Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[DogBone_384]

I have no mojo.

 

Even the day you and I fished together you out fished me at least 3:1.

 

Some guys have the touch. I don't.

 

We launched @ area 3, don't know what gate.

[Janderson45]

32 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

I have no mojo.

 

Even the day you and I fished together you out fished me at least 3:1.

 

Some guys have the touch. I don't.

 

We launched @ area 3, don't know what gate.

 

Dont let it shake your confidence, everyone has off days and I'm sure Tom has been fishing for quite a bit more of his lifetime than you have?  Just keep putting in the time and try to learn something new each time out if you can, sometimes you end up learning what doesn't work or what not to do if you're not catching fish, but those days are important too.  Eventually something just clicks on a given body of water and then every time out you've got the confidence that you can go and catch fish.  The quabbin happens to be one that has "clicked" for me over the past couple of seasons, but I've got plenty of other bodies of water that I'm still struggling to figure out.  

 

If we ever end up organizing a bassresource day out there i would be happy to show you or whoever else what I do and what works well for me out there... even if we don't I can try to take some pictures/video of my rigging and equipment tonight and tomorrow and post them on here or PM you.

 

Anyways- good luck, hopefully you'll get a few good bites with the remainder of the afternoon!

[DogBone_384]

There's no confidence to shake.

 

There are things I'm good at and some I'm not.

 

Just how it is.

[je1946]

7 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

There's no confidence to shake.

 

There are things I'm god at and some I'm not.

 

Just how it is.

Never give up......NEVER

[grampa1114]

 

1 hour ago, DogBone_384 said:

There's no confidence to shake.

 

There are things I'm god at and some I'm not.

 

Just how it is.

 

Dogbone you aren't the first member to be outfished by the Fishing Rhino. It is sort of a right of passage. Do yourself a favor and use the time you fish with him as Schooling. You will profit from it and become better for it. Then take him to Wallum. He's been my favorite fishing partner for a long time.

[JG233]

He usually outfishes me too. I've been keeping up with him this year.

 

Mostly by stealing all his tactics and adding a few of my own (chatterbait). 

[DogBone_384]

I know.  I keep an eye on what he's doing....  

 

I CAN say I got big SMB of the day once at Great Herring and I think I got him at one of his local ponds with a little gold square bill.

 

Thanks for the good words.

[Mr. Aquarium]

keep ya head up dude! i used to be like that to man!! 

im headed to the canal tonight when i get out of work at 11 pm!  i havent caught a fish there in years! thats one place i have zero confidence in. im really really praying for one fish tonight! l even used holy water and prayed.  i dont even care if its 15 inch striper! i NEED ONE JUST ONE!!! AHHHHHH it kills me.  im a decent fishermen, not good but decent, and to always get skunked at place kills me!!  REVERSE THE CURSE!! 

[Fishing Rhino]

I was going to put on my hat to work in the yard, but it's too small.

[Janderson45]

Up two hours earlier on Saturday AM than I have been for work all week... some people think we be crazy... but this is what it's all about!  ?

 

Them brown fish be callin 

[Fishing Rhino]

15 hours ago, grampa1114 said:

 

 

Dogbone you aren't the first member to be outfished by the Fishing Rhino. It is sort of a right of passage. Do yourself a favor and use the time you fish with him as Schooling. You will profit from it and become better for it. Then take him to Wallum. He's been my favorite fishing partner for a long time.

 

Let me tell you about Grampa, and be forewarned.  When he says, "I fished there once, but it was a long time ago", means he knows the place like the back of his hand.  

 

We used to have a "friendly" competition when we fished together.  There was no need for a ruler, a scale, or a calculator to keep track of the score.  It was simple, but could get complicated at times, to keep score.  We called it, The Al Lindner competition.  The winner was the fisherman who caught the most species.  Usually, it included largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, pickerel, bluegills, crappie, and to a lesser degree, rock bass, trout, salmon, etc.  Varieties of sunfish other than bluegills were also fair game.

 

Grampa won over ninety percent of those competitions, thanks to his trusty, tiny, Lunker City sluggos.  Don't be fooled, those tiny sluggos also caught some lunkers as well.

 

The competition could get spirited, and disputes often arose as to whether mussels (shellFISH) counted.  Did snagged waterfowl count?  You get the picture.  Those issues were usually determined by the captain's word is law.  To dispute that constituted mutiny.  So, the owner of the boat we were fishing from had a distinct advantage.

 

Speaking of rock bass, my first fish yesterday was a rock bass.  Grampa introduced me to rock bass at Lake Quinsigamond.

 

Yesterday started off badly.  I hit a deer on Hell Huddle Road, about five miles from the reservoir.  It was on one of the hilly winding stretches of the road.  I was only going about twenty five miles per hour.

 

I rounded a sharp bend and the deer was grazing on the side of the road.  It bolted directly in front of me.  It was impossible to avoid it.  The right front corner of the truck knocked the deer off to the right.  It got up, staggered a bit, so I kept going.  This was just before daylight, so I wasn't going to go knocking on anyone's door.

