Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[LadiMopar]

Out at Lost Lake (Groton) this morning abt 6:00, water was a balmy 82 and with all the rain it was looking a bit murky. Usually stained but otherwise clear; today had trouble seeing the bait past a foot or so.

 

Managed to hook four and get two in the yak. Three bass, two that were little half pounders and one that was probably 3+ that decided to jump ship before I could get it in ? and one pick that was nice enough to unhook itself at the side of the yak..woohoo!

 

It was definitely a slow rolling bait kinda day, the 3+ sucked up a soft plastic turtle (one of my go to baits for days like this) pretty close to the bottom (7' of water) and the small ones hit on a LiveTarget baitball crank ripping through grass. All in all not a bad morning, but It would have been nice to get that bigger one in the yak.

 

Hope everyone else is having success out there...

 

[mrcimon]

Hey all, 

 

I just recently joined the forums and have started fishing again after 20 years.  Looking to get into it, I use to go with my Step Dad when I was younger.  It's the only thing that was good about the guy, but it was memerable.  I miss it and have always thought about fishing again so here I am.  

 

I live in Peabody, MA and It's honestly been so long that I don't remeber places to go.  But if anyone has any recommendations that be great!  I don't mind driving up to NH either.  I'll be shore fishing mainly for Bass (Fresh Water) as I invest in more tackle and gear, 

[LadiMopar]

1 hour ago, mrcimon said:

Hey all, 

 

I just recently joined the forums and have started fishing again after 20 years.  Looking to get into it, I use to go with my Step Dad when I was younger.  It's the only thing that was good about the guy, but it was memerable.  I miss it and have always thought about fishing again so here I am.  

 

I live in Peabody, MA and It's honestly been so long that I don't remeber places to go.  But if anyone has any recommendations that be great!  I don't mind driving up to NH either.  I'll be shore fishing mainly for Bass (Fresh Water) as I invest in more tackle and gear, 

 

Let me welcome you again to BR, and glad to see you found us over here in the Eastern Bassachusetts thread. ? 

Shore fishing can be a tad tough in some areas of the state, but I recently posted a link for another member that might help you expand your choices of water. 

https://mass-eoeea.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=c956ffbcff3142c2b6295985cce37372

Each "star" on the map gives specific info about that body of water, shore access, boat ramp etc. Not all water in the state is covered, but most of the Great Ponds of the Commonwealth are. This link https://www.mass.gov/service-details/massachusetts-pond-maps-list-view  gives you access to basic pond maps in the state by town/water name. Some of the maps also give some basic info of species, vegetation and access.

 

Hope this helps. ?

LM

[Janderson45]

Quabbin fished fished fairly tough for us on Sunday.  It was dead calm and very hot, air temps approaching 95 degrees, and heat index values into the triple digits.  Water temps at the surface were between 78-80 degrees. I picked up a couple of 2lb smallies quick near gate 43, and surprisingly a couple of 4lb laketrout as well.  I made a long cast along a sharp breakline that went from 20 feet abruptly to 60 feet.  The boat was in 35' of water and my casts were parallel to the breakline.  About halfway through my retrieve I felt a slight *tick* , reeled down quick to get any slack out and set the hook; came tight on something that felt pretty nice, and throughout the fight it pulled a decent amount of drag.  I thought it was odd that it didn't come rocketing up to the surface like most smallmouth would, but some of the larger smallies I've caught have behaved this way.  I was shocked when we finally got a look at it and it was a lake trout.  Never caught a laker while dragging a heavy jig in the summer which I do quite often so that was pretty exciting.  Took a picture and released it.  

 

Very next cast was to a slightly different location but still near where the first laker bit.  What do you know it played out almost the exact same way.  Another lake trout of almost identical size, weird!

 

From there it got tough, I could find and catch dinks on a dropshot but nothing with any size at all.  Finally at about 1pm I hooked into a good one on the jig again out in the main reservoir.  It was hooked pretty deep unfortunately, but I was able to get my jig back. The fish was bleeding pretty good so I quickly got it back in the water and only have one lousy pic of it showing how deep it choked the jig.  It was probably just shy of 4lbs by my estimate, wasn't able to get an actual weight on it either.  

