Janderson45

Just like any other bait, match it to the forage you're trying to imitate (whatever you think the bass are eating at the lake your fishing) while still taking water clarity and cloud cover into consideration. I basically fish 3 different colors of chatterbait, white, green pumpkin, and black with minor variations/accent colors. White or natural baitfish colors when the water is stained to clear and the bass are eating alewife, white perch, or other natural baitfish. Green pumpkin colors when the water is stained to clear and the bass are eating crawfish or bluegill Black colors when the water is heavily stained to chocolate milk and the bass are eating crawfish. What they're eating in heavily stained water is less important, not much that a bass eats is truly black, but it stands out well in stained water and overcast conditions, just trying to make your bait as visible as possible. Couple of other random thoughts on chatterbaits.. -They tend to work best in slightly stained water on overcast and rainy days, if it's sunny out a stiff wind helps a lot. -They are most deadly around grass in late prespawn or early postspawn, let them get a little snagged in the grass and then reel to pop them free, this creates an erratic fleeing action that makes big largemouth come unhinged -If you're not fishing them in grass, bang them off anything in sight like a squarebill -If no cover is present to bang them off of a really quick few turns of the reel handle will do a decent job of triggering strikes -Most chatterbaits have a pretty stout hook, use a medium heavy or heavy rod with a fast tip, 7:1 gear ratio reel and relatively beefy line -If fishing them exclusively in grass I will use a rod with a bit more flex in the tip, either a moderate fast or moderate action and 14lb fluoro. This setup is best for "reeling" them free/out of the grass like I mentioned above.. the slower action of the rod causes it to load up and then slingshot the bait out of the grass. -Craws are my favorite trailer by far, 1/2oz and 3/4oz are my most frequently used sizes. -If imitating baitfish remove the skirt and fish a fluke style bait with just the blade -If using a paddletail as a trailer turn the trailer upside down for a better/more realistic action. I could keep going but that's enough for now I guess!

What was the water temperature and depth you got her in if you don't mind me asking? That's a fish of a lifetime for sure, congratulations!

Tough day, at least you got a decent one though. Appreciate the report. Just looked back through this thread to this time last year and water temps were 55-60, hoping for similar by Sunday, but that might be overly optimistic. Either way I think we're gonna whack em. Also thinking of hitting A1 for the first time this season in the kayak on Saturday. Will report back and let you know how I did after the weekend.

If anyone has been out on the Quabbin since opening weekend would you mind sharing the water temp? Game-planning for my trip to the Q on Sunday, water temps should be up from opening weekend with the warm weather we've got this week, just not sure how much! Thanks in advance.

Fished watuppa on Saturday and caught a handful up shallow on reaction baits, nothing with any size. Others fared better slow fishing plastics and jigs up shallow in select areas. Water temps were 54-56, the day started foggy overcast chilly and calm. Shortly after 9AM the clouds broke, it warmed up nicely, and a relatively stiff but manageable wind kicked up out of the south. Water clarity was poor, probably about 2' of visibility. Watuppa is FULL of rocks and large boulders, I was bouncing cranks off of the rocks along the shoreline for a while and couldn't buy a bite, started to do the same thing with a chatterbait and that's what ended up getting me bit. This warm weather and recent full moon ought to have the bulk of the fish up shallow scoping out spawning grounds. With water temps pushing thru the mid 50s the crawfish are active now for the first time in months, bass should be predictably gorging themselves on said crawfish. All of the bass I caught at Watuppa had the telltale red lipstick on. It should be a good few weeks here leading into the spawn... finally! Heres a couple of the cookie cutter (young and dumb) bass that I caught. Still grinding for my first big bite of the spring.. got a good feeling it's coming this weekend! I plan to fish the Quabbin out of a rental on Sunday, and will probably look for some big prespawn green fish in my Kayak on Saturday. If anyone is interested in meeting up either day let me know!

