Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[DogBone_384]

21 hours ago, Quarry Man said:

Can you deep crank milfoil beds? I fish a lake in ma thats deep and clear. Mostly rock bottom, but around 15-20' is a bunch of leaves and milfoil only on the bottom. I wanted to try deep cranking there.

I don’t see why not.  Try a DT16 or count a lipless down to the depth you want.  This is my first fall hunting SMB in deep water.  They’re still a mystery to me.

 

I’m closing the Quabbin tomorrow in hope of some revenge after being shut out last week.  I expect them deep so lipless and jigs are my opening salvo.

 

If anyone else heads out there, I’ll have my VHF on channel 16.

[Mr. Aquarium]

got out saturday all day!! wanted to go for trout and salmon. lot of guys at the spot, didnt get much action, went to the river to check for water levels! low but im not surprised. caught some small salmon parr, perch, fall fish and common shiners. the common shiners had red fins, the salmon were so beautiful!!!  wanted to try to break my goal of a 10lbs carp, saw a buddy trout fishing he gave me a good carp spot. talked to few buddies on facebook and they gave me all i needed to know. caught some sunnies, a bass, 2 carp 5lbs or so.  saw ton of carp, spooked a few big ones, had some nice runs. a bait strips. also caught a small bullhead. 

nice day out caught a huge variety of fish,  ahh the power of the night crawler

[DogBone_384]

Mike, you’re gonna have to change your name to Mr. Aquarium....

[Mr. Aquarium]

mr aquarium! nice ring to it! i like it!! 

went out last night! started out at a heavily stocked trout pond, tossed a hudd nightstalker 68, had 2 good hits jiggin it on bottom. saw some trout rise. fished another trout spot didnt get any action. went to pond 3 had a few good hits and caught a 2.10lber on a fishing magician skid stick midnight color.  then went to old faithful. been awhile since ive been there! had a few good hits on the washed ashore rat. got a 2.5 on it slow twitched. fished the Ms slammer and caught a slab crappie.  few more hits, then hit the dam, caught a 4.7 on the mega bass iloud slow twitched near some pads

[MassYak85]

On 10/13/2017 at 3:53 PM, swamp hawgs said:

mr aquarium! nice ring to it! i like it!! 

went out last night! started out at a heavily stocked trout pond, tossed a hudd nightstalker 68, had 2 good hits jiggin it on bottom. saw some trout rise. fished another trout spot didnt get any action. went to pond 3 had a few good hits and caught a 2.10lber on a fishing magician skid stick midnight color.  then went to old faithful. been awhile since ive been there! had a few good hits on the washed ashore rat. got a 2.5 on it slow twitched. fished the Ms slammer and caught a slab crappie.  few more hits, then hit the dam, caught a 4.7 on the mega bass iloud slow twitched near some pads

Sounds like a good  night! That must have been a chunky crappie to go after a slammer huh?

[Quarry Man]

Anybody know of super clear lakes in ma. The one if fish is 30' of vis, and it is truly amazing to fish.

[DogBone_384]

Southeastern MA & Cape Cod have some clear, deep waters, but clear down to 30’? 

 

10’ - 15’ is the clearest I’ve seen.

 

This might help: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/maps-destinations/pond-maps-southeast-district.html

[Mr. Aquarium]

it was a good weekend, saturday fished all day for carp. caught my first 2 mirror carp, caught 2 common carp and a kitty fish. had a few good runs, saw a TON!!! lots of them feeding in super shallow water, like a foot.  
sunday went out target some trout ponds for big bass, had no luck, i was on my way home and my buddy was at a spot close by, he is just getting into freshwater, (LOVES STRIPERS). i meet up with him and head to old faithful. super super windy!  i we had some hits, i managed 2 chunks on a 8 inch jointed muskie jitterbug. how i got these fish. 
casted out started the retrieve. then pause and let it sit for a bit. checked facebook, chatted with them.  got both fish on the pause

[Mr. Aquarium]

[Mr. Aquarium]

its offical! going to lake ontario salmon and trout fishing in 2 weeks. WOOOOOO CANT WAIT!! SO EXCITED!@!! 

