Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Jigfishn10]

7 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Was out for a little while before dark tonight. Had a big smallie CRUSH my whopper plopper around 8:00. Lure was about 20 feet from the boat when he just came up and pulled it under, I set the hook and he went crazy, jumped clear out of the water twice and then dove. I got him right up to the side of the boat and he jumped one more time, this time dislodging the lure. Pretty heartbreaking but still cool to see that, it was on a lake I rarely catch smallies at, nice to see a good on. I actually noticed that he bent the front treble hook a little bit, powerful fish. I recently bought another whopper plopper and it seems as though R2S has beefed up the treble hooks they use on the 130 size. They look like a different type of hook, bigger, thicker gauge too. Probably was a good idea for them to do that. I lost that smallie on the older one. The newer one also seems to have a slightly different sound. My old one has a slightly deeper "whop" to it. Not sure if that is just the tail being worn a little from fish or what.

After the missed smallie, all I managed to actually catch was a pretty big perch on a Rapala DT14, and a crappie which apparently thought he could take on the whopper plopper but ended up getting foul hooked. 

Must have been a powerful fish to straighten out a hook on a Whopper Plopper, considering the lure was designed to catch musky?!?!

[MassYak85]

7 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Must have been a powerful fish to straighten out a hook on a Whopper Plopper, considering the lure was designed to catch musky?!?!

Not completely straight by any means, should have worded that better, but bent up pretty good, not just out from the shank but sideways as well. I noticed that on my old whopper plopper that the hooks they used are considerably thinner wire than on the new ones, that coupled with me throwing it on my frog rod (7' 6" heavy fast) with 50lb braid, and having the drag tighter than it really should have been for treble hooks, I wasn't too surprised. But that thing fought like hell for the 10 seconds I had it on. I might end up changing out the hooks on that one.

[Janderson45]

15 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

Not completely straight by any means, should have worded that better, but bent up pretty good, not just out from the shank but sideways as well. I noticed that on my old whopper plopper that the hooks they used are considerably thinner wire than on the new ones, that coupled with me throwing it on my frog rod (7' 6" heavy fast) with 50lb braid, and having the drag tighter than it really should have been for treble hooks, I wasn't too surprised. But that thing fought like hell for the 10 seconds I had it on. I might end up changing out the hooks on that one.

I'm new to the 130 size, been throwing the 90 size with not a heck of a lot of success so far this year.. But picked up a 130 size the other day in "Loon" color because I'm trying to get used to throwing bigger baits.. I definitely noticed the very beefy trebles that come on the 130 as well... Don't have an old one to compare it to, but the 130 I just purchased recently definitely has some very serious heavy wire treble hooks on it..

any recommendations of how to fish it?  I just tie it on in various situations I think top water could be effective and vary my retrieves, burning it and killing it mostly, and then sometimes just a constant steady retrieve as well.  What works best for you guys with this lure?  Is it better fished around vegetation and other cover or have you had more success in open/clear/deeper water ?  

[MassYak85]

To be honest, this lure has surprised me. I've caught them in all kinds of conditions on it, I feel like sometimes it just annoys them so much they hit it regardless. So far it has produced best for me in the wind. 

As to how I fish it, a steady retrieve has been the best producer for me, I have had some of my biggest fish on it hit very close to the boat, but I have also had some success retrieving it with pauses built in. I like to bring it right by the edges of cover, docks, lily pads, you name it. I've caught some in shallow weedy bays, rocky points, steep drops, etc. But I've also caught them in open water 20 feet deep. That smallie I was talking about hit in 12 feet of water, just outside a cove where it drops into the main lake. I haven't fished it in any muddy water like the charles or anything yet, but I would imagine it would still produce. 

And regarding the size, I thought it was big at first but 1lbers will still get it no problem. I would say 95% of the fish I have caught on it have been hooked by the front treble hook. Good luck! 

I was out this afternoon from shore and got a short but really fat guy probably a little over a pound. Then another that probably would have been 3lbs if it was healthy, poor thing looked very skinny and might have been just over 2. Both on the 130 in perch. 

[Fishing Rhino]

Just checked out Whopper Plopper on the TW site.  There are two versions.  The new is called River2Sea Silent, so you are probably correct about the sound and the hooks.

