here, courtesy of New England's bass biologists, is a roundup of best-bet waters to explore in 2009:

CONNECTICUT
Black bass in the Nutmeg State are managed through various fishing regulations, according to Bob Jacobs, eastern district supervisor with the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's Inland Fisheries Division. There is no closed season on bass in Connecticut, and in most waters a 12-inch minimum length and six-fish creel limit are in effect.

"In addition to waters managed under the general rule, we have 29 Bass Management Lakes that have more conservative regulations on bass," Jacobs said. "Our Bass Management Lakes fall into two categories. First, Big Bass Management Lakes have either a 12- to 16-inch slot limit or a 16-inch minimum length limit with a daily creel limit of two fish over 16 inches. Second, Trophy Bass Management Lakes have either a 12- to-18-inch slot limit or an 18-inch minimum length, and only one fish above 18 inches may be taken."

The DEP is in its final season of sampling to assess the effects of these regulations, implemented in 2002, on Bass Management Lakes.

"In general, bass populations are doing very well in Connecticut, likely due to the high voluntary release rates by anglers," Jacobs said. "Catch rates by bass tournament anglers and by the general public, as determined by our own creel surveys, are higher than ever in most water bodies.

"However, in some highly pressured systems, bass may be getting harder to catch for average anglers," Jacobs noted. "This is probably due to population shifts in habitat use -- fish spending more time in deeper water than they used to -- and to foraging habits, because fish are more wary than they used to be. These shifts are probably due more to evolutionary selection than to fish learning to avoid baits. Angling quickly removes the easier-to-catch bass."

Jacobs's top picks for bass this year include Candlewood Lake in the western portion of the state and Gardner Lake to the east for smallmouth bass; and East Twin Lake, Amos Lake, Ball Pond and the Moodus Reservoir for largemouth bass action.

For more Connecticut fishing information, call (860) 424-3474 or visit www.ct.gov/dep.

MAINE
The Pine Tree State once had specific black bass regulations on specific water bodies for just bucketmouths or bronzebacks, but that changed in 2008, according to Rick Jordan, a Region C fisheries biologist with the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

"There used to be 25 bass regulations in the law book, but the streamlined 2008 version lists four," Jordan said.

These regulations, and a new bass plan, are geared toward protecting bass during spawning season, increasing numbers of big bass, and thinning out smaller bass in overpopulated waters.

Wet, cold springs from 2004 to 2006 may limit the number of bass under 10 inches available to anglers in 2009, but Jordon said that anglers should still expect to see good numbers of larger bass because those fish were produced in years with good spawning conditions.

"There are over 620 bass waters in Maine," Jordan said. "None of them are stocked. They don't need to be stocked because natural reproduction is sufficient to maintain a good population."