 

A handful more dinks as we stopped off at spots on our way back to the ramp.  We were off the water by about 3:30 which is early for me.  My buddy from New York had come up to visit and fish with me, great guy and he's very interested in bass fishing all of the sudden but he has a lot to learn.. he really struggled all day despite my advice and rigging baits up for him, he only ended up catching 3 dinks. We were very hot which helped our decision to get off the water a bit early.  I think I probably boated 12 smallmouth and the 2 laketrout myself, but out of those 12 smallmouth I'm not sure I even  had 5 that would've been "keepers" (over 12") .  

[DogBone_384]

Congrats on a good trip out west J!

 

On the SMB idea, I think it’s the heat.  I fished Great South for a few hours today and came up with a dink SMB on a drop-shotted Ned and a really skinny pickerel on a wacky rigged Senko.  Surface temps were 83.x - 84.x and it was near calm most of the time I was there.  

 

I threw a couple different pencils and a 110 Whopper Plopper and couldn’t buy a bite.  This place has my number this year.  I’ve caught almost nothing there no matter what I threw or where I threw it.  For the time it takes me to pack up, drive down, paddle across Little South and hump over the hill - I think I’ll wait until the FALL and give it another go.

 

I drove home and helped my daughter’s BF do an oil change on his truck then hit Ponkie.  Wasn’t there more than an hour and got called into work.  I picked up two LMB, each around 2 pounds on soft plastics and a fiesty little bluegill that attacked a Yozuri pencil twice its size.  Water temps were a cool 86.x for the short time I was on the water.

 

ADD: There were clouds of water bugs on Great South and NO action from any fish at all.

[Derek1]

This is a great thread. I live InMethuen and this is great info very useful. I only know a few small ponds myself but this thread will help that allot. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

Cape Update:

Checked in on Long Pond yesterday 6-11am (74 air, 80 water). Top-water bite was on for about an hour or so in the fog...got a 2.5lb large-mouth on a spook and my buddy had a 3lb smallie CRUSH a zoom horny toad in sparse lily-pads (first time ive ever seen that). Rest of the morning we worked on tapering points (16-24ft) with shakeyhead and drop-shot setups and filled out a decent limit. Bite was inconsistent and had to present baits very slow, but ended up catching 7-8 fish and our best 5 went around ~11.5-12lbs. 

Bonus: Saturday went out on the salt off Harwichport and got a few Sea Bass jigging in 80ft of water.         

[Mr. Aquarium]

just got back from NH, managed a nice brookie in a stream on the fly, caught a parr as well 

 

[DogBone_384]

Air temp in the 70's, overcast, and just a little wind ..... just the right forecast to go fishing.

 

I launched at Ponkapog around 1100 and stayed until 1600.  Got 3 LMB between 1 1/2 & 2 pounds, a couple dink LMB, a dink pick, and a pick upwards of 3 pounds. 

 

Had one pick unhook itself and a 4th good LMB get away with a case of knot failure.

 

Soft baits were the ticket today, worked S L O W L Y and left still.  Water temps were 77.x - 78.x.

 

I'm fishing with Fishing Rhino tomorrow and then hitting Brewster/Harwich Wednesday through Friday....  and tomorrow's forecast on Cape Cod calls for TOPWATER!

[gjfisher]

Went out in full rain gear from dawn to 9am today and I am glad I did, as a couple of good fish made up for the lack of quantity.  I started with topwater, since the condition was just like DogBone's forecast, calm with slight wind.  Had a couple of blowups on a whopper plopper just before 6am.  The fog was so dense that I couldn't even see my lure/line after I cast it out.  I fished some more topwater with a sebile flat belly walker and a frog but no takers.  So I switched to a chatter bait and a soft jerk bait the rest of the trip.  Overall I didn't get too many hits and did not find any consistent pattern but did land 7 LMB including a 4lb13oz (below), a 3lb10oz, a couple 2 lbers and the rest were 1-1.5lbs.  With cooler temperature this weekend, hopefully there is better fishing ahead...