[DogBone_384]

Yep, Mr. Aquarium .... you gotta change your name ....  congrats on some good fall fishing. 

 

I have to decide where I go tomorrow, Plymouth, or Westport....  

[Mr. Aquarium]

what you doing in westport? i saltwater fish down there, might be some good albies in the mouth

stripers and tautog 2

[DogBone_384]

Went to Plymouth when I should have gone to Westport. Fishing Rhino took me to a pond down there where a hack fisherman like me can catch good fish (he still out fishes me at least 4-5:1 though).

 

Managed a few small SMB in Plymouth.  Just couldn’t find or get the bigger ones to take my offerings.  Water temps were 66.x when I left at 3:00.  

 

A+ on the name change Mike! It fits you.

[Mr. Aquarium]

wow water still at 66, crazy!!!!  night bite has been decent! some bigger fish! my buddy, beginner freshwater guy caught a 5.3 the other day at old faithful. then the next day a 4.8.  bites have been few but the quality has been good! 

going to NH this weekend, no fishing for me but ill be fishing I disagree off next week afterwork! 

[DogBone_384]

Hhhhmmmmmm  ..... been quiet here lately..... everyone must be out fishing......

[MassYak85]

4 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

Hhhhmmmmmm  ..... been quiet here lately..... everyone must be out fishing......

I was out yesterday at Webster. Got a couple fish on the slammer (nothing huge, biggest was 3.1), and a decent smallie on a jig. It seemed pretty slow overall. I did see a lot of baitfish shallow along with some huge schools of minnows. The milfoil was still very green too. Seemed like great fall feeding conditions but I couldn't seem to consistently get much action. 

[MassYak85]

Decided to give Whitehall a shot in the later part of the afternoon. It was slow again, water temps in the low sixties. I fished the slammer for 95% of the time. No interest other than one bite...I casted next to a downed tree. Let it sit there for about 5 seconds. Twitched it a couple times, let it sit for another 5 seconds and then *SLURP*. Set the hook and immediately it was obvious this was a big fish. The rod bent over and I started grinding on the reel to keep it out of the tree but it was pulling back and I didn't make much progress once it was clear of the tree. After about 10 seconds of tug-of-war it was just off, no head shake, no jump, just gone. My best guess is that it was never hooked that well, likely hooked outside of the mouth and the hook just pulled free. From the weight alone I can't imagine it was any less than 5lbs. The 3.1 I caught yesterday didn't even have a chance to fight with the rod I was using and this thing today was doing whatever it wanted. It was both heartbreaking and very encouraging. I'm definitely getting more confident in the slammer, I'm glad I got the 9" over the 7". It's interesting how they attack it, none of the fish so far have really blown up it, they just kind of come up and pull it under. 

 

 

...I think my heart is still beating a little fast haha. Hopefully I can stick at least one big one on it before the season ends. 

[DogBone_384]

Fished Hedges pond for a few this afternoon until dusk. Thankfully I got a good perch on a lipless, keeping me from a shut-out.

 

This is the only time I’ve not landed a SMB at Hedges all year. Nothing else worked: Whopper Plopper, Zara Spook, different color lipless, wacky rig Senko, and Hula Grub on a 1/8 oz Keitech jig.

 

This is the current pattern where I’ve fished over the last week and a half.

 

I didn’t have my Lowrance, but my barometer read high when I got home around 8:00 pm.

[Mr. Aquarium]

 on thursday i headed up to NH for the weekend,  had to wait for my brother who lives in southie to get out of work before we headed up.  few hours to kill, fished around castle island. SMOKED the stripers! all to my self, dozen schoolies on topwater. 

got back yesterday afternoon, loaded kayak. headed to a gem with big bass.   caught a 5.1 on a fishin magician skid stick, big 8 inch walk the dog style lure.  caught another fish on a slammer about a pound, missed another decent fish. thats a normal day for this place. its weird, you'll catch a bunch of dinks and then one slob over 5lbs

10 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

Fished Hedges pond for a few this afternoon until dusk. Thankfully I got a good perch on a lipless, keeping me from a shut-out.

