Janderson45

@DogBone_384 I hope asking for my mojo at long pond didn't do you in... fished there 2 weekends ago and almost got skunked! 1 Smallmouth decided to cooperate on a chatterbait up shallow but that was all she wrote for the day.. Granted I was in my kayak and it was very windy... big water bodies early in the season with strong winds can be verrrryyy tough to fish out of a kayak as I'm sure you've experienced.. Anyways- hope you guys did well out there today.. I'm sitting in the office wishing I was with ya

Following the striper's up are you?? Great fishing in Chesapeake bay right now

We had a fairly decent day out on the Quabbin this past Sunday. We were fishing right after a cold front came through and knocked air temps down almost 30 degrees so I had tempered my expectations a bit as far as the bass fishing went.. We got out from the ramp around 7:30AM to blue mostly sunny skies and air temps in the lower 40's, it gradually warmed up to about 55 degrees throughout the day, lots of clouds moved in and around noon time we were getting rained on and had a period of thunder and downpours. Winds stayed relatively calm and manageable, so that was a positive. Water temps fluctuated from 54 degrees to 60 degrees in the shallow cove we fished at the end of the day. 18 smallmouth bass and 1 yellow perch caught between my friend and I, biggest 5 smallies went 4.83, 4.2, 3.91, 3.84, and 3.6 - not half bad... really wanted to break that 5lb mark but we didn't. lots of 2.5-3lb fish, they looked nice and healthy for the most part... no signs of spawning yet other than the 1 SMB we caught up real shallow in 60 degree water... but he wasn't even bedding yet I don't believe, just getting close. It took us a little while to figure them out.. there were some fish up shallow that we caught on jerkbaits but it was pretty slow fishing until we moved out a bit deeper and started targeting water that dropped off quickly from shallow water to 15-20 feet, even once we figured out a bit of a pattern location was extremely important... one drop off we were fishing we pulled 9 bass up in about a 30 minute period.. we were both casting to the same exact spot and for a while it was fast and furious action.. if you weren't hitting this location precisely with your cast you weren't catching fish. Anyways, here's some pictures: This was the lunker on the day..4.8lbs 4.2lbs Same 4.2lber Nice and healthy.. 3.84lbs Third biggest on the day... sadly this was the longest in length we caught, but only weighed 3.9lbs.. if you look at the photo you can see why; Someone gut hooked it a while back and it's actively trying to pass a senko complete with hook and fishing line.. fish was very skinny compared to others we caught. We tried to help it out a bit but after trying to remove the hook decided we didn't want to injure it further, so we just clipped the fishing line off the hook and released it. A little earlier in the day when it was nicer out.. this was the cookie cutter size we were catching And this was our final fish of the day, up in a shallow 60 degree cove.. Not sure if it was getting ready to bed or what... I expected largemouth to be inhabiting this area but we caught 2 smallies in 3-4 feet of very stained (for the quabbin anyway) water on topwater. Could've been better, could've been worse but all in all a fun trip. I'll be getting back out there in the coming weeks as well... they should be getting more and more aggressive as the temperatures creep up and they start spawning.

Didn't get out today but hitting Gate 31 at the quabbin bright and early tomorrow.. a bit nervous about the cold front shutting down the bite but other than that it looks like it'll be a nice day to be out there. If if you don't mind me asking Dogbone, how deep were you guys fishing/catching? Also, regardless of whether or not it was a salmon or brown trout 3-12 is a pretty decent one. 4lb landlocked salmon is a bronze state pin I believe. There are some brown trout in there but they're pretty rare to catch these days is my understanding.

Let us know how you do at the Q Dogbone, I plan to fish the Quabbin on Sunday with my buddy. I'm curious to see what water temps are since I was there 2 weeks ago. They were 41-44 degrees 2 weeks ago, my guess is low 50's for this weekend but with some seriously warmer weather for the next 2 days maybe it'll bump the temps up even more? Probably going to try and get out in the Kayak somewhere tomorrow as well.. not sure where yet, depends on exactly how ambitious I'm feeling and how long I sleep in... looks like winds are supposed to kick up quite a bit tomorrow afternoon.

Funny you say that, I joined a club for the first time this year... they fished Long Pond Harwich last weekend (wasn't a mandatory event and I go to the quabbin every year for opening weekend so I missed it), and we fish a tournament on Mashpee/Wakeby in a few weeks.. Looked like the bite was tough at Long Pond Harwich last weekend (as to be expected I guess) but the ones that were caught were good ones.. numerous 4.5+lb smallmouth caught, with the lunker on the day at 5.36lbs. First place went to a ~19lb bag that was all smallmouth . I've got a few ideas for fishing it floating around in my head, but if you have any advice for fishing LP Harwich I'd love to chat with you about it in a bit more detail, you can PM me if you'd like.. Ha ha - I've only got the Girlfriend to circumnavigate, but even that can be complicated at times.. Let me know if you get the ok and decide you want to head down... I'm shooting for mid/late morning. Not sure if you still have my cell number but you can text/call me too if you'd prefer.

