Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Mr. Aquarium]

Sounds like a great trip. My albie season was a quick. 1 week stretch.  

 

Got a few nice schoolies on freshwater gear today during the storm. Driving by the water saw birds working and a blitz. Cast after cast!  

[MassYak85]

Got out on Whitehall today. Stuck with the swimbaits today and only caught one fish, but it was the right fish. Wind was blowing a bit today and there was some cold mist. A couple years ago I lost a huge fish on my dark trout MS Slammer on Whitehall and have been a bit determined to make up for it since then. So I started out using that same bait. Tried waking it mostly and about an hour in I was looking away not paying attention to my retrieve when I felt the thing stop dead in it's tracks. Thought I snagged a lily pad stem at first but when I pulled to clear it off she was on! Saw the initial swirl but it wasn't until the first headshake I new this was the biggest fish of the year by far for me. I probably horsed too much but the hooks were buried good into the lower jaw so no issues landing her. Got her in and me and my dad were both thinking it's a 6 1/2 lber.

 

She "only" went 5.40lbs and 20 3/4" which tells you the kind of year we've been having, we hadn't seen a fish even close to this size in a looooong time so our eyes were deceiving us. I was excited nonetheless but she barely squeeked under a pin on the length and here's the kicker...this is the second time I've tied my MA personal best. I have caught three fish over the years, from three different lakes, all the exact same weight to the 100th of a lb. Those are some crazy odds right there. If I was more superstitious I'd call that a curse lol. Oh well, awesome fish and a very memorable catch still. The hunt goes on for the new PB! 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Wow dude that’s crazy! 

[MassYak85]

What a day today! Beautiful weather and great foliage along the shorelines! Of course I had to follow yesterday's fish with a humbling skunk but I can't remember a nicer October day! Zero wind though so it was almost HOT at some points. 

[DogBone_384]

13 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Of course I had to follow yesterday's fish with a humbling skunk

I was going to go out too, but the TO DO list and Bluebird conditions made me think otherwise.  OK, it was the former more than the latter, but I'll go out tomorrow if I don't pick up an extra shift.

[Dunks N Dinks]

Cape Fresh/Salt Report: Turning Tail
Fished the final E.MA NEBassin team event on Mashpee Saturday. Conditions were pretty gnarly, temps in the low to mid-50s (water ~60) with a driving 20-25mph N wind. The bite was very tough after 3 days of rain and sustained 30mph winds leading into the tourney. Our plan going in was to keep the top-water bite honest early, then focus on deep smallies on edges of flats for the remainder of the day. Things didn't exactly pan out that way unfortunately; I did have a decent smallie bust on my spook on my 3rd cast in the AM, but it threw the hooks before i could winch him boat-side. Fast-forward 5 hours and we still didn't have a keeper in the live-well. We marked plenty of fish on the edges of deeper flats, but they were full-on lock-jawed (not tempted by blades or drop-shots). I ended up salvaging our day, catching 2x 3lbers on a finesse swim-bait in the last hour or so on nearly back to back casts right up against a deeper weed-line, but that was it for the session. Our bag went for 6lbs and change, and somehow made for a 4th place finish out of 14 teams (no limits weighed, 4.2lb lunker). This also gave us a respectable top-3 finish in AOY points. 

With the freshwater derby season in the rear-view, I got offshore on Sunday in the swell and it made for a bit more productive day. After a few hours of running around in search of live bait, we managed to set up a nice drift through some whales/birds in 200ft off water off Chatham and ran into a nice recreational Blue-Fin.         

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Was planning a trip on the kayak on Monday. But ended up helping mom out. Got a late start. Decided to do a shore trip. 2 spots.  I wanted to try for some slab crappies and jumbo perch. Saw a bunch of bass up shallow. Couldn’t get them to bite tho.  Bunch of pickerel and 2 small bass. I missed a large fish on a small crappie bait. It slurped it off the surface. Set hook.  Fish came up, rolled, splashed and spit hook. If that was a crappie that was the 2lber I was looking for.  I really want to break 2lbs for crappie. 

[Jigfishn10]

This wind is certainly gonna churn up some waters!

 

@Dunks N Dinks, that's a sweet blue-fin.

[Mr. Aquarium]

It was good weekend. Landed a few kings and a nice steely on a jig I tied. 99% fish were on jigs I tied.

[DogBone_384]

Firstly, congrats to Mr. Aquarium ... looks like you had a great weekend!

 

I took another shot at Great South yesterday afternoon, focusing on deeper drop offs and the two humps in the south west end of the pond.  Got one nice SMB, between 2 1/2 - 3 pounds, on a Rapala jointed deep runner dressed in pike (though it looks like a Smallmouth), the biggest SMB I've caught there this year,  I didn't weigh it because one of the trebles nicked/cut one of the fish's gills and wanted to get it back in the water as quickly as possible.

 

Not much happened the rest of the afternoon.  I got three nice White Perch, two on a SMB flavored LV500 lipless, and the third on a bluegill Rapala pencil.

 

I also threw a couple different tubes and drop-shotted a small Keitech impact that worked for me at Great Herring.  Other than some perch nibbling on the Keitech, nobody wanted soft baits.

