MassYak85

Well, that's the unofficial end to my season. Me and my dad took his boat out one last time. Was gonna try Hamilton Res, but the design of the ramp and drawdown made that a no-go, same with Brimfield so we ended up at Quabog. Wind was brutal, wind chills in the teens. We fished the same area the whole day it was somewhat sheltered but still had some depth. I struck out fishing blade baits, finesse jigs, and jerkbaits. My dad got a decent one on an Swaver 168 and a 3-3 slow rolling a big Musky Spinnerbait with some hair. Water temps 37-38. I still plan to go out once or twice more in my kayak if we get some warm days (hopefully with no wind ahem). Overall a great season. Me and my dad both broke our PB. I felt like I learned a lot and got more confidence in a bunch of techniques, and felt like even in the cold water and transition periods I still had a decent feel for things. My goal this year was 5 over 5lbs including two 6s. I came up one 6lber short of that goal but until this year I had never gotten two 5s in a season so I'm stoked on the progress. And there's still a little time to still hit it. Next year I'm not sure if I wanna aim for consistency or make my goal just to get a 7. One of these years I want to commit just to big baits for a year but I don't think I'm quite where I want to be yet to do that.

I think we're gonna go out one last time tomorrow and torture ourselves before calling it a year and shifting focus to ice season. Wind chills in the teens...at least if we catch any it will be cool to do it with snow on the ground. I'm sure there will be some freak warm days this winter with the way the weather has been going this year. I'm definitely gonna keep one of my kayak racks on through the winter I think.

I personally hate fishing shallow ponds this time of year. Vegetation is mostly dead and if there's no depth to fish deeper structure it can make it difficult to fish bottom stuff if you need to slow down and stay in the dead weeds. Shallow diving jerks are good but I hate feeling like I only have one option. Deeper ponds a lot of times there's really only a couple key areas and they tend to group up in those areas. Tailspinners, blade baits, finesse jigs and neds can kill it. But bigger water means more wind and waves which can hinder finesse fishing a bit. But man if they're feeding heavy on a given day it's my favorite time of year.

Great to see everyone get rewarded for getting out in the cold today! My reel and guides were freezing up quite a bit until about 11. Rod guides not so much an issue just needs a dip into the water, but the reel line guide made finesse fishing tough when the line feels likes its sawing through something with every turn of the handle. I hear you on hands though. I rock cheap fingerless fleece gloves and it's usually not too too bad unless it's like below 20 with the wind chill. Usually the two fingers that I rest under the reel seat on the rod get the worst of it with water dripping down and conduction from the reel seat.

When did you get on the list? I actually got mine on a super lucky drop. Then I was on the list for like a year but ended up letting my dad take that one. He said he re-added me to the list but it's been a while. I should shoot him a message. Pretty sure he closed it and is just finishing it out at this point. Whenever he releases that Trout again I gotta try and get one.

Hit up Quinsig today from 9 to 2 with my dad. We did pretty decent. Blades, tailspins, and jerkbaits were the ticket. Got tons of perch and crappie on everything, and we each got a largemouth on a tailspin in about 25 FOW on the fall. I managed 3 quality bites in one area from Smallies, all on a Damiki Vault. They were all sitting on a drop-off that goes from 10 to 25 quick, hopped off the bottom. First bite was a nice fish, but it bent out the rear hook during a run at the boat, my bad for fishing the stock hardware I guess. Swapped the hooks out and went back to it. Next cast another one, probably similar sized. That one I landed, very healthy probably just over 3lbs. Got another shortly after, a little smaller maybe 2lbs.

The Psycho Gill has been killing it. I actually haven't fished mine as much this year. The first year I got it I couldn't put it down but I don't know if it's just me not giving it the time but I haven't had much luck on it this year.

Yea if I was by myself in my kayak no way haha. Water temps were still hovering around 48-50. Still kinda warm for this time of year.

I got one this year (3 piece). It's got a pretty straightforward swim to for a 3 piece, doesn't crank down much, but it has a very unqiue sound. It's LOUD. The resin it's made of as it clacks together just makes a heck of a commotion and it sounds different from all my other swimbaits. The color swirl thing means you don't have to worry about the "paint" getting rashed. IMO it's a bit pricey for what it is but it is definitely unique. I got my Northeast PB this summer on it fishing over some shallow milfoil. I don't think they're the most versatile bait/rat given the commotion they put off, but that's what it does best. I don't think you'd be disappointed getting one but there are definitely a lot of rats out there to choose from.