I was thinking of heading down the cape tomorrow, location TBD but I was looking at Long Pond Harwich, Long Pond Yarmouth, and Mashpee/Wakeby. If you're thinking of heading down there and fishing Saturday let me know, perhaps we can meet up on the water.

Actually, salmon have made a very nice comeback at the quabbin according to numerous trusted sources... perhaps not as good of a salmon fishery as it once was, but better in the past few years than the recent years before. You are correct in stating that this is a good time of year to catch them, but you can catch them fairly easily into June if you know the right locations to find them and are presenting your lure(s) at the proper depth. Smelt spawn should be in full effect now, and the salmon like to ride way up high in the water column.. you'll find them suspended 5-10' under the surface sitting just off the first breakline leading to deeper water. Gate 8 undoubtedly has the most cold water trout/salmon habitat, however I don't think it's a waste of time to target them from other gates... You just need to know where to fish for them and be willing to travel quite a bit from the boat launches (gate 43 or 31) .. The record lake trout last year (26lbs) was taken from Gate 43 on June 1st, suspended about 15' under the surface over some much deeper water.

I'm not sure if maybe they have better maps than that.. but the one linked here isn't terribly useful. The water levels fluctuate a lot, and the complexity of the underwater structure isn't even close to being shown on the maps I've seen the state provide... I use my Navionics + mapping chip with my lowrance sonar/gps .. however if you don't have a portable gps/sonar that you can bring with you Navionics also offers (for a small fee I believe) a web application that gives you access to all of their community edited sonar charts... it's what I use to research a lot of places before I show up to fish them.. the Quabbin is a big beast and if you don't have an idea of what you're looking for as far as structure to fish before you arrive it's very easy to get caught up motoring around and searching for what seems like a good place to fish. If you're not in a productive area out there you can fish all day and not even get a whiff... On a side note, I think I'll be heading out again on Sunday if anyone would care to join me. Both of my regular fishing partners are busy this weekend, so I'm planning on fishing solo for now.. probably out of gate 43 but also considering gate 31. Going to troll for salmon/trout early and then switch over to targeting smallmouth as the day drags on. Weather is supposed to be 50 degrees overcast and a slight (3-5mph) north wind... sounds like good quabbin conditions to me!

Those are some nice bass Mike, you fishing all around the south shore for those still? Encouraged by your MS Slammer bites I tossed mine around for a few hours last night, not even a sniff. What do you run for line on your large swimbaits? I'm trying 20lb CXX but other than it's nearly indestructible I can't say I love the stuff so far.. Can't speak for other bodies of water, but I haven't seen ANY spawning activity at any of the places I've been to recently. I was at the Quabbin this weekend though, so obviously water is colder there... it was 41-44 degrees throughout the day. Bite was tough for most guys out of Gate 8 it seemed.. fish were cooperating in the morning but once the wind picked up (30+ MPH gusts out of the south by noon time) the fishing really got tough... Me and my buddy caught 4 fish before 10 AM, then not a sniff afterwards. 2 small landlocked salmon and 2 rainbows. All of the fish went around 2lbs. Best fish caught out of our group of 30 or so fisherman was a lake trout that went just over 5lbs. If there was starting to be any spawning activity over the past few warm days this cold front should knock them off the beds and back to their staging areas.. however I would bet in most areas they were just starting to move up towards spawning grounds and now a cold front will knock them back to earlier season prespawn locations. I'm going to try to get out in the kayak one day this week either before or after work, but it's tough for me to get any quality fishing in during the week right now... also frustrating that I can't seem to find any good shore fishing spots to just mess around for an hour or two. Any of you guys that fish the Charles... I know I've seen a few of you.. where do you fish it from typically? I work in Watertown and am interested in finding some locations on the Charles for shore fishing either before/after work or on my lunch break. Any help is appreciated. If I don't get out in my kayak during the week I'll definitely be out in it this weekend. Location is TBD, but if anyone wanted to meet up to kayak fish I could be swayed to travel. Let me know!

Any idea as to the date you were fishing and caught those smallies? Early, mid May perhaps? I'm trying to figure a good guess on what water temperatures will be at the Quabbin this weekend... I'm guessing 42-45 degrees right now, but not really sure.. I have a lot more trouble predicting temps at the quabbin than anywhere else, especially this time of year.

