Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[bass.slayer69]

4 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

I fished a private pond in Chadham and Hinckley’s in Brewster today.  Water temps were 40.x at both ponds.  The weather was cold in the morning but warmed up nicely.  Air pressure was 30.2.

 

I threw different jerk baits, flat cranks, a couple square bills, a chatterbait, blade bait, Big TRD, and black/blue Yamamoto Kut Tail and came up empty at both ponds.

 

I’ve skunked 10 of my last 13 trips this year.  Time to do something else for a while.  

 

Best of luck to everyone out there.

Bite just seems off right now; they don’t seem to be bring anything ATM. I’m waiting till April to start back up again. Good luck if you go out everyone

[Mr. Aquarium]

15 minutes ago, bass.slayer69 said:

Bite just seems off right now; they don’t seem to be bring anything ATM. I’m waiting till April to start back up again. Good luck if you go out everyone

Ya bites off. You can have a great day but gota put in work to find en and get em.  Not like the usual, move up and feed heavy

[BigEyedF11sh]

Serious warming trend coming next week, I see one day below 50 on the forecast. I think they’re going to start turning on very soon.

[Meowmicks]

Went to Lake Rico yesterday and got 10 unscorable bass and 3 small pickerel on a Cutter 90 jerkbait. They were all in one small section of the lake.

Tried around a few other areas of the lake and didn't get a bite for 2 hours. Returned to the spot I caught the 1st ones (aound noon) and the rest came after 2:00pm. Don't leave fish to find fish...

Water temp was about 42F where I was catching them and down to 40F in other spots. Seemed like they were in random weed clumps.

 

 

[MassYak85]

Made the trip down to Wareham today. I stuck with the big baits and it aaaaalmost paid off. 

 

We were fishing a windblown shore and I got bit shallower than I was expecting on a real prey golden shiner. I set the hook and immediately broke off on 25lb leader at the bait. My initial thought was "d**n pickerel" but about 15 seconds later a fish came to the surface to shake the bait and while I didn't get a great look at it, it didn't look like a pickerel ?

[DogBone_384]

Rather than sit inside and do nothing I gave Wequaquet a shot, launching around 1030. Five hours later after trying everything I could think of, and another boat reporting a handful of fish on a jerkbait in less than an hour, I packed it in.  
 

That’s 11 ZEROS in my last 14 trips when friends and other BR members are catching quality fish.  Time to do something else for a while.

 

Water temps were in the low 40’s, wind was 5 - 10 mph from the SW and the air pressure was 30.5.

 

Best of luck to the membership this season.

[Mr. Aquarium]

 

 Hit a  favorite cold water pond on the kayak, bright skies clear water little worried I wouldn’t get em.  Found them fairly quickly. Had a quick flurry of action around high noon. Got 2 on the real prey 3.75 inch chadtail Perch. Also got a bass and a pickerel on a BiCO. All fish were in one area. Nothing big, all around the same size. But they were fat and healthy. I think They were holding on a tree.  I fished the rest of the pond didn’t get a sniff, didn’t help the wind started cranking. Hit 2 other ponds didn’t get anything.   I tried a blade, psycho gill, jerkbait, hair jig , Matt’s shad, real prey perch, fluke  nothing. 

[MassYak85]

Hit up a local spot in central MA this afternoon. It was BUSY for anytime of the year but unheard of for March. I think everyone was itching to get out with this weather. That said, I didn't see a single fish landed between us and every other boat and kayak out there. Brutal day and hard to swallow a skunk following yesterday's heartbreak. 

 

I was thinking the second day this warm after a cold front in the spring they would be chewing like crazy but it felt like one of those "bluebird skies, dog days of summer" type of day. Even the pickerel were nowhere to be seen. Water was slick all afternoon and the pressure has been rising. Do you guys feel the "post frontal" thing still holds true this early? I would think they would turn on with these unseasonably warm days.

 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

6 bass this afternoon. They were loving the crank bait but fished like a jerkbait. Twitch pause! Got one  on the psycho gill! Nothing big. they were in shallow  sunny windy side. 

[Meowmicks]

Went out at 9:00 and spent 8 hours at Neponset Reservoir on the kayak. 3 Bass, 10 monster yellow perch, and probably a dozen pickerel. 

 

Honestly it was one of the best days I've had in terms of sheer numbers caught. All but 1 slime dart came on a tiny shallow running crankbait. Like Mr. Aquarium said, the pause and go was key.

 

All fish came from the same general area, except the pickerel they were everywhere.

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Looks like a healthy fish, really choked that 

[Don51]

Crush the barbs on the treble hooks. It makes life easier, especially out in the kayak. 

