Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[DogBone_384]

I fished Ponkapog yesterday, from about 10:00 to roughly 2:00 PM, beating the rain we're supposed to get.  I was a grind, but I finally bagged a small LMB and equally small pickerel around 1:00 on a T-rigged black/blue 4" Keitech Swing Impact along the east shore.  Everything else I threw, Keitech's w/underspins, chatter bait, square bill, jerk bait, and Yamamoto Kut tail, brought up nothing but weeds.

 

Water temps were 49.x - 50.x, winds came from the east at 6 - 8 mph, and the air pressure was 30.1 (falling).

 

Ponkie's been tough so far this year, but it matches my April 2017 - 2019 around the Boston area.  I dunno where the LMB are around here, but I'll  keep at it.  Maybe it's time to break out a white spinner bait... 

[Saltysmalljaws]

Fished for smallmouth on Saturday 51 water temp. Not a sniff until the wind picked up. One just under 4 and 3 under 3 lbs. Deep diving jerkbaits and blades did the damage.

Went shallow Sunday amidst the rain and wind and the largemouth were up and feeding. Water temps topped out at 54. Chatterbaits and jigs flipped into emergent lily pads, bull rush, and lay downs was the deal. 4 out of 9 Larry’s were females with bellies full of eggs. Marked a lot of good fish offshore but they did not want to cooperate. We should see waves coming shallow if we can get some warmer, stable weather.

[Chris186]

You guys are lucky to live near/on the cape, it’s my favorite place to fish. Unfortunately it’s over an hour ride so I don’t get down there as much as I would like. Up here the fish haven’t really been to cooperative, water temps still in the high 40s.

[DogBone_384]

4 hours ago, Chris186 said:

You guys are lucky to live near/on the cape

They sure are.  I live just outside of Boston and have only a few decent ponds to fish.  Like you, I'm experiencing some tough local fishing but did well on the Cape in March.

 

I guess that's the reason my '17 Tundra has 41K on it already!

 

ADD: I just looked at MA's website regarding the Quabbin.  It's open for shoreline fishing and boat opening day is 'postponed' until May 9th (hopefully).

[je1946]

22 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

They sure are.  I live just outside of Boston and have only a few decent ponds to fish.  Like you, I'm experiencing some tough local fishing but did well on the Cape in March.

 

I guess that's the reason my '17 Tundra has 41K on it already!

 

ADD: I just looked at MA's website regarding the Quabbin.  It's open for shoreline fishing and boat opening day is 'postponed' until May 9th (hopefully).

Hoping I'm wrong, but with our Governor extending the shutdown for another 2wks I'll be surprised if the Q will open on the 9th.

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, je1946 said:

Hoping I'm wrong, but with our Governor extending the shutdown for another 2wks I'll be surprised if the Q will open on the 9th.

Yea I was hoping to come down around memorial day for the week, visit some family and get in on some spawning action but that doesn't look too likely at the moment. Fingers crossed but mentally preparing for this to drag on for a bit.  

[DogBone_384]

According to MA's website, there are SMB in Lake Massapoag, in Sharon, MA. (https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2018/02/01/Lake_Massapoag.pdf).  It's about 1/2 hour from home, so I went SMB hunting from 3:00 to 6:30 pm.  It's BIG, at 392 acres, and is a lot for a kayak.  Luckily the wind blown shores were north and west, so that's where I began.

 

I started by tossing big and small Keitech's on underspins, a Rapala jointed Shad Rap, Lucky Craft jerk bait, and a black/blue chatterbait (I left my box of lipless cranks at home ?). I worked the N & W shores from 18' - 3', marking most fish in the 16' range and came up with a 1 3/4 pound pickerel on a black 2.8" Keitech, in 8' of water near a floating dock after almost 3 hours.  I also pulled up some bright green vegetation in the flat, shallow areas in the western cove.  Maybe a jig, LV500, and tube next time?

 

Water temps were 50.x - 52.x along the N & W shores and 48.x on the east shallows where I caught the pickerel.  Wind was light from the east and the air pressure was 30.3.

