Janderson45

Few teaser pics of the new toy : just picked her up the other day, will have more pics and vids up soon!

Strange, id be interested to see the map. Are you using the community edits? They're usually better but can be wildly inaccurate if the person recording the map didn't know what they were doing. That's happened to me on a pond in Plymouth before, was supposed to have a couple deep holes that got to 30' according to the navionics map.. in reality the whole pond doesn't get deeper than about 12'. No deep holes ?‍♂️

It is kind of a strange place, not my favorite to fish, but I live about 15 minutes away so I hit it a handful of times every year. I much prefer nippenicket or sabattia and they're about the same distance for me so I hit them a lot more. I had one very memorable day at the norton res a few years back, I think I probably caught somewhere around 50-60 fish that day, all bass and pickerel in the milfoil. Nothing of any real size though if I remember right. I've heard they have population issues with both perch and largemouth at the res, which keeps the bass on the smaller side. They stocked tiger Muskie a handful of times in the 2000s to try and combat this, not sure if it's had the intended effect though.

Yes they treated it heavily.. I fish it occasionally and have done well twice since the water treatments. That said it definitely fished better in years past when there was abundant milfoil. The cove you guys fished treats me well on occasion, but not always. Out a little ways from that cove headed towards the dam there's some rock walls and a bridge piling or two (if I remember right) submerged in some deeper water. That location treats me well on occasion as well. On the far side in the NW corner there is abundant pads and milfoil, with plenty of submerged rock and wood mixed in. The water treatments killed some of it back, but didn't seem to effect it anywhere near as bad as other spots. There's also a small winding river that empties into the res in that corner. If I were to fish it tomorrow that's where I'd concentrate the bulk of my efforts :).

Yup I've fished both Wordens and Watchaug on numerous occasions, Wordens is a nice big weedy shallow fishery good for largemouth, pickerel and an occasional pike as well. Watchaug is a deeper, clear water fishery with lots of rock and sand, few weeds. Good for largemouth and smallmouth. Indian pond in Narragansett and Barbers pond off route 2 (not sure what town) are both good as well. Barbers is good if you stuck fishing from shore. Tucker pond (near Wordens) and 100 acre pond (near barber) are both good as well.

Easy enough to test out, just cast it in the water near the boat and look at it. But yes, if the rig is set up correctly the fluke should stand out straight not fall down towards the line.

Quabbin fished fished fairly tough for us on Sunday. It was dead calm and very hot, air temps approaching 95 degrees, and heat index values into the triple digits. Water temps at the surface were between 78-80 degrees. I picked up a couple of 2lb smallies quick near gate 43, and surprisingly a couple of 4lb laketrout as well. I made a long cast along a sharp breakline that went from 20 feet abruptly to 60 feet. The boat was in 35' of water and my casts were parallel to the breakline. About halfway through my retrieve I felt a slight *tick* , reeled down quick to get any slack out and set the hook; came tight on something that felt pretty nice, and throughout the fight it pulled a decent amount of drag. I thought it was odd that it didn't come rocketing up to the surface like most smallmouth would, but some of the larger smallies I've caught have behaved this way. I was shocked when we finally got a look at it and it was a lake trout. Never caught a laker while dragging a heavy jig in the summer which I do quite often so that was pretty exciting. Took a picture and released it. Very next cast was to a slightly different location but still near where the first laker bit. What do you know it played out almost the exact same way. Another lake trout of almost identical size, weird!  From there it got tough, I could find and catch dinks on a dropshot but nothing with any size at all. Finally at about 1pm I hooked into a good one on the jig again out in the main reservoir. It was hooked pretty deep unfortunately, but I was able to get my jig back. The fish was bleeding pretty good so I quickly got it back in the water and only have one lousy pic of it showing how deep it choked the jig. It was probably just shy of 4lbs by my estimate, wasn't able to get an actual weight on it either.   A handful more dinks as we stopped off at spots on our way back to the ramp. We were off the water by about 3:30 which is early for me. My buddy from New York had come up to visit and fish with me, great guy and he's very interested in bass fishing all of the sudden but he has a lot to learn.. he really struggled all day despite my advice and rigging baits up for him, he only ended up catching 3 dinks. We were very hot which helped our decision to get off the water a bit early. I think I probably boated 12 smallmouth and the 2 laketrout myself, but out of those 12 smallmouth I'm not sure I even had 5 that would've been "keepers" (over 12") .