Report is spot on, good to have another contributer! Finding the sparse grass in the spring can be absolutely pivotal, especially on the cape lakes for some reason it seems. That's a good idea with the drift sock/drift bucket, I'll have to give that a try next time out. Having an anchor and an effective way to slow the drift will make things a lot easier when fishing in the wind for the smallies. I've never fished it from shore, but wouldn't doubt there's some great areas you could have shore access too. I also wasn't aware you could get a night permit, pretty cool! I've got a tournament on watuppa Saturday. Never fished there.. neither has my partner. Not going into it with real high hopes but hopefully we can figure something out. My plan without much knowledge of the lake is just to beat the snot out of it with reaction baits. Water temps should be mid to high 50s I think, gonna be grinding with spinnerbaits, lipless, and jerk baits for a limit I think... any advice is appreciated

No, launched from Gate 31. First time I've been up to that gate for opening weekend, thought I'd find the smallies in 25-35 feet up that way, but just found a bunch of lake trout instead. Even though I launched at gate 31 I didn't exactly fish close to gate 31, more towards the middle of the reservoir, north and south of the "cut" by Mt Zion island into the main Res.

No Quabbin smallmouth for me opening weekend, it was an unexpected slug fest on lake trout though. All on bass baits and in some my typical smallmouth locations. Water level is higher than it has been for the past couple years, DCR claimed it's at 95% capacity, I would guess it's still lower than that by looking at some old maps and Water lines/levels but either way, it's up by 5 or 6 feet from last fall in some spots. water temp was 42-46, wind picked up nasty in the afternoon out of the north and we lost our anchor on a stump early on, made for tough bass fishing. All of the Lakers came in 20-35' of water, mostly on ned rig or finesse swimbaits, although one hit a jerkbait as well. They all had some good size to them (probably 4-6lb range) and we released them all since we didn't bring a cooler. Fun day, hope to be back soon and find some smallmouth that have been eluding me here so far this spring!

Also just FYI for those in the know, herring run has begun on the south coast.

Hitting the Quabbin on Sunday despite not initially planning on it. Will report back with details and how we do.

That's awesome, big fish on spinnerbaits is a freaking blast. Congrats on the PB. I fished Whitehall in the kayak Saturday, tough sledding yet again with a brutal cold front moving through in the middle of the day. Air temps started out at 60 or so degrees and sunny at 9AM, deteriorating to 50 cloudy and windy by noon, lows 40s overcast and howling wind by 4pm. water temps ranged from 48-52 degrees depending upon location. I caught one bass and a handful of pickerel in 8 hours or so fishing, my kayak partner caught 2 bass and a few pickerel as well. Nothing noteworthy as far as size, bass were all 1-1.5lbs and most of the pickerel were small as well. All of our fish came on jerkbaits in 6' to 10' of water. Jerkbaits were not the weapon of choice going into the day so it took us a while figure that out. We wore the place out with lipless and spinnerbaits before turning to jerkbaits.

Got caught up in a spring cleaning project, not going to be able to make the meet and greet, sorry guys. Hope to finally meet and fish with some of you this spring. Fingers crossed for tight lines and warm weather until then!

Weather forecast took a serious nose dive for tomorrow... looks like high temperature will be in the mid 50s (original forecast called for around 70 degrees) around 9-10AM, then falling sharply all afternoon until we end up with low 40's/high 30's... Maybe the fish will turn on since we've had a few warmer days and a serious cold front and pressure drop are approaching, fingers crossed. Sunday highs in the 30's and rain all day... is it spring yet?? I'll plan on joining you guys at Redwing unless anything else comes up. Tight lines to those getting out tomorrow

Red Wing Diner on route 1, I know the place and might be able to make it on Sunday. What time were you guys planning on meeting? Saturday looks like the better day to fish with a pretty gnarly cold front moving in Saturday afternoon/night.. so I might just have some availability on Sunday!

Wow! 26lb bag is no joke for Massachusetts, and two 7+ lbers to boot... Would love to chat with that guy and hear what pattern he got figured out.

Saw a bunch of fish were caught opening weekend, looked like most of them were on the small side though. Saw lots of really little lakers taken. The Chu definitely holds some great fish though. I used to fish it a bit more than I do now, shore fishing has become an absolute last resort for me. Long walks in/out to your spot of choice, chucking kastmasters and soaking bait just doesn't have the appeal to me anymore that it once did... if I could take a boat or kayak out there I'd be allll over it though.. Good luck!

Looks like a brief warming trend in the forecast for Friday/Saturday. I'll be getting out somewhere in the Kayak, location TBD. Was thinking of fishing the Connecticut River (maybe the Oxbow?) but don't have much experience fishing it so not sure if that's a good gameplan or not. Anyone ever fish the CT River? If so, any advice or insight? If I don't hit the CT River I'll either be at A1/Whitehall in Westborough or one of the smallmouth ponds down the cape. Heres the weather forecast for this weekend, looks pretty wild..

