Expecting water temps to be in the high 40ºs on my first trip to Quabbin, I'll be offering hair jigs and blade baits to sluggish smallmouth.
These vibrating blade baits are assembled from Barlow's components. Note the modifications made to reduce the frequency of hanging bottom. If I find I'm missing fish due to a scarcity of hook points, I'll follow up with a jig or wave a wacky rigged Senko at 'em.
New to me - and from a new mold by Do-it, are these Herring Head underspins. The smallies may select a dressing.
My ride, a 14' open aluminum boat gets seriously bounced around when the wind's up, so I laid these baits on a 1" foam mattress with a covering of 1/2" foam. They won't feel a thing crashing through white-capped waves. I will.
Do I need three boxes of hardbaits? Yes! No! Yes!
An assortment of Duo Realis, Lucky Craft, Rapala, Strike King and Storm
These are mostly 100 size but a few are 78 and 110.
And . . . a few more. I bought only five Shadow Rap Shads to start. Not sure if the smallies are gonna like the slow rise on these if the water is below say, 50º.
These will all get wet first trip out.
L - R: Duo Realis Spin Bait 80. This will be my third season with this great bait. Next are two LC Pointers, a 78 and a 100. The LC Bevy Shad 75, new to me, comes highly recommended. How about a sexy slender Pointer in Ghost Minnow? Yum! Finally I've gotten a Staysee 90. Here's another bloated looking Shadow Rap Shad in a color that caught my eye.
There's room for one more Plano 3700 here and that will be a combo jig and spinnerbait box. (Three 3600s fit in a large dry bag along with other stuff.)
Have a look in the Fishing Reports forum Tuesday to find out what worked.