Yes, especially if you are using a bait with a flat bottom. If you are, make sure the flat bottom is facing down and it will create a lot of drag/buoyancy keeping the bait pointing upright. Will work with any bait though. As long as the hookpoint is facing upwards when you pull on the tag end you should be alright.

Not sure the drag has anything to do with it? I get what you're saying that the line will "stretch" more with a fish on and a heavier drag pressure, but I don't think the concern in mono's line stretch properties is due to fish fighting. For me, braid to Fluoro leader is a must in my typical drop shot fishing. Not only does the no stretch property of braid give you better sensitivity to feel the bottom and fish bites, it also requires you to move far less line to get a solid hookset in deep water. Additionally, small diameter (lb test) braids sink through the water column much better for deep water fishing due to the significantly reduced drag.

Good point by J Francho, as is true with just about any presentation, line size and type should be adjusted based on numerous factors. Some of those factors would be: fishing depth, density of cover, type of cover, water clarity, target species, size of the bait, and specifications of the rod/reel you are using. The majority of my personal dropshot fishing is used in deep clear water reservoirs or lakes with sparse cover, targetting smallmouth. My typical setup for this is a 7'6 MLXF spinning rod, size 2500 Stradic, spooled with 10lb braid topped off with a 30 foot leader of 6lb tatsu. I then use a size 1 or size 2 gammy dropshot hook, and a 1/8 thru 1/4oz weight. Generally I use about a 6" dropper for the weight, but I will go down to as little as 4" and as much as 18". 6-8" on the dropper is usually the sweet spot for me, shorter if the fish are more aggressive and longer if they are really sluggish. I use a crazy Alberto knot for the line to leader, than a palomar for the drop shot knot itself. Sometimes the Palomar takes a couple of attempts to get a finished product I'm happy with. I used to use the swivel shot hooks which did a great job in eliminating line twist, but I felt that the extra metal might be costing me a few bites and I lost a good smallmouth because the swivel bent out on one of those hooks. Probably had my drag too tight but still a frustrating way to lose a nice fish. I fish the whole setup with very light drag, probably about 1.5lbs of drag pressure and I adjust it up or down from there as needed.

If the 6'10 MXF LTB is that good wouldn't the 6'10 MXF legend elite or legend X be even better? When it comes to St Croix I fish either an avid (think it's the best bang for the buck in their line) or the Legend elite's (think it's the best rod in their line). The only LTB rods I use are the bigger cranking sticks. I do enjoy them for medium to deep cranking. The other brand of rods that that I use is Dobyns, either the champion HP (extreme) or regular champion (xp) series. The champion HP comes in a hair cheaper than st Croix legend elites, but is in the same class when it comes to sensitivity and build quality. I personally throw shaky shaky heads on a few different rods, one is the same 6'10 MXF rod that you mention, but a casting model in the legend elite series. It's fantastic, probably top 3 favorite setups that I own. Im sure the LTB is fantastic as well, and I can highly recommend Dobyns Champion HP. Can't go wrong with any of the above!

Going to hit the Quabbin again on Sunday, likely gate 43. My boat is at the dealer getting the finishing touches applied, but don't think I'll be able to actually pick it up for another week or two. Quabbin again in the mean time!

Until MK says it's OK to do so I wouldn't even consider it- the cost is not my issue, the safety aspect outlined above along with the fact that MK explicitly states not to use them are my biggest issues. When you spend $3K on an Ultrex why would you risk burning out the motor and potentially voiding your warranty? I can see why some of the pros would tinker with it, if they destroy an Ultrex they'll get another one for free, and they probably get the lithium batteries for free as well. For the average weekend warrior it just doesn't make sense to me at this point. The added cost of the batteries and chargers themselves plus a much greater fire hazard and potential to fry your TM? I'll pass. What I would consider however is running all of my graphs off of a dedicated lithium battery.. still not going to do it, I'll be running a group 31agm, but I'd at least consider a lithium alternative for that application..

