Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Mr. Aquarium]

8-2 was caught on an 8 inch DS custom glide, April 3rd 2022 7 am, wind blowing 10-15 from the south partly cloudy skies. Along a drop off to a shallow flat. 

7-10 was caught  on a brutally slow day on a head hunter minnow jerkbait, March 9th 2023 5 pm, couldn’t get bit all afternoon. She was the only fish I got.  It was 10 ish mph, forgot the winds, partly cloudy, away from shore in the middle of the pond. 

7-8, Ms 9 inch x2 deep crank slammer, caught June 14th 2016, along a steep drop off to a shallow Lilly pad flat. It was hot and calm

 

7-5, caught on  the same lure as my 8. March 17 2022, in a very shallow pond, this was close to an island with a slight drop off. 4 feet of water. It was rainy and windy. Caught a 5lber that same day on the same spot! 

7-1 , on the same bait as my 8 and 7-5, April 19th 2022, 4pm, she was caught on a wind blown tree, it was sunny 

 

6-13. May 17th at midnight. On an 9 inch x3 MS slammer, slow crawled near a blow down tree. Same pond as my 8 

 

6-13 caught on real prey swimbait,   April 22,2022 same exact spot as my 7-1

[DogBone_384]

15 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

22 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

 

If Plymouth was closer I'd love to go for a chase,

 

If you do, it's best before Memorial Day and after Labor day.  Most Plymouth waters require a town stickers and are strictly enforced in the Summer.  Parking restrictions have been put into place over the years too.  

[1984isNOW]

12 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

8-2

d**n bro I'm gonna have to get into some glides. What color glides you use at night and do you think they work as well at night? 

[DogBone_384]

Stayed closer to home yesterday and augured a bunch of holes in Hingham yesterday.  There was a foot of open water along the dam but good or bad, I found the ice was 8-10" thick.  Quite a surprise.

 

I set my tip ups along the base of the dam and worked around the place.  There were three other groups ice fishing.  I dropped a black hair jig, chrome/blue Rapala jigging rap, a Spot Green Damiki Vault, and chartreuse/white feather jig through the holes.  The best I could do was pester perch that were stuck to the bottom in 20'.

 

The group fishing the western part of the pond set up between two points pulled up one bass and a couple perch.

 

Water temps were 34.x, five - seven degrees colder than the last four years.   It was sunny and clear.  Air pressure was 30.2.

 

I got some intel that there's some open water on Cape Cod.  I might have to take a recon trip to find out for myself.  Thick ice in Hingham was a bit of a surprise, and the long term forecast for March calls for below average (cold) temps.  

[Mr. Aquarium]

On 2/21/2025 at 8:34 PM, 1984isNOW said:

d**n bro I'm gonna have to get into some glides. What color glides you use at night and do you think they work as well at night? 

Thanks bud, I use glides to match the bait fish. I heard glides work at night. But I love fishing wake baits at night. Jigs, t rigs, chatters, spinner baits, topwaters, and big slow soft swimbaits work at night to! 

[DogBone_384]

I took a drive to Cape Cod today so see what was what.

 

For those with boats,

• Long Pond (Harwich) has a clear ramp but the east & west ends are covered with thin ice.
• Wequaquet is probably 80% open with a clear ramp.
• Mash-Wake is still locked out, especially the ramp.
• Great Herring (Plymouth) has a clear ramp and is roughly 1/2 iced over.
• Big Sandy (Plymouth) is locked out.

I drove by a lot of 'kayak' ponds between Plymouth & mid-Cape.  It's a long list and so as not to blow up Glenn's servers, PM me if you want specifics.

 

I figure the Cape will be open if temps stay above freezing for the next week or so.

 

[1984isNOW]

11 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

big slow soft swimbaits

 

11 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

wake baits

Any specific ones? Colors?

 

I basically can only fish at night, so daytime colors have been a lot less of a concern the past couple years. I've been stocking up on black everything haha

 

But some people say just throw whatever you threw during the day

[Mr. Aquarium]

12 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

 

Any specific ones? Colors?

 

I basically can only fish at night, so daytime colors have been a lot less of a concern the past couple years. I've been stocking up on black everything haha

 

But some people say just throw whatever you threw during the day

I love solid colors for night time bass. I’ve caught bass on white, red, black, orange, chartreuse, purple, golden shiners, pretty much any color you can think of.  I think it’s more about action. Sometimes they want a multi jointed bait with rattles others they want a single joint silent and the only noise is the knock or squeak from the joint.  You can have the right bait  but not the right retrieve.  So make sure you switch up. Sometimes they want a random pause mixed in, sometimes they want a steady slow retrieve, other times they wanted slow twitched meaning you don’t have a steady retrieve, you just twitch and pause. 
there’s so many topwaters that will work, big jitterbugs, crawlers, buzzbaits, frogs, whopper plopper, wake baits. 
 

