Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Ralph Nicholas Vito]

Thanks guys ! also any idea why Massachusetts does not stock bodies of water with Large or small mouth bass ?

 

Can only find info on "Trout stocking" ...... not a fish i go after honestly so a little bummed by that. If they do stock any body of water with bass i would love to know which one lol

[Janderson45]

47 minutes ago, Ralph Nicholas Vito said:

Thanks guys ! also any idea why Massachusetts does not stock bodies of water with Large or small mouth bass ?

 

Can only find info on "Trout stocking" ...... not a fish i go after honestly so a little bummed by that. If they do stock any body of water with bass i would love to know which one lol

 

No bass stocking anywhere in mass for many many decades.  Bass are not a "native" species to Massachusetts but stocking dated back 100+ years introduced them to the area and made them the dominant predator and game fish in almost every body of freshwater in the state.  Anywhere that has enough depth to not completely freeze solid in winter or completely dry up during summer droughts will hold largemouth bass.  Smallmouth are available in most parts of the state but not anywhere near as much as largemouth are.

 

When it comes to picking good lakes/ponds/reservoirs to target for bass your best indicators are going to be the amount of available forage and the amount of suitable structure and habitat for the bass to live (hide) in.  Another factor to consider is the fishing pressure, occasionally if you do a bit of homework you can find a nice little secluded pond that hardly ever gets fished, these days can be very fun and productive.

 

Where are you located in Massachusetts?  We may be able to help point you in the right direction if we know what bodies of water are local to you.

 

[LadiMopar]

Thanks guys for letting me vent a little a few days back, it really did help. but today I have great news to share!

 

Out on Lost Lake in Groton again this morning about 5:30. It was humid as all get out, but nice once on the water. Water temps were up a few degrees from the weekend, 75-77 most of the morning, and just about 80 when I came off at 10.

 

Headed straight for the cove were I've been hunting that "monster" for the better part of a week now. Just as I glide in I am greeted by a bald eagle who was scoping out breakfast, amazing! He/she circles over a few times and then swooped in, flying off with what I'm not sure, but it was absolutely a fabulous way to start the morning.

 

Sonar is really, really quiet for the better part of an hour, and then I hear the fish alarm start pinging...just the usual smallish ones, and they are suspending between 2-4 feet under me. Working a slow crankbait,  and not much is happening, so instead of ignoring that little voice in my head I decide to take my own "expert" advice. I tie on my secret weapon [soft plastic turtle] and bang, pickerel; toss it out again and bang! a nice little bass about 2lbs....toss it out again...and BANG! I have a bass that is taking me for a ride...woohoo!!!!

 

She measured out at 20 [maybe a little closer to 20.5] long x 15 girth; just shy of 6lbs according to the weight calculator here at BR!!!!! [a little over 6 if she's closer to the 20.5]. Either way, I think she might qualify for first place on the BBWC leaderboard for MA!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!! If my balance was better I probably would have been dancing in the kayak.

 

Without further adieu....

 

[Ralph Nicholas Vito]

1 hour ago, Janderson45 said:

 

No bass stocking anywhere in mass for many many decades.  Bass are not a "native" species to Massachusetts but stocking dated back 100+ years introduced them to the area and made them the dominant predator and game fish in almost every body of freshwater in the state.  Anywhere that has enough depth to not completely freeze solid in winter or completely dry up during summer droughts will hold largemouth bass.  Smallmouth are available in most parts of the state but not anywhere near as much as largemouth are.

 

When it comes to picking good lakes/ponds/reservoirs to target for bass your best indicators are going to be the amount of available forage and the amount of suitable structure and habitat for the bass to live (hide) in.  Another factor to consider is the fishing pressure, occasionally if you do a bit of homework you can find a nice little secluded pond that hardly ever gets fished, these days can be very fun and productive.

 

Where are you located in Massachusetts?  We may be able to help point you in the right direction if we know what bodies of water are local to you.

 

That's annoying i find Trout to be the least fun fish to catch (never caught one but have seen plenty of youtube videos of people catching them ... seem weak and not fun) Makes me want to move to a state that actually stocks Large Mouth Bass.

 

I'm from Melrose north of boston some people have told me spot pond but when i fished there as a kid i never caught anything

[Mr. Aquarium]

hell of a fish.

been saltwater fishing lately, bites been tough, handful of schoolie stripers.  decided to go freshwater on saturday. went out looking for bowfin, was using bass lures hoping for some bowfin and bass. caught a crappie and a small bass. slow day

[Janderson45]

33 minutes ago, Ralph Nicholas Vito said:

That's annoying i find Trout to be the least fun fish to catch (never caught one but have seen plenty of youtube videos of people catching them ... seem weak and not fun) Makes me want to move to a state that actually stocks Large Mouth Bass.

