This day, my first of the season on Quabbin, the weather was agreeable and I was thinking the smallies might be too. The game plan was to work deep edges of flats and steep drops off rock humps. The bait was a jig that has risen in my early season go-to selection: a 3/32 oz. black/purple marabou pattern, palmered on a mushroom jighead.
In the course of my eight hour day, I spotted very few cruisers and had only one smallmouth inhale the jig I was working just fast enough to keep it out of the rocks. But hey, if you're only gonna hook up once, let it be a 4.21 lb. smallmouth!
Rod: 7' or 7' 6" ML power, fast action. Reel: 2500 size. Line: a full spool of 6 lb. fluorocarbon.
Surface water temps ranged from 49.9º to 54.6º.