 

I marked most traffic between 30-40', suspended at different depths, and on the bottom.  

 

Water temps were 59.x - 60.x.  Air pressure was 30.1 and fell just a bit when I got back to my truck.  

 

Looks like it's time to break out my blade baits....

[Don51]

You are a glutton for punishment! Lol I would love to be fishing Little and Billington Sea right now!  ?

[DogBone_384]

Dropped into Hedges yesterday afternoon in search of some late season SMB.  I caught a 2 pound SMB on a black/blue Ned and another, about 1 1/2 pounds, on a black/blue tube. Both were caught by dead sticking the bait, a true test of my patience.

 

I also caught two nice yellow perch. One on a chartreuse lipless and the other on a brown/purple hair jig.

 

I was pretty breezy. Water temps were 58.x - 59.x and air pressure was 30.2.

 

My Lowrance was lit up like a Christmas tree in 16’+ areas that butted up to steep rises. 

 

I’ll probably get out a few more times this year, packing blade baits and in-line spinners on light setups.

 

Best of luck to anyone else soldiering on too. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Did a bit of freshwater recently.  Got out for some smallies. Fishing offshore structure on a cape pond. Got a 3.8 smallie. Missed 2 other smallies. Got a 2.5lbs largemouth as well. 
 

went after some lakers. Got my PB rainbow instead. Hit an albie jig, epoxy jig, twitched up top. Love the colors on this fish. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Went out yesterday for a bit. Wanted to try for some crappies with shiners. Got 2 largemouth instead. No panfish.  
hit sunset at a different pond. Saw the place come alive. Lot of topwater action. I dug through my car found the only topwater I had. A strike king sexy dawg.  1 rod 1 lure, no headlamp.  
ended up with 2 more bass. Nothing big. Had a lot of blow ups. Been awhile since I’ve gone out for a night mission.  I’ll be getting back at with some wake baits. 

[MassYak85]

Had a pretty decent outing on Saturday. About half a dozen bass, biggest was about 2lbs. Water temps were between 50 and 55. 

 

Weather this weekend looks COLD with possible snow Friday. I'm hoping its just a freak cold front otherwise the season is gonna be ending very fast. 

[DogBone_384]

Took a ride to Hedges yesterday afternoon, looking for my November fish.  I caught 4 SMB and 4 yellow perch.  My biggest smallie was a hair over two pounds and 1.3 pounds for the number one yellow perch.  The big SMB had a small yellow perch tail halfway out it's throat when I landed him.  The feed bag's still on.

 

I threw a variety of treble hooks, a chatter bait, hair jig, gold Binsky, and tube. At the end of the day I needed only the gold Binsky and a molten copper Rapala Shad Rap Shad deep.  I was surprised that all of my catches hit the baits while moving fast.

 

Water temps were 57.x, air pressure was 30.4, and there was an intermittent breeze from the S/SW.

 

All in all a pretty good afternoon.  It's a drag that the sun sets so early this time of year.

 

Best of luck to everyone still getting out there.

[Don51]

Good getting out there. 57° water temp isn't bad for the start of Nov. ?

[Mr. Aquarium]

57 pretty warm. Hope it last though this cold spell 

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

57 pretty warm. Hope it last though this cold spell 

I'm hoping it warms back up for a week or two before Thanksgiving. Otherwise ice season is gonna be real early this year and I won't even have a chance to fish water temps below 50 degrees without frozen line guides. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

I’ll be out all winter in the kayak! 

[DogBone_384]

I'm not done yet either.  

 

Took another shot at Hedges yesterday afternoon.  Managed two good SMB on an under-spin with a 3.8" Keitech on it and a nice yellow perch on a gold Rapala BX Brat.  The smallies still had some fight in them.

 

Water temps were 56.x, air pressure was 30.3, and the wind was intermittent from the west between 5 - 10 mph.

 

It's gonna get cold from here on out ... time to break out the wool socks and thermals.

[MassYak85]

On 11/5/2019 at 1:40 PM, Mr. Aquarium said:

 

Just saw Mass Wildlife posted a pic of a 10.8lb bass someone submitted a picture of on Instagram. Cool to see fish that size being caught. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

5 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Just saw Mass Wildlife posted a pic of a 10.8lb bass someone submitted a picture of on Instagram. Cool to see fish that size being caught. 

I saw that to. No way that’s a 10. Still a nice fish but no way a 10 

[MassYak85]

2 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

I saw that to. No way that’s a 10. Still a nice fish but no way a 10 

I'm terrible at judging fish from pictures. It looked big but was held too close to the camera for me to judge. It seems they deleted the post from their IG I can't find it anymore? Wonder why?

 

I haven't really heard of many big fish coming out of MA this year. Usually the sportfishing awards gets capped off by a 9 or low 10 every year but the current leader is a low 7. I've heard of one or two through social media in the 8 range I think.  

[DogBone_384]

It’s 29 degrees south of Boston .....  
 

It AIN’T over yet.....

 

I concur with Massyak85 about big fish in MA this year. My numbers were good (My ANGLR app says 194 fish, 9 species, over 60 trips in 2019) but overall size was down.