As a newbie, I still can't catch anything and so I can't add anything encouraging to this thread, but adding to the report is a good thing, right?
Between the end of August and today, I've been to Wachusett Res. (Gates 6, 8, and 10); Upper Mystic Lake; Jamaica Pond; and the Charles between the dam in Watertown and Bridge Street. All shore fishing.
When I first hit Wachusett, it was early September when the weather was cool in the morning and not too hot in the afternoon. I figured the water probably wasn't too prime yet, but couldn't hurt, right? I hit it again today (gate 10) and went all around the walkable areas. Nothing. I figured the water was finally cooler, but I still got no bites. Each time I've gone, I've used senkos, roboworms, a spinner, jigs, and a crawfish looking soft plastic. Nothing...not even a nibble.
Mystic Lake I hit about two weeks ago in the mid morning. Cool weather. I could see some fish jumping beyond some small pads. Tossed a frog and a senko to them, nothing. So I tried a jig. Nothing. Then added a trailer to the jig. Nothing. Not even a nibble.
Jamaica Pond...you can already imagine.
The Charles is where I've spent an inordinate amount of time. Why? Because when I first scouted it in late August, I saw a HUGE fish jump. And he's jumped repeatedly in the same spot almost every time I've gone. While I couldn't get a good look at his coloration (at first) I could tell that he was at least a bass of some sort, not a carp. And it was only a few days ago I finally caught a clear look at him...it was a dirty penny color on his back and no big scales. So now I am thinking it's a big small mouth.
Read on if you want to know about what I've tried. Otherwise, the short synopsis is that I haven't caught anything on the Charles yet either. There's at least ONE fish in there, but I haven't had any luck and the other guys I've seen fish near me (rarely), they've caught nothing either.
So, for details: In August, I started by tossing senkos and roboworms to him. Nothing. Early September, I started with jigs, then jigs with trailers. Nothing. Mid September I started with frogs. Nothing. And now that I realize it might be a smallie, I have moved onto crayfish looking things and tubes along with a spinner, senko, and pretty much everything else I've stockpiled recently. All failures. The only hint of action was seeing a pickerel follow one lure from his hiding spot all the way to the very edge of the water without striking.
Obstacles for this particular fish I've been chasing are that there are very very few good clearings to the water. The spots I've hit most often have limbs above you, and tall growing brush all around you. I broke a couple of trails into the underbrush to a couple of hidden clearings, but they aren't that much better casting wise. And the few places where the casting is good, they are all near waters of depths no more than 6 inches to 1 foot.
Another problem is that between me on the shoreline and the middle of the river where the fish is jumping is a rather large bed of big pads. I've lost a small fortune of hooks/weights/lures to those pads. Because of those pads, and my obsession with this fish, I invested in some heavier gear to handle it after I snapped a rod. It's greatly reduced the number of lures I've lost, and has given me some more distance, but I am still shy of the sweet spot where I see this fish jumping.
It's the never ending balance between going weightless but casting short vs. adding weight but getting hung up more often and messing with the lure's movement. Then there's the whole line weight balance: going weightless but using heavier line to handle the pads vs. lighter line, but losing my bait on every single cast. Rigging my line with leaders or pegging weights high up the line aren't too helpful either since the longer setup frequently gets hung up on limbs or brush.
And thus ends my report on my first two months of bass fishing.
