Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[je1946]

On 5/2/2016 at 1:57 PM, Janderson45 said:

This would be a new state record fish... I can't find anything on google about it?  If it's a state record they'll at least tell you where it was caught. 

Rhode Island would be the state in New England that I would least expect this fish to call home, I'm going to guess that it came from a body of water that is seldom fished, but then again I suppose RI probably sees the least amount of freshwater bass fishing pressure in New England as well... 

Nice fish.. thanks for killing it to take a picture....NOT

 

[JAB50]

Anyone fish Cape Cod this past weekend? I'll be there this weekend. Trying to get some info.! Are they on beds yet? Staging? What lures should I throw?

 

[DogBone_384]

I fished Great Herring Pond in Plymouth, just off the Cape, last week.  I didn't do that well but a couple locals told me they caught a ton of smallies.  Water temps were in the low/mid 50's, for what that's worth.  My Lowrance showed more deep traffic than shallow. 

[JAB50]

Thanks Dogbone! The waters I fish on the cape are from Yarmouth to Orleans. Lots of big kettle ponds. Mostly trout stocked with herring runs going into a few. The month of May is so difficult there because the fish seem to be doing different things every year. Mostly due to the type of winter it was hit with. The ponds I fish at least have both smallies and largies. So, if one species is off the other is on!

thanks again!

[Mr. Aquarium]

i got a 5.5lbs smallies first fish of the day. then a 4lbser then a 2lbs. then a 6.9 lbser and ended the day with a 3

all smallies all fish but the 5.5 were caught on topwater! 

[JAB50]

Very nice!

[Mr. Aquarium]

fished 12 hours and all those fish came in the last 2 hours of the day! 

[MassYak85]

5 hours ago, Mike Dixon said:

i got a 5.5lbs smallies first fish of the day. then a 4lbser then a 2lbs. then a 6.9 lbser and ended the day with a 3

all smallies all fish but the 5.5 were caught on topwater! 

A 6.9 Smallie? WOW!

[JAB50]

And a 5.5lber too! That's a pretty d**n good day with those weights!

[MassYak85]

6 minutes ago, JAB50 said:

And a 5.5lber too! That's a pretty d**n good day with those weights!

I'll say! I don't think I've ever even heard of a 5+ lb smallie in the state aside from out of wachusett and the quabbin 

[massrob]

Wow those are some big smallies i caught the first one of my life at great herring last year

[JAB50]

Well, my biggest smallie is about 6.8lbs. That was caught at winnisquam in New Hampshire. But, White Island pond in Plymouth has some that big there. Long Pond Harwich and several waters on cape cod do also. Caught several in the 5lb range there. 

Again, that's a great day of fishing when your catching those types of weights! Congrats

 

[JAB50]

Any more updates?

 

[JG233]

I just got my gear packed up to bank fish tomorrow morning--will report back. 

[MassYak85]

I'm going to try and get out in my kayak tomorrow before the rain comes in, I'll let you guys know how I do. I'm hoping the last two days of nice 70 degree weather got them more active.

[DogBone_384]

On 5/10/2016 at 10:39 PM, massrob said:

Wow those are some big smallies i caught the first one of my life at great herring last year

Funny, me too.  It's a LOT of water to cover with a kayak, but worth it.  

[JAB50]

Making my 8 hour ride up to Massachessets now. Have my yak with me. Let me know how it goes today if you get out. Thanks for all the replies and updates! 

[JG233]

Today was pretty good. I fished a local pond from 9 - 2. I started off alternating between a rage craw and a crankbait--fish wanted no part of either. I switched over to a wacky rigged senko and boom, I caught 3-4 lb LMB. I stayed with the senko for the rest of the day: caught another similarly sized LMB, then 2 small (but rowdy) SMB, and then a few more LMB. I think I caught 6 or 7 fish total. I'm bad at keeping count. Hope everyone else had a good day too! 

[Torn Thumb]

When I went out yesterday (Western MA, mind you) they were biting on wacky rigged senkos more than anything else. I saw a few beds but only one was occupied. Have you guys seen any obvious signs of the spawn out east yet?

[MassYak85]

I was out in my kayak for about 5 hours on a local pond (wildwood in upton) this afternoon. It started out slow but they started biting as the day went on. I got about a dozen bass but the biggest was only around 2 lb's. I had another between 2-3 jump and get off too. Couldn't seem to find the big girls today unfortunately. I didn't have any way to get the water temperature but just going by feel it seemed to be approaching or getting just above 60 with the warm weather we've had. I didn't see any fish on the beds that I found, but all the small males I caught were pushed up shallow. Most of the fish were caught on a swim jig, and a couple on a wacky worm I threw if one missed the swimjig. 

[JAB50]

Well, I left Maryland at 5:30 a.m. this morning and got to cape cod by 1pm. Went straight to the lake and launched my kayak. Caught about 15 and lost about 5 or six. All largemouth. Biggest was close to 4lbs. Was fishing a Texas rigged chigger craw. They were all off of beds too. Mostly males in the 1.5 to 2lb range. Bcaught two others that were about 3lbs. Aggressive too. Not sure if the females already spawned or are just not on there yet. Males are on there. Going to fish 2 different ponds tomorrow with my brother. Seems like the fish are at different stages of the spawn depending on which body of water you fish here!

 

[Cyacnba]

I went to Jamaica Pond today. There were a few beds, most of them empty. Only 3 had fish (males) and on 2 of them, there were female bass close by. I managed to hook one of the females, which weighted a little over 4.5lbs.

[Torn Thumb]

Nice.Thanks everybody. I'm going out in a couple of hours and hope to possibly get a new PB. I somehow missed the spawn altogether last year but not this time.

[MassYak85]

Me and my dad were on Quinsigamound today for about 8 hours. Water temps when we got there were in the low 60's so I thought there might still be some up shallow spawning. No such luck. We spent about an hour shallow with only pickeral to show for it. Even the males were no where to be found. We went to the North section and fished outside of an area they had been spawning in a couple weeks prior, thinking they may have just moved out of the spawning grounds. No luck there either. It wasn't until we moved back to about the first bridge that we finally found them. My dad got a nice 3.3lber on a spinnerbait and a couple of 2's and some more smaller ones. It seemed like the bass were in full on post-spawn behavior after all the warm weather we had this week. Even the males were out deep. Seemed like most of the decent fish were near shore but Quinsig drops quickly into 50 feet so they were hanging out at around 10-15 feet and were coming up to hit stuff. They reacted well to the flashy silver spinnerbaits. I wasn't as lucky today with moving baits so I decided to give the ned rig it's maiden voyage. If my goal was to slay dinks it would have been one of the best days of fishing ever, but 50 dink largemouth/crappies/rock bass later and the biggest fish I caught all day was probably about a pound. Still a fun day though. When we left the water temps were creeping up towards 68 and I saw one spot hit 70. Looks like the spawn is wrapping up/over in many places. 

[Torn Thumb]

I went for about 4 hours this morning. Alot of empty beds or beds guarded by dinks. I caught one dink on a zoom lizard but it was too far from shore to see if he was on a bed. Other than that, all I could muster was a few senko bites but no real takers. There were a couple of disinterested 3ish females roaming near beds but they may as well have been blind/deaf.