Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[JG233]

It was the first fishing trip of the year, hallelujah!

 

It was a slow day. I got a lot of tentative hits, and only managed to put one bass in the boat. However, that one bass set a new personal best for me at 5.5. The bass hit my wacky worm lightly, maybe 20 feet from the boat. I missed it, but then hit it again. On the second hit, I managed to get a good hook set and get it into the net. Later in the day, I hooked up with another large fish. I got it very close to the boat before it got off the line. Rhino insists it was larger than the first.

 

Anyway, pictures are included. Great first outing of the year. Thanks to Rhino for the seat in his canoe, and to DogBone for snapping the pictures.

[bass_masster]

Nice slob, glad to see some large fish being pulled on the South Shore already, how deep were you guys/did you catch the fish??

 

On 3/1/2016 at 3:58 PM, Fishing Rhino said:

Okay, guys, I'm back.  If we get some good weather (light wind and reasonable temps) I'm going to hit up the two ponds near my home.  If they live up to their potential, I should do well.

If I do, I'll hang out the "vacancy" sign.  I have room for another in my canoe on the pond surrounded by private property.  If it's the pond with public access, such as it is, maybe we can have an outing of the little boat fleet.

I'm in the North End of NB, only thing I've found that I can fish and reliably pull fish out of is Copicut, there are freshwater ponds in Westport?

Tried fishing the one near UMD with no luck either, figured everything past that would be coastal/brackish inlets.

[Fishing Rhino]

There are three ponds in Westport which can be clearly seen. The white line which follows the shoreline of two ponds is the MA/RI border.  The three ponds to the right of that line are totally or partly in Westport.  The larger, top center is South Watuppa.  It is in both Fall River and Westport.  The two ponds to the left of our home are Devol, which is private access only, and to the left (west) of Devol is Sawdy Pond,  Both are within the town of Westport.

[JG233]

I caught that fish in probably 6 ft of water. We were fishing some large submerged boulders. The water temp was 40-44. 

[DogBone_384]

I launched @ Ponkapog around 9:15 or so, as planned. It was in the 40's, sunny, and breezy. I started from the south, in about 7' of water where I found a lot of weed patched with a chrome/black/red Shadow Rap and brown Chigger-Quad (1st time). I drifted slowly NW for a while with not so much as a whiff. After a little while I switched to a 3" whacky rigged Senko and a gold husky jerk. The wind/current kept the Senko from sinking so I scratched that pretty quickly. 

After three hours of 'practice' casting and increasing winds, I conceded my first shut out of the year and packed it in.

Surface temp was 48.x.

Tomorrow's another day...

[ranger7717]

south meadow pond from shore today....waited for sun to heat water up a little.... but then the winds came. caught a 1.5 # on shadow rap shad as well as a nice crappie , then a 2.75 # on a chatterbait in less than three feet in a "not as windy" spot

[Bedwyer94]

I did pretty well in Holliston MA today on Lake Winthrop. Me and three buddies all caught quality fish on crankbait and zoom super flukes. We caught largemouths in the 1-3 pound range and a bunch of pickerel. We ended up catching one pickerel pushing 5 pounds in deep water.

[bass_masster]

On 3/8/2016 at 9:24 PM, massrob said:

On 3/9/2016 at 3:58 PM, Fishing Rhino said:

There are three ponds in Westport which can be clearly seen. The white line which follows the shoreline of two ponds is the MA/RI border.  The three ponds to the right of that line are totally or partly in Westport.  The larger, top center is South Watuppa.  It is in both Fall River and Westport.  The two ponds to the left of our home are Devol, which is private access only, and to the left (west) of Devol is Sawdy Pond,  Both are within the town of Westport.

 

Wow, did not know that. If anyone has access to the Private Access areas, I have a 14' Mad River canoe with an open seat and I'm an extremely respectful sportsman

Walked around ~13miles of shoreline in 2 days between Lakeville, Rochester, Copicut and Carver, not even s much as a bite this weekend.

Fished jigs, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, lipless cranks, swimbaits, square bills, usually spring stuff.

Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and take the skunk, as much as it stings! Hopefully have better luck when this rain clears.

 

[carlm01]

Guys Ive posted this question before ,Does anyone have an address for a boat ramp on the Concord River in Billerica ? ,And please no just google it or it's off of so and so .. A legitimate address please ...  Thanks Carl 

[DogBone_384]

Perhaps this'll help:

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/fba/access-sites.html

[bass_masster]

Managed to get out yesterday for a bit despite sub-par weather conditions, wife was down to go.

 

Plunked around with  Spro BBZ1 rat swimbait for most of the morning with no luck, switched to jigs and spinnerbaits, still no luck.

Found a deeper pocket with some bass it in with a jerkbait. Long twitches were key today, 3-5 seconds between twitching the jerkbait on a slack line.

These new Rapala jerkbaits I picked up from Dick's on sale are awesome, love the action and the paint schemes are great. Hooks are sharp as hell too. I managed 3 little bass sub-2lbs and my wife snagged one as well on a ghost minnow jerkbait.

 

 

[Fishing Rhino]

I dunno.  After the two times I went out and got skunked I'm thinking my absence from March fishing has been a good decision.  Having said that however, next weekend is a possibility.  At this time of year, two factors will drive my decision, wind and temperature.

Got most of the yard cleaned up.  A few more hours and all the twigs and branches that fell over the winter should be on the brush pile out back.  It's a great sanctuary for critters and birds.

Got a few more things to do on the bass boat rig.  Lube the wheel bearings.  Check the nuts and bolts on the trailer, with special attention to the lag bolts which secure the bunks, and organize the gear in the boat.  Then I'll be ready to head south to meet up with some friends. 

[DogBone_384]

OK, enough's enough....     Mother Nature gave us a Spring teaser ...  one more quick snow day then it's time to go fishing!

[DogBone_384]

Got to Houghton's Pond yesterday, figuring I'd have a shot at something - trout, bass, pickerel, etc..  I was a layer short, so I didn't last long, being cold and wading in 40+ degree water.  After an hour of trying to get 1/8 oz lures to go anywhere in 15-20 mph winds, and not seeing anyone else reel anything in while I was there, I packed it up and headed to work.

Today was a completely different story.  The wife was home sick and said, "leave me alone".  Sure was my cue....  I drove up to Blue Hills Reservoir to see what was what.  Started off with a Shad Rap Deep along the NW shore, from the point, southward.  I blew a cast with my Sonarphone (yeah, a 4 oz. ball on a M/M caster....) and spent a while working out a bird's nest I would normally have cut, but I got it.

I moved to the South corner where dirt/stone shorelines come together and switched to a blue/black flake Chigger-Craw on a weighted t-rig hook.  I worked up the stone shore a little bit, working my bait like a jig when I felt a bit of a bump.  I leaned on the hook a little bit and thought I'd snagged something.  Yep, I sure snagged something: A new PB of 4/11....  

I continued to the SE corner where I generally do pretty well in Summer.  My little Chigger-Craw went THUMP again.  I brought to shore another bass as big as the first.  WOW, I thought, but as I bent down to grab it, I let some slack on the line and it sure felt it.  It shook it's head just a little, unhooked itself, looked up, gave me the middle fin, and swam off.  I knew what I'd done wrong as soon as it got off.  Lesson learned.

This is my first winter fishing colder water.  Funny how these bass don't hit nearly as hard, nor fight as viciously.  No matter, I'll take it.

I've fished BHR for five or more years now and NEVER would have guessed I'd get a nearly five pound bass out of there....

 

[JG233]

Nice one! I've been out a few times since we went to Sawdy, but it's been dead. I might try and get out on Friday. We shall see. 

[bass_masster]

Managed to snag two more on the Halloween jerkbait on lunch, cold and windy but they're still eating

[DogBone_384]

Got back over to BHR for a little bit this afternoon with my neighbor.  Nothing but a cold front coming through.

Bumped into JG233 as we were leaving.  Hopefully he had better luck.

[Treeguy827]

Hey guys my names Chris I'm new to the forum just wanted to introduce myself I fish carver wareham area can't wait to learn more from locals!

