Fishing Report And Question.

[TBO]

started off this morning great! got on the water for 5 am. beautiful out!  nice starry sky and flat glass across the pond. for Sure im landing a big mamma today!    started off using my spitten wa frog and the buzz plug(black)   made about 30 cast casts... had just ONE interest. he bite at the frog but not full hearted so i quickly grab my ultra light with rubber worm and tried to finesse her out.  NOPE.  i tried everything!  i used plastic worms from 5"- 12" in purple, pumpkin seed, motor oil, yellow ribbon tail, pumpkin seed bush hog, swim baits.  nothing!   tried crankbaits started with a crawdad black/orange/red color.  got one 1lb on it with a slow to moderate retrieve.  was pumped thought i figured it out.  after about 3 hrs and losing my tail hook to a underwater structure i had to try a different one. (forgot my spare hooks and rings)     tied on a yellow belly kvd crank.  NOTHING!  switched one of my other rods to a chatter bait.  tried whit skirt and a green/orange skirt with crawdad claws.  not any interest.  tried to beef them up with a trailer. tried 4' boot tail to a 2' crawdad trailer blue.  nothing.  now im getting agitated, of course now im agitated i make a cast and got the worst rats nest ever in my bait caster with braid, so had to retire the bait caster for the day. thankfully i got 3 other rods with me.   i go back to the pumpkin seed bush hog. got a nice bite i set the hook(didntfeel I set it good enough) and she was coming right at me, I tried setting the hook good and either yanked it out or never had her hooked to begin with, bummer!  i left that area right away in hopes i could come back in a few for her. about an hr later i came back and fished that area for a while  nothing.  i start heading back and see this monster break water had to of been atleast 3lbs.  i set anchor about 25 feet away and tried my best and threw everything at her with all sorts of retrieves and even just letting the bait sit for minutes.  nothing.  start headed back again. cast into this little nook and got my line about 6 feet over the water.so i twitched it a few times n nothing start with heavy twitch to unsnag the line not to fish and BAM  hooked one nothing special but i was happy.  got one more dink on the way back.  got to the boat ramp reach down and sliced my pam open on a dam bolt.  get everything all set to go  get about 2 miles and my canoe nearly fell off my car  lol    stopped and fixed everything.    WHAT A DAY!!  not sure if i shoulda stayed home in bed

 

 

 

 

 

I have been fishing at the new bedford ma. res. its two long bodies of water,  pond one is just over a half mile and pond two is just shy of one mile. both are connected bye a tunnel under the road.   pond one is about 20 feet deep with undercut banks and alot of structure.  pond two is about 15 feet deep with three little coves filled with lilly pads and at the end of pond two it opens to a circular pond  jam packed with duck weed and lilly pads.with a tiny creek at the end.    

  i have caught fish in pond two in the lilly pads at the end of the pond.  but not having luck in pond one.  fishing report above was pond one.    why cant i catch fish in pond one but i can in pond two???   im not familiar with fishing such open water like pond one.  any advice would be greatly appreciated

[kikstand454]

I think you answered your own question.

" I'm not familiar with fishing such open water like pond one. "

Structure fishing is completely different than cover fishing. Different lures different skills set. Try shakey heads, drop shots, Carolina rigs, football jigs and deep cranks around the 15'-18' mark in pond one. Fish any points and shelves you can find. Explore the bottom with your Carolina rig and figure out its composition. Find the breaks and humps. These are going to be key in summer and winter.

Then get back over to pond two and fish lipless cranks! Its fall man!

Lol

[TBO]

ok thanks.  i was using some crank baits but dont have any deep divers to smash the bottom with. i realize its different fishing here  which is why i was using cranks. i dont get to throw crank baits a lot cause of the weeds.  i was trying here for two reasons first some big fish have been pulled out of here according to a friend with pics(doesnt mean it was this pond for sure)  and two is no one fishes here. their is no ramp to get in but their is right across the street at pond two.  definetly wont be going here for a little while  need to catch some more fish.  

 

thank you for the advice.  

 

edit:

 

forgot to mention that shad enters in pond one. so i assumed some big mammas would be waiting at the point shad enter.  not sure if shad has run yet. thats new territory for me. i need to learn more about shad.    i also threw out my minnow trap to see what small fish were roaming around. dummy me let the trap down to far and mud filled the entire trap (made a homemade minnow trap out of 2 litre bottle incase someone happened upon it they wouldnt take my nice trap)

[Paul Roberts]

You gave a whole list of lures you tried. But nary a mention about the water you were fishing. The water will dictate what lures to try. It's only there that the fishing story even begins. If you are throwing lures hoping fish will come to you, you are in trouble at the get-go.

