Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[DogBone_384]

4 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Canton Res was biting yesterday

Good to know.  I  might have time to get out tomorrow afternoon but don't have time to pack up & go south. 

 

I wonder how I could get my Ranger in there... ??? ?

[bass.slayer69]

Endured another skunk at Billington Sea this afternoon. While I didn’t catch anything, a buddy of mine Weirdly enough, while fishing the western side of Hathaway Point, I noticed a fairly large school of what I think was brook trout, with a lone 3-4 pound bass cruising with them. I casted right by them with an in-line spinner, squarebill, and small jerkbait, but I couldn’t get them to bite. When I get back down that area I’ll have to hit it again. In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out the spots around the Needham/Wellesley/Natick area. The warmer weather this week might help...

1 hour ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Canton Res was biting yesterday

I’m guessing they were in the cove by Wampatuck?

[gjfisher]

3 hours ago, bass.slayer69 said:

In the meantime, I’m still trying to figure out the spots around the Needham/Wellesley/Natick area.

Try Dudley Pond in Wayland.  Easier place to fish than Lake Cochituate.  

[Frezzy]

Question for the MA guys throwing big swimbaits.  Is it too early in the season to be throwing big rat baits or slammers on top?  I'm planning some early morning trips before first light this week and looking for some suggestions.  Thanks!  

[Bob011278]

22 hours ago, Frezzy said:

Question for the MA guys throwing big swimbaits.  Is it too early in the season to be throwing big rat baits or slammers on top?  I'm planning some early morning trips before first light this week and looking for some suggestions.  Thanks!  

I was out last night with a buddy in central MA and all we threw was big wakes - ND180 and MS Slammer 9". Caught over a dozen bass between the 2 of us but none over 3 lbs. The key was finding the warmer water.  The North West edge of the lake was 54 degrees and lifeless. A cove with an outflow/current on the the Eastern side was 59 and loaded with bass. Slow retrieve with pauses worked best.  

[Mr. Aquarium]

On 4/20/2021 at 3:26 PM, Frezzy said:

Question for the MA guys throwing big swimbaits.  Is it too early in the season to be throwing big rat baits or slammers on top?  I'm planning some early morning trips before first light this week and looking for some suggestions.  Thanks!  

Never. I got bit on topwater at night in early March.  March is when I start tossing big topwaters. Day and night.   Some big fish early season are caught on em. Water temps in the 50s they are aggressive! Go get em

[bass.slayer69]

The weather next week though... 63, 72, 77, 77, 68... the bass are going to be hungry

[Loosearrow]

3 hours ago, bass.slayer69 said:

The weather next week though... 63, 72, 77, 77, 68... the bass are going to be hungry

i sure hope so! normally do so well up in mystic lake but have not been able to pay for a bite the last couple of weeks.

 

[MassYak85]

Who's getting out tommorow? Gonna be a hurricane! In the kayak I dread the wind but in wind that intense I have done well in the past. My best day this year was the windiest day I've fished.

[bass.slayer69]

On 4/22/2021 at 3:43 PM, MassYak85 said:

Who's getting out tommorow?

Not tomorrow, but I am going to fish a section of the Charles in Dover on Saturday in the second outing on my canoe. Anyone got some river tips? Never bass fished there, and have no idea to expect. If you are able to get out, good luck

[DogBone_384]

5 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Who's getting out tommorow?

 

Working tomorrow.  Will be on Cape Cod Sunday through Wednesday and am bringing my Ranger and Lure 11.5.  Sunday and probably Monday will be too windy for wife, so my backup plan is solo trips Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Best of luck to the membership that gets out!

On 4/21/2021 at 1:56 PM, Bob011278 said:

I was out last night with a buddy in central MA

 

Welcome to the forum.

