Dunks N Dinks

Anyone have any goals in mind for 2022? I know personally it will be to get back into the local tournament scene (fresh and saltwater), and to catch a 20lb+ limit of smallmouth (haven't had one since 2018 sadly)... I also am hoping to build up my sub-stack newsletter https://devinacton.substack.com/ ... which is partially due to the love of outdoor writing I've helped develop here on Bass-Resource of all places lol. I'm hoping to combine short-stories, fishing reports, recipes and "angling culture" interviews with fresh and saltwater enthusiasts all across the north-east coast. If you want to do an interview for the newsletter, know anyone I should talk to, or have any 'must add' segments/stories, don't hesitate to reach out!

Not a bass, but I caught this 40" BFT on (sorta) bass tackle this weekend (saragosa 5k, 7ft terez, 30lb braid) and on a topwater!

Sunday I decided to fish Great Herring which Ive never been to before but heard decent things about on this forum. Boy was it a great off-the-cuff decision. A few topwater fish at sunrise got the momentum going and the late-morning period proved as productive (if not more-so) than Saturday's deep-water search. Similarly, after the shallow low-light activity died, I quickly moved offshore and started marking fish around the 15-18fow area on subtle break-lines in the northern basin. Bait balls were thick and once again key determinants of fish location. In the following few hours, a buddy and I compiled a ~16lb limit of smallies on finesse tactics. Low and slow was the key, popping baits into and out of the beds of perch grass and waiting for the tell-tale thump of a curious brown-back. Highlight of the day was a chaotic 'double-up', my buddy and I loaded on twin smallies...my fish ended up being the lunker of the session, pushing the scales at a super-girthy 4.11lbs. Goes to say that the unseasonably warm weather so far this Fall has delayed the classic shallow push ... but there's still quality to be had looking for the perch/alewife-chompers out deep.

Weekend Cape Update - Been a While... After a bit of a freshwater angling hiatus this Fall, the itch just had to be scratched this weekend... Went to Johns Saturday at zero-dark full of excitement, caffeine and delusions of glory and then proceeded to get ZERO bites until 2pm...ouch. Big hit to the confidence, but eventually turned it around as wind picked up and the sun peaked out. After striking out looking for the classic Fall transition patterns shallow (jigs, chatter, jerk-bait), I decided to move in reverse, checking some deep summer offshore haunts. Finally intercepted a few roaming groups of fish out in 25-27fow on a deep flat adjacent to a main-lake point. They were holding in close proximity to schools of deepwater perch, which meant weeding through those non-target species, but I did manage to find a solid limit of smallmouth in the last 2hrs of my trip. On my way back towards the ramp, I pulled into a small flat pocket just for the heck of it, and lo and behold, stuck a hefty kicker largemouth on a jerkbait next to a mooring buoy...can't ever sleep on the Cape buoy pattern!

CC July Update Only made it out freshwater fishing 5x this month (mostly short trips after work), but after-dark action proved much more reliable. Daytime patterns on CC kettle-holes are all deep (+25fow) and forage-related, so it can get a bit boring sending drop-shots and spoons down over and over again and again and again to fish you see on your graphs, with limited success. Instead, I prefer power-fishing at night up shallow around grass/docks this time of year...bonus is you don't have to deal with jet-skiers and pleasure boaters running around. Managed a few decent fish on chatterbait/topwater this way, but no giants. Instead, spent several weekends offshore tuna-fishing with much better results, the recreational size bluefin fishery really improving the last 3-4yrs. Went 3 for 4 getting <73" fish in the first two weeks of the month, with a few decent afternoon striper trips mixed in with fish up to 36" in the rips off Monomoy.

@Frezzy yep, its a sad reality of the sport in MA. Too many "tournament" anglers and too few large freshwater bodies of water in the state with ramp access. Best to fish during the week or at night...or during the winter lol

Ive fished Whitehall 5-6 times over the last 3yrs...had some great days (20+ bites, several 4lbers, some less impressive performances mixed in as well. The lake has 'em for sure, and you can fish power or finesse throughout the seasons. It's also an interesting and diverse lake (from a cover/structure perspective), but still small and might be a little "boring" by relative comparison to the Chu. I think i would get sick of fishing it more than 6-7 times a year but that's just me. I don't think you will ever get sick of the Chu just on the basis of size and lack of fishing pressure. Your decision is really about whether you want options (a small tracker can fish almost anywhere) vs. an 'all in' approach at the Chu. There's something to be said about learning and trying to pattern a single fishery...all up to you.