 

Maybe quit switching lures and colors and rig your rods for systematically checking diff depths. And matched for conditions -is water clear, is there cover? Have a shallow rig with a jig, plastic, topwater. Have a few deeper rigs -appropriate cranks that will find bottom -don't ask the fish to come find it. Have a drop-shot, or shaky, rod rigged and ready -the deeper you probe the more vertical you'll be fishing. Chuck-n-wind horizontally will kill you deep. Sometimes it will kill you shallow too -if you are expecting the fish to chase. I guess what I mean to say is lures don't catch fish, fisherman do.

 

Sorry if this seems less than helpful, but we have to know a whole lot more about the lake you are fishing and the creatures that live there, than the lures you tried.

[TBO]

You gave a whole list of lures you tried. But nary a mention about the water you were fishing. The water will dictate what lures to try. It's only there that the fishing story even begins. If you are throwing lures hoping fish will come to you, you are in trouble at the get-go.

 

Maybe quit switching lures and colors and rig your rods for systematically checking diff depths. And matched for conditions -is water clear, is there cover? Have a shallow rig with a jig, plastic, topwater. Have a few deeper rigs -appropriate cranks that will find bottom -don't ask the fish to come find it. Have a drop-shot, or shaky, rod rigged and ready -the deeper you probe the more vertical you'll be fishing. Chuck-n-wind horizontally will kill you deep. Sometimes it will kill you shallow too -if you are expecting the fish to chase. I guess what I mean to say is lures don't catch fish, fisherman do.

 

Sorry if this seems less than helpful, but we have to know a whole lot more about the lake you are fishing and the creatures that live there, than the lures you tried.

yeah sorry  the water is murky compared to the ponds i fish.   here you lose sight of the lure about 2-3 feet down. not sure of water temps. i dont know the pond yet still learning it.  their are some weed lines and some lilly pads but not much at all.  on left side of the pond their are weed lines about 10 feet off shore, here the water is about 5 feet deep.  the right side of the pond is undercut banks with lots of trees and shrubs.about 4- feet of shore the water drops rapidly up to 20 feet deep.  i assumed this would be the best side. but left side does get the sun about 1-3 hrs after the right side does at sun up. at the back is a spill way basicly. its a house in the water with a dam on one wall.( used to be a drinking water res) this house is about 30 feet from shore. the shore is all bank about 5 feet deep and has lilly pads but only for about 3 feet out.no trees or shrubs here. its a dirt access road for the farmer.  their is also a small creek the enters on this side, this is where the shad come in from. can always get one bass in that creek but thats it.  the creek is maybe 3 feet deep in places but mostly within 2 feet. as for the bottom structure im unsure yet. i was dragging a weight and bush hog to drag on bottom i believe its mostly mud and decomposing matter. didnt feel any rock patches, but could be wrong.  i didnt spend alot of time figuring out the bottom.  i was throwing some cranks, i wanted to smack them into the bottom but never felt a hit on bottom like you do when your on rock. when the bait got to the boat it had leaves stuck to the bill and hook.   i know along the sides their is a lot of branches and wood in the water (caught plenty of branches)     i understand that this is different fishing than my usual 10 feet deep ponds. 

 

not sure what mean here  " Chuck-n-wind horizontally will kill you deep. Sometimes it will kill you shallow too -if you are expecting the fish to chase. I guess what I mean to say is lures don't catch fish, fisherman do.

[Paul Roberts]

yeah sorry ..

 

not sure what mean here  " Chuck-n-wind horizontally will kill you deep. Sometimes it will kill you shallow too -if you are expecting the fish to chase. I guess what I mean to say is lures don't catch fish, fisherman do.

My apologies. I guess I was in curmudgeon mode; a risk in internet discussion. I was feeling tired of reading articles and reports that highlight lists of lures, and say so little about where the fishing was actually taking place. I love the waters I fish and have realized that getting to know them has been where the real stories lie. Anyway… sorry to throw a wet towel on your already frustrating day on that new lake.

 

I love looking at waters, even from a distance. So…let’s look at your New Bedford Reservoir (NBR).

 

First… Wow! You are in a unique pocket geographically. Your area produces some seriously big northern strain largemouths! I’d always wondered about that MA record bass and assumed the climate effects of the proximity to the ocean was part of the reason. Turns out that’s part of the answer but, also, the very biggest fish come from waters with an influx of anadromous “River Herring”. You are a lucky guy.

 

http://www.telegram.com/article/20100622/COLUMN10/100629955/0

“Our state's record bass, weighing 15-1/2 pounds, was taken out of Sampson Pond in Carver on a tip-up and shiner by Walter Bolonis on Feb. 13, 1975.