Like I said, they may be being over cautious, but I knew that i read it somewhere.. straight from minn kota's website FAQ:

I just bought a Lund Renegade 1875, which is a mod-v so like you said not what you're after.. that being said, I looked very hard at the 1875 Pro-V bass but like you the price point was a bit higher than what I wanted to spend. To rig a new pro-v the way I wanted was going to run somewhere between 45-50K if I'm remembering right. After about a year of research and soul searching I decided a Mod-V was better fit for my style of fishing which includes most smaller and often very shallow fisheries. On a positive note regarding the Pro-V Bass, Lund JUST shipped the first run of 2019 model year boats to their dealers (I know this because my Renegade is a 2019 model) - Every year when this happens dealer prices on 2018 (and 2017) get slashed pretty significantly. The 2018 Lund Pro-V Bass that my dealer has had in stock for almost a year is somewhere around $9,000 cheaper than it was six weeks ago. So if you can find a "new" pro-v bass in stock at a dealer that is a 2017 or 2018 model year you should be able to save a pretty penny. I looked at Rangers as well, even got to test drive one of their mod-v alumninum models (rt178) - while it was light years better than similar sized trackers I've been on it also fell short of the Lund by quite a bit in my opinion. Ranger makes (arguably) the best glass boats in the industry, and their aluminum is better than most... Lund is the "ranger" of Aluminum if you ask me though, best in the business. If if I had a reputable Xpress dealer anywhere within 300 miles they would have been in the running as well, their mod-v aluminum hulls look incredible.. but I don't think they make a true V hill like the Lund pro-v or crestliner bass/fish hawk?

@Brick T if you fish A1 that often you've probably ran into @MassYak85 or myself a time or two! It's one of my favorite spots in the state to kayak fish, although it seems it's popularity has exploded in the past few years which is definitely a bummer. Ever caught one of the infamous tiger Muskie that they supposedly stock there? I know I never have.. lots of pickerel and bass, but never a Muskie or pike.. I love fishing the super heavy cover there, one of a handful of places in the state that has cover that gnarly, give me a heavy tungsten weight, 65lb braid and let me go to work!

No it's actually going to be an "everywhere but the Quabbin" boat haha. My buddy is looking into picking up a used Quabbin rig in the next year or two so we can still fish there when we want to.

Hit the Quabbin on Sunday with my usual partner in crime (smallmouth abuse)... We showed up at gate 43 a bit later than usual and lucked into the last rental. Unloaded the truck and began to set the rental up and discovered I was missing two fairly important things.. a net and a battery for my fish finder. Bad start... we went at it for a while targetting some of some my typical summertime smallmouth haunts using a GPS app on my phone to help me locate the underwater humps ledges and points. We didn't make out too bad for forgetting the net and battery, I wasn't counting but think we landed around 20 smallmouth between the two of us, and lost a few on dropshot rigs that we would've landed with a net. No scale breakers, best went 3.06lbs. Lost one that looked like a 4 on a dropshot boatside. Dropshot, football jig, Ned rig, tube and spinnerbaits all caught fish, top two producers were the dropshot and jig. my boat finally arrived at the dealer last week, I'll have updates on that once I pick it up! Been wishing I've had it for months and found myself doing a lot less actual fishing because of it... but now I'm stoked that I'll have it for the end of summer and all of fall fishing.

Yup fished a tournament there in late March this year, @Dunks N Dinks gave a great breakdown above. In my most recent tournament there it was particularly stingy. Almost every fish brought to the scales was caught on a blade bait (silver buddy, etc.) and I think most of the field had at least one tied on. One of the keys to getting bit was letting the bait rest on the bottom for long periods, often 30-60 seconds. They would eat it off the bottom and you'd never feel a thing until you lifted it up and they were on. Pretty nuts!