 

I'm from Melrose north of boston some people have told me spot pond but when i fished there as a kid i never caught anything

 

Southern states that are big into bass fishing will stock bass into new waterways and attempt to manage them as a "trophy fishery", but once a good population is established in a given waterbody there's usually no reason to stock bass- in fact it can actually be detrimental to the fishery when smaller recently stocked bass start competing for food with the older and larger bass that are already present.

 

Fishing from shore can be tough, especially around the city, so I understand your frustration.  That said Massachusetts is home to some deceptively large bass!  I believe the state record in mass is bigger than any other state north of Virginia, pretty impressive.  

 

Trout are stocked as a recreation and table fish, not a true game fish in many instances.  Most of the trout the state stocks don't make it through their first winter for a multitude of reasons.. 

[Janderson45]

1 hour ago, LadiMopar said:

Thanks guys for letting me vent a little a few days back, it really did help. but today I have great news to share!

 

Out on Lost Lake in Groton again this morning about 5:30. It was humid as all get out, but nice once on the water. Water temps were up a few degrees from the weekend, 75-77 most of the morning, and just about 80 when I came off at 10.

 

Headed straight for the cove were I've been hunting that "monster" for the better part of a week now. Just as I glide in I am greeted by a bald eagle who was scoping out breakfast, amazing! He/she circles over a few times and then swooped in, flying off with what I'm not sure, but it was absolutely a fabulous way to start the morning.

 

Sonar is really, really quiet for the better part of an hour, and then I hear the fish alarm start pinging...just the usual smallish ones, and they are suspending between 2-4 feet under me. Working a slow crankbait,  and not much is happening, so instead of ignoring that little voice in my head I decide to take my own "expert" advice. I tie on my secret weapon [soft plastic turtle] and bang, pickerel; toss it out again and bang! a nice little bass about 2lbs....toss it out again...and BANG! I have a bass that is taking me for a ride...woohoo!!!!

 

She measured out at 20 [maybe a little closer to 20.5] long x 15 girth; just shy of 6lbs according to the weight calculator here at BR!!!!! [a little over 6 if she's closer to the 20.5]. Either way, I think she might qualify for first place on the BBWC leaderboard for MA!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!! If my balance was better I probably would have been dancing in the kayak.

 

Without further adieu....

 

Nice fish, glad you were able to go back and find it again, just goes to show they don't often do travel far, especially once they're locked into summer mode.

 

For what it's worth I'm pretty confident that you weren't marking bass on your sonar unit suspended 2-4 feet under the boat.  I understand that the unit was telling you that, but it's pretty unlikely.  Those fish ID symbols aren't a great indication of actual fish in my experience, I always tell people that they're better off shutting off that feature and learning to interpret the actual sonar returns.

 

in order to mark a fish in 2-4 feet of water on a standard broadband sonar  reading that fish would have to be almost directly under the transducer, within 8-16" to be exact.  Even then most units have too much surface clutter in water this shallow to truly mark a fish.  It's possible I suppose but highly unlikely... you were probably marking random debris in the water and the sonar unit incorrectly determined the debris to be fish.

[DogBone_384]

1 hour ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

hell of a fish.

been saltwater fishing lately, bites been tough, handful of schoolie stripers.  decided to go freshwater on saturday. went out looking for bowfin, was using bass lures hoping for some bowfin and bass. caught a crappie and a small bass. slow day

I’ve had much more success with topwater the last week or two than with soft plastics. My 130 Whopper-Plopper & Rapala Skitter-walk especially.

[Ralph Nicholas Vito]

1 hour ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

hell of a fish.

been saltwater fishing lately, bites been tough, handful of schoolie stripers.  decided to go freshwater on saturday. went out looking for bowfin, was using bass lures hoping for some bowfin and bass. caught a crappie and a small bass. slow day

theres bowfin in MA ?!?!?!? d**n

[je1946]

2 hours ago, LadiMopar said:

Thanks guys for letting me vent a little a few days back, it really did help. but today I have great news to share!

 

Out on Lost Lake in Groton again this morning about 5:30. It was humid as all get out, but nice once on the water. Water temps were up a few degrees from the weekend, 75-77 most of the morning, and just about 80 when I came off at 10.