Rounding out our top 10 are a 13-pounder from Muddy Pond in Carver on April 17, 1976; 12-1 from Palmer River in Rehoboth on May 9, 1963; 11-4 from New Bedford Reservoir in Acushnet on Feb. 28, 1993; 11-2 from Stevens Pond, North Andover on Aug. 21, 1980 and 10-15 from Norwich Pond, Huntington, on Oct. 13, 1973.

Also, 10-11 from Sampson Pond, Carver, on Dec. 30, 1970; 10-8 from Mary's Pond, Rochester, on May 20, 2006; 10-8 from Pearl Lake, Wrentham, on June 26, 1985; and 10-5 from Waldo Lake, Avon, July 27, 1963.

 

Our southeast district continues, because of its milder weather and good growing conditions, to produce many big bass. If we can learn anything from history, it's that these are special waters for fishing, as several of the biggest fish taken there were caught during the summer.”

 

Wow! Those are monster northern LM’s.

 

So, to pick apart NBR:

 

You want to identify where the best bass habitat locations are, and start narrowing down real estate. To do this you’ll need to start thinking about the lake vertically (depth layers) as well as horizontally (“which side might be better”). Parameters will be temperature, oxygen, and food production zones. You won’t need any special instruments to make some educated guesses.

 

Looking at a terrain map, the topography is generally not too steep around the area and the Acushnet River is quite small so the lake is probably not all that deep. Taking the lake as a whole (all four bodies) I would call it a lowland reservoir type with some barely hill-land features (due to the steepness in places).

 

I got a feel for the upper lake via a kayaker who was nice enough to snap and post photos of their trip up the lake starting from Lake Street that bisects the upper and lower. At the lower end of the upper lake there was nice topography indicating points and coves from small drainages coming in between the low hills. This looks like a great place to learn how to structure fish as the main structures are attached to the shorelines and therefore easy to see. (The kayaker also mentioned the following, and is the type of thing I’d clip and paste it into my NBR file):

 

“This pond is really viable for kayaking only from mid-May to June. After June, this pond is filled with aquatic vegetation.”

 

Keep in mind that as that vegetation develops it may help reveal the drainage channels and their turns before it fully grows over.

 

There is no hydrographic map available from your DFW, (although there are for some other nearby waters). From a 7.5’ topo map I found http://docs.unh.edu/MA/nwbn41ne.jpg  I see that the whole area is flat lowland. Acushnet River is small so it probably hasn’t cut very deeply, and with all the marshland upstream I assume the lakes have even silted in pretty well.

 

Lower Lake:

 

The whole lower lake looks like one wide longitudinal channel, and by surrounding topog it appears to be quite flat and shallow -maybe 10 to 15 ft and 20ft down the center, with a slightly deeper channel –this prior to silt buildup. That map is dated 1941 so it’s an old res. Probably the basin is silted in and, with the lowland nature of the topog, it probably won’t have much hard substrate like rock and little wood left.

 

The W shore is steepest but not by much. It’s also somewhat steeper at the N end of the lake and appears to flatten out a bit at the S end. Via satellite, the immediate shoreline looks somewhat steep all the way around with lay-down and overhanging trees all around. My guess is the steep and “undercut” banks are due to erosion from wave action and not some major topographical feature.

 

Unfortunately the lake does not have the nice points and coves that are so easy to read like the lower part of the upper lake has, that act as food production flats with depth changes to concentrate fish. It has few features along the shoreline that might reveal expansive points or flats. Such waters can be confusing to anglers used to fishing waters with varied topography and expansive shallows (like the NBR upper lake).

 

The next thing is to find the food. An article said NBR holds largemouth, pickerel, yellow perch, sunfish, crappie and bullhead –all warmwater fish. A quick check of DFW trout stocking records does not show NBR on the list –so likely no coldwater fishery there. The lake gets a run of River Herring –both Alewife and Blueback Herring. These are probably the “shad” you mentioned.

 

Food in lakes is produced two main ways: vegetation beds and plankton in the water column. A third way of food production, which is usually not a great contributor, is coarse organic material washing and falling in from the land. Since I see the erosion and lay-downs and you mention the leaf piles in the mouth of the feeder creek, there may be some production there. Just looking at the lower lake, unless there are offshore humps and flats with vegetation (which I doubt) I’d bet that the majority of production is in the water column, meaning there are likely lots of fish using open water.

