Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[je1946]

2 hours ago, Janderson45 said:

Tough day, at least you got a decent one though.  Appreciate the report.  Just looked back through this thread to this time last year and water temps were 55-60, hoping for similar by Sunday, but that might be overly optimistic. Either way I think we're gonna whack em.  

 

Also thinking of hitting A1 for the first time this season in the kayak on Saturday.  Will report back and let you know how I did after the weekend.

Will be picking up the new boat on Wed. Ultrex finally came in.   I'll be using the older boat until I get the new engine broken in and arrange for a washing of the new one.  Gd luck on Sun. you should have temps in the low 50s, it was over 90 inland today.  Buddy of mine was out today on the Q haven't heard how he did, but i'd wager he did well.  i think we would have done better if we had some wind, was flat calm all day out there and usually that doesn't bode to well until the top water starts, didn't even bring any with us or I would have given it a try.  Most of the guys we talked to were having the same catching wise, seeing fish but not getting them to commit.

[DogBone_384]

I’m marathoning down the Cape Tuesday to Thursday. Water temps should be in the 50’s, air close to 60 with light wind.  My first choices are Hinckleys, Seymour, Sand, and maybe Sheep.  I think square bills and medium diving cranks/suspenders then jigs (which I don’t have much experience/confidence in).  Gonna bring a couple spinner baits and some soft baits ‘just in case’.

 

Anyone want to chime in, feel free.  

[JAB50]

Hey Dogbone,

Im driving up to Mass. from Maryland tonight. Going to be fishing southern New Hampshire tomorrow and maybe Sunday. I'll be down the Cape from Sunday night to Friday evening. If smallies have moved to beds yet? On  Hinkleys, Seymour and Sheeps the smallies tend to spawn earlier than several other places on the Cape! From my experiences the past 5 years. I have a grey Ford F-150 with Maryland tags. I'll either be in a 12' aluminum v hull or my new Jackson Liska kayak. I think they might be on the chew next week. Water will probably be in the mid to high 50's.

Hey Dogbone,

I have great luck with throwing these baits this time of year. Jig n craw trailer(blk and blue), Texas rigged sweet beaver style baits(green pumpkin, blk blue), spinnerbaits,jerkbaits,cankbaits and SENKOS! Senko's work year round

[DogBone_384]

Thanks for the input.  I think my bait selection is good but I'm bringing the kitchen sink just in case.

 

I fished a big pond in Plymouth on Tuesday and the only beds I saw were white suckers.

 

I drive an orange Tundra (with a BR bumper sticker), which it pretty hard to miss.  I'll likely be paddling my blue/camo Lure 11.5.

 

I'm not sure where I'm starting on Tuesday.  I'm most familiar with Hinckleys  so I'll likely start there, though Sand Pond in Harwich looked pretty appetizing last month while I was there....  we'll see.  

[BostonBassin]

Had a pretty successful week. Fished Tuesday and Wednesday hard and was killing them on the chatterbait and was getting a bunch top-water around sunset. Few between 2-3 and landed one that was 4.9 lbs on a texas rigged craw pitched into some submerged bushes. I was surprised to see how shallow the fish were coming up for the temps still being as cold as they are. The fishing is finally heating up!

[JAB50]

What color chatterbait and trailer do most people use? I can't for the life me catch a fish on one! Only bait that I cannot  catch a fish on!

[BostonBassin]

5 hours ago, JAB50 said:

What color chatterbait and trailer do most people use? I can't for the life me catch a fish on one! Only bait that I cannot  catch a fish on!

I have most of my luck with white or chartreuse and a white swimbait trailer. I know a lot of people use colors that are closer to matching a bluegill but for me it hasn't drawn as much attention as white.

[MassYak85]

5 hours ago, JAB50 said:

What color chatterbait and trailer do most people use? I can't for the life me catch a fish on one! Only bait that I cannot  catch a fish on!

I try and imitate bluegill most of the time so green pumpkin with some accenting bluegill colors usually works well for me. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

6 hours ago, JAB50 said:

What color chatterbait and trailer do most people use? I can't for the life me catch a fish on one! Only bait that I cannot  catch a fish on!

i love chatterbaits, i fish them like a jig tho. black and black/blue with a big creature bait. biggest ive caught on it was a 6.6 in september a few years ago, first time throwing it.  they do good at night to

 

went out for a night bite. missed a lot of fish. fishing topwater swimbaits.  6 to 15 inches.  most of the baits i used got bit.  i just couldnt connect. the fish would blow up on  it but miss the bait. even had fish hit the  15 inch snake. some good blow ups to

[Janderson45]

6 hours ago, JAB50 said:

What color chatterbait and trailer do most people use? I can't for the life me catch a fish on one! Only bait that I cannot  catch a fish on!

 

Just like any other bait, match it to the forage you're trying to imitate (whatever you think the bass are eating at the lake your fishing) while still taking water clarity and cloud cover into consideration.  

 

I basically fish 3 different colors of chatterbait, white, green pumpkin, and black with minor variations/accent colors.

