Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[bass.slayer69]

Took another skunk today. Had some bites but couldn’t connect - going to take out the canoe tomorrow I think.

30 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

I randomly picked Lake Masapoag

I’ve heard some good things abt that place. Been meaning to check it out.

[MassYak85]

Today was brutal and looks like I wasn't alone. I was thinking with the full moon and warm temps they might be starting to push shallow but nope, got slapped in the face by the wind and brutal post frontal conditons. Water temps were 55 to 58, couldn't buy a bite shallow other than pickerel. Tried just covering water with a spinnerbait but only the pickerel were interested. Switched to a jerkbait a little deeper and got my first bass. I thought that was gonna be the ticket but nope, it was also my only bass. What followed can only be described as an infestation. Pickerel every cast on the jerkbait, an absolute nuisance. Now I'm not one to complain about catching pickerel usually but I'm talking absolute dinks...like 8 inches. One after the other. The perfect size to thrash around and get every single treble hook into them. We tried some deeper areas trying to avoid them without any luck. Hopefully tomorrow is better.

[DogBone_384]

13 hours ago, bass.slayer69 said:

I’ve heard some good things abt that place.

I have too, but haven't experienced it.  Maybe in a couple weeks.  I marked most targets on the bottom in 25+ ft., similar to Cape waters.

[Mr. Aquarium]

Got out for the sunrise bite today. Missed a giant at spot 1. Got a fish about 3lbs.  Few good whacks. I really thought I stuck the hooks in that giant. Fought her a few seconds and she spit.  Spot 2, first cast had a huge wake come out from a tree to look at the glide, but she wouldn’t eat.  Few casts later I stuck a 5.11 20 inch fish.  
 

the fish really love this DS glide! 

[guidoStow]

Stunning fish brother!

[bass.slayer69]

Had a weird, weird day today. First trip with the canoe this year started off strong (I thought). 70 degree weather and sunny, until I got to my spot for the day and the wind was whipping and the sun had faded away. Started by blindly fishing deep water (been meaning to look into a fishfinder… any thoughts?) until I ran across another angler on a kayak. He told me he was flipping shallow cover with a wacky rig and I then followed suit - landing 5 fish between me and my buddy in the front end of the boat. Trolling motor really came in handy today - everyone else I talked to came up empty-handed as they got blown around 

[The one that got away]

Used my canoe to fish my first kayak tournament (they allow anglers to fish from kayaks or canoes) today in Brewster.  BRUTALLY windy out there.  Water temps were 50-51 range.  Got a real nice fat one to start the morning, but the fish got smaller as the day went along.  I squeaked out a limit, which was all I wanted because I'm not very familiar with the place.  All fish caught on a green 4" Keitech Swing Impact on a 1/8ounce tungsten jig head.  Nothing else was working aside from a pickerel on a jerkbait.  Finished 6th out of 25.  The smallie was second smallie lunker for the tournament.  

I want to also thank A-Jay for some tips on how to approach an unfamiliar body of water for smallmouths.  I just don't do a lot of smallie fishing and A-Jay was a big help.  I took his recommendation on where to start and what to use and the pic shows the result.  I recommend everyone take a look at the pinned Brown Bass Tools thread in the Smallmouth Bass Fishing forum here on BR.  The man knows his stuff!!!

 

[MassYak85]

Hammer Time!

 

(Jackhammer that is)

 

Boy what a weird day....

I Had a sinilar experience to @bass.slayer69 

 

 

Got out today around 10am. Water temps were still in the low 50s to start, main lake was still 48. Weird wind out of the south to start. We made the mistake of starting deep, fishing the deep side of breaks near spawning areas. With the water temps I thought no way they're shallow. So we spent most of our day deep and I managed 3 bass doing that. 2 on a fire craw jackhammer and 1 on a vision 110 in perch. 

 

The wind was brutal all day but started picking up more into the afternoon. I didn't have the desire to attempt finesse fishing in 20mph winds so we basically started junk fishing some areas shallow that we have luck later in the spring usually. We turned this one corner and just started getting them left and right on the jackhammer in bluegill. I lost a good one right away, probably 3.5 or 4lbs. My bad for trying to lift it onto the net. The next couple hours was just a beatdown on 1 to 2.5lbers. And these fish were all in less than 4 feet of water. That's the last time I ever assume anything about where the fish are. I ended up with 19 bass, should have been 20 if I played the big fish properly. Only a couple were dinks thr rest were solid keepers, and all came on the jackhammer. It was a very weird bite though, not quite subtle but the fish almost were just...there. They weren't hitting hard. Around 7 the wind did a complete 180 and started blowing out of the North even harder now with driving rain. I guess the fish must have been putting the feed bag on before the front. 

 

Definitely a day I won't forget. That makes it into my top 5 days for quantity.

[bass.slayer69]

15 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

We made the mistake of starting deep, fishing the deep side of breaks near spawning areas. With the water temps I thought no way they're shallow.

