Janderson45

Any chance you could expand on this given it’s mid to late May now ?. I’m considering heading up to Champlain this weekend, it’ll be my first time up there in my own boat. I fished Ti last year around the end of July as a co-angler for a couple of days. Other than that I have no experience on Champlain. The size, potential water temp difference, water clarity and brown fish vs green fish makes it very overwhelming to plan a trip this time of year! I’ve got tentative reservations for Ticonderoga area again, but I’m not sure if that would be limiting myself to only largemouth this time of year? I’m coming from south of the lake so Ti is the most convenient travel wise and the only area I know (a few miles south of Ti to 10-15 miles north of Ft. Point Bridge). Im also mildly concerned about my 18’9 Aluminum Lund Renegade as I know she can get angry and downright dangerous in a hurry. I do have an Ultrex and powerpoles to help mitigate a light boat in moderately sporty conditions. Im a better clear water smallmouth fisherman than I am stained water largemouth fisherman which makes me want to explore other areas of the lake than Ti, but at least I know what to expect down south. Thoughts?

I found candlewood tough this past weekend by the way - water temps were in the high 50s and I think a lot of the smallmouth had started to bed, but water clarity was a lot worse than I anticipated - I thought I’d be greated with 10-15’ or so of visibility but I had more like 5’ or less... smallmouth were the target on day 1 and they did not cooperate at all. I ended up with 3 smallmouth for about 6lbs total in 10 hours of fishing on the first day. Second day I switched up my approach and targeted docks for largemouth - I had more success than the previous day but it was still a tough bite... ended up with a limit (hey I can still do it!!) of largemouth for just over 13lbs. I caught all but one of them on a 3/32oz hair jig... never thought I’d be turning to hair so late in the season but I rigged it up on advice from a local and it was the ticket... I’ve had a pretty humbling spring - I was on them pretty good early to mid April for a few weeks and have really sputtered since. I’m realizing my first spring with a boat that I don’t have nearly as much experience or confidence fishing this time of year as I thought. I think I’ve been too reliant on reaction baits recently when I should be soaking soft plastics in higher percentage areas. I’ve been doing a lot of force feeding with jerkbaits, spinnerbaits and swimbaits because it’s what I like to throw but I think it’s been costing me lately. We’ll see if I can get over this mental hump and break some bad habits here this weekend...

These water temps at Webster you’re talking about? I’ll be out there again on Saturday for a little club tournament, hoping it goes a bit better than my last few trips out that way...

Yup! I turned to my buddy when we passed you and said “hey another Lund! Wait, that one has an Evinrude too... I think I know that guy from Bassresource” Haha.. Your day out there sounds very similar to mine. I found 3 largemouth and 1 smallmouth, they were all +\- 12” - I also caught probably a half dozen pickerel and some perch to round out my day ?. Jerkbaits and paddletail swimbaits did all the “damage” for me. My buddy had two small largemouth on an underspin as well. Heading to Candlewood (CT) to fish 2 or 3 days Friday through Sunday. I’m hoping to break out of a bit of prespawn funk I’ve been battling the past few weekends... going to be the first time down there for me, will be nice to break down a larger fishery, hopefully the learning curve isn’t too steep and the weather cooperates at least part of the time..

Seen a lot of big bass coming out of the Wachusett past two weeks! Maybe I’ll find a place to go drop the Lund in and get in on this action sometime soon.

Wet and windy weather moving in for the weekend... anyone plan to brave the elements? I’ll be out at Long Pond Harwich for our annual Easter Bunny Open tournament on Saturday. Forecast calls for an inch of rain, 25mph sustained winds with gusts to 40mph. Bring it on Mother Nature!

Fished Webster from noon to six on Saturday afternoon. Thought I was going to have another hot afternoon with the jerkbait but that didn’t wind up being the case. Rain and clouds in the morning cleared and gave way to high bright sun and a light southwest breeze. Air temps got over 70 between 2-3pm, I’ll take it! I didnt have a game plan other than to look shallow, and in hindsight my lack of strategy cost us. We junk power fished chucking spinnerbaits, crankbaits and jerkbaits in 4-12 feet of water and after a few hours had nothing but trout, yellow perch and pickerel to show for it. Day was salvaged in one 45 minute period in the late afternoon where I caught 3 largemouth and 3 good sized pickerel all from the same area and all on the same jerkbait. I was rapidly gaining confidence thinking I’d be able to squeak out a limit after all, but the weather had other ideas. The sun went behind some upper atmosphere clouds and my jerkbait bite completely died. I stuck with it for another 1.5 hours or so, mostly still chucking the jerkbait trying to force them to react but they weren’t having it. Two of the bass were 12-13” dinks and the other was a decent bass at around 2.5lbs perhaps. Wasn’t what I had hoped to accomplish going into the day, but with a late start and no strategy going in I guess I can’t complain. True milti species day (yellow perch, white perch, pickerel, rainbow trout, largemouth bass, smallmouth bass) in some beautiful early spring weather. Water temps varied throughout the day and by location, saw as low as 47 and as high as 51. I need to get back to using my electronics to properly break down a lake, find bait, figure out where the game fish are holding and plan my attack. Lately I’ve been really trying to force reaction strikes while power fishing up shallow... it’s a lot of fun when it’s working, and has kept me from getting skunked so far this year, but some days it’s just not the answer. I need to spend more time graphing to put some more pieces of the puzzle together, but I feel bad doing that when I’ve got a buddy fishing with me like I have in recent trips. I’ve hardly done any finesse fishing, which is one of my major strengths, so that needs to change. Hoping I can make it all come together over the next few weekends.

