Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[DogBone_384]

On 5/6/2020 at 12:33 PM, Chris186 said:

Massachusetts didn’t seem to have a problem taking my money

They never do.  I have a niece in NH.  Her MA non-resident gun license is $100/year.  My NH non-resident is now $100 for 5 years.

 

But that's a non-issue here.  I'm going SMB hunting today.

[DogBone_384]

Spent today socially distant with Fishing Rhino at a private pond in southern MA.  Tom took his canoe and I had my kayak.  The day started off with a good bass on a 3.8" Keitech Fat Impact on an under-spin.  I can't count it because I let off just enough when I reached for my net and the bugger laughed and unhooked itself right at the kayak.  I got two more good LMB, 3.68 & 2.84, respectively, with a smattering of small LMB, pan sized crappie, skinny little pickerel, and a yellow perch that was barely bigger than the Yozuri crank bait it chomped.  Keitechs w/under-spin and a Yozuri flat sided crank bait were today's winners.  This private pond is shallow, like a pie plate.  All fish were caught in 4' or less.  Water temps were 61.x - 62.x.  Air pressure was 29.7, and winds were light in the morning, picking up some by mid afternoon.

 

It was too nice to go straight home, so I side tracked to Mary's Pond, in Rochester.  I caught a LMB barely bigger than the SMB colored LV500 I was tossing.  I marked most targets suspended in 13 - 18' of water.  There's not much for structure here.  I did a lap, and left.  A few other fishermen I spoke to there weren't having any luck either.  Water temps were 58.x and it was dead calm.  Based on what I saw today, Mary's looks like it's heavily fished.  

 

Overall, a very good day being socially distant.

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC Update: Bait Balls of Fire

Made it out on Long Pond for two hours last night and it was immediately clear the herring migration has made an (ecological) impact; my screen was lit up with bait traversing deep flats, while smallies were up shallow on wind-blown banks blowing up bait at sunset. 

Despite all the natural competition, I managed to get 3 smallies to commit to a yo-yo'd underspin in 5-7' before I pushed up even shallower and started throwing topwater (in 52-53 degree water!). While it probably wasn't the most efficient bait of choice, I did eventually get one to commit to being my first topwater smallie of the year. 

[DogBone_384]

3 minutes ago, Dunks N Dinks said:

3 smallies to commit to a yo-yo'd underspin

An underspin with Keitech was yesterday's bait of choice for me for all species I caught.  Only one bass wanted a Yozuri flat sided crankbait...  

 

Congrats on another good outing.  I might make a couple trips down your way this Summer, but not many.  I really miss the ponds around Harwich & Brewster. 

 

Our timeshare is closed until August, which means my next marathon session will be in the fall!

[Dunks N Dinks]

16 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

An underspin with Keitech was yesterday's bait of choice...

 

Our timeshare is closed until August, which means my next marathon session will be in the fall!

Hard to beat when the smallies get on the bait....more erratic the retrieve the better.

That's too bad, I'll try to keep ya updated (at least until Tuna season kicks off).

[DogBone_384]

9 minutes ago, Dunks N Dinks said:

I'll try to keep ya updated

You'll make me cry .... I'm stuck with 'average' waters around the Boston area.  

 

HHHMMMM ... Tuna on a kayak !?!?!?!? Now that's an idea... ?

 

Good luck!

[Dunks N Dinks]

Quick outing on @Saltysmalljaws's home court last night yielded a couple nice bass bites and one mega-fauna of a brown trout. Water temps were inching higher towards the 53-53.5 mark when got there and we did spy a few deeper smallmouth beds that presumably were made late last week, though no one was home. Indeed, the smallies we found (mostly on jerkbaits) were all "backed off" (by the recent storm), chasing bait in 9-12ft on windblown shores. I also found a chunky larry tucked up in a cove next to some reed-heads acting as current break of sorts. The pinnacle of the trip though was a heat-seeking missile of a brown trout that peeled 20yds of drag off Salty's jerkbait setup and must've jumped at least 3ft clear of the water just before sunset. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC Update: Family Lines 

Friday - @Saltysmalljaws and I got out on Long Pond in the early evening with smallies on the brain. Unfortunately, despite the 60 degree air (shorts weather!!!) and 55 degree water, we didn't run into any aggressive shallow cruisers. Instead, the several quality bites we did get were all deeper pre-spawn types who were seemingly pushed back by the recent front. Biggest was a 3.89 that hit a jerkbait in 17ft of water.