Completed a Cape Cod Bass 'Slam' on Saturday. It started in the cold and pouring rain on LPH, chucking topwater early and then transitioning to deep-finesse tactics with largemouth and smallmouth adopting their more stable summer patterns. It ended in Pleasant bay, hammering on some 22-26" schoolie stripers wading from shore at sunset.

40 fish and a 20lb limit yesterday on a small Cape grass lake! Unfortunately 30 of those fish and all of that limit were Pickerel lmao. 20-25mph sustained winds made for a fun (and short) time though, and all my bites came on either the jackhammer or 6" jerkbait. Biggest bass was a very random 3lb smallie that was up shallow on a windblown grass edge.

Trip Recap: "Double Trouble" @Saltysmalljaws and I rendezvous'd at a foggy Cliffs Pond early Saturday to kick off a marathon session. Water temps were still a chilly 45 at the deep spring-fed kettle-hole despite the warming trend, but eventually melted up to the 49 area by 11am. The trout proved much more aggressive than the bass, with most of our morning spent de-hooking brookies that were savagely attacking our jerk-baits. At one point, I counted a school of no less than 20 brook-trout corralling a school of juvenile smelt in the mouth of a small pocket, so cool to witness. The smallies proved a bit more of a challenge to get at, but we did eventually find a few to pick up a light neko rig in the deepest parts of the small coves. As the water warmed and the wind kicked up a tad, we moved across the pond to a steep wind-blown break and scored a small flurry of jerk-bait fish, one pushing the scales at ~3.5lbs. Around noon-time, we trailered over to LPH and picked up where I left off last weekend, finding a few 2-2.5lbers on ML drops. With about an hour to go before our pre-determined deadline, we pushed up into the wind-blown shallows and made some magic happen. The water up there had warmed 8-degrees in a week (!), and a wolf-pack of big smallies made their presence known by doubling both of us over on jerk-baits in less than 5fow. Total ***show as both of us couldn't reach the net and our fish were both jumping on opposite sides of the boat haha. Somehow we both managed to scoop them in and had quite a laugh at the chaotic state of affairs, those two 3.5-4lbers capped off a long fun day of chasing Cape brownies.

Weekend/Derby Recap: Fished the annual Easter Bunny Open on LPH Saturday - Cold front made for a pretty tough puzzle with pre-spawners definitely moving back and suspending to a degree. Caught 2 small keepers up shallow off a brush-pile in the AM with a jerk-bait, then couldn't get bit for the following 3hrs. Had to make some adjustments and ended up marking some fish in 28-32fow on steeper structure breaks. Ended up filling out the limit with 30mins to go on deep finesse swim-bait as the wind picked up out of the north. Weighed in 13lbs n change for a 4th place finish, just 0.7lbs from 1st. The field had a pretty tough day too, just 5 limits out of 17 boats. Big fish was a 4.01 smallie. Most guys said they got fish deeper than 20fow on blade-baits or finesse plastics. Water was 44-45 degrees. Sunday I got out on Wequaq with my dad for 4hours in the afternoon. Water was 48-50 degrees in the southern end. We ended up getting 7-8 bass and another 10 pickerel. Wind-blown rock and grass mixture seemed like the best concentration of fish, with 8-12fow being the most productive. Two 2lb smallies and a 2.5lb larry all came on a ned rig dragged in the rock/grass mix.

@Saltysmalljaws and I did some pre-frontal damage yesterday before the rainstorm blanketed the upper-cape. Morale of the story: even in low 40dg water-temps, when the conditions line up right, these fish can get shallow and aggressive in a hurry. We had 10-12 bites in less than 3 hours, with action in less than 6 FoW to start the day. Ended up releasing a very solid limit and both of us had a fish pushing +4lbs. Great start to the smallie season.

oh man...my bait-monkey is getting fired up, this could get dangerous.

Have had a Slammer on the wishlist for a while...will make it happen this year. Sebile swimmers you say...love them for striped bass, dont see why larry wouldnt like 'em. thnx for the rec's.

Anyone have any tried and true recommendations for medium-large (4-6") swimbaits beyond the typical (huddleston, scottsboro, keitech) ones? Preferably top-hook or hard-body treble baits for open-water smallies and largies. Trying to branch out this year to UP my big bites (my 3lbers were up this year, >+4lbers down sadly).