Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[Mr. Aquarium]

headed to maine for a few days, hope the fish are chewing, leaving tonight after work CANT WAIT!! havent seen my best friend in 2 years 

1 minute ago, MassBassin508 said:

So I'm going to be in Plymouth saturday for a wedding.Looking to hit a good bank spot before I can check into the hotel.Any suggestions??

what part! i fish plymouth ALOT!!

[CTBassin860]

2 minutes ago, swamp hawgs said:

headed to maine for a few days, hope the fish are chewing, leaving tonight after work CANT WAIT!! havent seen my best friend in 2 years 

what part! i fish plymouth ALOT!!

Looks like I'll be in Topsfield not Plymouth lol.

[Mr. Aquarium]

yep i cant help you there then! google maps will help! 

[DogBone_384]

Fishing Rhino and I launched at Great Herring at dawn.  I landed my first SMB at 0537.  I'm pretty sure Tom did too.  I totaled 11 SMB and 2 LMB on a variety of baits.  Most of the SMB were little, but it beats nada.  My biggest SMB was 1-4 and 2-8 for LMB.  Tom out fished me 3 or 4 to one.  He caught two pickerel that were close to 4 pounds each.

 

We packed up around 1:30 or so.

 

Water temps were in the low 60's.  The weather was a mixed bag, but over all a great day.

[Cyacnba]

Tried fishing at a new spot in the Charles River (Watertown area) where I heard some people caught striped bass before. It's definitely not the most comfortable spot to fish, but I still managed to catch a few decent bass using a MB Vision 110. Also caught a few smallies on the Jackall Pompadour Jr.

[Janderson45]

13 hours ago, Cyacnba said:

Tried fishing at a new spot in the Charles River (Watertown area) where I heard some people caught striped bass before. It's definitely not the most comfortable spot to fish, but I still managed to catch a few decent bass using a MB Vision 110. Also caught a few smallies on the Jackall Pompadour Jr.

 

 

Where/what time were you there?  I think I might've drove by.. haha!  Saw someone with a few rods by the Galen street bridge, noticed they had a few baitcasters which isn't as common to see.. usually just see people giving it a go with cheap spinning gear. 

 

Also- Nice smallmouth!  Had no idea they were even in there... that's encouraging to see.

[Cyacnba]

1 hour ago, Janderson45 said:

 

 

Where/what time were you there?  I think I might've drove by.. haha!  Saw someone with a few rods by the Galen street bridge, noticed they had a few baitcasters which isn't as common to see.. usually just see people giving it a go with cheap spinning gear. 

 

Also- Nice smallmouth!  Had no idea they were even in there... that's encouraging to see.

 

I was there at around 5PM and walked past the bridge on Galen St to go around the area. I was fishing where the dam is.

[Janderson45]

haha yup, definitely saw you!  That's too funny.  Good to know I can sneak out of work and hit a few nearby places for some bass!

[Cyacnba]

Went back to the same spot as last time. I used a fluke and a crankbait this time and caught 3 smallies and 3 largies. I also caught a fish I've never seen before. Not sure what it is, but I snagged a couple of them on a jerkbait later on. Another fisherman had a striped bass on his fly rod, so I tried using a jerkbait where the dam was. Surprisingly, I caught 3 stripers. Hopefully, there are bigger ones.

[je1946]

55 minutes ago, Cyacnba said:

Went back to the same spot as last time. I used a fluke and a crankbait this time and caught 3 smallies and 3 largies. I also caught a fish I've never seen before. Not sure what it is, but I snagged a couple of them on a jerkbait later on. Another fisherman had a striped bass on his fly rod, so I tried using a jerkbait where the dam was. Surprisingly, I caught 3 stripers. Hopefully, there are bigger ones.

That striper looks like some type of hybrid  with the broken stripes.

 

 

[Discojon75]

New poster here. Just moved the family to Brewster MA.  I fished one of the Harwich ponds yesterday... water temp 67 degrees.  Landed just over 40 bass, mostly dinks.  I landed three in the 2lb range and a half dozen in the 1 lb range.  Everything else was small.  The largest ones were all caught on white spinnerbaits.  I did well on wacky-rigged senko and a 4" swimsenko with a belly-weighted hook absolutely rocked.  I think I had strikes or landed fish on 11 of 24 casts.