[BigEyedF11sh]

Late launch today but got out for a couple hours on Indian Head today.  Just one fish on a chartreuse, silver, and white Colorado bladed spinnerbait with a 3.3inch keitech trailer.  Slowrolled near bottom on the drop toward deeper water.  First time there today and wasted a lot of time in shallow water picking apart all the tasty laydowns in there, found that one fish deep basically on my way out.

 

20 hours ago, Don51 said:

Crush the barbs on the treble hooks. It makes life easier, especially out in the kayak. 

Sheeeeeesh that's a rough one, you get that out yourself?

[Don51]

Yeah, I did not have the barb crimped down and had to snip the end of the hook off and then backed it out. Amazingly it didn't get infected. It gets real tricky when the fish is still hooked and then you become hooked!  

[Jigfishn10]

5 hours ago, Don51 said:

It gets real tricky when the fish is still hooked and then you become hooked!  

You're not kidding, I had a snot rocket do that to me. Lemme tell ya, those VMC hooks are sticky sharp. That snot rocket wouldn't calm down and dug the hook in my hand further and further.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Ouch!!! Had a striper do that once. Wasn’t deep, beers helped gettin it out 

[bass.slayer69]

Went out for the third time this year today. Once again, I was met with the skunk. I fished two local remote ponds, and I used a jig, lipless crank, t-rigged craw, and weightless senko. I am going to be taking my new canoe out for the first time on Thursday, and I was thinking to go to either Crystal Lake in Newton or Purgatory Cove in Waltham; anybody have any experience there? 
 

In the meantime, tight lines ?

 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Got a good one tonight, slow twitching a psycho gill on top. Had  another good blow up on a slammer and a toxic wake and crank.

[bass.slayer69]

Managed to get the canoe out for the first time at Crystal Lake in Newton today. Buddy of mine had a nice 10-inch perch on a blade bait, but still no bass. I used a lipless crank and jig. While it was nice to see the first fish of the year, still on the hunt for some Larry’s. 
 

Tight lines everyone ?

 

 

[Styguy922]

Managed to log out of work a little early yesterday evening to try and get my first bass of the year.  Prior to last night I had been out twice for maybe an hour a piece with nothing to show for it (not even a pickerel).  Brought my kayak and launched on the Concord River.

 

I had only about an hour or two at most so I made quick work of some rocks and lay downs along the shore with jig and chatterbait.  With no luck, and daylight waning, I figured the bass were probably done ‘sunning’ themselves at this point in the day so I searched for vertical structure in, or adjacent to, deeper water where the bass could adjust depth easily.  

 

Came across a bridge and landed 3 bass in short succession off a finesse jig (orange/pumpkin) and Ned rig (for a few timid bites I kept missing).  To the side of the bridge were some emergent rocks and deep water so I pitched to it and set the hook on a 4.6 LMB (picture below - looks a little short on the GoPro).  At this point I was satisfied and hauled back to the launch before it got too dark.  First few bass of the season!  Hope to get out tomorrow for a little more than a couple hours
 

 

[MassYak85]

Got out on Webster for the day. Managed to finally get on a few bass. Nothing big but managed some smallies. We didn't really get on a pattern but our bites were still deeper. We happened across some trout in the afternoon. They just stocked it with Browns yesterday and they seem to like bass lures more than the bass lol. Nothing sporting about laying into a bunch of young and dumb stockers but that doesn't mean it isn't fun lol. Crushed them on a tailspin. 

 

I'm still looking for that BIG spring bite.

[MassBass]

Anyone get out for the overcast/rain day today? I took a skunk throwing a chatterbait and jointed rapala. 

[MassYak85]

31 minutes ago, MassBass said:

Anyone get out for the overcast/rain day today? I took a skunk throwing a chatterbait and jointed rapala. 

Gave it a half-hearted attempt at a couple local ponds right before the rain. Nothing to show for it. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

@Saltysmalljaws and I did some pre-frontal damage yesterday before the rainstorm blanketed the upper-cape. Morale of the story: even in low 40dg water-temps, when the conditions line up right, these fish can get shallow and aggressive in a hurry. We had 10-12 bites in less than 3 hours, with action in less than 6 FoW to start the day. Ended up releasing a very solid limit and both of us had a fish pushing +4lbs. Great start to the smallie season. 

[Frezzy]

On 3/28/2021 at 7:12 PM, MassBass said:

Anyone get out for the overcast/rain day today? I took a skunk throwing a chatterbait and jointed rapala. 

 

I got my first two swimbait fish beating the bank in my waders over at Whitehall.  Couple of 2 pounders on an 86 Baits doomrider glide.  No giants, but I'm hooked on the big baits.  Just a little warm up before the absolute beatdown I'm going to put on some brown bass this weekend.