Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[DogBone_384]

Houghton's Pond is close to home.  I might give that a go when it gets thick enough.  See what I can pull up.

[Mr. Aquarium]

tried to get out last weekend but the ponds were locked up! drove around looking for spot! sat in my yak at the spot i really wanted to fish, broke ice but it was to thick to really break it, to thin to walk on it! 

went native brookie fishin. caught one, lost a few others! hooked into the biggest ive seen from this stream

[MassYak85]

This weeks temperatures are looking really great for ice, but it's supposed to rain this weekend too so hopefully it will survive that. I'll be home this weekend and will probably get gear ready and get bait and hopefully can find a spot next weekend. 

[jr231]

Just a Michigander living in ohio. Snoopin on yalls thread. 

You mass dudes get it in ! 

[MassYak85]

4 hours ago, Yeajray231 said:

Just a Michigander living in ohio. Snoopin on yalls thread. 

You mass dudes get it in ! 

Any safe ice in Michigan yet? I would think so with the polar vortex swinging down around the great lakes right now. 

[jr231]

59 minutes ago, MassYak85 said:

Any safe ice in Michigan yet? I would think so with the polar vortex swinging down around the great lakes right now. 

I'm not sure man. I live in ohio for the time being.. my mother did text me the other day and said she was excited for ice fishing... so if it's not there yet. It's close ! 

We just got our first good snow in ohio today. Southern Ohio. I'm like 45 minutes north of Cincinnati (which is literally on the border of Kentucky. ) 

I see you're excited for the ice though. Looking forward to seeing some pics. 

[Fishing Rhino]

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to fellow MA anglers.  Two and a half weeks, and the holiday season will be in the rear view mirror.

It will soon be time for our meet, greet, and eat.  We can meet up at the BPS by the big fireplace at the entry.  Depending, we can mill around the store for a while then head a couple of miles east on Rte 1 to the Red Wing restaurant.

What day of the week is best?  Thoughts?

[DogBone_384]

Merry Christmas.  Look forward to meeting up after the holidays.

["hamma"]

  Im Game for meeting you all, as long as I dont have a doc's appointment, I plan on being there. If Je1946 doesnt chime in I'll call him, I know he wanted to do this too. We both dont work anymore, so just about anyday should be good for us.

[je1946]

23 hours ago, "hamma" said:

  Im Game for meeting you all, as long as I dont have a doc's appointment, I plan on being there. If Je1946 doesnt chime in I'll call him, I know he wanted to do this too. We both dont work anymore, so just about anyday should be good for us.

Oh yeah,  I'm in.

[je1946]

On 12/15/2016 at 8:24 PM, Fishing Rhino said:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to fellow MA anglers.  Two and a half weeks, and the holiday season will be in the rear view mirror.

It will soon be time for our meet, greet, and eat.  We can meet up at the BPS by the big fireplace at the entry.  Depending, we can mill around the store for a while then head a couple of miles east on Rte 1 to the Red Wing restaurant.

What day of the week is best?  Thoughts?

Hey Tom, Looking forward to meeting everyone.  As far as a day, would a wkend day say a Sat or Sun afternoon be best?  I know most folks work, some have young kids and with homework and such.  Need others to chime in please.  As Hamma stated, doesn't much matter to me which day as I'm retired so any day or time works for me.  If some of the folks in my area want to share a ride give me a shout, I'm in the greater Lowell area.

[CTBassin860]

On 12/12/2016 at 9:48 PM, DogBone_384 said:

Houghton's Pond is close to home.  I might give that a go when it gets thick enough.  See what I can pull up.

Not to far from me

[Fishing Rhino]

9 hours ago, je1946 said:

Hey Tom, Looking forward to meeting everyone.  As far as a day, would a wkend day say a Sat or Sun afternoon be best?  I know most folks work, some have young kids and with homework and such.  Need others to chime in please.  As Hamma stated, doesn't much matter to me which day as I'm retired so any day or time works for me.  If some of the folks in my area want to share a ride give me a shout, I'm in the greater Lowell area.

I agree that a weekend would likely be better for most that work.  Any day is fine by me.  I'd guess that Saturday might be the better of the weekend days.

 

We'll see what others have to say.  Dogbone is a fireman so he works on some weekends.  I think his schedule goes out a few weeks, but he is also on call.  Students might prefer a weekend day.

[CTBassin860]

3 inches of snow yesterday then 58 degrees today.The other day was 3 degrees.Never going to ice over.c'mon man!

[MassYak85]

6 hours ago, MassBassin508 said:

3 inches of snow yesterday then 58 degrees today.The other day was 3 degrees.Never going to ice over.c'mon man!

It was getting pretty close before the snow but this weekend did a lot of damage. I think a lot of smaller places stayed locked up though which is good. 

