Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Dunks N Dinks]

CC Update: Friday Night Bites

 

@Saltysmalljaws and I hit up Wequaq after work in the wind and rain. Conditions couldn't have felt any more "bass-y", the mist and drizzle putting a nice pattern on the surface, low-light conditions and a prevailing gust activating the food-chain. Given the consistent westerly over the prior few days...eastern shores temps were as much a 3 degrees warmer, with some pre-spawn fish still bulking up despite prime-time spawning temps. After hunting and pecking around with a few welcome interruptions from pickerel, we also found an area with a few beds and made blind-casts with top-waters. After seeing an ominous shadow tilt up and make a pass at a walking bait, i pitched a t-rig past the nearby golden circle and crept my offering slowly into range. With my bait almost back to the closest lip of the bed, about 30yds from the boat, I felt *that TAP* and knew it was game-on. I crow-hopped back, snap-set the hook, and immediately lost about 15 yds from my spool before I even realized which way the fish was running. Crashing to the surface, she wallowed sideways and then ran headlong into a weed-clump, leaving me helpless with 12lb flouro melting off my reel in stop-go fashion. Finally, regaining some momentum, I got her head turned and half-slid and half-prayed the fish back to the boat and towards Salty's outstretched net. She gave one last wallow and a tail-walk before finally being enveloped in the safety of the rubber mesh. With a pic snapped and the beautiful girl back in the drink to go-on with her courtship, we finally exhaled and both just laughed our butts off.  

 

With a memorable fish already in the proverbial live-well, Salty and I relaxed and got dialed into fishing the moment; we ran a few wind-blown eastern shores and went with a dual-pronged approach of a chatter-bait and swimbait. Salty ended up chalking up four or five 2-3lbers in the next hour slow-rolling a bladed-jig, while I scored two decent ones on a BC swimbait and got my first glide-bait bite of the year on a 7" perch model. Memorable bite and night for sure.

[MassYak85]

Nice fish @Dunks N Dinks! It's always nice when you get on the water with that "oooh they're biting" feeling. Even better when you put a game plan together that pays off. How big did that girl go?

[DogBone_384]

I met a coworker who's newly addicted to kayak fishing at a private pond in Plymouth this afternoon.  Dana's still not caught a SMB, so the odds were pretty good today (or so I thought).  Unfortunately he had to get back home around 6:00 pm, and I stayed.  Neither of us had any luck shallow so I headed for two points and deeper water on the southern bank.  On the way, my Lowrance showed a couple nice blips suspended at 20' in 35' of water.  I tossed a 3.8" Keitech on a MattAllen swim jig head, counted down to twenty, and started reeling.  Very shortly after, there was a 'tick', and when I leaned back, a good fight was on.  Expecting a good SMB, a better LMB, came up fighting.  After getting it in the kayak, the lightbulb went on that my scale was still in my truck... ? ... It was good and fat at 20" long and roughly 12" around, putting it at high four  to low five pounds, one of the biggest LMB I've caught.

 

I nabbed a decent white perch with the same bait, in the same area.  That was it for the night.  

 

Water temps were 67.x, it was mostly cloudy with winds at 6 mph from different directions.  Air pressure was 30.1.

 

 

ADD: Nice trim of the beard Jake!  See you in October!

[Mr. Aquarium]

Awesome fish dog bone

[MassYak85]

Did some social fishtancing (I will not apologize for the pun) with my Dad on webster today. We got an early start but given what I've heard about crowded ramps this year I was surprised we were the first ones on the water at 5:30am. It was very foggy and cloudy to start. Water temps were hovering a couple degrees either side of 70. I assumed most of the fish were post-spawn by this time and looking to feed up on the bluegill so we started shallow. I immediately started nailing fish left and right on a bluegill flavor spinnerbait. The pickerel were going ballistic too. I quickly had 8 bass and by mid morning the sun started coming out and the bite got a little tougher. We tried a few other areas and techniques but almost all my fish came on that one spinnerbait, with a couple more on a sixth sense mid depth crank. I was hoping to get some smallies on a tube or jig but it didn't work out today. Lost a small one on the crank. I ended with about a dozen bass but my dad all but struck out unfortunately. Usually he's the one killing it on spinnerbaits but whether it was the color, blades, or trailer of mine it was THE bait they wanted for whatever reason. 

