Janderson45

A recent long but not very fat smallie:

Good luck Dogbone! Think I'll be heading back soon as well.. I'm in a smallmouth tournament on social media, which is why that fish has a ruler and wooden puck with it in the picture. Haven't been catching quality smallmouth anywhere else in the state other than the Quabbin!

I'm not sure, as I haven't heard that reeling against a drag will add more line twist... I can see the mechanism/idea behind it though. Personally, when dropshotting for smallies I use the Gamakatsu swivel shot hook, and have virtually no issues with line twist. Caught a bunch of smallies with this set up just the other day, and was definitely guilty myself at times of "reeling against the drag" but without any issues. I'll be interested to see other responses on this thread though..

Thanks jigfishn! I've definitely spent a good deal of time on the water this season, and definitely had more success than any other season in my past. I'm always looking to improve my fishing so someday when I'm older and wiser I might actually get "good" at this sport ;). I owe a lot of my recent success to the community here at BassResource, being on these forums frequently and reading/applying advice and tactics that all of you guys contributing to this thread share, as well as other members who post in separate sections has helped me out a lot. Hopefully you can get out on the water a bit more this fall, I know I'll be out there trying to soak up every last drop in my free time before winter hits.

I fished the quabbin yesterday with my buddy. We did very nicely again. Dropshots, tubes, Ned rigs, and a Strike King 6 series crank. We had numerous doubles, boated probably 25 fish. Lots of them in the 2-3lb range, with the lunker on the day a nice long fish at 21", but a bit on the skinny side. She was 4.3 lbs and blind in one eye.

here ya go: http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dfg/dfw/hunting-fishing-wildlife-watching/fishing/pike-stocking-sites.html

Nope, they definitely scaled back, but they stocked pike/tiger Muskie this year (2016) and in 2015 as well. They get them in an exchange program from New Jersey in which our hatcheries trade landlocked salmon for tiger Muskie (hybrid half northern pike half muskellunge). They stock "fingerlings" at around 12-14" in various locations around the state, I believe recent stockings in most locations were 500 fingerlings. There have been various other pike or tiger Muskie stockings that have occurred in various locations in Massachusetts throughout the 2000's and even 2010's.

I don't believe there are any Pike in Plymouth or little sandy pond. I suppose it's possible but I would tend to think it was something else. A nice brown trout perhaps? They'd be brown to yellow or white in appearance, have a body shaped more similarly to a pickerel than a bass, and have spots all over their lower half. They're commonly stocked in many of plymouth's ponds.

I'll be fishing the Quabbin again with one of my buddies on Monday. Looks like temps in the mid 70s, sunny, and very little to no wind. Should I expect them to be holding in similar spots as to last time I fished there under similar conditions? Region hasn't received anywhere near enough rain to make a dent and the water is just starting to cool off.. I was last there 3 weeks ago.

I've seen similar situations before, it's frustrating sometimes as you're thinking that the bass HAVE to be feeding on those panfish. I'm still trying to figure out what my go to presentation is for imitating a bluegill in shallow to mid depths with lots of weed cover. I just ordered up some Lake Fork live Magic shads in a few different color schemes.. The boot tail ones and the fluke style split tail ones. All in 4.5", also restocked a few different swimbaits hooks to toss them on. I've had good luck with them in the past, but haven't fished them at all this year. I'll give them a shot and report back on how I do.

Fished a smaller pond near me this afternoon for a few hours.. Managed 2 pickerel and that was it. When I got there there were bluegill feeding EVERYWHERE .. the water surface was teeming with life.. thought for sure I'd have some action on this "LiveTargert Bluegill" surface bait that I bought a while back but still haven't caught a fish on... threw it around for a little bit, had a blowup or two but couldn't connect. Started throwing a zoom super fluke with a chart dipped tail on a 1/8oz swimbait hook. Caught both of the pickerel on this.. the 2nd pickerel caught my 10lb test power pro just right as I was trying to unhook him, and off he went with the bait and hook. I tied a FC leader on, but had to switch hooks as I didn't have any replacements of the same variety.. the new swimbait hook was heavier and didn't give the bait quite the same action.. I did get 1 good hit on it, felt like a good bass, but i'll never know as he wrapped around a stump and broke me off. Frustrated by the fluke, switched back to throwing the topwater sunfish the rest of the evening.. had probably 10 or 12 fish swipe at it, a few fish came at it really aggressively, but I didn't manage to land ANY of them... almost every strike I had the fish would completely miss the bait. Due to frustration there was probably 1 that I pulled away too quickly, but after missing one possibly by my own doing I really started to concentrate on setting the hook properly.. blowup after blowup I would wait half a second, see if I could feel any weight of the fish, and everytime there was nothing.. fish just completely whiffing on my bait left and right. FINALLY had one actually eat it in some flooded timber/ surface slop... had the fish on for about 5 seconds. I guess in all the excitement of having a fish actually strike and eat my bait.. I forgot to drive the hook home properly... bye bye fishy. Boy what a frustrating afternoon! Never had such poor luck with a hollow bodied surface bait.. typically if i can get the fish to strike I'll land them... even if they miss the bait the first attempt, usually if you just let it sit still in the blowups wake and twitch it once or twice they'll slam it again.. not the case on this day. Even if THAT doesn't work, if i haven't put the hooks to a fish and they haven't felt the rod, typically I can fancast around that area a few times and over the next few casts that same fish will come and hit it again... But nope, that wasn't working either! The sunfish doesn't come through the thick slop as easily as the frog does, and the fish don't seem to hone it on it as well either for some reason?? That said, I love how you can just twitch this bait on a slack line and it'll literally just dance in place like a dying sunfish... Overall I still like the frog much better, but figured I'd give this lure a shot since the bass in this pond were clearly gouging themselves on bluegill..