What model Ultrex are you looking for? Basspro recently got a bunch back in stock it seems, most of the models are available online now, they has been on backorder for a while. I'm thinking about picking up a 24v/45"shaft Ultrex from basspro now too since they're back in stock and I'm ordering my Lund from the factory without a TM. Quabbin is open next weekend, I'll probably be out there opening day in a rental out of gate 8 as I have been the past 3 years. New management last year, they no longer let you park a car in line as a "space holder", you now have to be with your vehicle at all times which is a bummer. Slept in the truck while in line last year, lots of other people did as well. Hopefully the wind cooperates this year, winds kicked up to 30mph out of the south last year on opening day, I was in a rental at the top of the gate 8 area navigating 2-3 foot waves all the way back to the launch, sure made things interesting!

Had the yak out in Webster today. I'm a bit of slow learner and continue to kayak fish in these huge bodies of water lol... weather and wind made it tougher than it should have been, but managed to catch a few largemouth. I paddled and fished all over the place looking for smallmouth, couldn't seem to locate them all day despite it being my target species. I was however able to locate some huge schools of white perch and a limit of largemouth hanging around the perch. The perch were huge so you woulda thought the largemouth mixed in them would be on the bigger side.. wasn't the case for whatever reason. Biggest of the day didn't even break 2.5lbs. All in all caught 5 largemouth and too many white perch to count, all of the fish came on a blade bait/silver buddy. Water temps were a balmy 41 degrees at the start, and warmed up to a blistering 42 degrees by 5pm. Air temps were in the low 40s, wind 10-15mph out of the north west, with frequent 20-25mph gusts. What was originally forecasted as 90% overcast wound up as 90% clear skies. Largemouth were all caught in 18-25 feet of water, I think the smallmouth were up shallower, but can't confirm as I didn't catch any. The largemouth had zero fight in them, the white perch fought significantly harder lol.. Not the largest I caught but only one I took a picture of as it was the first. The rest of them were pretty similar in size

Heading out for my first Kayak trip of 2018 tomorrow. Weather doesn't look great for this time of year but I've got to get out when I can these days. I've fished a lot the past 3 weeks, just not in my kayak. I was down in Southern Florida fishing the Everglades and then Okeechobee for a week... didn't get the giant bass I was after but still caught a ton of fish.. too many 4lber's to count with a handful of 5's mixed in as well. One fish I caught on Okeechobee weighed in at 5.6lbs, but had the mouth/head of an 8lber. Really long skinny and sick looking fish... could tell that she was old and near the end of her life.. wish I had caught it when it was an 8, but still cool to see a head that large on a bass. Okeechobee fished pretty tough for us overall, we spent about 30 hours fishing the lake over 3 days, a brutal cold front had just hit Florida upon our arrival, morning air temps into the low 40's and high bluebird skies seemed to put the fish in a pretty serious funk. Couldn't get any of the bass to eat or even respond to reaction baits, had to really force feed them with soft plastics accurately pitched up tight to cover. Everglades were an entirely different story.. fish were stupid aggressive and the action was nonstop on reaction baits. Caught about 150 bass between my father and I in one 10 hour day. They were eating topwater, jerkbaits, squarebills, paddletail swimbaits, and worms. Probably would have been eating anything else you wanted to throw as well... lots of fun in the Everglades. Had my first local bass tournament last weekend at Long Pond in Harwich, MA. Clear deep coldwater/smallmouth fishery. Water temps were at 40 to start the day, 43 to end the day. My partner and I struggled big time (as did much of the field) - we ended the day with 1 keeper smallmouth, 2.83lbs caught in about 15' of water on a blade bait. There were only a handful of 5 fish limits weighed out of the 29 boats that competed. Winner's bag was just over 15lbs, made up of 5 smallies. The majority of fish were taken on blade baits (silver buddies, etc.) in water ranging from 8 to 20 feet. A few were caught deeper, but seems that the majority of fish that were biting were up a bit shallower. Now I've got 3 weekends to myself to figure out what the local bass are doing and how to catch them. Planning on a trip to either Whitehall or Webster tomorrow, followed by an abbreviated trip to Nippenicket on Sunday. I'll report back on what I find and how I do. Spring is finally here????

