Masshole Mike

...to be a gangsta. And it feels even better to finally be catching some fish! Pretty much since I got home from G'ville I've been getting skunked out every where I've gone. I've been going out after work every day to local spots and just not catching a thing. I've spent every Sunday for the last month on the water and the most I'd been able to pull out was two dinks in one day. Finally last week things started turning around. On Wednesday I went out with two buddies to beat the banks of some local ponds. I ended up catching a decent 2lber on a watermelon/black flake senko, which ended up being the only fish of the day. Thursday I went out with one of the same guys from Wednesday and ended up hooking into a good 3lber using the same color senko. Saturday was my best day so far (aside from landing my LM PB in G'ville, of course!) because i ended up pulling in a 4lb smallmouth to set my new SM PB (see the Smallmouth section for pics, she's a beaut!) Yesterday was really the day that re-instilled my confidence though. After spending the afternoon at the rents for mother's day I took my friend Jay out to my honey hole around 5:30. I tied on a watermelon/black flake senko and started tossing that around. I know the shape of this area like the back of my hand, with a large point extending straight out about 60ft into the lake, then dropping off to about 15-20ft of water with one side of the point being rocky and the other side rocks and submerged timber. After casting around to open water for a while, I started throwing the senko over the point and into deeper water past the rocky side of the point. I'd drag the senko up the slope and as soon as it would get to the top of the banking, I'd twitch it twice and about 2 seconds later I'd feel my line get heavy. I only landed 3 fish in about an hour and a half, a 2lb 3oz LM, a 1lb LM and a SM dink, but I managed to get on a pattern and outfish my buddy Jay and two other friends of ours that showed up. A lot of the hits I'd get were just dinks running off with the worm's tail in it's mouth which is why I only landed 3, but figuring out where they were biting made my confidence level go way up. I can't wait to get out this week/weekend and put in some more time on the water. Hopefully Bassectomy's got an open seat for the boat ride to Smallie Heaven on Sunday. If not I might have to head back to the Quabbin to see if I can set another smallie PB on my own! Tight lines all, catch em up! 8-)

yup.... still some freakin AWESOME smallie pics in this thread! i just had to check, AGAIN.

what a sad loss for the whole fishing community. she'll be missed for sure.

those are some massive smallies! i'm in awe...

Went out to the Quabbin Reservoir yesterday and landed this mama. She dropped the Rapala lip grip scale to 4lbs even and set the bar as my new smallie PB. I'm not even sure what my old PB was because it wasn't even worth weighing, so this one blows it out of the water. Caught on a tube in about 10ft. of water. She didn't really put up much of a fight, I set the hook on her about 15ft from the boat and managed to drag her in pretty quickly. She was the only one I caught all day but she was big fish for our boat of 3 guys, out of about 10 fish landed. The other two guys had a good day number's wise, pulling in decent 2-3lbers all day, but what a feeling it was to land this baby. *EDIT* here are two more pics i just had emailed to me, they show the color and size of the fish a little better i think...

is that somewhat of an open invitation? i would absolutely LOVE to hit up that lake with you! next weekend sound good?! man, i just went and looked through those pics again, those are some saaweeeet smallies. keep those pics coming!

after all the predictions of rain, i wake up to partly cloudy skies... nice! see you boys on the water!

i still have to get details figured out with my buddy joe and his brother but i'll let you guys know what time i'm going to be there by tonight. probably early, 7 or so i'd say. i'll try to know for sure tonight.

sounds like an awesome day! i'm hoping to have the same luck on saturday at the quabbin. you should come up for the day and show us how it's done!

good luck bud! just be polite and professional and make sure you have a firm handshake, you'll do just fine.

i'll give it some masshole mojo!

boat launch areas at the quabbin open at 6am. i am planning on being at gate 43 fairly early, not quite sure what time exactly but i'll post up to let people know. i'd suggest getting there earlier rather than later. better to be safe than sorry.

thanks kent! it's warmed up this week after being cold and rainy all last week so i'm hoping the smallies will have moved up shallow by saturday. no one else wants to come out for some smallie slayin? looks like cigarlover, tokyo tony, myself and two of my friends are definitely gonna be hitting the water saturday. waiting to hear back on a few other guys, but either way it'll be a good day out on the Q.

redtail, was that on quaboag (north) pond in brookfield? i saw a bunch of boats there during the day and figured it was a tournament. i've never been impressed with quaboag as far as bass fishing goes.

ANYONE ELSE WANT TO MEET UP FOR THIS? i'm not sure who is definitely planning on coming, tony. so far it looks like it'll be you craig and i and possibly your brother. i'm trying to get a couple buddies to come down that day, too. wasn't really trying to do a "formal" get together but it'd still be cool for a bunch of people to show up. ANYONE/EVERYONE IS WELCOME. bassachusetts, you can rent boats at one of 3 gates, either 8, 31 or 43. i'll be renting and going out of gate 43 and yes, you can bring a trolling motor. i suggest bringing at least one decent anchor, as well, as the quabbin can get pretty windy and even a trolling motor won't help you then. here's a link to a map of the quabbin, and also to the quabbin fishing rules website. hopefully any questions anyone has can be answered here... map http://www.mass.gov/dcr/waterSupply/watershed/documents/quabfish.pdf fishing rules http://www.mass.gov/dcr/waterSupply/watershed/quabfish.htm

as always a great job keeping this site top notch. i know lots of work goes into keeping this site running smooth, so big ups to glenn and the mods.

russ the mohawk looks sweeeeet. i used to rock one a couple years ago but nowhere near as gnarly as that one! 8-)

anyone still plan on heading to the quabbin on the 10th? i'm still going.

congrats on the new business cj!

i have the regular supreme and like burley i'm rockin the spare spool. i do most of my fishing from the bank and tend to walk through brush and undergrowth to get to some spots, and all those holes in the regular spool are just asking to have a stick or dirt crammed up in there. the supreme is a great reel though, i love mine.

x4 on the president, great reel for the price.

my sister's boyfriend pulled out three 4+ LM on the cape this past weekend, all on senko's. me thinks i might have to make a trip down there this weekend.

i use a fenwick eagle gt 6'6" M power F tip with a pflueger president 35x, yo-zuri hybrid 6# line for throwing 5" senko's. 7" senko's i switch to my fenwick elite tech 6'9" pitchin stick MH power F tip with a revo sx and yo-zuri hybrid ultra soft 12# line.

i have an S and an SX, and while i've only used the S a few times i find that it casts just as well as the SX, maybe a little bit better depending on lure weight/wind conditions/etc. both are great reels. i prefer the external brake control on the SX simply for it's ease of use, but for the money the S can't be beat.

revo s and revo sx, both left handers. love em.