[DogBone_384]

Welcome Chris. You're in a good spot. I fished once this year with Fishing Rhino & JG233 at Sawdy and am making it a point to get more local members to fish in groups. A ton of knowledge/experience to be found & shared too.

Do you have a kayak or canoe? 

[JG233]

I didn't last long DB, maybe another half hour. I had a tap or two on the IKA before chatting with you guys, but nothing afterward. 

[DogBone_384]

Depending on the weather, I might just beat the bank a little before work Monday morning.  

[Treeguy827]

Unfortunately not yet I'm looking into getting a small fishing kayak but just fishing from shore for now I fished a small pond off wareham st in carver last night caught a large pickerel. hoping to up load some pics of fish I catch in the area

[bass_masster]

17 hours ago, Treeguy827 said:

Unfortunately not yet I'm looking into getting a small fishing kayak but just fishing from shore for now I fished a small pond off wareham st in carver last night caught a large pickerel. hoping to up load some pics of fish I catch in the area

Must have been either that bog pond near the big bend in the road or Clear Pond further up the road into Carver. I grew up fishing Carver and Wareham, some great fishing in that area.

[Treeguy827]

Yup that little spot on the bend wasn't very good. I live walking distance from sampsons pond but only being able to fish from shore restricts me from getting to any decent spots. Won't be doing any fishing to Thursday afternoon most likely...have any of you locals ever had the chance to fish edaville reservoir? Some big bass in there but they can be real strict over there  

[Janderson45]

I got out on Lake Sabbatia for a few hours yesterday afternoon. It was mostly sunny with a very light wind when I launched, right around 50 degree air temps.

water temp was 52.x degrees where I launched from, the snake river which feeds into the northern end of the lake.  This was only in 2-3' of water most of the way however, and it was already 1PM. Main lake temps were 48.x   I spent some time exploring the river to try and get an idea if there were any active fish feeding up in it, I didn't see much life and nothing was tempted by my bladed jig or shakey head, so I headed down the river towards the main lake.  I found the channel where the water dropped abruptly to 8' or 9' of water, fished that with the shakey head for a bit.. nothing.   Headed out to the main lake, the wind had picked up considerably at this point, 6-10mph out of the southeast which was not what had been forecasted.  I worked my way up the northern bank where there is a rather drastic ledge, quickly dropping to 20+ feet of water, and marked what appeared to be some pretty good fish on my lowrance.  I was in about 16' of water and the bass were suspended in groups of 2 or 3 in about 8-12' of water. I did mark a few that were orienting to the bottom as well, but mostly they were suspended.  My initial game plan was to anchor in the shallow water closer to the bank that was facing into the wind,  but this was a surprisingly hard surface.  I could not drive my stakeout pole deep enough into the bottom to hold me in place.  I used a folding anchor a bit further out, in around 12' of water, and was able to make some casts towards the areas i had marked fish, once again they wouldn't take the bladed jig or shakey head. The shakey head was tough to maintain contact with in a slight chop and fairly deep water, it probably  needed to be upsized and I likely would've been better off dragging a jig or Carolina rig. The fish just weren't interested in the bladed jig either, I fished it at a lot of different speeds and depths with various retrieves without any luck, I should have tried a jerkbait but i didn't.  It was getting late and I was having trouble positioning the boat in the wind, so i headed back up the river.  On the way back up I snagged a 15" pickerel with the shakey head, a 3/16 ball head and a 6.5" biospawn plasma tail in green pumpkin.  That was it for the day.

All in all it was a fun day though, felt good to get out.  I got to try out a new reel, I had never fished a bladed jig, and it was my first outing with my new stake out stick as well.  The stick performed very well in the river where there was a soft bottom, lots of the places I fish in the area have shallow softer bottoms, so I think this will be a real asset for me this year.  

I hope to get better at positioning the kayak this season, sometimes it can be a real chore to target the right areas or fish that you've found if there's any wind or current.  I also hope to get better at catching some fish out of deeper water, the majority of my catches come from 8' of water or less.