Tomorrow looks a bit raw and very windy down on the south coast and cape. Original plan was to hit the cape for some more prespawn small jaws but I may be calling an audible and heading north/west to escape the rain and harshest winds. Interior mass looks to be very warm, with clouds giving way to afternoon sun and manageable winds. Right now I’m leaning towards Webster, but won’t make a definite decision until later tonight. We’re gonna make the most of it either way, that you can be sure of! Will report back with results. Tight lines to all those getting out this weekend.

Thanks, and yes this was in MA, Mashpee Wakeby pond down the cape. Will be down that way again next weekend weather permitting. I got out for a few hours on the Nip yesterday afternoon (Mashpee was Saturday) - the largemouth were predictably located exactly where I thought they’d be, up tight to shallow heavy cover. Went after them with a jig and got one to commit after just a few casts. Nothing special, probably 15” 1.5lbs.. thought it was going to be a very productive afternoon, but I was wrong. After the one bite the fish in shallow cover seemed to entirely disappear or shut off. The sun went behind the clouds, winds picked up and the bite was gone. Pulled out to some slightly deeper water and chucked a spinnerbait around for a bit before calling it a day. Couple pickerel on the spinnerbait and that was it. Felt like I got on the water just a tad too late and missed a good jig bite. Fished from 2pm-5pm. Water temps were 51-54, water was heavily stained, but that’s typical for the Nip. Water level was up quite a ways, nearly submerging some problematic boulders in the northern end. If youre out there with a motor and don’t know where the hazards are located be extra careful this time of year, there’s a few real day ruiners lurking just underneath the surface.

We figured out a pretty good pattern yesterday afternoon, and they were chomping. Probably 15 smallmouth caught between my buddy and I, best 5 went 16lbs ?. Water temps were 46-49, and it was a slug fest on jerkbaits once we found em feeding in a little shallower water with bright high sun. Only thing missing was a true kicker, two smallmouths pictured were both about 3.5lbs, two biggest on the day.

Hitting Mashpee Wakeby bright and early tomorrow. Hoping to find some active brown fish up in shallow/intermediate depths, but fully prepared to pull out and finesse fish deeper water if need be. We’ll let you know how it goes one way or the other.

The one in Harwich, and you’re right it can be pretty stingy especially early and late in the season. I fished it with Dunks&Dinks and another buddy of mine my last time out in Nov 2018 and we all got skunked despite 8+ hours of efforts. I got out on Sunday for the first time in 2019. Picked a great day for the first outing of the year with 1/2” of rain and 30+ mph gusts. I ended up at Whitehall with my buddy, we fished from about 11am to 5pm. We each managed a few bass and some pickerel up in the shallower warm water. Nothing of any size, biggest bass on the day was only ~1.5lbs. It was 52 degrees shallow in the northern end and 46 degrees deep in the southern end. All of the fish came in the shallower warmer water on a mix of reaction baits, a 1/4oz lipless and 3/8oz spinnerbait were our weapons of choice the majority of the day as we did a lot of chucking and winding up in the abundant shallow cover. Certainly nothing special, as we didn’t find any bass of decent size, but I’m not complaining for March 31st. Felt good to be back out there again. I’ll be making my way to the cape/south shore for some smallie fishing this weekend, weather permitting.

Sudbury/Concord River is a great spot for kayak fishing. Can be accessed in numerous towns north and west of Boston. Should be within a half hour for you id think. Good largemouth, pickerel, and an occasional pike. Water is likely very high right now with snow melt and recent rain.

Here’s some recently arrived goodies, anticipation is strong.

Nip is fine in a bass boat if you know the hazardous spots (there’s a handful that come to mind) FYI. If you don’t know the hazards I’d be happyto point them out for you, or just take it slow. It’s only a few hundred acres so not a big deal to go slow. The majority of hazards are in the northern end of the lake, especially the far north east corner as dogbone mentioned. I rip it up in 90% of the lake on plane without an issue. Dogbones not wrong, it is very shallow, the majority of it is 4-6’ deep. That said we just hosted a bass tournament on it this past season with 12 full-size bass rigs and no one had an issue. A few years ago it was far below normal water levels, I think that’s when dogbone must have kayaked it. It’s been a good deal higher for a while now, and water tables across the state are very high. My guess is the Nip is very flooded right now. I fish it frequently, will probably be out on it for the first time in the next week or two.