[Kevin R]

Another new poster here, I live in Roxbury, just southwest of the city, but I'm always trying to get out to fish. I work in the somerville area and get out 230, so if anyone wants to meet up or key me in on some spots (I'll bring a six-pack of uh.. sprite )  I'm all ears! Tryin' a small pond this afternoon

[bitsandbass]

14 hours ago, Jonathan Songer said:

New poster here. Just moved the family to Brewster MA.  I fished one of the Harwich ponds yesterday... water temp 67 degrees.  Landed just over 40 bass, mostly dinks.  I landed three in the 2lb range and a half dozen in the 1 lb range.  Everything else was small.  The largest ones were all caught on white spinnerbaits.  I did well on wacky-rigged senko and a 4" swimsenko with a belly-weighted hook absolutely rocked.  I think I had strikes or landed fish on 11 of 24 casts.

 

Its so nice out there.

[JG233]

25 minutes ago, Kevin R said:

Another new poster here, I live in Roxbury, just southwest of the city, but I'm always trying to get out to fish. I work in the somerville area and get out 230, so if anyone wants to meet up or key me in on some spots (I'll bring a six-pack of uh.. sprite )  I'm all ears! Tryin' a small pond this afternoon

Try fishing off the rocks at the south end of Spot Pond. 

When I bank fish, I go there. I always catch a few (LMB and SMB) and some have been pretty large. 
 

[Kevin R]

Just now, JG233 said:

Try fishing off the rocks at the south end of Spot Pond. 

When I bank fish, I go there. I always catch a few (LMB and SMB) and some have been pretty large. 
 

Thanks for the tip JG! I'll be over that way this afternoon trying a small little pond off some railrod tracks. Maybe I'll give it a go

[JG233]

Solid day down in the Fall River area yesterday. It was beautiful out until the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. Water temp was around 68. I caught maybe 15 or so (mostly LMB). They were smaller than usual down there. I got one pretty good one--maybe 3+ lbs on a chatterbait.

 

This was my first time fishing that bait. I got a few fish on it and good sense of how to fish it. I really need to invest in a MH baitcaster setup, the one I have now is garbage. I also played around with throwing some creature baits I just bought and caught a few that way too. Most of my fish came on the ned rig. For once, I wasn't getting bit on a wacky worm at all--very strange. 

[Janderson45]

On ‎6‎/‎3‎/‎2017 at 11:06 PM, Cyacnba said:

Went back to the same spot as last time. I used a fluke and a crankbait this time and caught 3 smallies and 3 largies. I also caught a fish I've never seen before. Not sure what it is, but I snagged a couple of them on a jerkbait later on. Another fisherman had a striped bass on his fly rod, so I tried using a jerkbait where the dam was. Surprisingly, I caught 3 stripers. Hopefully, there are bigger ones.

 

 

 

 

 

That's a river herring-  Either a Blueback or an Alewife.. probably an Alewife but they're pretty tough to tell apart.  They're like candy to both Striper and Largemouth... they run up the river from the sea in the spring (i.e. anadromous) to spawn when the water's between 51-57 degrees, they then return to the sea after spawning, which does not kill them like other species of anadromous fish, like the salmon.  Their fry hatch in about a week and number in the millions.. where they begin to feed heavily on the various types of algae and phytoplankton available to them in the freshwater ecosystems along the cost of New England.. they grow quickly and are very protein rich... predator fish like bass gorge themselves on young of the year herring, which helps them reach much larger sizes than they would in environments where they are not available...  The ponds down the Cape see a large herring run in the spring, and it's evident with some of the bass that fisherman catch in these ponds/lakes containing herring...  This year one guy caught a largemouth that I believe was right around 9Lbs from Glen Charlie Pond-  A pond that receives a strong and plentiful herring run.  Just thought I'd give you some general info on them, as they have a large bearing on the fish around here... We don't have much in the way of Shad around here, but a lot of ecosystems do contain either sea run or landlocked herring. 

 

I'm with JE1946 as well-  Those stripers look like hybrids.. Cool! 

 