[Janderson45]

I'm headed out to either Sampsons pond in Carver, Billington Sea in Plymouth, or some combination of the two in the kayak tonight.  Thinking I'll fish through sunrise and then beat it after that... Very calm wind with lows in the low to mid 60s early this AM-- plus lots of moonlight.  Seems like a decent opportunity.  If anyone is interested in meeting me shoot me a message (probably a long shot) but regardless I'll update on how I do. 

[MassYak85]

13 hours ago, Fishing Rhino said:

Just checked out Whopper Plopper on the TW site.  There are two versions.  The new is called River2Sea Silent, so you are probably correct about the sound and the hooks.

Yea I saw they have a silent version now but both of mine are the original style with the rattle. I think they might have just decided to upgrade the hooks sometime over the past year, as for the sound I can't really explain it, it's a subtle difference. I doubt it was by design, each one might just be a little unique given how the sound is generated by a softer plastic tail, which I would imagine has larger tolerances than the hard plastic body. 

[Janderson45]

1 hour ago, MassYak85 said:

Yea I saw they have a silent version now but both of mine are the original style with the rattle. I think they might have just decided to upgrade the hooks sometime over the past year, as for the sound I can't really explain it, it's a subtle difference. I doubt it was by design, each one might just be a little unique given how the sound is generated by a softer plastic tail, which I would imagine has larger tolerances than the hard plastic body. 

That'll be one of my main baits tonight, a whopper plopper 130 in loon, 17lb pline cxx on a 7' HF casting Rod.  Thinking about trolling it around some like Grandpa recommended with the jitter bug..also casting it just because it's fun to chuck on this setup. 

Also recently purchased a megabass pop max that I'm interested to try out, as well as probably a swimbait, jig/craw, and a spinnerbait/chatterbait. 

[MassYak85]

53 minutes ago, Janderson45 said:

That'll be one of my main baits tonight, a whopper plopper 130 in loon, 17lb pline cxx on a 7' HF casting Rod.  Thinking about trolling it around some like Grandpa recommended with the jitter bug..also casting it just because it's fun to chuck on this setup. 

Also recently purchased a megabass pop max that I'm interested to try out, as well as probably a swimbait, jig/craw, and a spinnerbait/chatterbait. 

Yea I use mine on my jig rod. 7'2" HF Casting with 40lb braid. Works great. I can't believe how far that thing casts.

My dad wanted to go swim at the beach near us, I didn't but decided to come just to cast from shore. Wind was howling but I've had success on the whopper plopper in the wind before so I was using it. Straight into the wind I was still getting very good distance. Didn't catch anything for the short time we were there though.

The weather was absolutely nuts though! We get there and there is 10-15mph winds, nothing crazy. Maybe a couple gusts to 20. About 15 minutes later a cold gust of wind hits the beach, felt like the temperature dropped at least 5 degrees almost instantly. The wind direction started doing whatever it wanted, had me looking up at the clouds making sure a funnel cloud wasn't starting up, The wind is now probably a CONSTANT 40mph, I was getting blown around trying to avoid getting blinded by the sand, and my legs were actually in pain from the sand blasting into them. Whitecaps on the lake, every boat made a B-line for the ramp or their dock. The only time I've ever felt wind that strong was 5000 feet up Mt Washington. It was over in like 5 minutes though, back to the normal wind speeds. Not even a single drop of rain or a rumble of thunder through the whole event. If anyone was watching the red sox game it looked like a similar thing happened at Fenway. 

[Jigfishn10]

On July 22, 2016 at 2:07 PM, MassYak85 said:

Not completely straight by any means, should have worded that better, but bent up pretty good, not just out from the shank but sideways as well. I noticed that on my old whopper plopper that the hooks they used are considerably thinner wire than on the new ones, that coupled with me throwing it on my frog rod (7' 6" heavy fast) with 50lb braid, and having the drag tighter than it really should have been for treble hooks, I wasn't too surprised. But that thing fought like hell for the 10 seconds I had it on. I might end up changing out the hooks on that one.

Still, that myst have been quite a fish you had on! Those smallies will get tour heart pumping for sure!