Ahhh the Deeper unit, I've never used one but I've seen videos/promotions about them. Don't you cast it out on a fishing rod and retrieve it? How do you have it rigged up to your kayak? Im not sure if you can shut the "Fish ID" feature off on the Deeper or not, I figured you were using a standard 4" humminbird or lowrance in which case you definitely can (and I would advise) shutting it off. The same general concept on marking fish that shallow applies to the Deeper as well though, general rule of thumb for a 83/200khz transducer is that the "cone" of coverage is about 1/3 of the water depth. So in ten feet of water your sonar would be effectively scanning and showing data for a circle just over 3 feet in diameter at the bottom of the pond. As you move up in the water column the "cone" of sonar coverage shrinks; when you get up to three feet of water the coverage area from the transducer is effectively 12" or less. In reality traditional sonar is not a great way to mark fish in shallow water. As the water gets deeper your odds of actually marking a bass get a lot better. Newer forms of front facing, 360 degree, and side scanning sonar/imaging are a lot more useful for finding and marking fish in shallow water. In shallow water I use my 2D sonar to tell me 3 things, water depth, water temperature, and bottom hardness/composition. Everything else pretty much gets ignored. I know what you mean about mapping some of those little ponds without data available, I have a few around me that I would love to have a better knowledge of!

Mostly confined to river systems and their tributaries but you betcha there's bowfin in Mass. Not positive but I believe there's bowfin in all of the lower 48 states.

Nice fish, glad you were able to go back and find it again, just goes to show they don't often do travel far, especially once they're locked into summer mode. For what it's worth I'm pretty confident that you weren't marking bass on your sonar unit suspended 2-4 feet under the boat. I understand that the unit was telling you that, but it's pretty unlikely. Those fish ID symbols aren't a great indication of actual fish in my experience, I always tell people that they're better off shutting off that feature and learning to interpret the actual sonar returns. in order to mark a fish in 2-4 feet of water on a standard broadband sonar reading that fish would have to be almost directly under the transducer, within 8-16" to be exact. Even then most units have too much surface clutter in water this shallow to truly mark a fish. It's possible I suppose but highly unlikely... you were probably marking random debris in the water and the sonar unit incorrectly determined the debris to be fish.

Southern states that are big into bass fishing will stock bass into new waterways and attempt to manage them as a "trophy fishery", but once a good population is established in a given waterbody there's usually no reason to stock bass- in fact it can actually be detrimental to the fishery when smaller recently stocked bass start competing for food with the older and larger bass that are already present. Fishing from shore can be tough, especially around the city, so I understand your frustration. That said Massachusetts is home to some deceptively large bass! I believe the state record in mass is bigger than any other state north of Virginia, pretty impressive. Trout are stocked as a recreation and table fish, not a true game fish in many instances. Most of the trout the state stocks don't make it through their first winter for a multitude of reasons..

No bass stocking anywhere in mass for many many decades. Bass are not a "native" species to Massachusetts but stocking dated back 100+ years introduced them to the area and made them the dominant predator and game fish in almost every body of freshwater in the state. Anywhere that has enough depth to not completely freeze solid in winter or completely dry up during summer droughts will hold largemouth bass. Smallmouth are available in most parts of the state but not anywhere near as much as largemouth are. When it comes to picking good lakes/ponds/reservoirs to target for bass your best indicators are going to be the amount of available forage and the amount of suitable structure and habitat for the bass to live (hide) in. Another factor to consider is the fishing pressure, occasionally if you do a bit of homework you can find a nice little secluded pond that hardly ever gets fished, these days can be very fun and productive. Where are you located in Massachusetts? We may be able to help point you in the right direction if we know what bodies of water are local to you.

I've recently started working on my baitcasting reels myself, a little bit of research, time and practice goes a long way. Perhaps not for everyone but now that I've cleaned/serviced and replaced numerous parts in my Reels I can't see spending money for someone else to do it.