[MassYak85]

1 hour ago, bass.slayer69 said:

Not tomorrow, but I am going to fish a section of the Charles in Dover on Saturday in the second outing on my canoe. Anyone got some river tips? Never bass fished there, and have no idea to expect. If you are able to get out, good luck

Never fished that far upstream but I do remember paddling that section when I was real young. I think there's a small pond that connects off the main river somewhere around there. I've heard there's small pike too. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

40 fish and a 20lb limit yesterday on a small Cape grass lake! Unfortunately 30 of those fish and all of that limit were Pickerel lmao. 20-25mph sustained winds made for a fun (and short) time though, and all my bites came on either the jackhammer or 6" jerkbait. Biggest bass was a very random 3lb smallie that was up shallow on a windblown grass edge. 

[MassYak85]

I have never had to max out the brakes on a baitcasting reel...until today. The wind was absolutely brutal. I did manage a very chonky 3lber on a craw spinnerbait. Pickerel were chewing on jerkbaits and chatterbaits.

[The one that got away]

23 hours ago, bass.slayer69 said:

Not tomorrow, but I am going to fish a section of the Charles in Dover on Saturday in the second outing on my canoe. Anyone got some river tips? Never bass fished there, and have no idea to expect. If you are able to get out, good luck

I have a buddy who regularly fishes the Charles at Rt. 27 at the Sherborn/Medfield line.  He gets a lot of bass and pickerel.  No pike to speak of.  99% of his fishing is with a wacky rig, frog, or a topwater popper.  There's fish to be found north or south from the overpass.  South End Pond in Millis is about a mile south of the bridge.  You'll have to bear right at a fork to get there, but with the good weather tomorrow I'm sure there will be other people on the river to point you in the right direction.  Good luck

[MassYak85]

Finally got a good prespawner. After hours and hours of grinding with swimbaits this spring I finally broke 5...on a spinnerbait lmao. Hey I'll take it. She hit right off a shallow flat that drops into a 9 foot channel on a craw colored spinnerbait. 

[bass.slayer69]

On 4/19/2021 at 10:16 PM, gjfisher said:

 

Got out to the charles in Waltham today in the canoe. Mainly just flipped a black and blue jig with a craw trailer around fallen trees, but switched it up to a 3.5 inch paddle tail and landed my first LMB in mass this year. Great feeling, even though it was a bit of a dink. Speaking of which, I know they are a tried and true lure, but I just have no confidence in jigs, even having thrown them for 10+ hours this year. Anyone have any tips, or do they just not work well around here? 

On 4/23/2021 at 8:03 PM, The one that got away said:

South End Pond in Millis

Will have to check it out soon, thanks for the tip

[gjfisher]

11 hours ago, bass.slayer69 said:

Speaking of which, I know they are a tried and true lure, but I just have no confidence in jigs, even having thrown them for 10+ hours this year. Anyone have any tips, or do they just not work well around here? 

 

I am not that experienced in jigs but they do work well around here.  It took me a long time to get used to "feeling the jig bites" but once I got it I like fishing jigs a lot.  Also mixing up the retrieve may help.  I usually do the slow crawl on the bottom or the "two hop" retrieve.  

[MassYak85]

I got bit on an 8" hudd for the first time in a while today. Set the hook and the bait came back with teeth marks everywhere behind the hook. Figures. Bites like those you just tell yourself it was a small fish lol.

[JAB50]

gjfisher,

Don’t give up on using jigs. I was like you once, I had no confidence in them. But, they have been constantly my biggest fish producing bait. Buy yourself a bunch of the Strike King Denny Brauer Baby Structure jigs in 1/4 oz. size (black/blue and green pumpkin purple); as a trailer use the baby rage craws(3”) size, same color patterns. I was fishing a jig this past Thursday on a southern NH lake and caught close to 30 fish on jigs and spinnerbaits. I caught 2 5+lb largemouth last week on spinnerbaits, my brother caught one that was a few ounces shy of 7lbs; we were fishing Squam lake in NH. Both on spinnerbaits. They are feeding now, getting ready to spawn sometime in May, don’t be afraid to throw big plastic baits too. Find structure(wood, rock, stone embankments) and especially transition spots, usually between 7-10 feet of water.