8 hours ago, Janderson45 said:

That'll be one of my main baits tonight, a whopper plopper 130 in loon, 17lb pline cxx on a 7' HF casting Rod.  Thinking about trolling it around some like Grandpa recommended with the jitter bug..also casting it just because it's fun to chuck on this setup. 

Also recently purchased a megabass pop max that I'm interested to try out, as well as probably a swimbait, jig/craw, and a spinnerbait/chatterbait. 

Good luck Bud!

[MassYak85]

Sadly I am now 0 for 2 on big smallies with that lure. One at Webster, one at Maspenock. Hopefully third time is the charm. I feel like the difference between smallmouth and largemouth is that smallies actually treat getting hooked as a life-or-death situation whereas largemouth just seem generally annoyed at the whole situation. 

[Janderson45]

So I did pretty well with the whopper plopper last night and then again this evening... Throwing it towards weed edges seemed to be the most productive for me, all of my strikes came on a very slow retrieve, not at all what I was expecting.  I was fishing it fairly fast at first with no luck, then decide to fish it much slower, just retrieving it fast enough to make the prop/tail spin and create noise/commontion.  Caught probably 12 or so bass on it the past two nights in fairly limited time on the water (about 3 hours last night and 2 hours tonight). As everyone has already stated, smaller bass don't shy away from the 130 size at all... Caught numerous fish 1.5-2 lbs on it.  The lunker came tonight, at 3.6 lbs.. Nice fish. Sadly, I underestimated how far I could truly sling this 1.5oz bait, it wound up in a tree, and 17lb CXX wouldn't dislodge it... Very impressed with this lines breaking strength and abrasion resistant qualities, nothing that I could've done to the line while my bait was hung in the tree would broke the line... I got as close as I could to the snag and cut it.  Too bad it was a 17$ bait, but at least I know it works now.. I'll likely order a few more off of *** very soon ;).  

 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

i fished a deep woods remote pond yesterday. hiked 2 miles in beautiful clear clean cool water. lot of bait,shiners craws frogs and sunnies, no bass but my buddy hooked into a nice bow. the weather was hot sunny and calm so i think that may be the reason why the bass fishing was bad!  there has to be bass in here! we saw a ton of beds and good structure. water was deep to! 
headed back out next weekend with the yaks at sunrise!   i did go swimming in here! its a fantastic little oasis that i found!  cant wait to see whats in these waters!  my buddy caught a sunnie and i caught a shiner! 

we pond hoped around the area. looking for new spots! couple dink bass! so we decided to hit a pond my buddy and i know of with big bass! first cast on a live target field mouse i caught a 4lbser.  thats the end of the day for us yesterday! 

[MassYak85]

15 hours ago, Janderson45 said:

So I did pretty well with the whopper plopper last night and then again this evening... Throwing it towards weed edges seemed to be the most productive for me, all of my strikes came on a very slow retrieve, not at all what I was expecting.  I was fishing it fairly fast at first with no luck, then decide to fish it much slower, just retrieving it fast enough to make the prop/tail spin and create noise/commontion.  Caught probably 12 or so bass on it the past two nights in fairly limited time on the water (about 3 hours last night and 2 hours tonight). As everyone has already stated, smaller bass don't shy away from the 130 size at all... Caught numerous fish 1.5-2 lbs on it.  The lunker came tonight, at 3.6 lbs.. Nice fish. Sadly, I underestimated how far I could truly sling this 1.5oz bait, it wound up in a tree, and 17lb CXX wouldn't dislodge it... Very impressed with this lines breaking strength and abrasion resistant qualities, nothing that I could've done to the line while my bait was hung in the tree would broke the line... I got as close as I could to the snag and cut it.  Too bad it was a 17$ bait, but at least I know it works now.. I'll likely order a few more off of *** very soon ;).  

 

 

Glad to hear you had success with it, and yea that thing casts a mile. With 50lb braid I can completely spool my pro qualifier. And you aren't kidding about CXX, I snagged a savage gear swimbait from shore really early this year (20lb) on a deep rock, what a workout to get the line to break. I also snagged my whopper plopper in a tree a few days ago, made a hopeful cast parallel with shore, and it got caught on a branch. I decided this was one lure I would be willing to get wet for, so the shoes came off and I went and got it. 