 

Massapoag looks like a good lake, with a cement ramp and parking lot for 4-6 trailers.  It's posted with a 60 HP limit.  I found the water kind of dark (though it was mostly cloudy this afternoon), like Wampatuck State Park, but the two waters couldn't be any different.  I spoke to a couple locals.  One said there were SMB here, and another didn't know.

[Dunks N Dinks]

@Saltysmalljaws and I finally teamed up for an afternoon session on Long Pond. Conditions were pretty solid (decent west wind putting some chop out, 50 degree water and air) but with a limited time to fish I don't think we really narrowed down on a single presentation. In fact, at least 4 fish came on 4 different baits. That being said, we did find quite a bit of congregated bait (see below) on a long sloping point, and the bass were definitely in the neighborhood. Anyway, Salty came firing out of the gates with a solid ~3lb smallie on the first cast (possibly bad luck?) on an under-spin. I followed that up with a smallie on a ned rig off a ML point. Then salty gave another solid smallie a neon jerk-bait root canal, and i nabbed a chunky largemouth on a tube. No fireworks, but the next couple weeks do look to be setting up for some. 

[JAB50]

Anybody make it out today on the Cape. My son and I fished Long Pond, Yarmouth. He caught one on a ned. I got skunked. Had two follows and two quick hits on a jig. I’ll be fishing down here till probably Friday 05/08. If anybody wants to PM me some advice, I’d greatly appreciate it. Trying to put a pattern together. I can’t tell if they are getting ready to spawn or on beds. Every lake and pond is different down here when it comes to that. I’m fishing the smaller bodies of water too. In a 12’ aluminum.

[Frezzy]

What color Ned do you guys like for smallies in MA?

[BR1AN]

Pretty pumped just landed my first ever shad almost lost it to! When i brought it to shore it came off and i am standing on like a 10ft ledge. Let me tell ya, i am muddy but i needed that picture or it doesn't count  It smashed a 3/4oz red eye shad (Sexy Shad) was fishing for smallies or really anything. When i saw that silver i was like damnnnn. I wish i could of cleaned off the leaves for a better photo but i wasn't getting down to the water and back up. 

[JAB50]

Ned colors has been green pumpkin, black and blue flake.

[MassYak85]

Shad are underrated, they fight like hell and are challenging to catch with their paper thin mouths. I've hooked up with some on ultralight gear in the CT River and it's a blast. Not as fun as the stripers chasing them but I'll still take em! 

[BR1AN]

10 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Shad are underrated, they fight like hell and are challenging to catch with their paper thin mouths. I've hooked up with some on ultralight gear in the CT River and it's a blast. Not as fun as the stripers chasing them but I'll still take em! 

Yeah it hit like hell and put up a great fight. very lively off the hook as well lol.

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC Bassin' Update: Almost on the Dance-floor

 

On Friday, @Saltysmalljaws and I took a few hours after work to hit up a small kettle-hole on the upper-cape that has quite a reputation as a herring-run monster pit. I think we did hit it just a bit too early (season/temp-wise ~52 degrees), BUT we did get a little taste of what could go down there. Right after we launched, I marked a few big arches on the electronics, and as soon as I flipped a jig out in front of the boat, my rod bowed and I was in a vicious fight for maybe 5-6 seconds before i became disconnected. ticked off, I flipped out again with a ned rig and hooked up AGAIN and this time we managed to boat a chunky 4.25lber that took my finesse setup for a nice joyride. Over the next few hours, we only got 2-3 more bass, but there was a ton of herring/bait activity and everything was moving towards the bank as the sunlight waned (muskrats and turkeys included). We also had some huge picks on swimbaits around sunset, but no larrys. 

 

On Saturday, I hit up sheeps in the morning and had a decent session. All smallies for a buddy and I, mostly in textbook pre-spawn locales (points and boulder-strewn flats 5-8ft). Temps down here are creeping up for sure, 51-53 depending on the area, with jerkbaits and tubes the ticket. We probably whacked 8-9 fish before calling it around 1pm, biggest around 3lbs, with another 3-4 rainbow/lake trout a-piece as well (on in-line spinners). 

