Janderson45

Me and Dogbone had a tough day out at Halfway, we each managed a few pickerel and yellow perch but no bass. Water temps were in the low 50's. It was a beautiful day out though, sunny and highs in the low 60s. All of the pickerel I caught came on a rattle trap, they hit it on the fall. I also had a couple of decent sized yellow perch hit a 3/8oz bass jig I was throwing. With still relatively stable weather I plan to get out again in the coming days, I'll post back when I do. this was my big pickerel on the day, was about 3lbs.

Off of Mast road. You won't be able to miss it, there's only a few parking spots scattered along the dirt road I like it a good amount, just don't quite love it. I use it with my anchor trolley, I haven't used it anchor tube that comes with it yet. Occasionally if you're careless in operating it the anchor line can still get all tangled up on the winch and it's a bit of a pain to get untangled. Only other complaint is that it doesn't hold quite solid in my slide trax with the two slide trax bolts included. Works well enough that I'm glad I have one though, I use it nearly every time out and it has definitely helped my kayak fishing. It comes with 60' of anchor line which is nice too.

Halfway would be cool, parking is very limited however and there is no boat ramp, just a few parking spots scattered along a dirt road with places to put in. I would be up for Halfway, Long pond or Great herring, just let me know and I'll meet you there. Fishing Rhino are you still thinking about tagging along?? I paddled around for a few hours this afternoon and caught a few on a jig. Nothing special size wise, but sure felt good to set the hook. It was pretty cold out there by 4pm and I wasn't quite dressed for it so I decided to call it.

I was checking out halfway pond the other day, right next to long pond.. That would be a fantastic option as well, but no trout or landlocks there, just SMB and LMB, albeit of above average quality. Really cool fishery if you guys aren't familiar with it. I'm up for any of those options. I'll let you guys decide. I'm still gonna go paddle the nip for a few hours this afternoon regardless. With little to no wind and sunny skies we may have better luck targeting smallies at one of the Plymouth ponds.

High rising pressure and bluebird skies after overnight lows in the high 20s- perhaps not ideal conditions, but at least it'll be warm! I think I know how we could coax them out.. Im planning to go scout it out and do a few hours of fishing tomorrow afternoon, if you guys would like to coordinate something for Tuesday shoot me a PM. If not I'll report back on how it is anyways! -Joel

For what it's worth I've never seen those rocks without dark marks on them and I've been fishing there for years now, but you're right there are certainly marks higher on those rocks than 2'. My last trip there the water level was actually up noticeably from my prior outting if you can believe that... To the right side and north of the main island is incredibly shallow you're absolutely correct there.... There are a few other points too that I can't even get over in a kayak. I think the bass boats I see on it must stick to a pretty predictable route due to the various very shallow areas. I've got Tuesday off as well. If the weather is nice and you'd like to meet up, we can try Nippenicket or where ever else youd prefer.

Under normal water levels/conditions it's plenty fishable from a bass rig, had a good long chat with a guy fishing solo in his bass boat there just last week. Under present conditions you do have to exercise a lot of caution though, especially near the boat launch and in the northern section of the lake. Water levels appear to be down about 2' from normal right now. It is also a very nice place to fish from a canoe or kayak, I've fished it from both

Wish you had let me know, I would've hit it again with you, haha! I fished the wachusett reservoir with a buddy and all we managed was one smallmouth, not very big either. The wind was brutal out there.. I'm sure it wasn't much fun at the nip either. Definitely a change in the weather today, might've shut the bite down a bit. I may try to target pike next time I can get out, but I'm sure I'll hit the nip a couple more times before the ice comes. I've also got a spot or two in Plymouth I'd like to get out on before winter... We'll see, time is growing short here I'm afraid. P.S. That super shallow area that you turned back from on the far northwestern shore is where I've caught probably half of my fish the past few weeks there, granted none of the big bass I caught came from that area, but both of the huge pickerel I caught did. Ranges from 1-2.5' and is loaded with green weeds and life still, just a bit of a challenge to figure out how to fish it with the water so shallow and the weeds fairly dense.