I'll be out there on Saturday-- Launching from Gate 8 (Fishing area 1). Looking to mainly target landlocked salmon and lake trout, but will also probably catch a few smallmouth. I only fish gate 8 in the early spring and fall, in the summer when I'm hunting smallmouth fishing area's 2 & 3 are typically much more conducive to smallmouth fishing. As SwampHogs noted- the Quabbin is expansive, with lots of water to cover.. very deep and very clear water. Going with someone who knows it well is definitely a good idea, but if you can't do that it's understandable. At the very least you should have a good topography map and a GPS/Sonar unit to help you locate fish... there are very few clues from looking at the surface of the water as to what lies underneath you.. you might be in 25' of water or you might be in 125' of water and you'd really have no idea without a good sonar/gps/map. Also, fish in the quabbin relate almost entirely to structure, points, ledges, humps, etc. There is very little in the form of cover (weed beds, stumps, etc.). Finding rock-piles on flats and fishing main lake structure is generally going to be your best bet. If you are still planning on going and renting a boat this weekend (it's opening weekend) You'll need to get there VERY early to obtain a rental boat... My car will be parked in line on Friday overnight to save my spot for Saturday morning. Rentals always go quick on the weekends, and opening weekend is just that much worse than any other weekend. I fish Gate 8 every year on opening day with a group of friends in our own little "tournament" setting. Good luck, and feel free to ask more questions either here or via PM if there's more info I can provide you with. Despite some rather annoying restrictions the Quabbin is in my opinion the best freshwater fishery in Massachusetts.

Got out in my kayak both Saturday and Sunday, Saturday was meant to be a fishing trip but turned into an exploring/adventuring trip... paddled a bunch of water looking for new places to fish, only ended up making a handful of casts...didn't catch anything that day. Sunday I paddle a local pond for a few hours in the afternoon, caught 3 up real shallow on a spinnerbaits in newly flooded cover, all pretty small. Lost 1 out a bit deeper off a point on a ned rig. Water temps on Saturday were 47-49 degrees in the river, water temps in the small local pond on Sunday got all the way up to 53. Felt good to get out there at any rate, things should pick-up more over the next few weeks and I'll be out there.

I'm excited to get out not one, but two days this weekend! Water should still be pretty chilly but I'm confident I can go find a few that will cooperate. Haven't decided where yet.. probably going to target LMB/Pike one day and SMB the other.. but I may forego the smallies for now too in search of some real fat LMB. Rising/High water is almost always a good thing.. the one caveat to that is when it's rising so furiously that all the water is incredibly stained/muddy. I've been checking out a few local lakes and ponds the past week or so (Even before yesterday's deluge!) that are about as muddy as I have EVER seen them. We're talking ice cold chocolate milk in a few places I've checked out. My best advice would be to avoid these water ways for now, until the weather settles down a bit and they have some time to clear up. Cold and muddy water is about the most brutal bass fishing conditions you can deal with. If you're forced to fish this type of water... try to find the clearest pockets of water you can and work dark colored baits with lots of thump/vibration... issue is you've still gotta work em real slow this time of year.. bass aren't going to chase a big spinner bait very far this time of year.. if at all. As far as high water rivers go... I'd be tossing shallow squarebills or spinnerbaits/chatterbaits. Bang them off of whatever you can find and keep them near the bottom.. slow retrieve with 5:1 gear ratio reels and colors matched accordingly to water clarity and sky cover. I really like small flat sided crankbaits this time of year, you don't want a fat crankbait with a wide wobble, those are meant for warmer water and more active fish. I've only caught two bass so far in 2017 (only fished 2 days from shore so far) but both of them have come from reaction strikes generated from banging my lure into cover on the bottom. Good luck everyone-- if anyone is interested in possibly meeting up this weekend feel free to shoot me a PM!

Good post Tom-- Appreciate the more in depth info and understanding. All of that said though, I wouldn't imagine that in those handful of degrees between freezing and waters maximum point of density that the waters density would decrease enough for a "suspending" jerkbait to start sinking? Surely there is a point where water density could decrease enough that most suspending jerkbaits would start to sink, but I would hazard a guess that this point is somewhere around 75-80 degrees Fahrenheit which is surely less dense than say, 36 degrees Fahrenheit water? MassYak-- Maybe fishing the squad minnow on mono would help getting it back to a "true suspending" lure? Other than that or downsizing hooks or possibly removing a hook.. not really sure what your options are. Lots of ways to get a floating lure to sink or suspend, doesn't seem like there's as many to get a sinking lure to float more. Other than the fact it may not be suspending correctly, how else do you like the Squad Minnow? Most Jackall bait's I've used or seen I've been pretty impressed with, but admittedly I haven't fished many of them..