 

The bluegill massacre was in full force for sure. Many of the fish I caught were right around bluegill beds. Tons of dead ones floating around too (does anyone know if these are ones killed by bass defending their own nests, or ones that somehow die while spawning?) but we saw two VERY healthy smallmouth (both probably pushing 3lbs) that were floating dead...they both died by choking on large bluegill. I've heard of it happening and always knew eating them was a small risk for bass but I'd never seen it in person before. 

[DogBone_384]

Didn't get out this weekend, those belong to the family.  While planning my assault for Tuesday I peeked at the state's website, checking the Quabbin's status. 

 

Good news: it's open - ONLY if you bring your boat with a MA seal.  Bad news: no rentals this year, and if you're not a MA resident, stay home. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/quabbin-reservoir-fishing-guide

[DogBone_384]

My coworker couldn't get his permission slip signed (?) was solo this past Tuesday.  I started at a private pond in Plymouth at 0500, staying until 1130.  It was a picture perfect topwater day! Glass calm and overcast.  All was quiet for the first hour or so when a good sized SMB bit my chrome Rapala pencil, but it did what SMB do so well: came out of the water, flipped upside down, and spat my bait.  The show was good enough.  I had a few more topwater hits but couldn't get any commitment, so I headed to the SW cove where LMB are known to hang out.  Sure enough, a nice 2.6 pound LMB jumped on my Whopper Plopper, and a few casts later, 1.4 LMB did the same.  

 

By 1000 hours the topwater bite long died off, so I switched to a drop shot with a 3" Keitech Easy Shiner in green pumpkin, which turned out to be pretty popular.  I landed a small LMB, a white perch, two picks (one 2.7 pounds), and a yellow perch within a half hour.  Additionally, a really big pickerel tried to eat the poor little yellow perch as I reeled it back to the boat.  Almost my first 'swimbait' fish, I guess.

 

Plymouth water temps were 70.x and air pressure was 29.9.

 

I had some family duties to tend to, but after that I went to my 'home' pond, Ponkapog, in Canton, just before supper time.  Ponkie is shallow and very weedy, so I kept it simple with a Whopper Plopper and T-rigged creature baits.  The WP didn't pan out, but I hooked onto a couple good LMB with the Vile Craw, but have to practice my hook set... they got off OTW to the kayak.  I landed four good pickerel and lost a couple baits because of sharp teeth.  Water temps at Ponkie were a balmy 76.x.  The wind picked up significantly by the time I left.

 

All in all, a good, long day of fishing.  Good luck to the rest of the membership.  It's good out there now, get at it before the dog days of Summer creep in!

[MassYak85]

On 6/10/2020 at 8:15 PM, DogBone_384 said:

By 1000 hours the topwater bite long died off, so I switched to a drop shot with a 3" Keitech Easy Shiner in green pumpkin, which turned out to be pretty popular.  I landed a small LMB, a white perch, two picks (one 2.7 pounds), and a yellow perch within a half hour. 

Those smaller easy shiners have become a favorite of mine. When I NEEEED to catch something they never seem to fail and are a great multi-species bait. Plus they're a nice "finesse" option when they don't want all the action of a fat impact. 

[DogBone_384]

I fished Ponkapog yesterday from 5:00 PM until dusk.  It was perfect beach weather: 70's, just a breeze, bright sunshine.  I threw a T-rigged 3.8" Keitech, 5" wacky Yum Dinger, and three different topwaters.  I got some slap-strikes on the Rapala Skitter Walk, but nothing in the kayak.  Not much happened with my soft bait offerings until late in the evening, when I caught a dink pickerel and LMB with the Keitech.  There were two other folks fishing while I was there and I didn't see them catching much either.