They were biting better today... Fished the nip for about 5 hours in my kayak this afternoon. Strange but pleasant weather.. Water temps were 56-57 degrees, the water level was actually up a bit since last week. caught 4 bass and 5 pickerel, fished a crankbait, swimjig, and spinnerbait all with success. Biggest bass went just under 3lbs Anyone want to guess what they're eating?? ? also caught another pretty nice pickerel. 25" and 4lbs :

Had a humbling experience yesterday at Wordens, fished it from 7AM-4PM, a large yellow perch that hit a 1/4oz spinnerbait saved me from getting "skunked" on the day (I guess?) hardly any consolation. My buddy only managed a 14" largemouth and a small pickerel all day. Highlight of the day was when a decent sized pike darted out of a shallow weed bed to smash my spinnerbait and knock slack into my line, turned back into the weeds and he was gone, we both got a pretty good look at the fish. Water temps started at 51 in the AM and got to as high as 57 degrees in some spots of the pond by the time we were leaving. In the afternoon we could fish water that was 49 degrees thru 57 degrees, naturally I targeted the warmer water which also had better clarity. It was mostly sunny and high rising pressure most of the day, wind was light and variable becoming SSW 6-10mph by the end of the day. Water clarity varied from 4-5' to less than 2'. I threw spinnerbaits, shallow cranks, suspending jerk, shaky head, 1/2oz flipping jig. He caught a fish on a floating jerk and a paddle tail Swimbait. Pond is 1000 acres with a max depth of 7 feet, but the majority of the pond is 2-4' deep. I looked for green weeds, but the weed types and what weeds were still alive threw me off of my game. I was looking for milfoil all day and could hardly find any... What there was a ton of was barren sandy bottom.. Not exactly ideal. All along the edges of the pond has completely dead on nearly dead reed beds, something I have never fished before and struggled immensely with. I tried throwing jerks and spinnerbaits through the alley ways in the reeds, spinnerbaits through the thinner areas, and a jig into some of the thicker areas. No success, but there were definitely some fish in these tall dead grasses, I spooked a number of them with a bait or my kayak. Any thoughts or advice on this? Why did we struggle so much? How would you fish these conditions??

I fished Nippenicket 4 times last week (lol) Monday and Tuesday evening for a few hours in the kayak after I got out of work, from 9-5 on Friday, and then again Saturday for a few hours from shore. Did well enough each time out to keep me wanting more.. Located a good majority of the fish on Monday night, they were all relating to shallow weed edges that still had green for the majority of the weed lines. On Monday water temps were 60-62 degrees, that was the only day I brought my electronics.. On Friday (when I fished it all day in my kayak) I caught around 30 fish, mostly pickerel, with 7 or 8 bass scattered in. Pickerel ranged in size quite a bit, but a few pretty good ones mixed in. Bass were all on the smaller side, most of them between 1-2 lbs. Fished it again today from 11AM-5PM in my kayak.. Brought the Lowrance to check out water temperatures... They ranged from 46.5-50 degrees?!?!? I couldn't believe my eyes.. Asked another guy in his bass boat what he was reading for water temp, but he said that he left his electronics at home since the Nip is so shallow.. He couldn't believe it either... the numbers weren't there for me like they were last week, but the quality of bite rivaled the best of my life... caught a 6.36lb LMB (new PB), 5.12, 4.02, and 3.77. Only four bites I had all day... The 5lber put up a decent fight, but nothing memorable.. The 6 on the other hand almost ripped the rod out of my hand, I could still handle the fish pretty well with 30lb braid but as soon as she hit it I knew I had hooked into a BIG fish. 6lber 5lber Others (from last week) On Saturday, when I fished it from shore, I caught a 29" pickerel that I didn't take pictures of... It hit a megabass PopMax topwater over a weed bed.. After struggling to subdue the snake and getting all the trebles out of its mouth, I weighed and measured it but was concerned for this fishes health (it had been out of the water for a couple of minutes) so I released it without taking a picture.. I probably just should've done it quick anyways as it was a state pin and PB pickerel, but I didn't... It weighed 5.2lbs. I'm away this weekend, otherwise I'd try hitting it again somewhere, but early next week I have plans to fish Wordens Pond (RI) and late next week I have plans to fish the Wachusett Reservoir...hopefully there's still more good fish to come! I really wish that I had my GoPro today for better pics of the big girls, unfortunately the Nip claimed it last week... (My fault). Tough to get good selfies or do a fish justice from a kayak with an iPhone camera..

Don't give up on the smallies when they go deep

@Gilgamesh what does that transducer/fish finder mount look like?? I'm looking for a new way to mount my transducer on rentals at the Quabbin... Suction cup that I'm using now is just to finicky and seems to always stop working at the worst times... I really want to buy a trolling motor to use there and just mount the transducer on that, but obviously that's an added expensive of a trolling motor too

46 dollars for parking and full day boat rentals. Closes on Saturday though. i was wondering where you found all of those largemouth until I saw you fished the pond haha...