Same exact thinking I had. Especially because I don’t have a fishfinder and didn’t even know if I was in the right spots

[MassBass]

I had some action today. My most local stretch of river; had a solid bite right away, knew it was big, she starts jumping, one jump, two jump, and I lost her. Maybe about a 3lber, which is in my experience here a very good fish. Then stuck a smaller bass in the immediate area. Moved on, yellow perch following, and caught one. The geese were on eggs, and they are very defensive of them. Caught another YP at the next bridge. I wasn't going to march very far today so I would start circling back the other bank. I thoroughly tried a stretch that I usually skip, and it still didn't produce except for some perch follows.

 

At the next bridge, I tied on a blade bait. Stuck a bass on the blade bait near the shallow concrete edge. I would try again the spot where I had the first bite, but the conditions had suddenly changed from dark clouds and breeze to bluebird and calm, so I didn't get a second chance. That was that.  

 

[DogBone_384]

I met @JG233 at Webster Lake yesterday morning.  The weather was perfect for an early Spring day.  After seven hours fishing shallow, deep, humps, wind blown points/shorelines, we called it a day.  I threw everything I could think of and came up with one LMB, about a pound, with a bluegill flash Rage Tail Menace off a rocky, wind blown point.  Derek caught two really nice non-bass (hopefully he'll post his details). We marked fish on bottom in 15 - 20'.  

 

I stopped by Jacobs Pond after dropping off my boat, in attempt of salvaging the day.  In short order I came up with a 1-6 and 4-5 LMB on the same Rage Tail that Webster's bass took.  Not a bad recovery.

 

Water temps at Webster were 55.x - 57.x.  Winds were light in the morning and increased steadily from the West.  Air pressure was 30.4 in the morning and dropped as the day progressed.

 

All in all a very good day on the water.

[MassYak85]

@DogBone_384 Webster can be great but also tough. If they're keyed in on the alewife schools you can spend a lot of time trying to find them. I had a day last fall where I caught like 5 in 5 casts and then almost nothing the rest of the day. It's one of those patterns where if you have livescope (which I don't) you're at a serious advantage.

 

 

 

 

 

[JG233]

Yeah, Webster was tough yesterday. I caught 2 in a full day of fishing: a good sized and aggressive Tiger Trout early and then a huge Pickerel that probably went about 4 lbs. I made the standard move of thinking I had a big SMB bass on until I got the Pickerel close to the boat. Oh Pickerel, what a trickster you are. I'm hoping to get out again sometime this week. 

[DogBone_384]

7 hours ago, MassYak85 said:

if you have livescope

Nope, no Live Scope. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

Got another giant today. She went 7lbs 1 ounce. 21 inch brick.  She hit the DS glide slow twitch near a overhanging tree.   This is my 3rd over 7 and my 5 bass over 5 this year on this glide bait. 

[Mr. Aquarium]

[MassYak85]

@Mr. Aquarium Jeeeeeesh dude you're killing it! 3 over 7 is insane!

[DogBone_384]

12 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

@Mr. Aquarium Jeeeeeesh dude you're killing it! 3 over 7 is insane!

That’s why he’s Mr. Aquarium!

[roadwarrior]

 

 

                                                          

[Frezzy]

10 hours ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Great job Mike!  That's a tank.

[DogBone_384]

Ground it out at Little/Great South yesterday afternoon.  Weather conditions were similar to Monday's trip to Webster lake.  The only fish I marked were on the bottom in 30'+.  I took an average size white perch off the bottom in 40' with a chartreuse shad LV500 late in the afternoon once winds calmed down.  It was good to beat the skunk.

 

Water temps in GS's shallows and Little South were 55.x while temps were still cold at 52.x in Great South.

[MassYak85]

I start a new job next week so I had the rest of this week off.

 

Had another killer day. This time 22 bass. Mostly small ones with some 2-3lbers mixed in. The males are definitely getting active in the shallows. I can't seem to find those females though when I go deeper. Spinnerbait and chatterbait did all of the damage. They'd only touch either one if it was slow rolled and staying near the bottom. 

[MassYak85]

We made the trip down to Agawam Mill today. Didn't have quite the day we hoped but not bad. I started the day off with a 4-4 on a white and silver spinnerbait with a Beast Coast Miyagi swimmer on the back. The bigger profile seemed to pay off. I got a couple other small ones and lost what was probably a 3lber. I tried the Real Prey Alewife quite a bit with no interest. We each got into some TANK pickerel. My dad got one that weighed in at 4.07lbs and 26.5". Mine was slightly bigger but didn't get the chance to get measurement. Turns out our net has a nice hole in it lol. I only say mine was bigger because mine barely made it though that hole while his managed to get through it a little easier lol. I'd guess mine was similar length just a little fatter, maybe 4.5lbs. 

 

Besides that it was really slow. Even the Opsreys seemed to be coming up empty on their dives.

[Mr. Aquarium]

I fished the hell out of my DS glide bait. They only wanted the real prey forage trout. Got a 6lb 13 ounce 21 inch fish. She hit after I popped the bait off the bottom. Had another solid whack. Got a decent pickerel as well.  So close to 7lbs!!!!!! 

[DogBone_384]

I got out with @Fishing Rhino for the first time this year.  We fished his ‘home’ pond.  I caught 14 fish in a mix of LMB, yellow perch, and pickerel.  Tom matched it, with three of four LMB around 3 pounds to boot. 

 

Winds were stiff from the NE and air pressure was 30.2.

 

Congrats to @Mr. Aquarium for another great catch.