I've got another long weekend underway here, with yesterday and today off work. Long read, but bear with me. Thursday: Yesterday was beautiful but didn't make for great fishing. Me and my dad hit a local pond that's shallow and gets choked with weeds. That made it tough slowing down with anything like jerkbaits. I did get my only bass on a jig, but it was more of a reaction bite as the jig was falling. That one was decent size and weighed 3-5. Skinny fish though, definitely needs a few cheeseburgers (or bluegill) before winter. My dad ended up outfishing me 5-1 and one-upped my 3-5 with a much smaller-framed but fatter and healthier fish that went 3-6. All his fish came on a spinnerbait, in a "textbook" color pattern for the conditions...Neon Yellow with blue accents. I was puzzled considering they wouldn't touch any spinnerbait I owned. Sometimes it doesn't have to make sense, it just has to work. Now...on to today. Friday: Today is a day I will never forget. Weather was forecasted to be bad, rain and 15mph winds, but we both have full raingear and have fished in worse, or so we thought. We set off at the ramp at 7:30am at another local spot. It started to drizzle almost immediately but there was no wind to start. We worked slowly, and I tried to force the swimbait bite with some trout imitations but that didn't work out. I managed to get one bass in a stump field on a chatterbait before we started covering more water. As the day went on the rain got worse, and the wind kicked up. My dad managed the biggest yet again, this time on a glidebait, and oddly enough as it was falling. The bass hit on the edge of a drop that goes from a few feet with weeds into almost 20ft. That fish went 3-11. He got another on an underspin too. Since the wind was coming mostly from the South we decided to start fishing some of the North coves and shorelines that had been getting pounded for a few hours now. We made that move between 12 and 1. At this point the weather was exactly what was forecasted, constant steady rain and 15mph winds. Now I had started catching fish consistently on the chatterbait at this point so it was too late to call it quits. We worked our way around the North "Bay" of the lake where I got my total to 5 bass. At this point it was obvious the forecast had undersold what we were about to encounter. The early afternoon was the worst weather I have ever fished in. We've fished colder days sure, encountered a few summer downpours, and fished a few days with some truly nasty winds, but nothing in combination like this. As we started working back out of the bay headed back against the wind, 15mph had turned into 30mph gusting over 40, and the rain was coming down in absolute sheets. Opposite shorelines were no longer visible. My dad has an 18' Lund with a Terrova trolling motor on it and at one point it was maxed out at 10 and was just barely able to hold position. Around 3 the worst of it passed and holes started appearing in the clouds. The wind died almost completely and the rain turned to sprinkles right before the edge of the stormed showed itself...and made for one hell of a sunset and even a rainbow. All said and done I got 8 bass on the chatterbait. Very weird bite it was almost just like they were on, I didn't really "feel" many of the bites even when the wind wasn't howling. No real size the biggest went like 2.5lbs. Was it worth it? It was definitely an experience haha. There was something cool about still catching fish in those conditions. And to watch a storm like that come and go completely while on the water was neat. Sunset pic:

Definitely my favorite mirror calm technique. Nothing like seeing the line jump and start swimming off on the surface of the water.

Norton is decent. Very shallow though and when they decide to treat it for weeds it can get tough cause there's not a whole lot of other cover for them. Concord can be good. Like others said the Pike are elusive other than Western MA. They're around if you wanna dedicate the time to chasing them, but that time would be better spent driving to places with better opportunity. My dad did pull a 36" out of the concord a few years back though. Half the fun of fishing this state is just exploring all the bodies of water. We definitely have it good in that regard. I know certain areas of the country you might have a couple big resevoirs with true monsters in them, but you're gonna drive 4 or 5 hours round trip just to fish them. Here you've got so many spots to try in just a 30 minute drive of basically anywhere in the state. Even where I live in VT. They really don't dam up any of the streams, so you don't have many lakes in certain areas of the state. Whereas in MA basically every little trickle has been turned into a pond.

I'm fairly certain those are off limits even to shore fishing. There's Sudbury Resevoir which is further from you but you can shore fish a good majority of it, just can't put anything on it. There is a season rewtriciton on that one though it might have ended already. Generally if you're looking on Google Maps and there's no shoreline development and it's named as a Resevoir it's probably a no go but you can also look at the Mass website and see if there's a pond map. I believe they have at least a basic map of any publicly accessible pond of any decent size.