I've gotta work tomorrow otherwise I'd be in... Could do Friday or Saturday, but Friday looks like some high winds right now..

I would agree that I'd prefer a bass boat on all of the water bodies you'd mentioned @"hamma" and I'd love to fish with you out of yours anytime you'd have me. Like I said earlier, all things considered if money wasn't a concern I would certainly own a full sized bass rig. Again, All of the things you stated are invaluable out on bigger lakes and reservoirs, storage, comfort, vantage point, boat positioning, electronics, more rods, etc. etc... However, go try to fish A1 (incredibly shallow in spots and has literally thousands of stumps sticking out everywhere above water level) or Winnecunit (shallower than ever and choked out with heavy heavy Eurasian milfoil) or Nippenicket (1' or less of water surrounding the boat launch from the drought) or Halfway pond (perfectly fishable with a full sized bass rig EXCEPT there's no where to launch one) right now in your bass boat.. You probably won't be able to fish any of them, and they can offer some of the best fishing in the state at times I chickened out on the wind today. I actually use a "shallow water anchor" or "stake out pole" on an anchor trolley in my kayak that works very well as long as I'm in 6' of water or less, if I'm in deeper water I use my "kayak anchor wizard" in the anchor trolley and that also works great. I plan on experimenting with a drift chute this fall as well, and want to install a second anchor trolley like you said @DogBone_384 .

I'd echo most of the sentiments above. I fish out of a kayak, initially it was more of a financial decision for me, but now that I've been at it for a couple of years I've realized all of the advantages of it over a power boat. As you've noticed, plenty of small, shallow water bodies around, and most of them have an unimproved launching ramp or no launch ramp at all. A kayak gets the job done most of the time for me, however as Keith mentioned it can be a pain when the winds pick up,I've tried many different methods to help with this, some work fairly well but there isn't any substitute for a full sized bass rig with trolling motor and power poles. I do find myself wishing I could fish out of a motorized bass rig, as there's only been a handful of times I've ever even gotten to do that in my life, and obviously it gives you a big advantage in a lot of ways, but if I could only have one or the other I'd still pick a kayak. Being able to effectively fish all of the small and shallow ponds and lakes at any time of year and at any moments notice (takes me 5 minutes to launch my kayak in total and it's almost always on the roof of my car) is more valuable to me than having a full sized bass rig is. Also a huge bummer- the Quabbin Reservoir, the largest, most diverse, unique and arguably best fishery in the state- doesn't allow regular bass boats. 25HP max on outboards, and all boats must be sprayed and decontaminated before EVERY time out on the reservoir. If I could fish that reservoir in a full sized bass rig it might be worth buying one just for that body of water... But sadly you can't, it's drinking water supply for city of Boston and surrounding areas. Oh well, I guess part of the reason why it's such a good fishery is because they are so strict with it...

Hit Whitehall today between noon and 6. Second time in a row for me that's basically been a bust there. water temps were 66-67, with about 3-4' of visibility and still plenty of green weed beds. You can tell a lot of the milfoil is starting to turn there, but plenty of it is still healthy, green, and thick. I landed 7 pickerel but not a single bass. 6 of the pickerel came early on, fishing a pumpkinseed colored strike King 1.5 above the tops of milfoil beds. Most of them small, but a few were decent. After seeing and catching nothing but pickerel I decided to switch it up and go with some lures that were a bit more bass oriented. Started pitching a 1/2oz bluegill colored mini flipping jig around to obvious holes in vegetation, timber, and shoreline bushes/brush.... Nada. Not a technique I have much confidence in either, but everyone says it catches fish and how else will I ever learn it?? After that failed, I paddled out to the deeper part of the lake, and marked some good fish on my Lowrance. Some of them suspended 10-15' over 20' of water, and then some of them bottom relating to the bottom in 20' of water as well. Tied on a dropshot, not even in a bite in areas I was marking. Got one nibble on it shallower, but missed the fish. Sun started to go down, I went topwater with a Rapala DT fat 1, nothing on that... -Hollow bodied livetarget sunfish worked around weed beds and lily pads produced numerous follows and incredibly tentative strikes (all complete misses by the fish, just slapping at it really). This is the second time I've seen this using this bait, and I've only really thrown it on a handful of occasions. Fish seem to love tracking it while I'm walking it, then when they finally go to strike they either completely miss or stop short at the last second and swim away... Very frustrating to watch. I've yet to have a violent blowup from a bass on this lure like I constantly produce with the livetarget frogs... Anyone else tossed this thing around at all yet? Similar or different results? Ended the night with the sun already down, I paddled back to the boat launch and at the advice of someone on this thread I trolled a jointed black jitterbug behind me. Second time trying this (both at Whitehall, go figure) first time with no results, but this time it produced a very nice pickerel... Huge topwater explosion behind me and I thought for sure it was a good sized bass. Nope, just a big angry pickerel going fully airborn for the jitterbug. Biggest pick of the outing, but with a mouth and gill full of trebles at 7pm and no headlamp I wasn't happy to learn it was a pickerel I'm starting to think maybe my "reports" are a bit too long winded, but hey if anyone wants to take the time to read it that's cool, if not they don't have to obviously. Didnt have the GoPro with me so didn't take any vids or pictures. I'll likely be back at it again tomorrow, destination TBD. PS- David Price STINKS.