 

Oh, and when I was at A1 on friday from shore, I saw the biggest snapper I have seen in my life. Started walking towards the water and I could see part of it's shell sticking up, he went down quick. It came back up about 30 feet from shore where I was standing a couple minutes later, must have been curious, but it's head had to have been comparable size to my fist.

[Jigfishn10]

17 hours ago, Janderson45 said:

So I did pretty well with the whopper plopper last night and then again this evening... Throwing it towards weed edges seemed to be the most productive for me, all of my strikes came on a very slow retrieve, not at all what I was expecting.  I was fishing it fairly fast at first with no luck, then decide to fish it much slower, just retrieving it fast enough to make the prop/tail spin and create noise/commontion.  Caught probably 12 or so bass on it the past two nights in fairly limited time on the water (about 3 hours last night and 2 hours tonight). As everyone has already stated, smaller bass don't shy away from the 130 size at all... Caught numerous fish 1.5-2 lbs on it.  The lunker came tonight, at 3.6 lbs.. Nice fish. Sadly, I underestimated how far I could truly sling this 1.5oz bait, it wound up in a tree, and 17lb CXX wouldn't dislodge it... Very impressed with this lines breaking strength and abrasion resistant qualities, nothing that I could've done to the line while my bait was hung in the tree would broke the line... I got as close as I could to the snag and cut it.  Too bad it was a 17$ bait, but at least I know it works now.. I'll likely order a few more off of *** very soon ;).  

 

 

Nice job, sounds like you had a couple of good outings. Good job, man.

I used the cxx and loved the strength it had, very surprised with that line. If I use a hybrid, I still like the C21 tho. I will admit that I switched to Power Pro Braid a couple of years ago and use it for most applications. Love it.

[Jigfishn10]

2 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Oh, and when I was at A1 on friday from shore, I saw the biggest snapper I have seen in my life. Started walking towards the water and I could see part of it's shell sticking up, he went down quick. It came back up about 30 feet from shore where I was standing a couple minutes later, must have been curious, but it's head had to have been comparable size to my fist.

Man, One year I hooked into one accidently in it's leg. I didn't know what I hooked into, it kept swimming down. I can't tell you what was going thru my head other than "FISH OF A LIFETIME!" 

After what seemed like a fish fight for the ages, my heart is pumping, my mind is racing and I finally see something coming to the surface. I'm like: "A fricken garbage can top?!?! I 'm fighting a fricken garbage can top?!?!" I reel in until the garbage can top is about 6 feet away and I see my hook attached to the leg. The head came out of the water and this garbage can top is p!$$ed!.

Now my heart starts pumping harder and mind starts racing for a different reason. I dig in my pocket to get a pocket knife to cut the line and for some reason, the jig dislodged from it leg. That thing swam away and sat down on a stump saying over and over, "there's no way something that big lives in this little pond."

[DogBone_384]

Fished Little Pond on Sunday while with the family. One dink and one 2-2. It was a strange day though.  While tossing my go to Zoom t-rig on a ML Villain/SupremeXT (more on that later) I got a tug-tug, so I set the hook. OK, I have something, but it's not putting up much of a fight and doesn't feel big, so I don't put a lot of effort into it.... When the fish gets close to the surface I see it's at least 3 or 4 pounds ... Because I didn't put much into it I didn't have a good hookset so the fish turned over, shook me loose and cruised on back down.  Had one more just like it late in the day on the south side of the pond.  I had two bass north of 4 pounds in March that fought similarly where the water temp was in the 40s, not high 70's....

Hit Ponkie around 7:00 tonight after work. Discovered a bad connection so no Lowrance; no biggie, I know it well enough, so off to my spot.  Got a dink on a 5" T-rigged swim Senko straight away and Perch picked the tails off my gourd green Zoom worms, just like the last few times here.  Switched to a bone colored Whopper Plopper (left the green/striped one in the truck) for a while but did nothing but weed removal. Landed a 2-1 late in the evening on the Zoom.  I parked my ML spinning rig and tried a green T-rigged Kreature for a bit but was having a tough time dragging it through the weeds so I reached back for my bag to get a Senko but as I did, the hook on the ML grabbed the bag (or visa-versa) and my Villian/SupremeXT dropped in the water and got away from me.  It was almost dark and as luck (read: poor planning) would have it I didn't have a flashlight to try to find my rig.  Total bummer, I hate that feeling of seeing a rod float downward away from you.  It happened a couple years ago with a Veritas, but I managed to grab that one.

