Will Wetline

I've been fishing nothing but Stradics for the past 15 years or so and couldn't be more pleased. The H & Js are series; new models get new letters. Going price is about $180.00 for the 2500 size and $200.00 for the 4000 size.

These photos were taken during the 48th Holyoke Gas & Electric Shad Derby which takes place every year on the Connecticut River below the Holyoke dam in western Massachusetts. It's a celebration of the return of the American shad, the largest member of the herring family, and a strong fighter in current. Serious shad slayers in the river early Here's what we're after: American shad. A box of shad "darts" and assorted alloy, steel and tungsten weights "Hit me! I dare ya . . . "

A-Jay, Don't I wish they'd hit a jerkbait! For some inexplicable reason, they won't touch a suspending jerk in the Quabbin when the water temp reaches the mid 50ºs. Mark H024, My camera is a Canon PowerShot D10, good underwater to 10 meters. For the bed shot, I just held it a couple inches under the surface, took a few shots and hoped I got a good one.

Those are magnificent smallmouth.

Headed out on the big waters of Quabbin, I got a strong sense of deja vu. With air temps in the mid 40ºs and the wind blowing 20 mph, these were about the same conditions as a month ago. What was different, however, was water temp which I expected to be in the low 60ºs. And at this temperature the smallies would be spawning, an annual urge which trumps even a severe cold front . . . I thought. I planned to start on Heavyweight Hump but 200 yards away from it I ran over a small, deep "bright spot," a stretch of bottom consisting of sand, gravel and a few jig eating rocks surrounded by darker bottom. (Maybe deeper, maybe muck - I can't tell without sonar.) Anchored, I tie on the bait that showed me a sizable smallie 10 days ago. Today: Well, I guess that qualifies me for membership in the Clam Catchers' Club, but that's not what I'm here for. I tie on a jig. Understand that I don't like bed fishing. I feel they should be left alone at this time. But what happens if a jig accidentally hops into bed with a bass? Here I'm holding about 2 1/2 lbs. of guilt. I continue to fancast. After about 15 minutes I look at the bed. Is she back on it? Yes. I feel better now. Onward to H. Hump. The wind is up and the water temp is in the high 50ºs. A 3/8 oz. spinnerbait might get a response. Now I'll show 'em a crankbait. Alright now. They've seen aggressive presentations. Maybe there's one more bass here that would prefer something subtle. This smallie sucked in a Senko, wacky rigged and twitched. I move to a large sand flat and position to fancast edges where deeper water/different bottom compositions meet and smallmouth cruise. Wham! Bam! Two decent fish, one on the spinnerbait, the other on the crank. From here I anchor at several positions on the Big Bass Breakline, a steep drop off the sand flat into deep water. It didn't live up to its name today, showing me only a 1 1/4 lb. fish. H. Hump has been rested for a while now. Have more brown bass moved up? Not on top. Maybe a jig in deeper water. Ah, yes: This was my best catch of the day at 4.0 lbs. It's mid afternoon now, I'm getting tired and looking at the dark bottomed clouds. Time to head in and visit the Bass Magnet. Huh. Only one keeper here. The sweet spot on this small rock pile gives up a 3 lber. more often than not. Swinging at anchor on the Bald Head Ridge, I'm trying to work a jig. "Please, Mistress Quabbin, may I have one more to make 10 for the day?" (I smiled as I said this. You've gotta smile, good day, bad day - you're fishing.) " Thank you, dear." Here are today's tools of bass deception: The smallies and I particularly like this spinnerbait skirt. I make it from a half width each of yellow/chartreuse rubber and white rubber and a half tab of clear/gold fleck silicone. In the mid '90s I came across this 1/3 oz. crank at Walmart for a buck. It has served me well since. Under dark skies, smallies slam the chrome - or what's left of it. I consider this one just about broken in. Even though an exceptionally good smallmouth slayer, Crestliner2008, has told me not to worry about the hook being inline with the length of the Senko, it just seems more logical to me to orient it perpendicular. This o ring gizmatic comes from the Wacky Saddle Kit which is available from ***.com. (This is just one of many juicy tidbits of information I've learned since joining BassResource, and I thank you all for helping me refine my bass fishing presentations and, indeed, further my quest in the study of smallmouthbassology.) This jig has been producing for me since the beginning of the season in a couple of different weights and color combos. I make the shaky head and skirt and add a 4" or 5" GYCB trailer. And there you have it folks, a Quabbin report of a chilly day in the middle of May. Tight lines all, WW

Well done, lads!