Yup, plenty of huge weed beds still around lol... I hadn't been there in months, but I would imagine they are down at least some from the last time you were there... I fished a buzzbait, swim senko, and frog... Wasn't any water available I'd even consider throwing treble hooked baits at really, but I've found that to be the case there most of the year. If you're throwing top waters with trebles its a different story, but still enough submergent vegetation that it would be a bit of a pain. Thought about hitting the Quabbin again tomorrow, but now I'm thinking I'll likely hit either Whitehall, Nippenicket, or Billington Sea instead.. Really want to get on some nice largemouth if possible... If that fails me like it seems to be of late, I'll likely hit the Quabbin before the long weekend is over.. Only got a few more opportunities to fish there and it's been kind to me this year :).

I've got this friday off and weather is supposed to be beautiful... Looking to fish obviously if anyone would like to meet up let me know! Heres a LMB from yesterday for good measure... Went to the A1 in westborough, it's ridiculous out there with the low water levels... Literally thousands of stumps sticking out above the water line. Far from what I would call a good day, but had a few decent ones bite on top for me. This one went 3lbs:

Yeah I looked for you but didn't see you obviously. We were on the water for 645 or so, you may have passed us on the water after you launched though as we tried a bit of topwater near the launch early in the AM. We fished until 4:30, and we ran all over the reservoir... didn't do much better than you. Boated 8 fish all day, 6 for me, 2 for my partner, he did catch the big fish of the day at 3-1 however. 5 of my fish were on a dropshot in the same location in a 30 minute window. The other one was on a ned rig. All of them caught in 20-25 feet of water give or take. The big fish of the day was on a cheap Walmart looking flutter spoon in fire tiger right before we got off the water.. Go figure. I don't know what was up, I marked lots of suspended fish and had a terrible time tempting any of them to bite, threw a bunch of different jerk baits at them, vision 110, shadow rap, lucky craft pointer, rapala floaters.. flukes and soft plastic swimbaits, Ned rig, tubes, dropshot.. No luck lol. Finally started hitting a few fish on a dropshot after the cloud cover cleared and winds died... shouldn't it be the other way around? No kidding... Seems like you've got the whole night fishing thing down.. I need to take notes.. Can't get comfortable fishing in the dark for some reason, I feel very handicapped not being able to see where my bait is or line is... Plus I still haven't figured out exactly what I should be throwing. I've read all the articles, black spinnerbait, big worms, top waters, still haven't really had much luck fishing over an hour or so past sundown.

Awesome, happy to see all of the interest! I'll look for you there tomorrow JE1946, pm sent. Obviously I'd be in for a Quabbin meet up at pretty much any point as long as I've got a bit of notice.

Thanks for the info. Going with my same buddy as last time, but we'll have to fish together soon! Maybe we can hit the Q together one last time in the coming week or two before they shut her down for good, if not I've got my Yak and I go all over the state.

Do you remember water temps Dogbone? I'm headed back out there tomorrow, curious how much (if any) conditions have changed from my last time out there. What were you and Fishing Rhino throwing? Did he land all his 13 fish on the same/similar techniques or were you both just throwing the tackle box at em?

Careful out there, it's even shallower than last time you were out, down about 9' in most areas I believe. Fish can definitely still be had though! Wish I didn't have work tomorrow, otherwise I'd consider going myself. Might hit it again end of the week if I get a day off. Good luck!