Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Derek1]

21 hours ago, Peter Logee said:

Alright you guys need to help me out. Just stumbled across this page today, glad to find something relevant to what I'm doing rather than hearing random pros talk about the bite in Texas or something. 

 

Anyways, I've had bad luck this year. I have a kayak, but haven't taken it out yet cause it's kind of a pain in the ass to move around and I feel like its not worth the effort when the fishing isn't quite peak yet. So, a summary of my situation is that I am on foot (somewhat), located north of Boston (Andover), and can't catch anything. 

 

So far I've mostly been using crankbaits, ratltraps, jigs, and various finesse things. Nothing really seems to be working. I know its probably super broad to make any real assessment but if anyone has any reasonable advice for my situation it would be much appreciated. Once things warm up and school slows down I'll be much more kayak friendly but for the time being I'm pretty landlocked. From what I've gathered (at least from dinks and dunks) ned rigs and jerkbaits seem to be the ticket this time of year. If anyone has any advice or tactics for me to break this historic slump, or some great spots near me that you've had success at, it would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Good luck everyone!

I’m in Haverhill not to far from you, and also fish from the bank. I’ve got almost  all my fish so far on a 1/2 ounce zman Spinnerbait in blue gill. Slow rolling it on bottom. A light t rigged rage craw always gets a couple. 

[Peter Logee]

1 hour ago, Derek1 said:

I’m in Haverhill not to far from you, and also fish from the bank. I’ve got almost  all my fish so far on a 1/2 ounce zman Spinnerbait in blue gill. Slow rolling it on bottom. A light t rigged rage craw always gets a couple. 

Never really had much luck with craw baits, at least where I’m at. I swim somewhat regularly at 2 of the places I fish and I’ve never seen a craw in the water, but maybe I just haven’t fished them enough. I know part of creature/craw baits is partially a reaction thing and not just mimicking a specific prey. 

[MassYak85]

A lot of those T-rig baits and jigs can also mimic bluegill fairly well. And tbh sometimes I don't think it matters if it looks alive and the bass are willing to eat. Pretty much every pond should have crawfish though, they like to hand around rocky areas if the pond has any. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

Snuck out of "remote" work early yesterday to hit the home lake with some decent results: got a pair of 2.8lb and 3.5lb smallies in 2hrs and jumped off another decent one. The smaller of the two came on a ned rig directly under the boat "video-game" fishing in 22-24ft, while the bigger specimen crushed a finesse swim-bait crawled off a ledge in 15-17ft (chartrz-white). The big smallie also coughed up what looked to be a 5" alewive (or digested perch) so i guess the 3.25 inch bait i was tossing was just dessert. Water temps keep creeping ever so slightly higher despite the relatively stable air temps of late (longer photo-period helps), with the highest i saw yday at 49.7 .

[LadiMopar]

Hey guys!

Hope everyone is safe and healthy as we work through this difficult time.

 

Looking for a little encouragement tonight as I get ready for my first tournament of the year tomorrow....If any of you have a magic weather wand and can keep the 3-5 inches of snow away in the morning I'd be most grateful. 

 

Trailer, truck and yak are locked and loaded so I have one less excuse in the morning to stay inside warm and dry....right now I'm just thinking I've lost what's left of my feeble mind.

[DogBone_384]

3-5”... should be a cake-walk for your Ram!  Dress warm, pack your best rain gear, tie on a jerk bait, square bill, and Keitech and catch a limit bag!

 

Best of luck

[LadiMopar]

52 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

3-5”... should be a cake-walk for your Ram!  Dress warm, pack your best rain gear, tie on a jerk bait, square bill, and Keitech and catch a limit bag!

 

Best of luck

 

Not even thinking about the big bad RAM having an issue, but cleaning a half foot of snow off the yak will be a new experience for the fishing journal ? Hopefully it falls right off the cover with as little work as possible...got my Thermos out for hot tea, hand/foot warmers packed, and my Realtree bibs dug out again! (Didn't I just put those away for the season?)

 

Thanks for pep talk, will post pics tomorrow after I thaw out. ?❄?❄?

[DogBone_384]

12 minutes ago, LadiMopar said:

cleaning a half foot of snow off the yak

If you don’t have a garage to back the kayak into, do you have a tarp to cover it?

[LadiMopar]

24 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

If you don’t have a garage to back the kayak into, do you have a tarp to cover it?

 

No garage, but it does have a cover. Just put on the new fair weather kayak cover(easy on/off elastic draw string type) and put the heavy, fully zipped winter cover away.

 

Maybe I jinxed myself by thinking old man winter was done with us! ?

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, LadiMopar said:

Hey guys!

Hope everyone is safe and healthy as we work through this difficult time.

 

Looking for a little encouragement tonight as I get ready for my first tournament of the year tomorrow....If any of you have a magic weather wand and can keep the 3-5 inches of snow away in the morning I'd be most grateful. 

 

Trailer, truck and yak are locked and loaded so I have one less excuse in the morning to stay inside warm and dry....right now I'm just thinking I've lost what's left of my feeble mind.

Online tournament I assume? I'm gonna try and get out up here in my Yak in VT, although surprisingly we're supposed to get less snow. Although I would LOVE to catch bass with snow on the trees. 

[DogBone_384]

14 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

Online tournament I assume?

Luckily, our Governor’s not shut down fishing.  Groups of 10+ might be an issue, but all waters are open as far as I know.

[MassYak85]

31 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

Luckily, our Governor’s not shut down fishing.  Groups of 10+ might be an issue, but all waters are open as far as I know.

I thought I saw that all scheduled events for lakes were closed? I know the ramps are open but I thought they weren't allowing in person tournaments? 