I fished a tournament on Webster Lake (Chaubabgaghagalol) Saturday from 7-3.   Caught probably 20 bass, mix of LMB and SMB- as well as a bunch of pickerel and some feisty yellow perch.  Small mouth were post spawn and cooperating a lot more; schooling up on rocky shoal areas. Mainly in 4-8 feet of water.  Largemouth came in some weedier areas in about the same depth.   Nothing of ANY size though-  My largest was 1.75 lbs . My partner's largest was 2.25 lbs - mostly everyone had this same problem, the average weight for a 5 fish limit was between 6-8lbs.  The few guys that caught good fish were the guys who placed in the top 3 or 4 finishers. A 15lb bag took the tournament; aided by two 4+ Lb Largemouth, one guy also caught a 5.3lb Largemouth, the lunker for the day.  We kept on trying to find "the spot" where big prespawn largemouth were holding, searching mainly in areas that were 8-12 feet deep with scattered vegetation... they either weren't there or they weren't biting.  I spotted one good largemouth, probably around 4 lbs, in about 5' of water hanging between a few clumps of milfoil... got it to take my bait but unfortunately it spit the bait super quick before I could get a hook set on it... It wasn't even a texas rigged bait either, open hook jig head and it still didn't connect- bummer.  Beautiful spot out there.. I can't wait to fish it again.  Water temp was 64-65, bluegill were on beds, Smallmouth were all spawned out, Largemouth were somewhere in-between,  there were a few on beds but I don't think the majority of them have moved all the way up yet... probably any day now.  All the big largemouth that were caught (there were only 4 or 5 fish caught over 3lbs) were very clearly prespawn - fat and healthy!   I know I'm not telling you guys anything you don't already know, but further proof that fishing is truly a sport and you CAN be much better at it than other people... the same 2 or 3 guys win almost EVERY tournament- they catch them when others don't and when other's are catching they find the biggest bites.. every time!  Pretty humbling.. if you think you're a pretty good fisherman go sign up for some tournaments and see how you fare- you might learn that there's a lot of room for improvement! 

 

I caught fish on a swimjig, wacky rig, dropshot, spinnerbait and ned rig.  My partner caught bass on Wacky rig, tube jig, dropshot, and spider grub... the lunker of the tournament was taken on a chatterbait late in the afternoon. I got the idea that the schools of smallmouth we were fishing would've hit just about anything I could've thrown at them.  Not sure how everyone else was catching them, but my baits HAD to have at least a bit of chartreuse on them, if they didn't they weren't getting bit nearly as often.  I used Spike-It markers and JJ's dipping dye to put some chartreuse on the mostly green pumpkin/watermelon colored plastics I was throwing.  The Ned Rig was my top producer, however it was catching wayyyy to many small fish, including a bunch of yellow perch and pickerel...  the two "good fish" that I caught were on the swimjig and dropshot. 

 

Planning on fishing Long Pond Lakeville this weekend; that's were the next tournament is and I've never been there... Need to get a lay of the land.  If anyone would like to join me that would be awesome... Especially if they have any experience at Long Pond Lakeville, or if they'd be willing to fish out of their bass boat with me so I don't have to Kayak all 1,800 acres!  Of course if I do kayak anyone else with a yak is welcome to join me...

[Janderson45]

2 hours ago, JG233 said:

Solid day down in the Fall River area yesterday. It was beautiful out until the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. Water temp was around 68. I caught maybe 15 or so (mostly LMB). They were smaller than usual down there. I got one pretty good one--maybe 3+ lbs on a chatterbait.

 

This was my first time fishing that bait. I got a few fish on it and good sense of how to fish it. I really need to invest in a MH baitcaster setup, the one I have now is garbage. I also played around with throwing some creature baits I just bought and caught a few that way too. Most of my fish came on the ned rig. For once, I wasn't getting bit on a wacky worm at all--very strange. 

 

 

Chatterbaits are a lot of fun to throw... throw them in similar conditions as you would a spinnerbait, but they can be fished more effectively in higher winds as they cast better and put off more of a thump than most spinnerbaits..  They seem to work better in grass than spinnerbaits where as spinnerbaits seem to work better around wood/brush ... the wire on the spinnerbait helps to keep them from getting caught in tree branches and on stumps... chatterbaits with the open hook love to get snagged in brush...  a fun thing to experiment with chatter baits are taking the skirt off and putting a paddletail or fluke style swimbait trailer on it... a bit more natural presentation that seems to work a bit better in clearer water.  I do the same with buzzbaits in clear water..  Unlike spinnerbaits where I get most of my bites on a constant retrieve with an occasional pause or twitch of the rod tip.. most of my bites on chatterbaits come with a lift and drop retrieve while reeling in steadily... also "yo-yoing" them off the bottom seems to trigger lots of vicious strikes as well. 

[JG233]

Man, I've never had any luck fishing a spinnerbait--never caught a fish on one. 
 

It seems like the chatterbait might be a good substitute for me! I had one rigged with a Fat Albert on there. 

[Janderson45]

Just now, JG233 said:

Man, I've never had any luck fishing a spinnerbait--never caught a fish on one. 
 

It seems like the chatterbait might be a good substitute for me! I had one rigged with a Fat Albert on there. 

