Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Mr. Aquarium]

I’m sure some smaller ponds will have skim ice. But most would be fine. 

[bass.slayer69]

With the warm weather coming in next week, I am compiling a list of potential spots near me. I have never been to any of these spots, and I was wondering your opinions: 

Reservoir Pond

Crystal Lake

Lake Cochituate

Massapoag Lake

Willet Pond

Neponset Reservoir

Dug Pond

Fisk Pond

Dudley Pond

Old Quincy Reservoir

Heard Pond

 

Thanks for everyone’s advice in the past, this page is awesome to have as a mass-specific bass fishing forum. Can’t wait to finally get out there next week, and good luck to all of you as well

 

Tight lines ?

[Jigfishn10]

2 minutes ago, bass.slayer69 said:

With the warm weather coming in next week, I am compiling a list of potential spots near me. I have never been to any of these spots, and I was wondering your opinions: 

Reservoir Pond

Crystal Lake

Lake Cochituate

Massapoag Lake

Willet Pond

Neponset Reservoir

Dug Pond

Fisk Pond

Dudley Pond

Old Quincy Reservoir

Heard Pond

 

Thanks for everyone’s advice in the past, this page is awesome to have as a mass-specific bass fishing forum. Can’t wait to finally get out there next week, and good luck to all of you as well

 

Tight lines ?

All look like good spots. Hear some really good things about Massapoag. If I fished it, it was many years ago. Glad you posted it, I may have to try that out...again.

 

As much as Lake Cochituate looks good, it's kind of a dud in my opinion. 

 

Report back on where you go. I'm interested to see if any of the waters are iced out.

[bass.slayer69]

38 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

All look like good spots. Hear some really good things about Massapoag. If I fished it, it was many years ago. Glad you posted it, I may have to try that out...again.

 

As much as Lake Cochituate looks good, it's kind of a dud in my opinion. 

 

Report back on where you go. I'm interested to see if any of the waters are iced out.

Will do. Currently in quarantine with the COVID so dreaming of days on the water in the next few weeks. Picked up a canoe for this year, and am very excited to get it going.

[MassYak85]

Agreed i have never caught anything over 3lbs in Cochituate. I'm sure there's some decent fish but the effort/reward that place has given me has been the lowest of all the places I've fished. I've caught a pin pickerel there nothing else to write home about.

[DogBone_384]

On 3/3/2021 at 7:12 PM, MassYak85 said:

I heard the locals started a program a few years back to try and control the weeds

If they've done that, it's likely the fish relocated somewhere else.  Braintree did that to  Sunset Lake a few years ago and I've not caught much of anything  since.

[DogBone_384]

I took a ride this morning to see if any of my local ponds showed signs of life...

 

Canton Res, Ponkapoag, Houghton's, and Blue Hills Res are locked up.  Canton Res was the only one that had a smidge of open water.  Unfortunately, it's the SW point visible from Pleasant street, which is private property.

 

It looks like I'm goin' south for the next couple weeks.

 

Hopefully I'll see some of you around Plymouth & Cape Cod.

[bass.slayer69]

3 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

I took a ride this morning to see if any of my local ponds showed signs of life...

 

Canton Res, Ponkapoag, Houghton's, and Blue Hills Res are locked up.  Canton Res was the only one that had a smidge of open water.  Unfortunately, it's the SW point visible from Pleasant street, which is private property.

 

It looks like I'm goin' south for the next couple weeks.

 

Hopefully I'll see some of you around Plymouth & Cape Cod.

I think those should be open by next week. Two days in the mid-50s and 2 days in the 60s should open up pretty much everything around here

[DogBone_384]

1 hour ago, bass.slayer69 said:

I think those should be open by next week.

Hopefully.  Blue Hills Res and Houghton's looked safe enough to walk on to check thickness, at the least.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Got out this afternoon. Fished a shallow weedy pond, nothing, fished a jerkbait, swimbait, jig, t rig. Nothing. Surprised I didn’t get a pickerel. I missed something decent up shallow on a BiCO.  Saw some fish up top. Who knows what they were. 
 