 

The only damage to the truck was that the impact broke the clear plastic shell on the headlight assembly.

 

Heck of a way to start the day.

[DogBone_384]

...hhhmmmm.  .....   rules ... boat captain ..... how do I convince with boss (wife) into a boat .... hhhmmmm.  ...   

 

 

[je1946]

15 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

...hhhmmmm.  .....   rules ... boat captain ..... how do I convince with boss (wife) into a boat .... hhhmmmm.  ...   

 

 

You looking for a Q boat???

[DogBone_384]

No. No boat for a little while. I just bought a new truck.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Out of work at 11 pm! Fished 12am to 8 am 

met up with buddies at 4. Broke my 7 year curse! Felt so d**n good! 

Going back at 2 am tomorrow 

[Janderson45]

21 hours ago, je1946 said:

You looking for a Q boat???

 

I've been snooping around the used market for something cheap and quabbin oriented.   I've got a friend that lives out near the quabbin that's been keeping an eye out for used boats out of the Champlain area for me.

 

speaking of Champlain, I've got a tournament up there in 2 weeks!

 

Quabbin was tough on us yesterday as well @DogBone_384 ; boated 9 fish total, biggest was only about 2.5lbs.  

 

About as poorly as I've done out there in past 2 years I think.  Back to back slow trips for me out there.  Won't be able to fish it for about a month now so hopefully by the time I go back I'll have better luck.  I got 3smb on a dropshot, 2 on a jig, 1 on a c-rig.  Partner got 1lmb on a spook, 2SMB on a ned rig.  

 

I found tons of bait in certain areas but the bass either weren't around or certainly weren't feeding heavily on the bait.  Couple spots we pulled up to I thought for sure we'd be catching schooling smallies; bait was there but the bass weren't nearly as aggressive as they typically are in my experience.  Getting over schools of bass and bait, vertically fishing a dropshot... they were completely ignoring it.  Tried various leader sizes and bait/color selections and none of it seemed to make a difference.  

 

I may may get out in the yak this afternoon somewhere by me, nippenicket sabattia winnecuneit .. it's hot though and I'm sunburnt  

[KenP]

On 7/12/2017 at 10:45 PM, MassYak85 said:

 

As a matter of fact, this showed up in the mail today

 

Along with this because my other rod isn't up to the task, now I just need a reel (I've pretty much already decided on the Lexa300H but I want to try and find a deal). I don't plan on using this until I get back to Mass. If I can't figure out the fish on normal jigs and worms I don't think it's worth my time to go chucking hudds at them in 90 degree VA chocolate milk. 

 

I'll write this whole setup off as an early birthday present to myself. And in hindsight this statement usually doesn't hold up but I think once I get this setup up and running with a few baits I won't be buying much gear for a while. 

 

Nice man its definitely a game of its own. I had a few hits but no takers on the "8 rainbow rof 16 yesterday morning. Checkout some of the other soft plastic baits from osprey, rago, 3:16, and savage gear that won't break the bank. It's a lot of fun and you will feel it in your shoulder for a few days  

[DogBone_384]

Kayak's on the truck and I'm not working tomorrow. Don't know where I'm going yet, but it'll be somewhere....

 

Somewhere turned out to be Ponkie in the morning and Hedges in the evening.

 

Launched at Ponkie around 7:30 and stayed until 11:00.  I landed a few little ones and three in the 1-5 range.  They all came on a 'generic' brand twin tail grub on a 1/8 oz. Keitech jig head. Something BIG hit it, assumably a Pickerel, because it chewed straight through my braid.

 

Didn't get on the water at Hedges until after 6:30.  There were two accidents in addition to regular afternoon traffic.  It was worth it though, with four good SMB, one little one, and a nice fat yellow Perch.  I can only count 1 SMB, the other fish came close, but never made it into my kayak. All came on blade baits.  I started with a 3/4 oz gold Binsky in roughly 17 - 20' of water.  One of the good sized smallies hit it like a truck and spit it while coming out of the water by a foot or more, which, itself was worth the drive to Plymouth.  Another SMB is wearing that gold Binsky beacuse my braid/fluoro knot failed as I was reaching for it (forgot net ?).  I hope it can shake it loose.

 

Water temps at both locales was 81.x.

Edited July 20, 2017 by DogBone_384

[JG233]

On Tuesday I hit up the Quabbin with Rhino. We were the first ones in line and the first on the water. Things started very very slow. We didn't catch anything for the first few hours. It was overcast and little rainy--perfect fishing weather, but they wouldn't cooperate.

 

Slowly we began catching very small SMB, all under 1.5 lbs. Rhino probably boated 15 of them. Then I hooked up with what looked to be a huge SMB, maybe 3 or 4 lbs. I got a good hookset and it started pulling drag immediately. Of course it then jumped and spit my hook. I groaned and put my head down on the side of the boat. Nothing was working except for a wacky worm. We changed spots a few times, to no avail. We changed baits innumerable times, no bites. 