As for non topwaters, I use more natural colors. I use apinner baits with Colorado blades. any plastic for t rig and jig trailer with good action and thump. Rage plastics, rage craws, rage menace , brush hogs, any craw  and creature baits will work.  Chatterbaits because of the thump.  For big soft swimbaits I like Huddleston and real preys. They have a big thump on the tail.  
 

I go slow most of the time but have caught some big fish fishing a topwater faster.   I love fishing charters like a jig, lift a pause, kinda like you would with a blade bait! 
 

I’ve caught bass all winter long at night on topwater here in MA. 2 years ago my first topwater bass was on January 2nd. 
 

[DogBone_384]

I fished 4 ponds between yesterday and today, mid-Cape.  Two still had some ice on them but there was enough open water to launch my kayak.  The other two were WIDE OPEN.

 

The first is 40' deep.  I focused on two spots I normally catch good LMB at.  I didn't mark squat at those spots, but finally found some marks at 30', got nothing but a couple perch nibbles.  Water temps at #1 were 41.x.

 

Pond # 2 is one I don't fish often because I rarely catch anything at.  I caught a three+ pound LMB there once on a Ned.  Winds were 15+ mph and controlling my kayak was more work than reward.  I managed a lap around the place, focusing on the bottom of the 'bowl'.  I marked little or nothing until I got to the Eastern shoreline where it drops off like a cliff.  After two hours of bouncing around like I was in open ocean, I packed up and searched for calmer waters.  Water temps here were 38.x degrees.

 

Pond #3 is shallow for Cape Cod, 10-12' deep in the middle and has beaucoup vegetation in warmer seasons.  I managed one 1.56 pound LMB  on a green/red flake Senko.  Water temps here were 42.x degrees.

 

The last pond is one I've never done well at over the last 10 - 12 years, but the launch is easy and I figured I'd 'hope for the best'.  I pedaled to the West corner to a steep drop off where I caught a good SMB a few years ago.  I worked my way back to the launch, marking little or nothing.  Water temps were 39.x.

 

I threw the normal assortment of winter baits, blade bait, tail spin, T-rigged worm, underspin, various jerkbaits, deep cranks, lipless, Ned, and jigs.  Air pressure was 29.7 yesterday and 29.9 when I packed up today.

[Mr. Aquarium]

I got out today after work shore fishin. I hit a shallow pond. I love shallow ponds on days like today. Early spring warm up im going shallow!

 

Not sure what the water temps were. I managed 4 bass and 2 pickerel. All bass were small, the picks were fat and decent size.   I got my first fish early, I missed one on the shakey head then next cast I hooked up. Slow bite until sunset. I missed a nice fish on a red craw crank bait.  Got the rest of my bass,  a nice pickerel and a few hits on a lucky craft live pointer. Also got a nice pickerel on a DS glide bait. 
 

felt great to be out again. First trip of the year 

[1984isNOW]

On 2/24/2025 at 8:41 AM, Mr. Aquarium said:

. 2

Thanks for the insight bro. And that's crazy catching a topwater in January, crazy to even try to haha

 

Looks like I've got some fudgin around to do

[Mr. Aquarium]

28 minutes ago, 1984isNOW said:

Thanks for the insight bro. And that's crazy catching a topwater in January, crazy to even try to haha

 

Looks like I've got some fudgin around to do

Happy to help. Just get out and experiment, never know what will work. Bring 4 baits, 4 rods or pack a small tackle box. Just go get lost and keep casting. When I go out I cast out everywhere.  Yea targeting structures will work, but you never know where bass may be.  I’ve caught some giant bass in the middle of nowhere. Casting out into the middle of the pond away from all shore structure. Maybe there was something they are holding on down deep who knows.  This was at a smaller shallow pond.  Some places I do target structures, like points, brush, humps, drop offs, weed beds.  I remember one night I fished for 6 hours on the kayak grinding away for nothing targeting bunch of areas with baits. Come back to the launch and caught a 20lbs bag from shore most of them were on a t rig rage craw.