Decided to see if I could get a night fish. Hit a pond I’ve been hitting all winter.  Only brought 2 rods and 2 baits.  At first it was a bit slow.  Missed a fish, spit hook. Continued casting. Got 2 fish, one on a Toxic wake and crank, and a 4 piece Pats. Had a few blows ups on each bait as well.  Super stoked to get bit at night. 

[Meowmicks]

Took the boat out for the 1st time this season, drove around Mashpee/Wakeby hoping to find some rock piles or boulders but came up empty. Picked some random points near dropoffs to 30' dragged a jig and a tiny swimbait along the bottom hoping to entice a hungry smallie but no luck.

[BigEyedF11sh]

Put in a full day shift at Little South yesterday and got my teeth kicked in for 8 hours lol. Fished shallow, deep, everywhere in between and no bites.  Threw a vision 110+1, 110+2, shad raps, jigs, senkos, you name it.
 

water was still very cold, about 40° when I showed up and the northern portion 42° when I left. On arrival the whole third of the area in front of the Great South Creek was locked up. When I left everything was melted except for the creek..figures cause I really wanted to fish great south. Gonna try to make it down there Friday after the warm up.

 

only positives I gathered was I found a brush pile in ~20 ft of water and a couple other piles/downed trees in about 10 ft of water that I’m gonna have to circle back around to in a couple weeks.

 

place is tough but I have a soft spot for it. I either catch multiple 3-5 pounders or absolutely nothing lol

[MassBass]

Looking to get a line wet fri and or sat. I know early season is a gamble, you can get skunked but you can also get the biggest bass of the year. Lake Cochituate dosen't give her secrets out easily.

[DogBone_384]

4 hours ago, MassBass said:

you can get skunked but you can also get the biggest bass of the year

I got the skunk today @ Santuit pond.  Fished it for three hours after lunch.  There were two other boats there.  One guy I spoke to didn't catch anything either.  I stuck to the shoreline, working south to north, tossing dark soft baits, chatter bait, a couple different jerk baits, and a sliver LV500. Towards the end I moved deeper, marking little or nothing shallow and only pan fish deep.

 

The last time I did well there was 2016, though I've rarely fished there since.  I didn't catch anything my last three trips there.

 

The water was its usual stained, pea soup color, 43.x - 45.x (S - N).  Winds were about 10 mph from the south.  Air pressure was 30.5.

[Meowmicks]

21 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

I got the skunk today @ Santuit pond.  Fished it for three hours after lunch.  There were two other boats there.  One guy I spoke to didn't catch anything either.  I stuck to the shoreline, working south to north, tossing dark soft baits, chatter bait, a couple different jerk baits, and a sliver LV500.  Towards the end I moved deeper, marking little or nothing shallow and only pan fish deep.

 

The last time I did well there was 2016, though  I've rarely fished there since.  I didn't catch anything my last three trips there.

 

The water was its usual stained, pea soup color, 43.x - 45.x (S - N).  Winds were about 10 mph from the south.  Air pressure was 30.5.

 

Nice to see another BR'er out there, that was me in the green Nitro at Santuit today. Sorry I couldn't really hear what you were saying out there, my ears don't work too well unfortunately. 

 

I started around 12:00 left at 4:00 threw a jig most of the afternoon but also tried a suspending lipless crank, underspin, chatterbait, tube, and ned. Not sure I even remember what a bass bite feels like, I set the hook on so many rocks and even pulled up a couple branches.

 

 

 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Bite sucked in wareham. Barely fish, I had to drain my kayak. Water was coming in like it was a siv. Didn’t fish the area I wanted to. 

[DogBone_384]

53 minutes ago, Meowmicks said:

my ears don't work too well unfortunately. 