["hamma"]

The Ice should be here before to long., the ponds I've been driving by in my area are iced over, and the night temps seem to be consistently below freezing for the next week or so, with some days just getting into low 40's,... the rest colder. So its looks to be coming.

  But,...you know the weather around here, so PLEASE be careful out there, unknown springs and thin ice can occur anywhere. Have a ice pick lanyarded to your wrist at all times, try to fish areas you know, and it doesnt hurt to check ice thickness before going over deep water, or water deeper than you can stand in.

 With that being said,.. Have fun, I hope you catch a monster, I miss the old cookouts on the ice, Marinated steak tips, pork kabobs, striper, and chicken wings off the gas grill in the cold is awesome, a coleman stove and some homemade seafood chowdah, lobstah bisque, beef stew, or just hot soup in a bread boule works well too...I used to have a blast out there,.. But alas,..I wont venture out there unless I'm guaranteed 8 or more inches of ice,..yeah I ended up ice swimming once, so I'm a big baby now.,  I may venture out this year sometime if the ice is safe enough, to say hey whats up, nice to finally meet ya's. But to plan a day of fishing? I'm not sure. Just hearing the ice cracking as it gets thicker scares the bajesus outa me. Last time I was on ice was several years ago, at Massabesic in Manchester NH, with over a foot of ice, and it was the cracking that ran me off. I'll keep a eye on the posts and if I can, maybe surprise you out there with a hot dunkie's regular and a frosted doughnut.

 

[MassYak85]

I checked locally this afternoon and it seemed like the edges of the ice got trashed by the weekend weather and had only just recently re-froze. They were probably less than an inch and I couldn't get out on it at all. Further out seemed to be thicker and potentially 2-3 inches but that's just a guess. I'll probably check some other places tomorrow. This week doesn't look like there will be a whole lot of ice forming going on in my area but maybe by next weekend I'll be able to find somewhere, fingers crossed. 

 

I hear you hamma, first season that me and my dad went out I managed to get one of my legs straight through. Luckily I didn't fall completely in so I may have just punched through a 10" auger hole. Still pretty scary though. And the cracking always gets me haha.

[Mr. Aquarium]

open water over the weekend, went out sunday, lost a big native brookie at a stream and caught 2 pickerel on my yak.

["hamma"]

figures, I post cold temps yesterday after watching the weatherlady,,.... todays forecast? next weeks worth ? days all above 40,...

[MassYak85]

9 hours ago, "hamma" said:

figures, I post cold temps yesterday after watching the weatherlady,,.... todays forecast? next weeks worth ? days all above 40,...

A few days at 40 shouldn't do too much harm to the ice other than maybe the edges on rocky shorelines that heat up quick, especially with nights dipping slightly below freezing to freeze up whatever thin layer of water accumulates during the day. I checked locally today, found 3.5 inches of solid black ice and there were a couple guys out skating. Fingers crossed it survives until the weekend. I would go out but I'm having surgery tomorrow for my wisdom teeth and probably won't feel up to doing much for a few days. 

 

I'm feeling the itch though! Hopefully I'll feel up to going Friday or Saturday. 

[grampa1114]

To all my Eastern Mass fishing friends I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I'll be thinking of you while fishing the 60+ degree, stump filled shallows of Lake Moultrie. I really miss the cold and snow and chopping through the ice, and the cameraderie of the folks sharing my coffee and brandy. Best to All.

Grampa

[Fishing Rhino]

4 hours ago, grampa1114 said:

To all my Eastern Mass fishing friends I wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year and I'll be thinking of you while fishing the 60+ degree, stump filled shallows of Lake Moultrie. I really miss the cold and snow and chopping through the ice, and the cameraderie of the folks sharing my coffee and brandy. Best to All.

Grampa

 

Go ahead, rub it in.  I'll keep this post in mind if you ever get up this way again.  I'll take you to Wallum.

[Fishing Rhino]

Okay you local MA fishermen.  Here are the weekend dates available for our meet greet and eat.  Jan  7th and 8th, 14th and 15th, 21st and 22nd, Jan 28th and 29th, Feb 4th and 5th.  After that I'll be gone until the beginning of March.  Let's see what date will be the best for the most people.

 

The Red Wing Diner is one of the Phantom Gourmet's hidden jewels.

[je1946]

33 minutes ago, Fishing Rhino said:

Okay you local MA fishermen.  Here are the weekend dates available for our meet greet and eat.  Jan  7th and 8th, 14th and 15th, 21st and 22nd, Jan 28th and 29th, Feb 4th and 5th.  After that I'll be gone until the beginning of March.  Let's see what date will be the best for the most people.

 

The Red Wing Diner is one of the Phantom Gourmet's hidden jewels.

The Jan 28th date works for me.

 

[DogBone_384]

January 7 and 28 are the only two days I won't be around. Whatever the consensus is, I'm in.