 

I used to be the same way... there's so many different blade combinations and sizes and colors and styles... it can all be a bit overwhelming.  I've really started to throw them a lot over the past two seasons, and now I have quite a bit of confidence in them; I always have one rigged up now.  There's a lot of different ways to fish them and I don't pretend to be an expert, but what has worked for me is just keeping it simple.  I only really throw a couple of different colors.. usually white and chartreuse/white is all you need.. I like to fish a tandem willow/Colorado blade with silver blades for sunny days and clear water, gold or bronze blades for overcast/low light/ and stained to muddy water conditions. Throw them right along weed lines and right over the top of weed beds.  I always have a soft plastic trailer on them (usually a small paddle-tail style swimbait) and fish them with monofilament to help with buoyancy and keeping them above the weeds. I also use a medium speed 6:1 gear ratio reel (around 26-28" per turn) to help keep it just above the weeds.  You pretty much always want to keep the bait above the depth the fish are holding, they will come up and strike it and sometimes travel great distances to do so... seems like they'll very rarely go after a spinnerbait running underneath them in the water column, I think it probably looks less natural to them.  I'll ditch the soft plastic trailer and add a trailer hook if I'm getting short strikes and missing a lot of bites.   Spinnerbaits excel in overcast or windy conditions, as after all it's not a terribly natural looking bait so generally the idea is to not let the fish get too good of a look at it.  If you're fishing for smallmouth in clear water (like at the quabbin for instance) I change to a double willow leaf spinnerbait with smaller sized blades.  I like a more compact spinnerbait with a trailer hook or even a treble hook, usually some combination of white/chart or gold and or blue colored skirt.  Make long casts and burn it back to the boat so it's either just below the surface or waking the surface... those smallies will come a long way to smash that fast moving bait right near the surface... they have no problem rocketing up from 20-30 feet to hit the bait.  Usually when doing this I have the most success on sunny to partly cloudy days with at least 10mph winds.  If it's dead calm throw something else like a spook. 

 

Final thought-  Spinnerbaits absolutely kill it in the fall; the bass are almost entirely bait fish oriented at this point so they're looking to eat minnows, sunfish, etc. swimming through the water column, they're always looking up for something to eat and chasing it down from longer distances than the spring or summer when they have more crawfish and worms etc. to look down for to feed on.   I caught my personal best 6.36lb Largemouth on a spinnerbait last year.

[MassYak85]

@Janderson45 Oh man, they're STILL not on beds at Webster? Last time I was there in late April they definitely weren't close but the water temps around then were high enough I figured it would only be a couple more weeks. 

[JG233]

@Janderson45 great breakdown on fishing spinnerbaits - I'll probably try them more over the next few years

[Arkiesouthshore]

I've spent my entire life living in tennessee and arkansas with a 1 year detour in Alabama and have found the bass fishing in eastern mass to be among the best and i lived 45 min from kentucky and pickwick lake. I'm curious if the spawn is still ongoing as i caught a 3lb female still full of eggs this weekend. Also the topwater action seems like it really hasnt gotten going yet possibly because of the cool spring? One thing i've noticed vs fishing is the south is that sunny days produce better than cloudy days; is this the norm?

[Kevin R]

From fishing a couple small ponds, I'm thinking the spawn is starting to come to an end here just west of the city. Fish have become much less aggressive to intruders coming in on their beds, and are a lot more finicky. Any suggestions for bed baits? I've found several pairs of bass which I can't get to commit. Earlier in the spawn I could catch em' on a beaver style bait, or a coon tail worm rigged on a ned head. Now, I can't even get them to nose down, they seem to busy chasing bluegill and other young bass off the bed.. No luck with a warmouth, or a black/blue/watermelon/orange jig

[Janderson45]

10 hours ago, Arkiesouthshore said:

I've spent my entire life living in tennessee and arkansas with a 1 year detour in Alabama and have found the bass fishing in eastern mass to be among the best and i lived 45 min from kentucky and pickwick lake. I'm curious if the spawn is still ongoing as i caught a 3lb female still full of eggs this weekend. Also the topwater action seems like it really hasnt gotten going yet possibly because of the cool spring? One thing i've noticed vs fishing is the south is that sunny days produce better than cloudy days; is this the norm?

 

Spawn is definitely still going on, depends a on the lake you're fishing of course but most of the larger deeper lakes definitely still have some level of spawning activity occurring. 

 

I wouldn't necessarily agree that sunny days produce better than cloudy days, however I will say that I much prefer to fish for smallmouth when the sun is at least shining a little bit... Probably just a confidence thing though.