Charles River shouldn't be overlooked and it's right in your back yard. If you wanna drive you've got tons of options. Lots of great water down on the Cape especially if you wanna chase smallies. Central MA just start scouring Google Maps. Cochituate in Newton has a good variety of structure and is good sized, can be tough sometimes. I grew up near Whitehall in Hopkinton which can be good, gets a lot of pressure though. I won't name drop any of the tiny ponds but basically if it has water in it and you can fish it it'll have at least decent bass. As for baits going small this time of year can pay off, little paddle tails, underpins, tailspins. But so can going the other way with big swimbaits if you want that big fall bite. Water temps are low 50s a lot of places right now and some lakes have probably turned over already especially with the past couple storms. Once the water gets into the 40s I feel like the Fall feed gets pretty heavy usually if you get the right conditions.

Had the day off so another long weekend. Fished yesterday and today. Not great either day, seemed like the rain Saturday messed them up a bit. Didn't get any bass yesterday but managed two today on a jig. Got both on a deep laydown in 15 FOW. Very healthy fish around 2.5-3lbs. Water temps 52-54 both days. I think I tried a bit too much to force feed them the chatterbait. I think slowing down more and maybe going more finesse with the baitfish imitations would have been the better play. I got another long weekend planned and then Thanksgiving so I'm hoping for a good end to the year. Looking for that big fall bite.

Smaller parking lot helps keep the pressure down too. I've honestly never done great at Chauncy. A few decent ones but never anything over 5, although I've heard other people catch them.

Does anyone know of a good line storage box/bag for leader line? I recently started using Sunline system leader and their 100 yard spools are bigger in diameter than most spools and don't fit in my Plano Line Spool box.

I'm debating whether I want to put my rain gear to the first real test on Saturday. Looks like a wall of water all day. Could be good, could suck, do you guys have good luck during fronts late in the Fall usually? I've gotten a few big ones on cold drizzly october days but it seemed like the bite otherwise on those days was slow.

I use the grapplers too. Just a tip to everyone for safety reasons. If you tie your rope to the HEAD of those style and then zip tie the rope to the eye of the shank it allows the anchor to function properly, then if you get snagged you just need a quick yank to break the zip tie and now you're pulling the anchor out backwards to free the snag.

Had to do some minor reel cleaning this past weekend. I think I'm nearing 50 trips this year and a few were in the rain so some of my reels are complaining a bit. Usually I can get away with once a year during the winter but I like to keep my swimbait rods especially in good shape as it gets colder. Should be able to get out a couple times this weekend. Thanksgiving is usually when I call it quits but I might sneak out in the kayak a couple times in December if the weather stays fairly mild.

Got out one more time for half the day yesterday. Hit a local spot. Tough bite, felt much more seasonal and very windy. There's one spot where the milfoil beds are still hanging on and that's where I got my bites. Only got two, one on a chatterbait as it was falling. The other on a real prey shiner. That one went 3-8 and 18.5". The other was just over 3. Slow day otherwise but I'll take those.

My dad and I both had the day off work so we figured we'd try somewhere new. Mashpee-Wakeby is a bit of a drive but having heard good things we thought it could be worth it. Launched his boat around 8 and the wind was blowing pretty good all day. Definitely a bit of an intimidating lake with lots of depth but little cover. Some shallow vegetation here and there, I was surprised at the lack of many real rocks. I think we made out pretty good for our first time there. I managed 7 or 8, mostly smaller fish on a jerkbait but I did get a couple 2lbers including a decent smallie. My dad got the prize of the day with a 4-4 smallie on a chatterbait. We tried coaxing some out of the depths with blades but only got dinks doing that. We also ran into to some schools of freshly stocked rainbow which was cool to see.

MA. I'm down here a lot visiting family and friends so I make the most out of fishing here when I can.

Missed out fishing last weekend cause of work but made up for it today. Clouds were out, wind was absolutely howling, and pressure was dropping...Game on! I really only needed one lure today, a chatterbait did all the damage. I totaled 17 bass, biggest going 3-9 and a bonus 2.5lb smallie. Most fish were 1-2.5lbs. Tons of pickerel as well but I don't keep track of those lol. The fish seemed to be anywhere there was still some patchy living vegetation. My wrist is sore from setting the hook lol. A good problem to have I suppose.

Grinded it out with the swimbaits today. With the trout stockings right around the corner I figured it was time to put in some hours with my Large MS Slammer in lite trout. Got two, one was a very overambitious fish probably not even 2lbs and very skinny. Sucked it off the surface when it was just sitting there. The other one made the day and the grind worth it. Just shy of 5lbs at 4-14 but it did go 21" so that'll be another pin. I was waking it along a weed bed and just as I cranked it below the surface it hit. Thought I lost it as it bolted towards me faster than I could reel. Got another follow shortly after from probably a 4lber but it bailed off last second. I'm still looking for that 2nd 6lber of the year to hit my goal of 5 over 5 and two 6s for the year.