 

Headed straight for the cove were I've been hunting that "monster" for the better part of a week now. Just as I glide in I am greeted by a bald eagle who was scoping out breakfast, amazing! He/she circles over a few times and then swooped in, flying off with what I'm not sure, but it was absolutely a fabulous way to start the morning.

 

Sonar is really, really quiet for the better part of an hour, and then I hear the fish alarm start pinging...just the usual smallish ones, and they are suspending between 2-4 feet under me. Working a slow crankbait,  and not much is happening, so instead of ignoring that little voice in my head I decide to take my own "expert" advice. I tie on my secret weapon [soft plastic turtle] and bang, pickerel; toss it out again and bang! a nice little bass about 2lbs....toss it out again...and BANG! I have a bass that is taking me for a ride...woohoo!!!!

 

She measured out at 20 [maybe a little closer to 20.5] long x 15 girth; just shy of 6lbs according to the weight calculator here at BR!!!!! [a little over 6 if she's closer to the 20.5]. Either way, I think she might qualify for first place on the BBWC leaderboard for MA!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!! If my balance was better I probably would have been dancing in the kayak.

 

Without further adieu....

 

Congrats Lady Mopar, your determination was rewarded.

[Janderson45]

47 minutes ago, Ralph Nicholas Vito said:

theres bowfin in MA ?!?!?!? d**n

 

Mostly confined to river systems and their tributaries but you betcha there's bowfin in Mass.  Not positive but I believe there's bowfin in all of the lower 48 states.  

[Ralph Nicholas Vito]

9 minutes ago, Janderson45 said:

 

Mostly confined to river systems and their tributaries but you betcha there's bowfin in Mass.  Not positive but I believe there's bowfin in all of the lower 48 states.  

aren't they basically snakehead ?!?!? or closely related ?

 

[LadiMopar]

1 hour ago, Janderson45 said:

Nice fish, glad you were able to go back and find it again, just goes to show they don't often do travel far, especially once they're locked into summer mode.

 

For what it's worth I'm pretty confident that you weren't marking bass on your sonar unit suspended 2-4 feet under the boat.  I understand that the unit was telling you that, but it's pretty unlikely.  Those fish ID symbols aren't a great indication of actual fish in my experience, I always tell people that they're better off shutting off that feature and learning to interpret the actual sonar returns.

 

in order to mark a fish in 2-4 feet of water on a standard broadband sonar  reading that fish would have to be almost directly under the transducer, within 8-16" to be exact.  Even then most units have too much surface clutter in water this shallow to truly mark a fish.  It's possible I suppose but highly unlikely... you were probably marking random debris in the water and the sonar unit incorrectly determined the debris to be fish.

 

Thanks for the congrats, now about this sonar thing...

 

I'm not using a "traditional" sonar unit [Humminbird/Lowrance etc] so you may be right and I'm certainly no expert, but I can tell you that this big girl whacked it not far below the surface.  I was only in 10 ft of water and she was on it before it hardly had a chance to drop.[.25 oz T rig - not pegged]

 

I wonder often how accurate these things are, and spend a good amount of time peering over the edge of the yak to see who or what is passing under me...truthfully I have the Deeper mostly for mapping out these smaller waters that you cant get bathymetry maps for. Like most of Mass we have tons of these "uncharted waters" in N. Central and it has kinda surprised me to discover the lay of the land under the surface of even the itty bitty 20 acre ponds.

[Janderson45]

Ahhh the Deeper unit, I've never used one but I've seen videos/promotions about them.  Don't you cast it out on a fishing rod and retrieve it?  How do you have it rigged up to your kayak?  

 

Im not sure if you can shut the "Fish ID" feature off on the Deeper or not, I figured you were using a standard 4" humminbird or lowrance in which case you definitely can (and I would advise) shutting it off.  

 

The same general concept on marking fish that shallow applies to the Deeper as well though, general rule of thumb for a 83/200khz transducer is that the "cone" of coverage is about 1/3 of the water depth.  So in ten feet of water your sonar would be effectively scanning and showing data for a circle just over 3 feet in diameter at the bottom of the pond.  As you move up in the water column the "cone" of sonar coverage shrinks; when you get up to three feet of water the coverage area from the transducer is effectively 12" or less.  