 

This is the only time I’ve not landed a SMB at Hedges all year. Nothing else worked: Whopper Plopper, Zara Spook, different color lipless, wacky rig Senko, and Hula Grub on a 1/8 oz Keitech jig.

 

This is the current pattern where I’ve fished over the last week and a half.

 

I didn’t have my Lowrance, but my barometer read high when I got home around 8:00 pm.

im gona head to hedges this afternoon, its been a while since ive been there. 

[gjfisher]

After two disappointing outings (one dink and couple picks each time) earlier last week, I fished a pond on the cape Thursday morning.  This time I got half a dozen LMB's, the largest at 4.0lb even.  Most fish came on a 5 inch z-man chatter trickstick with the front treble hook removed. 

 

It's been slower for me this fall vs. last fall in terms of both number and quality but I am hopeful that with the weather, we still have a few weeks of good fishing left!

[DogBone_384]

Launched in Westport at dawn with no expectations.  A slab of a crappie thought it could eat my Zara Spook on the first cast just past the orange rocks on the main body of water.  Did well until 9:30 - 10:00 when the bite shut off.  A handful of LMB between 2.5 and 3 pounds, a couple yellow perch, and a bunch of pickerel.  A perch Zara Spook and black/blue 5" wacky Senko proved the most productive.

 

The bass didn't hit the lure hard, just kind of inhaled them.  They also didn't have a lot of fight in them, especially compared to the SMB I've caught recently.

 

The pickerel were typical pickerel: hitting the bait hard and thrashing around until they got in the kayak.  Luckily, a few of them kindly unhooked themselves for me.

 

Water temps started at 61.x and were low 63.x when I left at 2:30.  Barometric pressure was 30.5 when I left the house this morning.

 

Not sure if I'll be able to get out again this year.  I'm planning on it, but I've got a lot on my schedule.  If this is the last trip this season, it's a pretty good way to close it out...   We'll see.

[Mr. Aquarium]

d**n last trip of the year?? still lots of fishing. up state NY next weekend. lake trout the weekend after and pike, and of course bass!!  i cant wait for blade bait fishin in the winter

[Mr. Aquarium]

got out yesterday afternoon into the night, only had 2 hits! fishing the big baits, so not surprised i got skunked, but the weather was perfect for a good bite.  one hit was on a 9 inch chartreuse slammer and another on the hudd 68

[DogBone_384]

It ain't over yet .... Had some time this afternoon so I threw the waders in my truck and fished Houghton's Pond on the way back from Bass Pro Shops (didn't pick up anything THAT good...).

 

Got one nice LMB to shore on a blue/black T-rigged Rage Tail Menace.  I figure it was 1.5 - 2 pounds, which is likely the biggest I've ever caught there.  Larry didn't have much fight in him either.  I also caught 3 pickerel who were kind enough to unhook themselves for me at my feet.  All were decent size and had great color.

 

I'll guess the water temp is still in the low 60's because it felt warmer than the air this afternoon.

[MassYak85]

Grinded out an 11 hour day (6am-5pm) fishing some swimbaits at Brimfield and eventually Quabog saturday. Managed to avoid the skunking with a 1-2lber in the final hour of the day on the slammer. I think I kind of needed that day. Up until now I've dedicated a few hours here and there to swimbaits but rarely a whole trip, and never an entire day. And even before catching that final fish I realized something, I wasn't dissapointed or regretful I hadn't caught anything. I think that was a big mental hurdle I needed to get over if I wanted to seriously continue with swimbaits. Up until now I would always find myself picking up a jig or something to avoid the skunking.