Real good pics. I think I'll put some white grubs in my box.

You sound kind of disappointed. Regardless, I congratulate you.

Whew! Those are big smallies. They make me tremble just lookin' at 'em.

Wowza! That's a hefty honey!

That's mating behavior and it is uh, rather interesting for bass and humans alike. Humans can do it on their sides if they choose to. You, young man, won't have bluegill problems but you may have parent problems. (Oh, forgive me, CPBassFishing - I just couldn't resist.)

It's obvious that I need to pay better attention to composing my fish photos. Maybe I had changed the camera setting as well as taking these pics without the proper regard for the bright sun. I will try to figure out my errors before the next outing. I've noticed that fish out of water prefer that I don't fiddle with the camera for too long. Be that as it may, I decided to fish favorite spots some distance away from Gate 43 even though word was there had been increasingly good action in nearby water. I figured I'd still find a few hanging around my favorite Outside rock pile. Here's the first: This smallie, about 3 lbs., gobbled a 5" hula grub rigged on a Shake It jig I was dragging in about 20 feet of water. When I visually located the hump I noticed neither cruisers nor evidence of nesting activity so I anchored in positions to work the deep edges where the rock meets the sand and some weed growth. This 3+ lb. smallie liked a Shake It jig as well. This head was dressed slightly differently with a green pumpkin/black print rubber skirt with a complementary GYCB 5" twin tail trailer. I'm not sure that these fish would fuss too much about exact color if you put a slow moving jig in front of them at breakfast time. Before Quabbin opened for the season I did some research on baits unfamiliar to me. In the 20 years I've fished Q's clear water I've never thrown a lipless crank. Why not? After studying magazine articles and threads on this fine forum - thank you all who contributed - I tied on a Strike King Red Eye Shad Silent. I cast and tight lined it to the bottom. I let it sit briefly and then pulled it off, not too hard, not too fast - just enough to make the bait "work." Then I let it settle on a semi-tight line. Lifting again I thought I was hung but it turned out what I had hung weighed 4.7 lbs.! I immediately developed a liking for lipless crankbaits. At 11:30 the wind came up, gusting to 20 mph. I headed back in and set up on a larger flat surrounded by deep water. It didn't take long before I got kinda crazy trying to make a proper presentation in this strong, variable wind. A second anchor would be helpful I know, but I'm lugging too much gear as is. Well, there you have it, this weekend's Quabbin report from your low tech smallie chaser, WW

Try cutting it more slowly, Don. I think you're in too much of a hurry. Develop patience. Taking the time a job needs to be done well is worth it. You'll be less frustrated and will like the results. That's the end of my pep talk.

Congratulations!

Helluva day!

Only one which weighed 3.8 lbs. The next biggest I eyeballed at 3.3. There was a 2.7 or thereabouts as well.

Congrats to Mrs. Bluebasser! Well done, both of you. Excellent pics.

Wowza!

If I said that to a non-fishing friend, he might say, "Don't you mean the jig's up, as in "The jig's up, Shorty! Come out with your hands up!"? If I were talking about cops and criminals, I'd stand corrected. But I'm not. What's happening here is a cold water tactic, getting a jig down to the bottom to fish I know are there but in a fussy, non-aggressive mood. My reaction baits got teased more often than taken in the early a.m. although I did have a small bass show real interest in a Pointer 78. This smallie "ticked" the Pointer on the pause and this telegraphed clearly through 8 lb. Sunline Sniper fluoro and my St. Croix 7' medium power, fast action rod. But that one small brown bass was the only one that took a suspending jerkbait. There were several others throughout the course of the morning who swam behind it and flipped me the fin as they went by. (They knew I was watching.) Mildly unhappy that there wouldn't be a jerkbait bite this morning, I relocated to the Heavyweight Hump. I figured these standoffish smallies might respond to a jig slowly gliding over the rocky bottom. When I hung up I popped the jig free and it got thumped - hard! Don't you think Boston's water supply grows some healthy looking bass? Later in the day I worked a quick drop off the northern end of another rock pile. There was enough wind at this time to put a heavy ripple on the surface so I tried the Pointer again. I could hear them saying in a whiny voice, "No, I don't want it!" So I jigged their scaly butts. Other stuff: - Water temp: 49.5 - 53.5 - Depths fished: 10' - 25' 'til next week's adventure, WW

3/16 oz. when I'm spinning with 10 lb, copolymer line; 1/8 oz. with 8.