 

White or natural baitfish colors when the water is stained to clear and the bass are eating alewife, white perch, or other natural baitfish.

 

Green pumpkin colors when the water is stained to clear and the bass are eating crawfish or bluegill

 

Black colors when the water is heavily stained to chocolate milk and the bass are eating crawfish.  What they're eating in heavily stained water is less important, not much that a bass eats is truly black, but it stands out well in stained water and overcast conditions, just trying to make your bait as visible as possible.

 

Couple of other random thoughts on chatterbaits..

-They tend to work best in slightly stained water on overcast and rainy days, if it's sunny out a stiff wind helps a lot.

-They are most deadly around grass in late prespawn or early postspawn, let them get a little snagged in the grass and then reel to pop them free, this creates an erratic fleeing action that makes big largemouth come unhinged 

-If you're not fishing them in grass, bang them off anything in sight like a squarebill

-If no cover is present to bang them off of a really quick few turns of the reel handle will do a decent job of triggering strikes

-Most chatterbaits have a pretty stout hook, use a medium heavy or heavy rod with a fast tip, 7:1 gear ratio reel and relatively beefy line 

-If fishing them exclusively in grass I will use a rod with a bit more flex in the tip, either a moderate fast or moderate action and 14lb fluoro.  This setup is best for "reeling" them free/out of the grass like I mentioned above.. the slower action of the rod causes it to load up and then slingshot the bait out of the grass.

-Craws are my favorite trailer by far, 1/2oz and 3/4oz are my most frequently used sizes.  

-If imitating baitfish remove the skirt and fish a fluke style bait with just the blade

-If using a paddletail as a trailer turn the trailer upside down for a better/more realistic action.

 

I could keep going but that's enough for now I guess! 

[JAB50]

Thanks everyone. Pretty much the colors I have and use. And usually use a keitech fat swing impact on it. So, I'll catch one on it eventually!

Bringing home some swimbait a too. I have a few Huddlestons, triple troutsand a perch colored 3:16 wakebait. I actually was about the first guy to own iron the east coast. Bought it when he first started his company. Have never thrown it. It was to pretty at the time. And expensive. Was going to buy some ms slammers. But, they are sold out almost everywhere or it's like a ridiculously long shipping time. 

Thanks again everyone 

[Mr. Aquarium]

i love slammers, one of my favorite baits. 

[Janderson45]

I'm telling ya, flip that Keitech upside down for a much better action with a chatterbait than it provides when rigged normally.  The blade of the chatterbait disturbs the water in front of the paddletail causing it to just sway back and forth slowly instead of  pulsate or thump like it normally would.  Flipping it upside down negates the effect of the blade and results in a much harder thumping trailer.

 

 

For all you Blade Bait aficionados out there, check out this new bait I'm going to test out on the Quabbin this weekend:

Too expensive to be a real factor, but it sure looks nice! 

[LadiMopar]

10 hours ago, JAB50 said:

What color chatterbait and trailer do most people use? I can't for the life me catch a fish on one! Only bait that I cannot  catch a fish on!

 

I do really well with white or green pumpkin most days, and have great success with brown/gold blade at night.

[JAB50]

Thanks! That blade baits looks familiar too! I have a ton of the original silver buddies that I bought over 10 years ago. Nickel, gold ant some copper colored ones too! Fished Squam one very cold November. We were using blade baits. Found a piece of a tree limb in about 20ft of water. We caught 4 fish for a weight of 18lbs. 

Them went to another spot at the end of the day and proceeded to catch about 25 fish in an hour between my brother and I.  All between a lb to 2lbs. It was a little mini tourn. between a group of friebds(5 boats).

[MassYak85]

23 hours ago, JAB50 said:

Thanks everyone. Pretty much the colors I have and use. And usually use a keitech fat swing impact on it. So, I'll catch one on it eventually!

Bringing home some swimbait a too. I have a few Huddlestons, triple troutsand a perch colored 3:16 wakebait. I actually was about the first guy to own iron the east coast. Bought it when he first started his company. Have never thrown it. It was to pretty at the time. And expensive. Was going to buy some ms slammers. But, they are sold out almost everywhere or it's like a ridiculously long shipping time. 

Thanks again everyone 

Tackle warehouse has some of the 9" single joints in some pretty sweet colors available (perch, bluegill, and black). 

 

I've got a 9" X2 diving slammer on order direct from Mike Shaw right now. @Mr. Aquarium, how quick does he usually get custom orders shipped out? I ordered it back in March and he was pretty vague on timeline when I checked in with him last month. I'm fine with waiting but don't want to be left in limbo. I'm also curious what he will do for the paint. I've seen several variations of his perch color scheme floating around and he posted one pretty recent on instagram that had an awesome new variation of the perch patttern.

 

 

[Janderson45]

Was out on the Nip in my kayak this afternoon.  They were up shallow in flooded cover and chewing, just like I thought they'd be.  Feels good when the fish are doing what they're "supposed" to be doing and you can pattern them pretty easily.