 

Water temps were 76.x when I started and fell to 75.x when the sun went down.  Air pressure was 30.4.

[DogBone_384]

Today is National Fishing Day!  

 

Go get 'em!

[DogBone_384]

My daughter wanted to go to Little Pond today, so the 'boss' and I packed up the kayaks, grille, and Summer accessories and spent the day.  The girls don't fish, so I took short trips around the pond throughout the day.  I did pretty good, getting five LMB and two really nice Sunfish to the kayak, with the biggest bass weighing 2.22 pounds.  The Sunnies ate a 4" Swing Impact on a drop shot in short order, near a pile of rocks in the back cove.  Three of five Larries, surprisingly, liked a Rapala topwater pencil along steep drop offs.  One LMB hit a 3.8" Fat Swing Impact on a 3/8 oz underspin in about 10' of water and the last one of the day came on the 4" Swing impact, but on a 1/8 oz jig head.

 

Water temps were 79.x, air pressure was 30.0, and wind was light from the south.

 

All in all, a pretty good Father's day, but funny thing is, I'm already looking forward to my four 'three day trips' to Cape Cod this Fall in anticipation of some GREAT Smallmouth bass fishing.

[Don51]

A Sunday Fathers Day at Little! Must have been pretty busy. Are they charging to get in? There was talk at one point of making it residents only and a town sticker would be required. Guess that didn't pan out. I miss fishing that place! 

[DogBone_384]

3 hours ago, Don51 said:

A Sunday Fathers Day at Little! Must have been pretty busy

Little Pond was nearly empty.  Plymouth closed off all its ponds and parks to non-Plymites because of CV-19.  We have a friend that lives on Little Pond rd, so we can go as their guest.

[DogBone_384]

I fished my favorite, most challenging, private pond in Plymouth this morning with a coworker.  We launched at 0500.  Dana stayed in the small section and I moved to the big section after a half hour of nothing.  I found three nice SMB and one white perch suspended in 35' of water in short order in the big pond.  The smallies came on a 3.8" Fat Swing Impact on a 3/8 oz underspin and the WP came on a chartreuse/lime Rapala DT16 (!?!?!?!).  Two smallies just broke 2 pounds and the third was 1.4.  I had a few small fish slap at my Rapala pencil bait, but that was it.

 

I made my way back to the small pond around 8:30 to check on Dana.  He'd caught a tiny SMB, his first, and that's it.  He said he had a lot of small bites but nothing good.  He had daddy-duty and split around 9:00. 

 

I've got to finagle a way to get him to Hedges Pond in Plymouth for some all but guaranteed smallie action.  Unfortunately, it's closed to non-Plymouth residents because of CV-19.

 

I stayed in the small pond another 1/2 hour or so, picking up two, and losing two more SMB in a bowl in a SW cove after seeing a stack on my Lowrance, and spinning myself around 180.  

 

I noticed that only one of my SMB was hooked today.  The rest seemed to just clamp down on the bait and not let go.  One that got away in the small pond spat a T-rigged Senko.  I thought I got a good hook set on it, but examining after reeling it in: nope, Mr. Bass just clamped down on it.

 

A good Summer morning for sure.  Water temps were 77.x, it was about as bluebird as you can get, and the air pressure was 29.9.

 

 

 

[gjfisher]

I went out yesterday afternoon for a few hours and got my biggest fish of the year (4lb 12oz picture below) fishing a paddle tail swimbait on an underspin.  Also got a 3lb 11oz fish and a few smaller ones.  Fishing swimbaits over grass and dragging a texas rigged worm through grass produced most of the fish for me.  I lost a very big fish near my kayak because I got lazy and didn't retie my 15lb fluorocarbon leader after a few fish.