 

Yesterday, I went to Peters Pond for the first time in a long time, and the smallies were right where I left them about 3 springs ago lol. With the wind rippin out of the southwest, my buddy and i sat right behind a few northern-facing wind-blocking points and fired out into the deep and crawled jigs back up adjacent to the wind. While the action wasn't super consistent, we had a few nice little spurts of 2-3 fish whenever a wave of them would push up onto the points. We really dialed in the presentation once we found a few craws in the live-well too (see below). Most of our bites were in 8-9ft but they definitely got shallower as the day wore on....all signs pointing to a pretty imminent smallie spawn down here. 

[DogBone_384]

On 5/3/2020 at 11:32 AM, BR1AN said:

just landed my first ever shad

Congrats on catching another breed.  Good to see you posting again.  

[DogBone_384]

11 hours ago, Dunks N Dinks said:

as soon as I flipped a jig out in front of the boat, my rod bowed and I was in a vicious fight

I wonder if I could transfer to any of the Fire Departments down there !?!?!?!

[MassYak85]

@Dunks N Dinks That's a nice handful of outings! Still early for spawning up where I am.

 

Do you guys think the Full moon this week will get it going down there or will the cold front they're forecasting outweigh it and delay things? 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Finally broke the 2 year slump. Haven’t caught a 5lbs bass In 2 years almost to the date. Same exact spot as the last fish, (6.13 on a slammer). Fish was 5.9.  Caught it on a real prey. A 3.6 on the same RP and a 3.3 on a Matt’s shad. Had a few good whacks. Had a big fish spit on the jump! 

[Chris186]

Well I guess I won’t be fishing the cape anytime soon. Apparently there is a memo on the FBA website saying as if April 27th only Mass residents can use Mass boat ramps. I live on the Mass RI line, so it’s cool if I go to Home Depot in Seekonk and be around 100 people, but I can’t use a boat ramp where I most likely won’t be near anyone? 

[je1946]

6 hours ago, Chris186 said:

Well I guess I won’t be fishing the cape anytime soon. Apparently there is a memo on the FBA website saying as if April 27th only Mass residents can use Mass boat ramps. I live on the Mass RI line, so it’s cool if I go to Home Depot in Seekonk and be around 100 people, but I can’t use a boat ramp where I most likely won’t be near anyone? 

I fish Maine and they won't let me in there.  Is RI allowing Ma residents into their state?

[Chris186]

1 hour ago, je1946 said:

I fish Maine and they won't let me in there.  Is RI allowing Ma residents into their state?

They aren’t, but who the hell wants to fish in R.I.? ?

[ne_dan]

8 hours ago, Chris186 said:

Well I guess I won’t be fishing the cape anytime soon. Apparently there is a memo on the FBA website saying as if April 27th only Mass residents can use Mass boat ramps. I live on the Mass RI line, so it’s cool if I go to Home Depot in Seekonk and be around 100 people, but I can’t use a boat ramp where I most likely won’t be near anyone? 

I feel your pain.  I live on the border of RI/MA in the Northeast corner of RI.  I was planning on buying a new boat this spring but it’s not even worth it now that we can’t launch anywhere outside of the state. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

5 hours ago, je1946 said:

I fish Maine and they won't let me in there.  Is RI allowing Ma residents into their state?

RI is stopping people from out of state, they’ll pull you over if you got a Ma plate 

[Chris186]

4 hours ago, ne_dan said:

I feel your pain.  I live on the border of RI/MA in the Northeast corner of RI.  I was planning on buying a new boat this spring but it’s not even worth it now that we can’t launch anywhere outside of the state. 

Yeah, you can still fish in CT from out of state, but then that’s another $55 license and at least an hour travel time. Massachusetts didn’t seem to have a problem taking my money for a license and a Fall River boat ramp parking permit ?