 

For topwaters most of them are big and expensive. I love DS custom Ninja wake, Psycho Gill, Psycho Trout the 9 inch Ms slammer started it all for me, 7 inch slammer is great, buzzjet, Livingston walking boss, Matts mead head, Lemires sea fly, Gillionare, Sherpa,Spro  BBZ Rat,  savage gear rats bats and ducks, Jackal Mikey, there’s so many good topwaters to use at night.  The DS custom ninja wake, Psycho Gill the buzz jet, whopper plopper, jitter bug are my favorites!
 

 

 
I tried for a topwater bass tonight! I saw a bass at sunset come out of the water chasing something. 100% a bass it was close by.  

[DogBone_384]

3 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

crazy to even try to haha

That’s why he’s @Mr. Aquarium!

[Mr. Aquarium]

I’ve caught topwater bass every month of the year. I’ve had some decent bites from November- March. 

[MassYak85]

9 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Happy to help. Just get out and experiment, never know what will work. Bring 4 baits, 4 rods or pack a small tackle box. Just go get lost and keep casting. When I go out I cast out everywhere.  Yea targeting structures will work, but you never know where bass may be.  I’ve caught some giant bass in the middle of nowhere. Casting out into the middle of the pond away from all shore structure. Maybe there was something they are holding on down deep who knows.  This was at a smaller shallow pond.  Some places I do target structures, like points, brush, humps, drop offs, weed beds.  I remember one night I fished for 6 hours on the kayak grinding away for nothing targeting bunch of areas with baits. Come back to the launch and caught a 20lbs bag from shore most of them were on a t rig rage craw.

 

For topwaters most of them are big and expensive. I love DS custom Ninja wake, Psycho Gill, Psycho Trout the 9 inch Ms slammer started it all for me, 7 inch slammer is great, buzzjet, Livingston walking boss, Matts mead head, Lemires sea fly, Gillionare, Sherpa,Spro  BBZ Rat,  savage gear rats bats and ducks, Jackal Mikey, there’s so many good topwaters to use at night.  The DS custom ninja wake, Psycho Gill the buzz jet, whopper plopper, jitter bug are my favorites!
 

 

 
I tried for a topwater bass tonight! I saw a bass at sunset come out of the water chasing something. 100% a bass it was close by.  

I picked up a Psycho Trout last year only got to use it once before winter set in. Excited to try it out more this year. My Psycho Gill is pretty old and beat up haha. But sometimes those baits work even better it seems. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

1 hour ago, MassYak85 said:

I picked up a Psycho Trout last year only got to use it once before winter set in. Excited to try it out more this year. My Psycho Gill is pretty old and beat up haha. But sometimes those baits work even better it seems. 

Me too. Excited to throw it more!  

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Me too. Excited to throw it more!  

The last couple years the Monka Crawler has been my favorite. Unfortunately it only works well with no or very light wind but man that is such a fun bait to fish. More wind I tend to go to crankdowns or bigger wakes like Slammers or the Gill/Trout. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

1 hour ago, MassYak85 said:

The last couple years the Monka Crawler has been my favorite. Unfortunately it only works well with no or very light wind but man that is such a fun bait to fish. More wind I tend to go to crankdowns or bigger wakes like Slammers or the Gill/Trout. 

Never fished a monka. I also need to use more crank downs 

[1984isNOW]

On 2/26/2025 at 11:17 PM, Mr. Aquarium said:

giant bass in the middle of nowhere.

Real talk

I've bumped into some chunks casting to nothing, makes it hard bot to always waste 6 hours blind casting in every direction with no electronics, but I guess that's the difference between fishing and hunting fish (livescope)

 

I think a rat or some other wake is going on my shopping list, but I have a hard time dropping over 20 bucks on a lure right now, hard to justify with all the crap that I already have.

[Mr. Aquarium]

10 hours ago, 1984isNOW said:

Real talk

I've bumped into some chunks casting to nothing, makes it hard bot to always waste 6 hours blind casting in every direction with no electronics, but I guess that's the difference between fishing and hunting fish (livescope)

 

I think a rat or some other wake is going on my shopping list, but I have a hard time dropping over 20 bucks on a lure right now, hard to justify with all the crap that I already have.

I never had electronics either not until recently, but there can be a weed bed, a rock pile that you don’t know is down there.

 

yeaaaa dude fishing ain’t a cheap sport! 

[MassYak85]

On 2/27/2025 at 2:43 PM, Mr. Aquarium said:

Never fished a monka. I also need to use more crank downs 

They're super fun, the wings can be finicky sometimes though. MDC makes a perch crankdown that I really like and I have a Cl8 possum I'll sometimes pull out but that thing is big lol. I've caught a few good ones but I have to be in the mood to commit to it.