This thread is very helpful, I appreciate you posting all of your opinions and experiences with the Lund Renegade so far... I'm leaning towards an 1875 Renegade just like yours, rigged up nicely with humminbirds.. probably a helix 9 Chirp GPS G2N flush mounted at helm, with an additional helix 7SI G2N mounted off the side of the console, and a Helix 9DI G2N mounted at the bow. Was considering a 10" Solix for the helm or the bow, but don't think I really need it and can justify the extra cost, especially if I'm not able to flush mount it on the console. I already own the Helix 7 SI G2N, so thinking I'll use that for pretty much dedicated SI, while a Helix 9 Chirp/GPS G2N flush mounted can show me charts and traditional sonar. Both units at the helm networked together and also networked to the helix 9 DI G2N at the bow... finally helix 9 at the bow networked with trolling motor (minn kota ultrex) From what I understand this should all be pretty straightforward and doable- I'll just need numerous ethernet cables and splitters from Humminbird? As far as transducers are concerned, would I just be using the SI transducer off the transom while sitting at the helm and then the DI transducer off the bow mount trolling motor when at the bow on the TM? Any need for an additional transducer off the transom or thru-hull? The only thing keeping me from pulling the trigger on the 1875 is that I really wish it would take a 150hp outboard. I LOVE the G2 E-Tec's and wouldn't hesitate to throw one on this bad boy if I could! As it stands with the 115hp max I'm leaning towards the Yamaha 115 VMAX-SHO or the Gen-1 115HP E-Tec. I know a lot of people run the Merc's and have zero issues with them and claim that they're super reliable, but I personally feel that Yamaha makes a better motor, and Evinrude is going to be the most powerful/best performer. No dealer scheduled maintenance for 300 hours, easy winterization, and no break in period is pretty awesome too!

Very close to pulling the trigger on a Renegade myself. Thinking either 1775 with 90hp ETEC HO or 1875 with Yamaha 115 Vmax SHO. Is hydraulic steering standard or an add on? Can't seem to find it on Lunds website. Planning on Humminbird electronics, minn kota Ultrex or Fortrex and hydraulic jack and possible one or two power poles. Going to have to pick between Ultrex by itself or fortrex with a power pole, any thoughts on that? What kind of top end speed do you get with the merc 115 on the 1875? Not much data on engine performance for renegades out there yet. I've seen that a 1775 with a merc 90 should get high 44-48 without any special mods. Thinking the 1875 might be able to get around 55mph?

I'm headed down next week for four days to fish Okeechobee and the Everglades. Thought about doing some inshore fishing or canals for peacocks but decided to focus exclusively on largemouth. How long are you there for? Will you have access to a boat? Planning to hire guides or charters? Without a boat or guide/charter some of those species you named are going to be really tough or pretty much impossible. Depending on the length of your stay and access to a boat I would consider narrowing down your list of target species quite a bit. Miami area is your best bet for the exotic freshwater species you mentioned. Big largemouth can be caught throughout the state, but Okee, Glades, Kissimmee, or Istokpoga are probably your best shot at a true giant. Stick Marsh is supposed to be awesome as well but on the wrong coast. Snook, redfish, tarpon, trout, bonefish, and various other species can be caught in the majority of shallow water bays/flats on the outer edges of the Everglades. Cobia is largely migratory in nature, but I think Florida may by the one state you can catch them pretty much year round, both gulf and Atlantic side. Typically you're sight fishing them from a boat, they come up and sun themselves near the surface (often near buoys or channel markers) and you throw live eels at them and watch them eat em. I've never fished for Cobia in Florida, but have caught many off of Virginia Beach and even a few in the Chesapeake bay. They are a lot of fun to catch, similar to a very large striper, but they can and do get significantly bigger. Goliath Gropuer as far as I know are predominately in the gulf in deeper water and require very stout offshore gear to catch. Similar gear to standup bluefin/yellowfin Tuna up here in New England. Hope this helps.. feel free to PM me if you want to talk more. I'll let you know how my trip for Largemouth goes next week! I'm super excited, hoping to break my PB.

Going out with Steve for two full days at the end of March. Thanks for the recommendation Dwight! Hoping I can break my PB, currently stuck on 6-3, so I think I'll have a good shot! Anyone have any current Okeechobee fishing reports? I know the Pros struggled a bit but a month or two later I'm thinking conditions could have improved?

Thanks Dwight- I think you're right, if I ship one tube I can probably fit four rods and two tubes would be 8 rods.. got to be cheaper than flying with them. I knew I was missing a crankbait rod, I'll definitely have to ship down more like 6 or 8 rods including a couple spinning rods for my father...