[DogBone_384]

It’s been a tough bite the last few days. I fished Mashpee/Wakeby, Peter’s, Great Herring, and Hinckley’s yesterday and today.  Managed a couple decent SMB at M/W, but the other three ponds produced little or NOTHING. My Lowrance marked a lot of fish in 15-20’ of water at Hinkley’s and showed them all making a bee-line upwards at 45 degrees.  I’ve never seen that before.  Regardless,  I tossed the kitchen sink at Hickley’s and got a big NADDA. 

 

Water temps are 83.x and there’s not been much of a breeze.  I think the fish are on vacation....

 

Fishing Rhino and I are starting at Cliff Pond tomorrow morning and winging it.  I’m down the Cape until Friday afternoon.

[Mr. Aquarium]

got this fish monday on a jig. went hunting for a good fish with swimbaits and jigs from shore. caught this on a bico barracc jig paired with a samatis craw. 

[Derek1]

That’s a nice one

[DogBone_384]

Fishing Rhino and I started at Cliff’s Pond just before 0600 yesterday morning. Tom hooked onto a good SMB and landed a beautiful rainbow trout straight away then the bite shut off as if the tax collector was coming.

 

We moved over to Little Cliff to see if there was any action there. Nope.

 

From Little Cliff we went to Flax Pond, which was crowded with Cape Cod vacationers. We had some success here. I landed a couple dink SMB and Tom caught 4, methinks.

 

Wanting some quieter waters we packed up and tried Hinckley’s later in the afternoon. Tom caught a nice SMB, 2+ pounds, and I snagged a yellow perch on a squarebill.

 

Water temps at all the ponds were 80+ degrees, with bright sunlight, a barometric pressure north of 30, and little breeze. Great weather for swimmers and sun bathers, but not for catching fish.

 

I’ll chaulk up the slow fishing to the weather. Over three days I fished too many ponds, threw too many baits, with the same results.  The weather, however, couldn’t have been  better to be on my Kayak or in Tom’s canoe.

 

I’m still up for a couple days fishing Nickerson state park in September when the tourists are gone and water temps cool down a bit.  Hopefully a few of you can make it.

 

 

[gjfisher]

I got out for another morning mission today.  It was a SLOW and "dinky" one (and I've had many of those this season), save for the last fish.  There was a stretch of 1.5 hours without a single bite, despite my best efforts to toss both my "confidence baits" and "no confidence baits" that are supposed to work under the condition.  Finally I was able to locate some fish pushed up shallow, on a weedy flat.  A weedless rigged 4.3" Keitech swing impact fat fished really really slow produced 3 dinks and one 1.5 lber.  Then the bite shut off again and for another 30 minutes, not a single bite.  I was ready to pack up and leave but decided to toss a few last casts around some lily pads.  I saw a big swirl, felt the weight on my line for a second, and set the hook.  This fish (4lb 6oz) provided the happy ending to my trip.

 

[DogBone_384]

Congrats on a good exit to your day. That bass looks like it could use a Big Mac, or two.... I’ve also caught a few skinnies this month.  That tells me it’s gonna be a BUSY fall.

[gjfisher]

Yes!  That fish had an enormous head but was skinny.  Hopefully with cooler temperature ahead, they will be in better feeding mode and fatten up!

[Dunks N Dinks]

Cape Update: Cold Front Chunker & Conspiracy Theory?

 

Went out on Cliffs Pond Sunday (68 air, 81 wtr) in 10-15mph winds from the N. The first legitimate cold-front in months it seems and it definitely made for a tough bite. Between my buddy and I we managed just 6 fish in 6hrs. With 20/20 hindsight, we should have spent a lot more time focusing out deep, since 4 of our bites came in 20ft+ dragging ned rigs near contour breaks. The highlight was the 4.5lb chunker pic'd below. The most interesting part of the outing however, was not on the lake but on shore, when we met a camper in Nickerson State Park who claims to have caught a 13.9lb (!!!) large-mouth out of Cliffs last summer on a live shiner. Can't find anything in the local papers about it....so begs the question; fact or fiction? Can such a small pond support that sort of lunker? Can pure northern-strains even break 13lbs? Is there a scenario where fisherman can actually be trusted? Lol     

 

     

[gjfisher]

1 hour ago, Dunks N Dinks said:

The most interesting part of the outing however, was not on the lake but on shore, when we met a camper in Nickerson State Park who claims to have caught a 13.9lb (!!!) large-mouth out of Cliffs last summer on a live shiner. Can't find anything in the local papers about it....so begs the question; fact or fiction? Can such a small pond support that sort of lunker? Can pure northern-strains even break 13lbs? Is there a scenario where fisherman can actually be trusted? Lol     

 

     

 

The state record is over 15lbs for LMB, out of a small pond.  I highly doubt the 13.9lb LMB is true, although it's possible, since I've not read anything even close to that in the media.  I do think that these deep trout ponds hold some monster bass, given fewer bass fishermen target them and there is plenty of forage.