Paul, Thank you for the Photobucket update and compliment. Coming back to BR a few hours after I put up the report, I see the toolbar is back at the top of the Reply box. I don't need to know where it went as long as it's there when I post. The way I learned to post photos on another forum with the same format as BR is: 1) Reduce photo to 800 X 600 in Photobucket. 2) Return to BR and click on the "blue box" icon in the middle of the lower row of the toolbar. 3) Paste the "Direct link" you copied from Photobucket and voila! If you have a really good day on the water, you'll have to choose your best 10 pics because that's the max number you can post at 800 X 600 on boards with this format. Tight lines and many good pics, WW

It was going to be yet another 5 layer day on the water which is to say that to prevent the wind from sucking all the heat out of my body, I was going to need 5 layers of clothing over my birthday suit. High temp predicted: low 60s. Wind: 10 - 15 mph. Air temp was in the mid 40s when I got underway and not too far out on this big water I found myself struggling to steer straight into a NNW wind that was easily 20 mph and gusting higher. Was I crazy? Well, you already know I'm a bass fisherman. And I was going fishing. I finally arrive at my favorite early season bank. It's only a bit breezy here compared to the open water. You see waves rolling in to this steep-breaking, jig-eating bank. I like this. Water temp. was 49º and I decided to start off with a size 100 suspending jerkbait because working this, just hard enough to feel the vibes, would generate more heat for my no-longer-young body than dragging a jig. Pull, pause, pull, pause . . . about 15 minutes into this casual retrieve something brushed the bait. I know it was fish because the bottom was 15' beneath the Pointer's orange belly. But the contact was just a peck on the cheek. Next cast nada. The next . . . whoa! This take said, "I want you, baby! Now!" And here's my first jerkbaited smallmouth of the season: It may appear to you that I have touched up this photo. You are correct. I did this because I have the camera fixed on the front bench seat as you see in the photo below: The sun was at an angle that caused the original photo to be overexposed so with the tools on my Mac, I tried to improve the pic somewhat. Important note: do not ever even think that I use computer trickery to enhance the size of my bass. Better you should say bad things about close family members. Capeesh? The very next cast I had another smallie on, about the same size, but only briefly, alas. I worked this general area for another couple of hours but no other takers. About 11:30 the wind died down to an agreeable 10 mph so I ventured into open water under which there were acres and acres of sand/gravel flats. The sun was high; the breeze was good - surely there'll be bass up out of the surrounding deep water looking over this sizable nursery area. Yes. This 4.0 lber. was surprisingly spirited, jumping three times out of the now 50º water. Maybe she wanted to feel the heat of the sun as I did! It's 4:00 now and I've gotten no further action on these flats so I head in. It's not a Q trip without checking the Bass Magnet, however. Hmmm . . . with Quabbin 4' - 5' down there's only a foot of water over the highest point of this small, isolated rock pile. Still, there should be a smallie sitting in the hole off the north end. Maybe so, but it wouldn't respond to the jerkbait. Confidence undiminished, I offered the homemade jig that had produced on my first two trips this year. Aha! She loved it. A few casts later I lost a bigger bass on the same bait. Aargh. One last spot before heading in and that's going to be the Bald Head Ridge. I started ripping just south of the pate and landed a legal but smallish bass on the jerkbait. This fish was traveling with a friend but I couldn't make her acquaintance on subsequent casts. One last cast further down the ridge . . . nothing. No kidding now, here's the last, last cast. Nope. Party's over. Time to head in before the DCR cops come out to lash 50 lb. braid around my wrists and drag me back to the dock. Was I tired and windburned at 6:30 pm? Well, let me say I listened to the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter" on the way home - twice.

X3

nhbassin, the post below is about my first trip to Quabbin this season: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/116998-cold-as-a-witchs-nose/ I was out for 10 hours today but my thoughts are too windblown to make a coherent post tonight. Look for "Rocking and Ripping on Quabbin" tomorrow. Weekdays you'll be fine renting a boat if you get to the gate at 6:00.