[MassBass]

3 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

I got bit on an 8" hudd for the first time in a while today. Set the hook and the bait came back with teeth marks everywhere behind the hook. Figures. Bites like those you just tell yourself it was a small fish lol.

Are you throwing it with the treble on the belly?

[MassYak85]

15 minutes ago, MassBass said:

Are you throwing it with the treble on the belly?

No I'm dragging bottom it would just hang me up. Plus I don't like fishing the bigger softbaits with belly stinger hooks. I feel like the chances of gill hooking a bigger fish are just higher than I want to risk. 

[MassYak85]

New PB!! (well not technically I got a 6.5 in VA but I don't really count that one when I talk Northeast fishing)

 

Wind was brutal again today. It was blowing hard over 20mph sustained NW. We started early so it drove the wind chill near freezing. Not fun! We started on a wind blown rocky shore that has some depth nearby. I started off with a couple decent fish on the spinnerbait that kept spirits high while our hands froze. Red did it again! Broke my PB fiiiiinally on the same red craw spinnerbait I caught the 5lber on Saturday with. She went  5-14. I honestly didn't think she was that big until I pulled her out of the net. Definitely a healthy fish with a big frame, but didn't quite have that massive belly. I feel the fish could go 7 with the frame it had. Just needs to find itself a nice Crappie to chow on. Didn't get a length measurement wanted to let it go ASAP. She swam away strong. 

 

I think I've mentioned before I've caught 3 separate fish at exactly 5.40 as my previous New England PBs so it felt good to finally snap that a by a decent margin. 

 

Anyways, my long weekend ended up pretty good. Two fish over 5 I'll take it. Water temps were still low 50s so we should be moving into the spawn within the next couple weeks as warmer temperatures arrive. 

 

I'm sure some of you can probably relate but man it feels like a weight off my shoulders to catch that fish. You spend countless hours on the water trying to get that next biggest fish, it's kind of freeing mentally to actually do it. 

 

My goal this year was to go hard in the Spring and Fall and ease off a bit in the summer to relax, hike, go to the beach and focus on my other hobbies a bit. I wanted to get 5 fish over 5 this year I think I can pull it off. 

[bass.slayer69]

4 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Broke my PB fiiiiinally on the same red craw spinnerbait I caught the 5lber on Saturday with.

Congrats! Spinnerbaits (at least last year) killed it for me. Never fished a red craw one tho

[Mr. Aquarium]

5 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

New PB!! (well not technically I got a 6.5 in VA but I don't really count that one when I talk Northeast fishing)

 

Wind was brutal again today. It was blowing hard over 20mph sustained NW. We started early so it drove the wind chill near freezing. Not fun! We started on a wind blown rocky shore that has some depth nearby. I started off with a couple decent fish on the spinnerbait that kept spirits high while our hands froze. Red did it again! Broke my PB fiiiiinally on the same red craw spinnerbait I caught the 5lber on Saturday with. She went  5-14. I honestly didn't think she was that big until I pulled her out of the net. Definitely a healthy fish with a big frame, but didn't quite have that massive belly. I feel the fish could go 7 with the frame it had. Just needs to find itself a nice Crappie to chow on. Didn't get a length measurement wanted to let it go ASAP. She swam away strong. 

 

I think I've mentioned before I've caught 3 separate fish at exactly 5.40 as my previous New England PBs so it felt good to finally snap that a by a decent margin. 

 

Anyways, my long weekend ended up pretty good. Two fish over 5 I'll take it. Water temps were still low 50s so we should be moving into the spawn within the next couple weeks as warmer temperatures arrive. 

 

I'm sure some of you can probably relate but man it feels like a weight off my shoulders to catch that fish. You spend countless hours on the water trying to get that next biggest fish, it's kind of freeing mentally to actually do it. 

 

My goal this year was to go hard in the Spring and Fall and ease off a bit in the summer to relax, hike, go to the beach and focus on my other hobbies a bit. I wanted to get 5 fish over 5 this year I think I can pull it off. 

Hell ya buddy. Awesome fish 

 

got some fresh migrant stripers today, first of the year