[J Francho]

1 hour ago, Dunks N Dinks said:

The most interesting part of the outing however, was not on the lake but on shore, when we met a camper in Nickerson State Park who claims to have caught a 13.9lb (!!!) large-mouth out of Cliffs last summer on a live shiner.

There's a dude at every pond I fish that claims a DD.  I've ruined a few guy's claims about 10 pounders by offering them my scale.  It always ends with, "That can't be right?  Just three and a half pounds?  I'd swear it was ten." 

 

 

Nice chunker, btw!

[Mr. Aquarium]

i highly doubt it, theres always guys that claim to have caught DDs only a fraction turn out to be true.   only a few people i believe that say  they hooked and lost or caught a 10. 

[MassYak85]

14 hours ago, gjfisher said:

The state record is over 15lbs for LMB, out of a small pond.  I highly doubt the 13.9lb LMB is true, although it's possible, since I've not read anything even close to that in the media.  I do think that these deep trout ponds hold some monster bass, given fewer bass fishermen target them and there is plenty of forage.

Yea I don't trust anyone who says they caught anything over 10lbs in MA unless I've seen the proof myself (pics and a scale weight). I know a few do get caught every year but they usually are just barely breaking 10. Someone correct me if I am wrong but I believe the state record of 15 and change is the only verified teener fish to ever be caught in the state. It still boggles my mind to think northern strain can even get that big. 

 

I had a guy tell my dad he knew of a 40" largemouth getting pulled out of a pond in Rhode Island. When asked if it was a striper he said it was absolutely a largemouth...people will always lie or believe what they want to believe. 

 

 

 

Interesting discussion question though, if any of you guys caught a teener here in MA what would you do? Would you report it for the record/pin for the year? Not tell a soul? 

[Mr. Aquarium]

40 inch largemouth HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHH THATS SO FUNNY!!!!! 

[MassYak85]

Took a friend to Norton Reservoir today fishing from the kayaks. We started up the eastern shore towards the dam. The overcast weather and cooler temps had me pretty hopeful for a good day, and seeing the nice lily pads and large boulders in the northeastern cove I thought it was a lock to hook into a few.....NOPE. We spent about 6 hours there, and the only thing that saved a skunk for both of us was a ned rig which enticed a 1lb largie. I saw a sign when we launched that they had treated the lake for weeds back in late June. Well this was my first time fishing there but if by "treat the lake" they meant "eradicate anything that grows" they did a pretty good job. Save for some lily pads in the coves there was just some of that green algae slime on the bottom. Looking around it looked like there used to be some nice weed beds, not anymore, everything was dead from what I saw. It looked like a small fish kill had taken place as well. I saw about a dozen dead perch washed up on the shores. 

 

Has anyone done well there recently? I have very little reason to go back at this point. And the shallow, seemingly structure-less and weedless bottom had me pretty clueless as to what to try. 

[Janderson45]

Yes they treated it heavily.. I fish it occasionally and have done well twice since the water treatments.  That said it definitely fished better in years past when there was abundant milfoil.  

 

The cove you guys fished treats me well on occasion, but not always.  Out a little ways from that cove headed towards the dam there's some rock walls and a bridge piling or two (if I remember right) submerged in some deeper water.  That location treats me well on occasion as well.  

 

On the far side in the NW corner there is abundant pads and milfoil, with plenty of submerged rock and wood mixed in.  The water treatments killed some of it back, but didn't seem to effect it anywhere near as bad as other spots.  There's also a small winding river that empties into the res in that corner.  If I were to fish it tomorrow that's where I'd concentrate the bulk of my efforts :).