 

In reality traditional sonar is not a great way to mark fish in shallow water.  As the water gets deeper your odds of actually marking a bass get a lot better.  Newer forms of front facing, 360 degree, and  side scanning sonar/imaging are a lot more useful for finding and marking fish in shallow water.  In shallow water I use my 2D sonar to tell me 3 things, water depth, water temperature, and bottom hardness/composition.  Everything else pretty much gets ignored.

 

 

I know what you mean about mapping some of those little ponds without data available, I have a few around me that I would love to have a better knowledge of! 

[LadiMopar]

7 minutes ago, Janderson45 said:

Ahhh the Deeper unit, I've never used one but I've seen videos/promotions about them.  Don't you cast it out on a fishing rod and retrieve it?  How do you have it rigged up to your kayak?  

 

If fishing from the shore you certainly would cast and retrieve the unit, but personally I had visions of $130 flying through the air, never to return! It feels really light weight in hand but tied to say 8# test it's more like hurling a bowling ball.

 

So to answer your question, I attach the Deeper to a very firmly mounted flex arm. I have the original model with the 1/4 20 screw at the end of the arm and the unit screws right in. Nice and secure. The clamp on the other end fits perfectly around the frame of my kayak seat; essentially a fancy version of a C clamp. Also bought a refurbished tablet to use as my "sonar screen". I need to be accessible by phone at all times (caring for elderly parents) and the sonar just sucks the life out of the phone battery in about 4 hours. The tablet is also easier view.

 

Went 50 years without gadgets on the water, and as I mentioned before this unit was mostly for mapping out the local puddles. Most trips I don't even look at it...but this past week was glad I did. It was a bit of a thrill to think there might be a "monster" bass down there, and highly motivational at 4 AM! 

 

Ssshhh...be very, very quiet...Ladimopar is hunting big gween fishes! ?

[MassYak85]

I've been doing some exploring from shore around the Sudbury Reservoir recently. Took a slammer the past two trips out with no bites (might have been a little over-hopeful lol). I mainly wanted to cover ground and get a feel for the trails around the lake though. It really is a beautiful place and gives a very secluded feeling. Has anyone had luck there before? I've done well on the eastern shore of the lake using finesse tactics but no big fish yet. Explored the western shore today and found a couple spots that seemed like they had good potential. Also does anyone know if Bathymetry maps exist for the reservoir? I found one that was extremely unspecific but not much else. Or perhaps even old topographic maps of the area before they flooded it? 

 

And congrats on the fish! @LadiMopar

[LadiMopar]

A "bucket mouth; lunker; hawg; toad ...or pick your favorite big bass term....sized Thank you to all of you guys here in the EMFR group for the replies/reactions to today's big catch.

 

It means a lot more than you would probably imagine.

 

Wishing you all tight lines and a speedy end to this mid summer slump! ????

 

LM 

[Ralph Nicholas Vito]

To all my Mass Fisherman ... Is there anyone that fishes on Long Pond in Brewster on here ?

 

For as long as i have been fishing (since i was little) i have never caught a fish in there but they have bass tourneys on it and sometimes they come back with some HOGS ..... yet i can never catch anything >.>

[Dunks N Dinks]

Vito,

 

Long Pond is a tough place to crack. Having fished there the last two years (probably 8-10 times per year), I still struggle to put together a limit some days. That being said, in my limited experience there are some specimens in there (Ive been lucky enough to get a handful of 4lb+ smallies) and past tourney results have shown there are giants (7lb largemouth a few years ago). Ive found that it is extremely seasonally dependent, and like most clear-water glacier-formed lakes with minimal structure, it fishes deeper than most are comfortable with... without some confidence in their electronics (in my opinion...). If your fishing from shore, probably not worth the effort... 

 

The easiest time to fish the lake is no doubt the early spring around the 55-60 water temp mark, when the smallies move up shallower to spawn in 6ft-12ft range. The toughest time is right around now, as the heat and recreational boat traffic keeps most active fish out of the shallows and locked onto the bottom (or suspended offshore). Ive had the best luck in the 15-20ft band targeting areas of sharp contour changes (as the chart ive attached below shows).

 

Slow finesse presentations are usually the ticket (drop-shot, shakeyhead, etc), but in the the spring, yo-yo-ing blade-baits are usually responsible for the best stringers in tournaments. Boat control and watching your electronics to stay in the sweet spots is paramount...which is often tough when the wind picks up as it often does on Long Pond.