It's been a tough year at Ponkie for my ML Abu Garcia spinning rods... Snapping one and losing another over board.  If I have time before work tomorrow afternoon I might go back to Ponkie and search for my rig.  Who knows, I might get lucky.

ADD: I got out for about an hour before work today (27 July) to look for my rig, hoping it landed at an angle, but for not.  Thanks for the well-wishes, it's part of the game.  

Edited July 28, 2016 by DogBone_384
searched for lost spinning rig

[Jigfishn10]

Sorry to hear that DogBone, I've never lost a rig in the water, but I snapped my fair share of rigs, 2 of which I built. It's an empty feeling for sure. Hope you find it.

[CavScoutA21]

My office is closed on Friday + the kids are in camps = a full morning of fishing!

I was planning on hitting the Charles River between the Hatch Shell and the Muddy River and was wondering if anyone has fished there recently.

Thanks!

[MassYak85]

That stinks dogbone, I hope you are able to find it though. When I was a little kid my dad chucked his entire baitcaster setup into Chauncy on a cast, slipped clean out of his hand and that was the last we saw of that. 

Funny story about that actually. That probably happened 10 years ago, but a few seasons ago while Ice Fishing we were talking to some guys next to us, exchanging stories, and they're telling us how one time their buddy managed to pull a bait casting setup out of the ice. I was thinking in my head "there's no way it could be...." right as my dad asks them "what lake was that on?"....as luck would have it, Chauncy. Same color rod (green), and the guy pulled it up in the same area my dad lost his. No guarantee it was the same one but I like to think it was. I also found 3 spinning setups bungied together off of that Island on A1 a couple years back, in probably only 3 feet of water. All three were toast and must have fallen off some guy's boat deck. Not sure why they didn't just get them they were so shallow. 

[JG233]

That sucks DB, sorry to hear it. 

I tried fishing the Keitsch Fat Impact thingy last time out. I got a couple fish on, but nothing epic. Fat IKA's and wacky rigged senkos outperformed it. I'm going to try it again next week, fishing it slower, off the bottom. The fish were energized on Monday. I caught one near the canoe that danced almost all the way into the boat. 

[Bass_Reapa]

My employer is moving sites to exit 41 off of Rte 93 in Burlington, MA. Anybody here know any good fishing holes close to this area that I can hit on the way in or out of work? There are a couple bodies of water, but not sure if there are any easy ways in/out or if one place has better fishing than the other. 

[Cyacnba]

5 hours ago, CavScoutA21 said:

My office is closed on Friday + the kids are in camps = a full morning of fishing!

I was planning on hitting the Charles River between the Hatch Shell and the Muddy River and was wondering if anyone has fished there recently.

Thanks!

I usually skip the Esplanade area during this time of the year, but the spot where the Muddy River meets the Charles River is one of my favorite places. When I went there last week, there were bunch of bait fish, and I caught a few bass on the whopper plopper. Also, on the Keitech tungsten football jig (black&blue), cabin creek spider jig, and Senko wacky rig. 

Btw, if you have anything that resembles an eel, it might work great. I've seen birds eating bunch of eels in that spot.

[CavScoutA21]

10 minutes ago, Cyacnba said:

I usually skip the Esplanade area during this time of the year, but the spot where the Muddy River meets the Charles River is one of my favorite places. When I went there last week, there were bunch of bait fish, and I caught a few bass on the whopper plopper. Also, on the Keitech tungsten football jig (black&blue), cabin creek spider jig, and Senko wacky rig. 

Btw, if you have anything that resembles an eel, it might work great. I've seen birds eating bunch of eels in that spot.

Thanks Cyacnba!

[Cyacnba]

1 hour ago, CavScoutA21 said:

Thanks Cyacnba!

No problem. 

Forgot to mention, try casting parallel to the wall. Bottom is hard with many "cracks/fissures", but hitting/bumping those spaces with jigs works great, especially when the water is still cold.