smallmouth ponds/lakes ... what are my options ??

[Livingston Big Bass III]

I live on the Hopedale - Milford line in Mass . What are my options as far as places to go starting with what would be closer .

Obvious choice is Webster Lake , but I've only got a 12 ' jon and a 40 lb thrust trolling motor . I don't want to be blown out of the water by speedboats .

Any small ponds housing smallies nearby ???

[CRFisher]

Only pond I know with smallmouth for sure is Walden Pond, which can be a zoo but no speed boats.  Charles River from Waltham down has a good amount of smallmouth.  

[Livingston Big Bass III]

looks like I'm going to Webster Lake in the am . My 9 year old talked me into it . I guess we'll just try to stay close to the shore and hope we don't get " swelled " to death .

I figure the Monday morning after a July 4th weekend might be a tad less busy .

Anyone got some spots or points they want to suggest ??

[dallas0996]

I live in Northbridge; more precisely Whitinsville, which is very close to you and has a ton of ponds perfect for your boating setup...can't promise alot of smallie action (I've caught a few here and there) but great LM action..I have hit a 6# on whitins pond and a 5# on Carpenter Res.  and tons of smaller LMB here and there... Hit google earth or google maps, and you will see what I mean.  I've also heard good things about Whitehall Res.  in Hopkinton, but haven't tried it. Good Luck and maybe I'll see you out there.  D

[Masshole Mike]

i fished whitehall in hopkinton with bronzeback bomber yesterday and it was sloooooow. we asked probably 6 or 7 other boats how they were doing and everyone said "not too good today" so it wasn't just us. seems like it'd be a great fishery though, we just had a hard day.

[Livingston Big Bass III]

Wow !!! what a crazy day at Webster Lake .

Started off tubing with a strike king bleeding tube and tube insert jig head . And caught my first smally ( and boy was he )

worked my fav rapala subwalker .. nothing . Then I switched off to a drop shot rig using 5" Tiki worms ( all the while throwing a few different spinner baits whith no hits at all )

anyway was using the darkgreen pumpkin ones .. I caught 2 big pickerel .. at least 2-4 lbs . We moved around a bit .. I kept working the Tiki .. then BOOM I had something real big .. I only have on 12lb test on a 6 1/2 foot All Star med hvy . The fricken pole was bending in half ... I was so afraid of snapping the line .. then I brought what I thought was going to be a HUGE bass close enough to the boat to see him .

It was a Pike about 3/4's the length of one of my oars .. I have no idea what he might of weighed but he pulled my pole in half like it was nothing .It took a few but I got him close .. So now I've got him within netting distance . I'm trying to net him with one hand ( well maybe at least his head ) and bring him close enough with the other ... for 2 or 3 minutes I tried every time he knew I was getting close enough he'd run and dam nearly pull the pole out of my hands ... then finally he wrapped himself around the anchor line and took care of me trying to get him into the boat ....

SNAP ..... UGH .... that was the biggest fish I ever had hooked ..

after standing there for 20 minutes looking at my son saying .... did you see how big he was ... I kept fishing ... bunch of large mouth . Ended up using a whole 10 pack of Tiki's .

So I throw a plastic minnow looking thing my dad gave me on the drop shot rig and catch this ..

My trolling motor battery died ( the post melted right dow inside the battery ) so I was rowing half the day ...

but I had a blast ... I have to ask Mass Hole Mike about Quabbin I've seen him mention that place a few times

[shotgunlew]

Sounds like a good day bro!

chris