 

Fish that are in NBR that commonly use open water to feed on zooplankton and nekton are bluegills, young yellow perch, and herring. Bass, pickerel, and adult yellow perch will follow. Herring enter the lake to spawn and this occurs in 50-60F water (April), which falls during the bass pre-spawn period. That’s a great time to have your lake fill with such large prey. There may also be some resident, or holdover, herring too. The herring run has received a lot of attention from government agencies with fish ladders installed to help the herring get upstream and into the lake. They used to be rare but are increasing. This is something to stay on top of:

 

http://www.onthewater.com/fishways-improve-herring-stocks-on-acushnet-river/

“According to the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service website, the two “fishways” built on the Acushnet River have resulted in an 1100% + growth in herring migration since they were built in 2007. The fishways allow herring to access critical spawning grounds in the New Bedford Reservoir from New Bedford Harbor, which eventually empties out into Buzzards Bay.”

 

One way to get a basic idea on how deep food is produced is water clarity through the year. If the water is clear, sunlight penetrates deeper, food is produced deeper and bass can live deeper. Weedlines will give you an idea of how deep light penetrates and how deep bass may go. You mentioned murky, 2-3ft visibility, and weedline at 5ft. That’s mighty shallow. Weedline depth will indicate either the limit of light, a substrate change, or possibly a drop-off. I’m guessing water clarity is the limiting factor.

 

That low to moderate water clarity is due to this basin being downstream of the productive marshy water above. It’s one fertile body that’s for sure. Combined, low clarity and high fertility can result in oxygen deficiencies in the depths. Here are some 02 values from near the Lake St culvert. Although this is not in the lake proper it shows low oxygen values near bottom sediments. It is not unlikely that the lake proper has low O2 during summer months in the depths. This is pretty common in the depths in very fertile lakes with low clarity.

 

http://www.savebuzzardsbay.org/BayHealthMap/Acushnet_River

Measurements taken from shore at Lake St., west of culvert.

 

In hearing you describe the water clarity, the weed depths, and with the likelihood of oxygen deficits at times, most of the bass will be using relatively shallow water. This may change at times though if clarity changes, and when the depths oxygenate -usually outside mid-summer and late winter.

 

Fishing:

 

Overall, I’d break things into two scenarios:

 

  -Shoreline and weed flat related bass.

 

  -The potential that some bass are relating to open water prey fishes.

 

First, I’d want to cruise and look for shallow food shelf areas out away from shore, especially those that turn out away from shore like points or shelves, esp with weeds and/or rock. You might need to burn some gas initially –or test your arms as I think NBR is a motor-free lake.

 

With flat topography, such areas may be subtle. I fish a large pond that shares topographic characteristics with lower NBR. It is shallow –the majority is around 10ft– and has a sloping side and a steeper (eroded) side with overhangs. It has precious little vegetation, and some detrital influx at two inflowing drainages. Most food is produced in the water column. Prey base for bass is mostly yellow perch and young bass.

 

Fish holding structure can be subtle such as 2 foot drops with a boulder or brush, a rather unexciting looking shelf you can barely see with a 4ft drop at the end. And then there’s a 4ft high ridge 30feet long with a few rocks. A couple inlets hold fish, one is really small but a small brush pile there always has fish on it. When it rots away I’ll add another. It doesn’t take much to hold fish in places like this. There is a food chain –kicked off in the water column. The bass seem as hard-pressed to find things to relate to as I do. So, find the shallow flats then look and probe for complexity on those flats –turns in the structure, humps, holes, substrate changes, cover.

 

I also fish the steep eroded side of that pond. Tall shoreline vegetation, like trees, will draw fish similar to submerged structure or cover. However, there is no cover in the water and no depth change along that side to create ambush points. The young guy who introduced me to the pond said that he never catches any fish on that side even though it looks so “bassy”. So I showed him how to finesse fish –jigworms (now called Shaky) and wacky’d 4” stick-worms. In open water free of visual obstructions it can be hard to trigger bass with lures. Finesse baits can do it.

 

At dusk the water column comes alive with zooplankton and insect larvae coming active and soon the whole food chain is boiling under my boat. My sonar screen shows fish nearly top to bottom –mostly perch and bass, and some crappie, coming out of the woodwork and up off bottom to feed. Pretty cool to watch.

 

The way to narrow down open water may be to identify a cline –either a thermocline or an oxygen cline if there is one. The weedline depth, or within 10ft of it (thinking vertically), would be a likely depth range if you wished to search more open water away from shore. If you have sonar, you can look for schools of activity, and start searching for structure you can’t see, either isolated off-shore or connected to shore. Otherwise, probe whatever structure and/or cover you can discern or feel, and don’t be afraid to cast out away from the weed edges. Trolling or drifting can help you find structure and/or open water fish. There will always be some bass near shorelines and the weedlines too.