 

Saturday - Woke up early and hit Wequaq around 6am, hoping for a nice topwater bite to start the day. While my buddy got one about 2.5lbs on a popper next to a dock, the topwater pattern never fully materialized. Instead, we ended up piecing together a decent pre-spawn largemouth jerk-bait program into the late-morning, yielding a ~13lb limit and a 3.43 larry that knocked slack in the line on a shad-rap style bait.

 

Sunday - Flipped the switch to salt for the first time this year and nabbed my first half-decent striper of the year. At least according to the guys down at north chatham outfitters, most southern cape estuaries are loaded with bait and the bass are in hot pursuit right now. Not too many keeper-size fish out my way, but just a matter of time. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Did some carp fishing today. Got 2, 4lb mirror and this 8.5lb common. My new PB wooooo. Also got a new species. Super stoked, got my first green sunfish! 
 
PSA WHEN CARP FISHING MAKE SURE THE BAIL IS OPENED!!!!!  I recast, put rod down,  I let me guard down, stopped paying Attention. It was Slow no hits. Well I forgot to flip the bail. Rod went BYE BYE. So I’m like I don't understand oh well **** happens. I rig up my other rod for carp after trying to snag the rod. So 45min-1 hour later I see this fish jumping. So I cast out. wait wait wait, nothing, I reel in to check the bait. I snag the rod and the fish is still attached. So I ended up getting my rod back and landed this beautiful mirror

[DogBone_384]

Bummer ...

 

https://www.mass.gov/locations/quabbin-reservoir

 

On the plus side ... Mr. Aquarium strikes again!

[Mr. Aquarium]

Thanks Dogbone.

[MassYak85]

Nice fish guys! I've never caught a carp, I'm sure it's a blast! 

[Mr. Aquarium]

7 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

Nice fish guys! I've never caught a carp, I'm sure it's a blast! 

It’s a waiting game but they are a blast. They fight so hard 

[Frezzy]

Does anyone have an educated guess on current water temps at the Wachusett?

[MassYak85]

@Mr. Aquarium Have you ever fish lake quinsigamond for carp? I always see HUGE ones in their when I'm up shallow. I think some guy got the state record by bow fishing there too. 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

35 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

@Mr. Aquarium Have you ever fish lake quinsigamond for carp? I always see HUGE ones in their when I'm up shallow. I think some guy got the state record by bow fishing there too. 

 

No I haven’t, I’ve heard there’s giants. 
 
I’m not a good carp fishermen, so I like smaller ponds to fish. With carp you have to chum heavily. Most guys will chum days and weeks before they go fishing. Bring the carp to the area. Then fish.  But all the carp spots are at least 1hr 15 min away so that’s out of the question.

[DogBone_384]

Got down to Great South in Plymouth for some SMB.  I launched around 6:30 and stayed until 12:30-ish.  It was nearly dead calm when I started and was not too bad when I left.

 

I ended up with 2 SMB, 2.92 and 1.35, respectively, and a 2.77 LMB.  I saw a bunch of beds, and a cloud of fry at the canal between Great and Little South. SMB #1 took a 3.8" Keitech on a swim jig head, #2 ate a weightless T-rigged Senko, and the LMB took a perch Whopper Plopper I dropped in very shallow water between some flooded bushes.

 

Water temps were 58.x in the morning and 60.x when I left.  Wind was light from the north and air pressure was 30.4.