Pretty sure you have this backwards for what it's worth- Colder water is more dense, so a jerkbait would be more buoyant in the denser water and have a tendency to float up, not sink down... If you're throwing suspending jerks in this cold of water and they're sinking... you've either got a bad lure or need to downsize the hooks. Just a thought . For what it's worth a lot of pro's actually prefer a very slow sinking jerkbait (like barely sinking) in ultra cold water... but I'm under the impression that this is more to imitate a shad dying which would be a fall to winter transition, not winter to spring transition.. but who knows, maybe the bass just prefer a slow sinking action in colder water for reasons unknown? I'm hoping to get out either from shore or in my kayak on Saturday, forecast looks decent compared to what it has been lately.. the overnight lows for the rest of the week have me bummed out though. Quabbin opens on April 15th, looking forward to doing a bit of trout fishin' as I imagine a good bass bite will still be weeks away by that point.. low 40's water temp is perfect for catching trophy bronzebacks if you can find em though..

Are you guys talking about fishing it from shore? Why from shore? Just don't want to deal with renting a boat or know anyone who has a quabbin rig? I've got quite a few nice honey holes saved on my GPS, but I've never heard of bull rock or the rook. I'll be interested to see how much the water level is up since last fall.. I hope it recovered nicely but I'm not super optimistic either.

I've got a bad feeling that this extreme cold front coming through will shut the bite off there on you, but even if it does it'll be back soon! I'll probably make some casts from shore somewhere around here just because I've got a boat load of new gear I want to get wet.. I'll be throwing some suspending jerks, flat sided cranks and maybe a wacky rig or ned rig if I'm really trying to get bit. I fish the Quabbin opener every year with a bunch of guys... it's pretty nuts actually. I fish from a friends boat, and he gets up there a few DAYS early to drop his boat off at the gate and reserve a spot near the front of the line... people renting boats typically sleep over night in their cars while waiting in line for the gates to open on opening day. For what it's worth this is for gate 8 (Fishing Area 1) which is the colder deeper side where more people target lake trout and salmon, I've never been to the other two boat launch areas for opening day. Official Quabbin opener for 2017 hadn't been posted last I looked, but I'll check it out again. Unfortunately for me I'm really going to be restricted to mainly weekends since I got a new job this winter.. but for anyone that has availability during the week that's the best time to hit the Q- especially early in the season... rental boats go quick on spring weekends.

NASTY looking weather pattern moving in... Looks like I'm going to have to wait at least another week to wet a line.. Maybe I'll chuck a spinnerbait or blade from shore just to scratch the itch..

Glad to see people are on em early this year.. hopefully weather stays warm and the water stays open from here on out... Dogbone - Where on earth are you fishing in Plymouth with water temps in the high 40's pushing 50 already?!? Personally I have MUCH more success when water temps start to creep above 45 degrees.. I haven't gotten out yet but when I do if I can find someplace with warmer than average temps that would be ideal.

Will do, thanks guys.

So I've got a couple of Shimano Curado 200 I reels that I've recently purchased... I'm looking for spare spool assemblies for them as I like to keep spare spools with different diameter fishing line spooled up.. if I need to change line type or diameter for my presentation I can fairly quickly and easily do so by swapping out the spool and re-stringing the rod.. This was a suggestion I got here on the forums and I really like it, especially for crankbaits. Anyways... is Shimano discontinuing this model? I can't find any information on it, but they're on sale at TW and when I go to order replacement parts direct from Shimano half of them are either backordered or "discontinued" ... why would they discontinue manufacturing the spool assembly for the reel unless they were discontinuing the model itself?? Having a similar problem with the Chronarch Ci4.. that one at least is only listed as "back ordered" though. Anyone have a work-around for this, a place that I could find spool assemblies perhaps? Does anyone know if they are discontinuing both of these reels? It does appear that the Chronarch Ci4 has been replaced by the Chronarch MGL.. but I can't find any info on a replacement for the Curado I series. Thanks!

Where is "by you"? Despite the warm temps I'm still seeing a thin layer of ice or half iced-out lakes/ponds for the majority of the water by me. Still not sure if I'll get out tomorrow, but knowing some spots where the ice is all gone could prove useful.. thanks!

Yup I think it's about that time... solid warm stretch here and it's got me wanting to get out Saturday in the yak... hmmm where to go where to go..

Signed it. Love Candlewood Lake.. wishing you guys the best of luck over their in Western CT!