 

Got all of my bass (6 in total) in 1-2' feet of water, all on a jig w/craw trailer (custom 3/8oz tungsten pitching jig from siebert outdoors and strike king rage chunk trailer).  Was mainly fishing flooded brush tucked away out of the wind.  Got a good one too, boga grips put it at 4.5.. my digital scale is out of commission unfortunately.  Also, I didn't bother with the Humminbird today, so couldn't tell ya water temps.  Best guess is close to 60.  

 

 

Off to the Quabbin to chase some brown fish tomorrow.  Will let you know how it goes! 

 

 

[DogBone_384]

I installed a *** Z bearing kit in my 6.6:1 ***A and am bringing it to the Cape this week. Seat of tha pants says big improvement. We’ll see while I’m smallie hunting...

[JAB50]

DogBone_384,

Ill be down the Cape tonight;  through the week. I'm waiting to see what they are doing. Last 2 years at this time the smallies were on beds. It's been cold down there. So, we'll see. Haven't gotten any updates on the conditions down there. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

Long Pond (Harwich) Update:
 

Its on down here...water temps crossed 60 degrees Saturday and the 1st wave of smallies are on the beds (most in the 7-10ft zone, so bring your best polarized lens if your're looking for em). 

 

Despite the fact that there was 20+ boats on Long Pond this Saturday (Captain Bub's Trail I think), I was able to find a few nice 2.5lb+ spawners early on, and then had to really slowwww down to get bites in the afternoon with the fish getting pretty skittish as the sun got high. 

 

Started off pitching a green pumpkin tube and then a wacky-rigged senko for bedding fish, then switched to a drop-shot and targeted both 'cruisers' up in the bedding areas as well as steeper contour breaks near grass. 

 

At the end of the day, had ~10 bites, landed 8 of them and best 5 went for ~11.5lbs (missing a kicker for sure).

 

Anyone been out on Wequaquet lately?

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

On 5/5/2018 at 6:14 PM, MassYak85 said:

Tackle warehouse has some of the 9" single joints in some pretty sweet colors available (perch, bluegill, and black). 

 

I've got a 9" X2 diving slammer on order direct from Mike Shaw right now. @Mr. Aquarium, how quick does he usually get custom orders shipped out? I ordered it back in March and he was pretty vague on timeline when I checked in with him last month. I'm fine with waiting but don't want to be left in limbo. I'm also curious what he will do for the paint. I've seen several variations of his perch color scheme floating around and he posted one pretty recent on instagram that had an awesome new variation of the perch patttern.

 

 

not sure, its been a while since i've bought from him. i dont think its to long but if its been since March i'd deff try to contact him. or post it on a swimbait facebook page.  parch color ive seen one or 2 variations. really only ones ive seen are the back color. i saw that new color perch, that thing looks SIICCKKK. i need one 

[JAB50]

Thanks for the info. I went out to a small pond and caught a bunch of bucks. The smallies already spawned out there. Hitting another place right now. If it's like it was 2 years ago. I'm hoping I catch this same fish that I lost. It was every bit of 9lbs. My boroyher caught a 8lb 9oz the next day. I guess we'll see. The water temps were between 61 to 62 degrees at the place I fish first today!

Thanks for the info. I went out to a small pond and caught a bunch of bucks. The smallies already spawned out there. Hitting another place right now. If it's like it was 2 years ago. I'm hoping I catch this same fish that I lost. It was every bit of 9lbs. My boroyher caught a 8lb 9oz the next day. I guess we'll see. The water temps were between 61 to 62 degrees at the place I fish first today!

[LadiMopar]

Skunkus Maximus is over!  Okay it was over last week with that tiny little 1 pounder, but... these are at least worth snapping a pic of.  

Caught these two about an hour apart on Saturday afternoon. Water was a balmy 68-70 thanks to the mini heat wave. These were cruising about 15 ft off the bank in abt 4- 5 ft of water. The first one was near a beaver lodge with several downed trees, and the second was cruising in front of cattails.  There were a few small males hanging around beds, but none of them are showing signs of serious spawning activity yet.

 

Robbins Pond, Devens, MA

[DogBone_384]

I'm hitting the Cape Tues - Thurs.  My plan of attack is Sheeps on Tuesday, Hinckey & Seymour Wednesday, and perhaps Sand on Thursday.  

 

Hope to run into a couple members this week.  

 

If you see a USCG orange Tundra (with BR bumper sticker) and/or a blue camo Lure 11.5, that's me.

[JAB50]

Dogbone,

let me know how Sheeps is; if you go before I do? Not sure what the plan of attack is tomorrow. My brother is coming down tomorrow morning early. So, we might do Sheeps. I went to smaller places today. The smallies were spawned out at this one particular place. And the largies(bucks) were on the beds. Caught about 12. No real sizes. Typical 1.5 to 2lbers. Other place was off terribly. Water was 64.5 degrees. So, I'll be hitting several different places. Maybe Seymour and Hinkleys. Long Pond Yarmouth too.