Hope this helps, but full disclosure, I am still figuring it out too and have plenty more questions than answers about offshore/deeper structure fishing...

btw, I'll probably be fishing there Sunday morning...if you see a bass-tracker and doofus in a green hat, gimme a holler   
 

[Mr. Aquarium]

no bowfin, had a few good hits, caught a bass. then went to do some night fishing caught a 2.5-3 on a slammer. felt good getting some bass 

[haggard]

On 7/25/2018 at 11:51 AM, LadiMopar said:

and bang, pickerel; toss it out again and bang! a nice little bass about 2lbs....toss it out again...and BANG! I have a bass that is taking me for a ride...woohoo!!!!

Third time's a charm, apparently! Congrats, and I wish you the bassed of luck in the BBWC

 

 

[Janderson45]

17 hours ago, Ralph Nicholas Vito said:

To all my Mass Fisherman ... Is there anyone that fishes on Long Pond in Brewster on here ?

 

For as long as i have been fishing (since i was little) i have never caught a fish in there but they have bass tourneys on it and sometimes they come back with some HOGS ..... yet i can never catch anything >.>

 

Yup fished a tournament there in late March this year, @Dunks N Dinks gave a great breakdown above.  

 

In my most recent tournament there it was particularly stingy.  Almost every fish brought to the scales was caught on a blade bait (silver buddy, etc.) and I think most of the field had at least one tied on.  One of the keys to getting bit was letting the bait rest on the bottom for long periods, often 30-60 seconds.  They would eat it off the bottom and you'd never feel a thing until you lifted it up and they were on.  Pretty nuts! 

[LadiMopar]

On 7/25/2018 at 8:34 PM, MassYak85 said:

I've been doing some exploring from shore around the Sudbury Reservoir recently. Took a slammer the past two trips out with no bites (might have been a little over-hopeful lol). I mainly wanted to cover ground and get a feel for the trails around the lake though. It really is a beautiful place and gives a very secluded feeling. Has anyone had luck there before? I've done well on the eastern shore of the lake using finesse tactics but no big fish yet. Explored the western shore today and found a couple spots that seemed like they had good potential. Also does anyone know if Bathymetry maps exist for the reservoir? I found one that was extremely unspecific but not much else. Or perhaps even old topographic maps of the area before they flooded it? 

 

And congrats on the fish! @LadiMopar

 

@MassYak85 have you looked at the "Social Map" from the genesis map website? They have a reasonably decent depth map of the Sudbury res. 

https://www.genesismaps.com/SocialMap/Index 

You need to zoom in on the area; state then town. No easier way such as an index, but you might find it helpful.

Also, you can download a free pdf topo  here.

https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/ma/worcester-county-25027/reservoirs/sudbury-reservoir-611400/

[MassYak85]

21 hours ago, LadiMopar said:

 

@MassYak85 have you looked at the "Social Map" from the genesis map website? They have a reasonably decent depth map of the Sudbury res. 

https://www.genesismaps.com/SocialMap/Index 

You need to zoom in on the area; state then town. No easier way such as an index, but you might find it helpful.

Also, you can download a free pdf topo  here.

https://www.anyplaceamerica.com/directory/ma/worcester-county-25027/reservoirs/sudbury-reservoir-611400/

Awesome! I suppose I can't expect anything more detailed than 5 foot contour intervals for a lake that doesn't allow any boats ?. That does help a lot though, thank you!

 

I fished Cochituate today with my father, not sure what I expected I always seem to do terribly there lol. Managed a couple dinks and one that was probably around 2.5lbs. I think the biggest bass I've ever gotten there was maybe around 3lbs. I also hooked into a 25" pickerel on a deep weedline. Not what I was expecting or going for with a giant carolina rigged worm but hey, I'll take it haha. I thought I had a 5 or 6lb largemouth on at first. Unfortunately I don't think the poor guy made it, I kept it in the water until I got the stuff to measure it and didn't have it out that long, put it on wet rags and everything, but it still seemed in shock when I put it back and despite about 20 minutes of keeping it upright it still went belly up. Hook didn't do much damage either. It had a few previous battle scars and was bleeding from it's tail when I first pulled it up (anyone ever see that for non-bedding fish?). I saw it making some effort to turn back over as I left the area, so fingers crossed it found the strength. 

[LadiMopar]

@MassYak85  Glad the map sites were a help. USGS is another good free topo resource but a bit trickier to navigate if your.not sure of the quadrant your after.

 

Been having a similar issue with the pickerel, even if they're only out of the water for a few minutes...maybe the extra warm water temps are playing a role in this...hmmmm.

 

4:30 AM...out the door I go to hunt big green fishes! Hoping to find the big sister to this week's beauty.