Things finally got quite interesting in the last few hours of day. I switched over to the Fat Ika and immediately caught a decent SMB. A little while later I caught a big one, maybe 3.5 lbs. I really struggled to get him in the boat. It took forever to tire him out and coax him into the net--hell of a fight with me swearing most of the time--especially after losing a big one already. 

Rhino caught 2 great big SMB after that. The larger one looked to be well over 4+ lbs. We got a picture, but it doesn't do the fish justice. Below is a pic of my big one. His was quite a bit bigger. 

Overall, a great day, albeit a long one. I'm glad we hung in there. We were on the water until maybe 3:30. I also caught a wicked sunburn because my UV shirts were all dirty. No fight to that fish.

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

On 7/18/2017 at 10:04 PM, DogBone_384 said:

Kayak's on the truck and I'm not working tomorrow. Don't know where I'm going yet, but it'll be somewhere....

 

Somewhere turned out to be Ponkie in the morning and Hedges in the evening.

 

Launched at Ponkie around 7:30 and stayed until 11:00.  I landed a few little ones and three in the 1-5 range.  They all came on a 'generic' brand twin tail grub on a 1/8 oz. Keitech jig head. Something BIG hit it, assumably a Pickerel, because it chewed straight through my braid.

 

Didn't get on the water at Hedges until after 6:30.  There were two accidents in addition to regular afternoon traffic.  It was worth it though, with four good SMB, one little one, and a nice fat yellow Perch.  I can only count 1 SMB, the other fish came close, but never made it into my kayak. All came on blade baits.  I started with a 3/4 oz gold Binsky in roughly 17 - 20' of water.  One of the good sized smallies hit it like a truck and spit it while coming out of the water by a foot or more, which, itself was worth the drive to Plymouth.  Another SMB is wearing that gold Binsky beacuse my braid/fluoro knot failed as I was reaching for it (forgot net ?).  I hope it can shake it loose.

 

Water temps at both locales was 81.x.

81 holy crap!  i lost a good smallie there few weeks ago at night! 

[MassYak85]

Well sorry for the confusion lately but I'm back now.

 

 

I'm about ready to throw in the towel on these Virginia Bass man, it's been roooouuuugh. Apparently there's some trophy bluegill fishing down here and I'm half tempted to take my ML dropshot rod and go for some of those. 

[CTBassin860]

12 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

Well sorry for the confusion lately but I'm back now.

 

 

I'm about ready to throw in the towel on these Virginia Bass man, it's been roooouuuugh. Apparently there's some trophy bluegill fishing down here and I'm half tempted to take my ML dropshot rod and go for some of those. 

Is it really that bad?

[grampa1114]

13 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Well sorry for the confusion lately but I'm back now.

 

 

I'm about ready to throw in the towel on these Virginia Bass man, it's been roooouuuugh. Apparently there's some trophy bluegill fishing down here and I'm half tempted to take my ML dropshot rod and go for some of those. 

Calm down Yak...I had the same problems when I got to SC. Go to 10' off the steepest banks and bounce 4"-6" Watermelon Shaky heads down the banks. If you see rising baitfish, throw a shad crankbait under them. Works here in 87deg regular coffee colored water. JMHO Good luck.

[je1946]

14 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Well sorry for the confusion lately but I'm back now.

 

 

I'm about ready to throw in the towel on these Virginia Bass man, it's been roooouuuugh. Apparently there's some trophy bluegill fishing down here and I'm half tempted to take my ML dropshot rod and go for some of those. 

Bass have no problem eating those blue gill, perhaps you should throw something in a blue gill pattern.

[MassYak85]

21 hours ago, MassBassin508 said:

Is it really that bad?

Let's put it this way. I've had better luck fishing drainage ditches in the middle of downtown than in any of the major reservoirs. And by better luck I mean I caught two fish each time...

 

8 hours ago, grampa1114 said:

Calm down Yak...I had the same problems when I got to SC. Go to 10' off the steepest banks and bounce 4"-6" Watermelon Shaky heads down the banks. If you see rising baitfish, throw a shad crankbait under them. Works here in 87deg regular coffee colored water. JMHO Good luck.

That was the thing, I was using a chartreuse tipped roboworm on a shakeyhead and the only bites I got were bluegills eating the last 2 inches of the tail. I've had one fish on a shad crank after it deflected off a rock but it was a dink. I've seen plenty of small shad jumping and I've tried flukes without much luck. I'll try your tip with the steeper banks though. 

 

7 hours ago, je1946 said:

Bass have no problem eating those blue gill, perhaps you should throw something in a blue gill pattern.

Problem is most of the lakes I'm fishing have a foot of visibility if you're lucky. Anything that isn't bright or pitch black disappears from sight before you can say "1" on the fall. It's definitely a different world than up north.