[DogBone_384]

3 hours ago, gjfisher said:

and got my biggest fish of the year (4lb 12oz

Congratulations!  Good to hear other members getting out and bagging some good fish.

[DogBone_384]

Wifey and I took off to NH for the weekend with the kayaks.  We did the tourist thing Sat & Sun, and fished on Monday, stopping at a small pond in Oliverian, NH, that we tripped across by accident.  It had a boat ramp that wasn't maintained in years, and tons of crayfish around shoreline rocks.  I caught a small rainbow on a chartreuse ghost shad LV500 in short order, then nothing.  This pond was pretty shallow, 8' at most, and wasn't more than 20 acres, so catching a rainbow in 4' or 80+ degree water in July was a trip.  A local having his lunch at the launch said there were only rainbow & browns there.

 

We took backroads home through NH and when I saw a sign for car-top boat launch along the Merrimack river somewhere north of Concord, I hooked a left and fished for about an hour.  The launch was on a bend that got to 14' deep and had rocks and grass around it.  I bagged a SMB that was barely bigger than the 3.5" Swing Impact I was throwing.  Water temps here were in the low 80's too.  Winds were slight, and the air pressure was 29.7.

 

It's been me and the crickets here for the last couple weeks! Hope everyone else is getting out there this summer. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Been doing some striper fishin not much. Getting a couple decent schoolies. Nothing big. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

Been out Tuna fishing most weekends since mid-June...been a great start to the year (3x 200lb+ "keepers" on the board so far)...but I did sneak out after work last night on Long Pond with a buddy and snatched up a mixed-species limit. Found 3 decent larries up shallow around docks and pads, then dialed up a couple smallie bites on spy-baits on a deeper wind-blown flat. Water was a balmy 76 degrees...wild sunset too!

[JG233]

Greetings from Germany!

 

No New England bass fishing for me this year, which is a huge bummer. All my gear and my kayak are safely stored waiting for a trip back to visit next June, fishing will commence then. Hope everyone is well. 

[MassYak85]

On 7/14/2020 at 3:01 PM, DogBone_384 said:

It's been me and the crickets here for the last couple weeks! Hope everyone else is getting out there this summer. 

I haven't been down there too much with Covid going on. I'm technically not supposed to with VT's current rules but I did manage to make the trip a couple weeks ago. Got into a pretty good finesse jig bite on the Waltham section of the Charles one day. Got a 4lber and some other pretty decent fish. They were finicky but the pattern was there to be had. I had to put my target casting skills to the test because they were tight to cover. I had a light black jig with a finesse trim and double tail grub. The fall on it was real slow. But we were able to work our way up the river and pretty much call our shots. 

[Dunks N Dinks]

@Saltysmalljaws and I got onto LPH at zero-dark thirty Saturday and cracked a handful of nice smallies in the fog. First bite was an angry 3lber at 5:10am out of 25fow, while salty had his heart broken more than once on a walking plug as big smallies were busting on juvenile herring all around the boat at sunrise. Later in the afternoon, we hunkered down over a deep ledge and milked drop-shots and counted down spy-baits for a couple bonus fish. Fun morning all around before the "Crazies" came out to play on sea-doos and pontoon boats. 

[DogBone_384]

On 7/20/2020 at 10:05 AM, Dunks N Dinks said:

First bite was an angry 3lber

Great way to start off the morning!

 

I'll be joining the 'big boy' club down there this fall.  A '17 Ranger RT178 just followed me home!

 

 

[Ratherbefishing75]

Hi there I’m going to lake sabbatia in norton on Friday night after work 

any suggestions on some good hot spots ?

[Don51]

8 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

Great way to start off the morning!

 

I'll be joining the 'big boy' club down there this fall.  A '17 Ranger RT178 just followed me home!

 

 

Good luck with the rig!