[LadiMopar]

3 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

I thought I saw that all scheduled events for lakes were closed? I know the ramps are open but I thought they weren't allowing in person tournaments? 

 

NEBassin Central MA trail is doing an online, "open" tournament through TourneyX this time. Six lakes to pick from, so there won't be issues of more than 10 people gathering at any one ramp.

Will let you know if catching bass in the snow is as magical as it sounds. ?❄?

[DogBone_384]

... waiting for LadiMopar to report on her tournament ... was it an ice fishing tourney or not?

[Ratherbefishing75]

I’ve been driving around to different boat ramps and none of them have been closed off  so I’m taking my sun out fishing tomorrow hoping to hit a couple ponds thinking of starting at Wompatuck pond in Hanson and might make my way to the nip in bridgewater hope that will be Biteing Tomorrow 

[je1946]

3 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

... waiting for LadiMopar to report on her tournament ... was it an ice fishing tourney or not?

I've been checking all day as well as to a report. lol

[BKFoley]

Just new to this, this is very helpful.  I thought I'd just add somwthing:

 

I fished a local pond near Foxboro, a day before the snow we just had .  Muddy bottom pond some reeds on the shoreline, was able to reel in two largies one on a Lipless in a green color and one on a Baby Boy 2" (Crankbait) in a bluegill colorway, both basically parallel with the bank about 20-30 yards off shore. 

 

 

[MassYak85]

Welcome to the forum! Lipless baits are always a solid choice this time of year. 

[DogBone_384]

It was a little windy to launch my kayak, so I took a M/C ride to recon some local waters.  I found a new spot, which I think is Mill Pond in Cohasset/Scituate off 3A.  It looks small and has a nice easy launch.  Mr. Aquarium might know more on the subject (hint hint... Mike).

Hedges Pond's gates are locked and there's a notice from the town that all amenities/facilities are closed because of the Covid-19 risk, and when I rode by Great Herring, it looked more like the Atlantic Ocean.

 

 

15 hours ago, BKFoley said:

Just new to this, this is very helpful

Thanks for the input and welcome to the forum.

[Dunks N Dinks]

A buddy and I battened down the hatches, only took the essentials (hot pockets and bud light), and fished Long Pond in what turned out to be nearly gale-force westerly winds yesterday. Thankfully we did most of our damage before it got too ugly to traverse the main-lake, and my recently replaced trolling motor batteries (2x 31group blue tops) performed well, allowing us to lock down and make repetitive casts upwind. With water temps backing off the 50 mark amid the recent cold-front down here (back to 47-48), the pre-spawn pattern was pretty text-book; main-lake points and inside turns, fish a bit deeper in the morning, rising shallower as the day went on. With a healthy chop on the water and quite a bit of bait getting blown around the bite was decent, as we went 10 for 12 in 5hrs, adding up to one of the better limits i've put together here in the last few years (around 17lbs and change). My buddy caught his PB smallie at 4.4 and i got a 4.2lb chonker.  

[DogBone_384]

11 hours ago, Dunks N Dinks said:

we went 10 for 12 in 5hrs, adding up to one of the better limits i've put together here in the last few years

Congratulations on a great outing, despite the wind!

 

It beats the heck out of my 4+ hours at Ponkapog today where I managed a single dink pickerel on a desperation cast with a wacky rigged Senko on the way back to my truck.  The wind was 6-8 mph from the north, water temps 50.x, and air pressure was 29.6.

 

For sure I've got to hit the lottery and move to the Cape!

[Saltysmalljaws]

On 4/20/2020 at 6:47 AM, Dunks N Dinks said:

A buddy and I battened down the hatches, only took the essentials (hot pockets and bud light), and fished Long Pond in what turned out to be nearly gale-force westerly winds yesterday. Thankfully we did most of our damage before it got too ugly to traverse the main-lake, and my recently replaced trolling motor batteries (2x 31group blue tops) performed well, allowing us to lock down and make repetitive casts upwind. With water temps backing off the 50 mark amid the recent cold-front down here (back to 47-48), the pre-spawn pattern was pretty text-book; main-lake points and inside turns, fish a bit deeper in the morning, rising shallower as the day went on. With a healthy chop on the water and quite a bit of bait getting blown around the bite was decent, as we went 10 for 12 in 5hrs, adding up to one of the better limits i've put together here in the last few years (around 17lbs and change). My buddy caught his PB smallie at 4.4 and i got a 4.2lb chonker.  

@Dunks N Dinks seems you live very close to me and you also have the bronze back bug. I’d love to chat and pick your brain. My two daughters are out of school. I’m home with them so haven’t gotten out on my tiny boat lately. For a character reference ask @DogBone_384 haha

[Dunks N Dinks]

sure thing Salty, shoot me a PM

[DogBone_384]

9 hours ago, Saltysmalljaws said:

For a character reference ask @DogBone_384 haha

I'll vouch for Salty ... he's an encyclopedia of fishing and a genuinely nice guy.  I fished two or three days with him in March in 'your' neighborhood and he very graciously shared his knowledge and taught me a bunch about electronics.  He's very skilled with a jerk bait too...

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC Update: Pond Hoppin'
Fished Cliffs Saturday morning from 8 to 11, post-frontal calm and bluebird skies made for a slow session, only 3 smallies to show for it (biggest ~3lbs) on finesse plastics. 

 

Decided to make an afternoon move to Wequaq, which turned out a little better as the wind picked up and sun peaked out for a few hours. Water temps were just above 50 in the calmer pockets, but we found 5-6 smallmouth on windblown banks with jerkbaits and a few largemouths hiding under docks in bearses pond with jigs. 

 

Really hoping the weather turns here in the next few days...we could be looking at a wave of smallies moving shallow under the right conditions....Full moon may 7th