[MassBassHunter68]

On 4/21/2020 at 8:58 AM, Saltysmalljaws said:

@Dunks N Dinks seems you live very close to me and you also have the bronze back bug. I’d love to chat and pick your brain. My two daughters are out of school. I’m home with them so haven’t gotten out on my tiny boat lately. For a character reference ask @DogBone_384 haha

great smallies guys

[DogBone_384]

With wind dying down and water temps in the low 60's, I couldn't pass up a trip to Great South yesterday evening.  I fished from about 5:00 to dusk, tossing a 1/4 oz black/blue jig, 1/2 oz brown/purple jig, weightless 5" Texas rigged Senko, and a couple topwaters, lipless, and crankbaits.  

 

I covered shallow and deep areas along the east to south and spent some time working the north side of Little South on the way back to the launch but came up empty.  I noticed more beds than last week.

 

Even the Ned failed me yesterday.

[Don51]

Those are two tough ponds. I have had some good days on Little South though.

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC Update: Bedside Manner

 

Hit up Cliffs on Friday after work...water temps were 57-58 with a gnarly 14-17mph W wind. Smallies were hunkering down on beds but very wary and hard to see...so i was had to lock downwind and blind-cast out to the tell-tale pale circles. Found a few decent 2.5-3lbers in 9-12fow on a slowwwly-dragged wobble-head jig, and then turned my attention to the largemouth, who were making a shallow pre-spawn push into bushes/reed-beds. A furious jig bite materialized for an hour or so on an outside reed-line, allowing me to fire off a few slack-line full-power hook-sets that ive been missing so much hahaha. Overall, one of my favorite sessions of the year so far.  

 

Kept the party going on a new pond (to me at least) Saturday morning, somehow squeezing my tin-rig into the notorious West Rez timber minefield. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but things got exciting pretty fast. Water temps were a balmy 65-66 degrees in a warm rain/fog setting, with bluegill beds all over the place, suggesting a pretty textbook post-spawn playbook. Sure enough, I scored pretty quick on a two-pronged approach of flipping shoreline bushes with a 1/2oz jig and winding a chatter-bait and spinner bait around the submerged grass and timber (chatter for grass, spinner for wood). As i worked my way (slowly and carefully) deeper into the pond, I also saw some bass beds and even some largemouths crashing on some herring way up under some fallen trees. I switched up to a wacky-rigged senko and skipped that around for a bit and got rewarded with one decent 3.25lb chunker and then had my heart-broken by a ~5lb fish that chafed off my 8lb flouro on a submerged limb after taking my senko for a 20yd dash out of the lily-pads. Definitely coming back here for revenge. 

 

Sunday I took my dad out on the salt looking for keeper stripers in Stage Harbor, but didn't strike pay-dirt. A few fish in the 18-24" range on jerkbaits and ronZ's but no bigguns just yet. Plenty of bait (herring, pogies) around.  

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Nice weekend of fishing! 

[Dunks N Dinks]

Just trying to keep my distance lol, not much of a binge-watcher unless its Tactical Bassin youtube videos

[Manifestgtr]

Had my first truly good frog/toad day today. Those bluegill/pumpkin patterns...

 

 

[DogBone_384]

I called Plymouth town hall yesterday and was told Hedges was open but TOWN STICKER only.  In previous years non-Plymites could pay a parking fee and do their thing and this wasn't enforced before Memorial Day and after Labor day.  It's not the case anymore. 

 

I drove down there yesterday afternoon because the town manager said there was no staff there.  There are new signs plainly stating town stickers only and windows are to be rolled down a maximum of 1/3....  We'll see what happens in September, but for now, one of the best SMB ponds in eastern MA is off limits for non-Plymouth residents.

 

Enough of that.  I went further south, found white-caps on Great Herring, so over the bridge to Snake Pond went I in search of SMB.  I launched around 4:30 PM and left at dusk.  I managed 3 SMB, one bigger than the last, topping out at 1.85 pounds, with the first on a purple/brown tube and the other two on a 3.8" Keitech on a MattAllen swim jig head (too much Tactical Bassin...).  I also caught a 3.57 pound, 23" pickerel on the Keitech.  I threw a Whopper Plopper late in the day when it calmed down, with a couple hits but nothing to the kayak.

 

The wind was 10 - 12 mph from the S/SW, air pressure was 30.2, with mostly cloudy skies.  

 

A little further than I wanted to drive, but I'll take it.