 

Lastly, those herring, and the big bass potential of your region, made me think swimbaits, and from an article I found (link below) others in your area have been onto this. http://www.offthehookfishing.com/fishspecies/largemouthbass.html

 

That’s my guess from 13,000 miles away, and 1200 miles up.

 

A better source would be your regional fisheries folks at your Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. They are often more than willing to fill you in on your favorite lake:

http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/

 

Here’s your District Manager for SE MA:

Jason.Zimmer@state.ma.us

 

Good luck in getting to know your lake. Hope this gives you some stuff to chew on.

 

Oh yes… my comment on chuck-n-wind meant that casting and retrieving without any contact with bottom or cover is often a poor way to trigger strikes –esp so with crankbaits. And the deeper you fish the more vertical you tend to have to fish. Horizontal retrieves are fine when the fish are shallow, when the fish will chase, when fish are committing suicide, and/or you can make contact with bottom or cover. If you can't be crashing something or ripping off weeds, be mixing up speed and direction, or... go vertical.

[TBO]

My apologies. I guess I was in curmudgeon mode; a risk in internet discussion. I was feeling tired of reading articles and reports that highlight lists of lures, and say so little about where the fishing was actually taking place. I love the waters I fish and have realized that getting to know them has been where the real stories lie. Anyway… sorry to throw a wet towel on your already frustrating day on that new lake.

 

I love looking at waters, even from a distance. So…let’s look at your New Bedford Reservoir (NBR).

 

First… Wow! You are in a unique pocket geographically. 

ETC...................   READ ABOVE IN COMMENTS FOR FULL COMMENT

WOW!! where did you get all that from?( no need to appologize i wasnt offended ) ive been trying to find info but this is awesome! i have some swim baits, have a herring swim bait too.  ill have to learn more about fishing those. i throw them sometimes but havent landed a fish yet, but from what i hear swim baits are thrown a lot with minimal numbers caught but the ones caught are big.  i also have noticed people use really big swim baits, i have about six baits, all within 5"   maybe i need some larger ones.  any good articles you suggest or videos on how to use them?

fishing here is a different world from what im used too.  i have been fishing for about 6 years but only last year have i ventured off from my two fishing spots wich are maybe 10 F.O.W. max in some areas but mostly very shallow. i can usually see bottom.   

 

 the fishing report this thread is about, i was fishing the lower part. (according to that topo map its on bottom of lake st. the single straight lake)

 

think it would be wise to invest in a fish finder like this one?  http://www.basspro.com/Humminbird-120-Fishin-Buddy-Ultimate-Portable-Fishfinder/product/97456/

 

 

thank you i really appreciate the advice

[Paul Roberts]

Google.

 

Remember, what I offered is all educated guesswork. The real story remains to be seen. Would be worth contacting your DFW warmwater biologist that manages NBR. They have probably done surveys and can tell you a lot about the lake and what you can expect as to how the bass and their forage make live.

 

Lots  of articles on swimbaits, and just about everything else, in the articles section.

 

The bulk of my response above pertained to the lower lake.

 

As to sonar, I'm not up on the latest. Things change fast and it strikes me it's all just getting better and better. Get as much resolution (vertical pixels) as you can afford. Color is nice but not necessary. Heck, I loved the old flashers!

[TBO]

maybe i didnt google it righ,t or looking in the wrong places.  thanks for all this advice, i appreciate it.     how do you know the forage the fish feed on?  ive never been able to see schools from my canoe. i usually scare them off bye the time i can see them.  also how do you know if your using to big of baits or to small?  does it really matter on the size? i do know the saying  "big bait big fish, little bait a lot of fish"

 

im not up to par on sonar at all! i never had one so dont know if its really worth it.  i do want to try an array of different locations next season, so maybe it would be worth it. or just spend more time on the lake and learn it the old school way

[Paul Roberts]

You know forage species by first starting broad and then refining to your water. Get to know the fish species that live in your area. Bass/pickeral/yellow perch/pumpkinseed/bullheads are a common assemblage in the NE. Contact your DFW for more specific info. Learn to ID fish. I own a lot of field guides. And your DFW probably has web pages about MA fish species. Google fishes in your area. Talk to anglers -esp those that take fish for the table. Observe as you fish.

 

Lure size? There are some general rules of thumb that would take too much time for me to explain the reasons here. They involve fish activity levels, and visibility of lure details against conditions. Lots of articles and books to read out there.

 

It’s a good idea to learn to fish on a few good waters, rather than jumping around. Get to know the bass’s world seasonally in one or two good waters. Then branch out. Eventually, the more waters you get to know the more versatility you acquire.