Me too. I’m all but deaf in my left ear.

 

I had about the same luck you did.

 

Better luck next time!

[BigEyedF11sh]

Does anyone in here know if the river that connects Great Herring and Little Herring is navigable by kayak? 
 

Launched directly into little herring just before ice up this winter but everyone who’s launched in there knows how much of a pain in the backside the terrain to get to that launch is. Would rather paddle up a small stream on a nice day even if it took me an hour.

[Frezzy]

I took a spin by Hopkinton Reservoir and Whitehall just to check the ice.  I was surprised to see guys out ice fishing on Hop.  I have never ice fished before, but that seemed a little aggressive and unsafe.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Ive seen post on Facebook about people falling through. Not worth it

[MassYak85]

1 hour ago, Frezzy said:

I took a spin by Hopkinton Reservoir and Whitehall just to check the ice.  I was surprised to see guys out ice fishing on Hop.  I have never ice fished before, but that seemed a little aggressive and unsafe.

Yea it depends how much black ice there was, the top white ice will deteriorate quick in this weather but if there's a solid base of black you can squeeze in some "safe" T-shirt weather ice fishing trips. Usually the edges are the first to go so getting on to the ice at all is usually the tricky part. 

 

The enticing part is usually the last couple weeks of the season can be some of the best. My best day on the ice was in late March one year, in a spot like 30 feet from where there was open water along the shore. 50 degrees and rapidly melting 6 inches of ice. Would not advise doing that though lol. It was a pond I know extremely well its the only reason I attempted it.

[BigEyedF11sh]

Got out for a couple hours on the yak this afternoon, chose to stay close to home and fish Maquan pond.  Launched at Camp Kiwanee around noon and was happy to find balmy 45° water.  Wind was blowing hard and steady from the south.

 

Fished mostly jerkbait and crankbaits due to the heavy wind making it tough to keep contact with my lighter bottom baits.  Marked a lot of fish in 10-12 feet of water on the eastern shore in the northern part of the lake and was able to entice one bite out of a healthy 1.5-2lb largemouth on a vision 110+1 in yellow perch.

 

Satisfied and sick of pedaling upwind to hold position I headed back for the ramp at around 3, water temp was up to around 46°.  There’s my March fish! Thinking about heading back tomorrow and bringing my anchor rig with me this time.

 

 
 

 

[bass.slayer69]

Got out on my inflatable for about 3 hours today at the Canton Res. This was my first time at the res, and the whole thing was melted except for the northeast section by the dam. I worked the western point by the dam and the southern rocky cove by the golf course. Used a 1/2 oz green pumpkin jig w/ craw trailer dragged or hopped slow along the bottom. No fish, but it was a beautiful day. Broke in the new rod and learned how to jig. While I endured the first taste of a skunk in 2021, it was an all around good day. Looking to head somewhere else tomorrow shorebound.

[Jigfishn10]

WTG @BigEyedF11sh!

 

6 minutes ago, bass.slayer69 said:

Got out on my inflatable for about 3 hours today at the Canton Res. This was my first time at the res, and the whole thing was melted except for the northeast section by the dam. I worked the western point by the dam and the southern rocky cove by the golf course. Used a 1/2 oz green pumpkin jig w/ craw trailer dragged or hopped slow along the bottom. No fish, but it was a beautiful day. Broke in the new rod and learned how to jig. While I endured the first taste of a skunk in 2021, it was an all around good day. Looking to head somewhere else tomorrow shorebound.

Oh man, you were like 4 miles from my house. 

Lemme know next time you’re down in the hood. ?

[DogBone_384]

53 minutes ago, bass.slayer69 said:

Canton Res.

Good to hear... I caught two nice LMB there in December.  I like Plymouth and Cape Cod, but it's a long drive.

 

48 minutes ago, Jigfishn10 said:

Oh man, you were like 4 miles from my house. 

I'm only 20 minutes down the road.  ... ?