Check out the "neko rig" similar to a ned rig, but presents the bait in a different fashion that highly pressured bass should be seeing much less.

That's good news I suppose... I really just want a bigger/better screen. Does anyone know if this will work with the new Lowrance elite TI series? They sell the unit as either head unit only, combined sonar/downscan imaging or sonar/structure scan imaging... So I'm assuming since it offers a package of broadband sonar/down imaging my current transducer might work with it?? They look really nice... I'd probably eventually upgrade to the structure scan (totalscan) transducer, but that is going to take a lot of figuring out on my part as the large/crazy shaped transducer will not work in my current set up.

They stocked it a lot over the past 20 years and I think a reproducing population now lives in that system, it's also got a few miles of river that run down into holland pond which has also been periodically stocked with northerns. According to the DCR east brimfield held the state record pike for a short while before the current 35lb behemoth was caught in the late 80s.

I'm hoping the storm will bring lots of rain and change up the current mood/pattern the fish are in.. No plans to fish until after it settles down mid next week or whatever. Fished the East Brimfield Reservoir in Sturbridge this afternoon. 230-830. Managed very little, a LMB that was probably 1lb, another LMB smaller than that, and a good sized pickerel. There's pike here and I initially thought I had a pike on, but nope it was just a 3lb pickerel. i had never fished here before, cool spot.. I went hoping that maybe I'd hook into/catch my first Massachusetts Northern Pike. I brought 1/2 dozen good sized shiners to try and target the pike... No luck though. The pickerel came on a shiner, and the 2 LMB came on a texas rigged/pegged missle baits DBomb with chartreuse dipped claws. Water temp was 75-76 degrees. Anyone have any fool proof advice on how to catch a good northern pike in mass at the end of summer/into fall? I gravitate towards the few areas they exist in the state with the hopes of catching one, but still haven't managed to do so.

The concord/Sudbary river are one in the same :). I was fishing fairhaven bay

Thanks! It was actually a fairly frustrating evening.. Big fish busting on top all over the weed edges/shallows... When I pulled into the bay I was in shock, a heavenly seen with no other people, a slight fog coming off the water and fish busting everywhere... A couple of the top water explosions were so large that I figure they must've been pike, sounded like a boulder being thrown into the water..but I didn't catch one so I can't confirm... Fishing was slow on the frog despite fish busting everywhere, they were clearly feeding on something else and the only strikes I got on the frog were purely reactionary... I was spooking far more fish in the shallows with it than I was catching. I also tried a weightless senko and chatterbait with almost no luck. Need to figure out a better way to target fish in these situations.

Thanks for the kind words everyone! Maybe with a bit of luck I'll break it this fall.

5lber at JP is definitely impressive! Awesome it came on a whopper plopper too, congrats.

fished the Sudbary river from 2:30p-7:30p this evening. Pretty weedy and shallow, lots of hydrilla and pads. Managed my new official PB largemouth at 5.58 lbs on a topwater hollow bodied frog... What a blast that was. Water temps were around 79 degrees and I caught 6 bass while I was there along with a few sunfish.

Caught what I believe would be my new personal best tonight, certainly the largest I've ever put on a scale... 5.58lbs Was fishing the Sudbary river in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Some downpours had just moved through the area and it was very overcast and humid. Lots of hydrilla and lily pads scattered throughout the river which got to a max depth of about 10' in the area that I paddled. Water temp was 79F. Caught the fish on a livetarget hollow body frog on a line of emersed hydrilla.

I've only ever caught river smallmouth on the st Lawrence, so that's not really like a lot of other small mouth rivers being referenced here.. most of my smallie fishing is on lakes, my top 5 would in no particular order be: dropshot tubes jerkbaits spinnerbaits topwater obviously there are other great ways to catch em, but that's what I would use.. Also, with the exception of topwater baits I always fish fluorocarbon when targeting smallmouth.

I'll tell you what that Massachusetts record blows my mind... It beats state record largemouths in 30+ states almost all of which are south of the Carolinas.. Florida strain largemouth... Also, the mass state record was supposedly taken through the ice, so add another 2lbs or so to her if he caught her post spawn in the spring.. 17.5-18lb northern strain largemouth?? Blows my mind.

I've got the rest of the week off and not much for plans if anyone would like to meet up in kayaks or whatever someplace let me know!

Sorry for what I assume is dumb question with an easy answer, but I can't find a simple answer spelled out for me on Google. I'm currently running a Lowrance elite 4 chirp on my kayak, with a HDI skimmer transducer that combines both traditional sonar and downscan. My question is if I wanted to swap out my head unit (elite 4) for a larger or newer head unit can I use the same transducer? Obviously I could save money on buying just a new head unit and not a new transducer. Is it all plug and play or do these other units need different transducers? I assume it would work with the elite 5 or 7 as they appear to have all the same technology with just bigger screens? What about the new "TI" touch screen models, will it work with those?? Thanks for the help!