Got a link with details?

It can vary quite a bit depending on the time of year and species of crayfish. Most often, they are a muted green pumpkin/brown color/olive color. With that as a base, certain times of year they have orange and/or red highlights. The amount of orange or red depends on the season and species, from what I can gather. In practice I’ll use that base GP/Olive color with varying amounts of red/orange accent colors in the early spring and then again in the fall. During the summer I stick to pretty much the green/brown/black colors. Not exactly a scientific approach, but it seems to be backed by reasonable results. Ive found that action and size of the soft plastic craw is a bigger player than color when it comes to getting bites. The size and amount of “flapping” that the claws do seems to be More important than matching any specific colors. This is the case with most soft plastic baits in my experience, action first, then size, color is third on the list for me.

Just a thought, but why not target the Expo as a meet and greet every winter? For those of us with a busier schedule that attend the expo each year it’s like killing two birds with one stone. Plus has the added benefit of having food/drink available, ample space to have smaller conversations amongst our groups but also more than 100 fishing vendors to check out right on site! Add in the pro seminars geared from beginning largemouth fishing to tournmanent fishing. Also a ton of information on striper, bluefish, blackfish, sharks and tuna fishing in New England to boot.

I was under the impression that fiberglass was integrated in more than just the livewell, storage boxes, console and TM tray, but apparently not. So it’ll still be like any other aluminum hull but with improved fit and finish on the storage, console, livewell etc? Still a cool idea, as that’s a gripe of a lot of aluminum boat owners, but not quite as groundbreaking as I was led to believe!

I haven’t seen one in person yet, but I will at a show on Saturday. My initial impressions of them are that they are well thought out and designed, the hybrid of aluminum and fiberglass seems like a great idea that in some aspects would allow you to get “the best of both worlds”. My guess is that their targeted demo is primarily made up of aluminum fishing boat owners/shoppers. I’m probably overstating this, but as someone new to the boat owning/buying industry these boats appear to represent one of the greatest leaps in technology and innovation for “tin” boats in decades. Considering I just bought a brand new Lund myself, I don’t think I’ll be tempted by anything in a similar class for quite some time. If the Vexus does good sales, provides solid customer service, continues to refine and improve their product, and get stellar reviews I could see it being in the running for my next boat. I’ll be interested to see how it holds up and what initial reviews and sales are over the next couple of years.

I’ll be at the Expo on Saturday at least potentially Sunday if I feel the need/urge. Hope to see some of you around.

Welcome to BassResource! Massachusetts member here, who also fishes local club BASS tournaments along with a few other opens/trails. I started as a coangler three years ago and just made the switch to a boater this past summer. Next season will be my first full season as a boater, super excited! I havent seen a ton of CT angler’s on the forums here, but that certainly doesn’t mean that there aren’t members from CT or “lurkers” like yourself. Check out the regional sub forums, we have some lengthy and informative threads going in the North East Bass Fishing section for both Massachusetts and New Hampshire!

Can’t wait to get my poles on! Checked out your more in-depth thread on another forum and it was helpful, thanks for posting up detailed pics and thoughts on the install. That’s too bad about the Mercury warranty requiring you to use the side mount brackets off of the sandwich brackets, I’m happy that I can just use the straight sandwich brackets with an Evinrude.

Bill Russell got his wins when the league had 8 teams, most of which don’t exist anymore, and he was one of two dominant 7 footers. Yankees dominance pre-luxury tax era and there’s no salary cap in baseball. Yankees are the only team that has exceeded the luxury-tax every year since it was introduced and have one World Series to show for it in those 15 seasons. UCLA had a nice run in a COLLEGE sport with constant roster turnover and players not making any money. Not to mention, you know, the 199th overall draft pick from the 2000 NFL draft holding just about every relevant record at the most important posistion in all of sports. Having the most playoff games, AFC championship births and titles, Super Bowl births and titles, playoff winning percentage, Super Bowl MVPs... oh that coach of his is pretty amazing too, taking a dumpster fire franchise that hadn’t ever won anything and turning them into the most dominant NFL dynasty that the sport has ever seen and one of the most highly valued sports franchises in all of the land. Professional sports, especially those with a salary cap, are not designed for extended title runs and one team dominating its conference for two straight decades. That’s why the Patriots are the only professional team to dominate in the manner in which they have for the past 20 years. Like I said, best athlete and best dynasty ever ;). I WILL NOT be knocked off my cloud today! Funny pic, and Saints did get hosed... but just checking.. you know that’s a photoshopped picture, correct?

I’m honored to be a fan and grow up during the era of the greatest athlete and greatest dynasty that sports have ever seen.