MassYak85

Yup, just a couple months. Usually Thanksgiving weekend is it for me and I shift to getting ready for ice fishing. Although I usually keep out a few rods for some hopeful shore missions on those fluke warm days.

A few times in college it worked out where I only had one or two classes on a Friday. No quiz that day? Weather looking tempting? Yea I was gone.

Chauncy has always been tough for me. Some guys do decent there though.

Yea aside from Western MA the river systems seem to be the best shot at Pike. Some of the deeper trout stocked lakes in Eastern MA will occasionally give up Monsters but they're not easy to come by. With the dedication it takes to catch those you're almost better off driving North for better odds.

Got out on webster today with my dad and his friend. Slow day, managed a few decent ones but it was like a 1 fish deal per spot. Pull up, catch one and that's all you got. Bait definitely seemed scattered around and active in smaller schools but couldn't really get on any pattern for fish chasing them. Fall trout stockings were delayed because of the warm water temps this September I saw Mass wildlife post something. I picked up a couple swinbaits in preparation. A 10" real prey trout and a large slammer in trout. Real prey came unrigged I'm gonna do a top hook setup with some decoy quads I think. I gave it a few casts today just to see how it swims (and if I can even cast it on my gear, it's almost 8oz, managed some good casts on my 867). Had something good size follow it lol, didn't get a great look but that would have been heartbreaking getting a bite on that thing with no hooks haha.

Yea skunked going for bass feels like failure. Skunked going for pike just feels like earning your stripes.

I wish we had more trophy pike in MA. They're out there but you have to have another level of dedication to chase them.

Hopefully the fall feed starts to get better then next few weeks. October into November is usually good for me. Although I am pleased with how my September has gone compared to last year. Logged several skunk trips last September but have been able to find a few decent patterns this year, I don't feel completely lost.

Fished yesterday. Got up at 4:30 trying to hit a spot. Someone else had the same idea and beat us to it. Kind of a slow day as we targeted deeper structure the first part of the day without much luck, only had dinks interested in smaller baits. With like an hour before we had to go I finally got on a pattern where they were holding to still-green milfoil patches among the dying fields of it. Got 4-5 decent ones doing that. Felt good to finally figure something out but sucks to go the whole day before realizing it.

Crazy weight for that length. 20" here usually puts them around 4lbs.

Webster can be tough when the conditions aren't great and there's a lot of traffic. I've had great days there but never got anything over 5lbs. But they're in there. I've had great numbers days when they decide to blitz the baitballs of landlocked alewives.

Got out early to avoid the labor day traffic. Nice sunrise as the front moved out. Unfortunately the bite left with it. My dad managed a TOAD that went 6.2 on a topwater popper right off the bat but that was the highlight of the day. We managed some smaller ones out deep but it was very slow.

Grinded it out with the big baits today. Started shallow with wakes but no interest. Then moved deep mostly fishing a real prey and cl8 possum trying to hit deep weed lines and structure. Got my one fish of the day on the real prey over some weeds on a point that drops off into the deepest part of the lake. Felt a tick then knocked slack into my line so I swung for the fences. Hook got her right in the roof of the mouth she wasn't coming off. Went 4-5 on the scale and 20.5 inches.

Got into about half a dozen fish today. Pickerel seemed more active. Most fish came on a spinnerbait. I lost my biggest fish of the day after backing off my drag to avoid bending out the hook. Well it bent anyways and it gave the fish enough time to drag me into a rock. Never saw it might have been a pickerel. I love the jackal Doon spinnerbaits but man the hooks suck. I have to keep bending them back. Anything over 2lbs is too much. Sucks cause everything else about that spinnerbait is perfect. I'm liked obsessed with spinnerbaits and always looking for The One™️. I have a few favorites but the search is still on for the perfect bait. I'm convinced it doesn't exist yet. Gotta have quality components for the blades, good skirt patterns, hand tied, stout long hook like a worm hook with a wire keeper for trailers (ideally a double wire keeper like jackhammers). Idk, everyone I've ever tried doesn't have everything. Most don't have a good trailer keeper and the ones that do had other issues, usually with the hook choice. I know I'm being picky but zman nailed the jackhammer despite the price point. Maybe spinnerbaits aren't as popular but I'd think if someone came out with a "perfect" one for 15 bucks people would pay it. I know I would.

Fall is in the air. I struggled hard this time of year last year, September was brutal. Hoping to learn a few things this year.

I've got some, personally I prefer 10 or 12 inch worms. The Cmacs don't scale up which was what I had hoped when I bought them. I wanted a worm thicker and longer not just longer.

Anotha one! Got my 5th 5lber of the year, this time on my home lake. Got her in about 12 FOW around some deeper rocks on a finesse football jig. You ever set the hook and the rod just stops dead? Yea that's my favorite feeling in the world, happened twice today but I'll get to that. Anyways, she went 5-1oz, don't think she was a pin but she shook loose from my grip before I could get her on the board to measure. Later on fishing a weedy point I had a solid thump on a real prey crappie in bluegill pattern. I was fishing it on a dobyns 807 with braid, there's no give in that setup and I fish the drag locked. I swung and same deal, rod just stops....for about a second, before it spit it. Heartbreaking but I never got a look at the fish so I'll never know how big she was. From the hookset it felt BIG and the lack of any pickerel teeth marks I'm confident it was a bass. Oh well. A few casts later on a big bluegill wake a 2-3lber came up and swiped at it, never got hooks. Ended the day with just the one fish. They seemed to be deeper and coming up on structure to feed. Could have been a highlight-type day if my hooksets went the other way, but that's fishing. I'll take the one 5lber.

Got out in southern MA. They were very keyed in on smaller baitfish (I think landlocked alewives, saw multiple fish cough them up). Anyways, got into some good numbers using a weightless fluke fished fast but mostly dinks, a couple decent 2lbers but no bigs.

Unless I know which hooks come stock, I'm swapping them out. All my jerkbaits get swapped to Gamakatsu nano finesse trebles except vision 110s I'll keep stock. All split rings get owner hyper wire replacements. Snaps I change out to Decoy Egg snaps. It's interesting your take on upsizing the front treble. I feel there's two trains of thought, either go big or go small. Bigger you have better hookup, better chance the fish doesn't shake, tear or bend the hooks. But some guys go with the smallest they can, thinking the less/smaller hardware the more bites they get (more "natural"), and the baits action is less hindered. It's an interesting discussion and I feel like it varies bait to bait. A jerkbait's action can be wildly altered by the wrong hook selection, but something like a crank you probably have more leeway. Consider something like a flatsided crank. A lot of guys like them in cold water for their deadened action. Would bigger/heavier hooks deaden the action even further? That might even be a good thing for that bait? But on the opposite token if you consider that a "finesse technique would it makes sense to drop to lighter/smaller hooks for a more "natural" look? It's fun to go down the rabbit hole sometimes lol.

Looks like a nice cool down this weekend. Should make for some pleasant fishing, we'll see about catching lol.

This is interesting because I always hold the rod tip slightly to the side or slightly up just as an extra cushion for aggressive strikes. But I also use mostly braid so having that cushion helps. I connect instantly with the fish as soon as I start a hookset because it doesn't stretch. But I could see where mono you might want that extra bit of distance to swing.

I've been stubborn about downsizing the worms. Early half of summer I usually kill it on a 10" power worm but it seems once the water temps peak they don't always respond as well to it.

I've been struggling last couple times out. Doesn't help I'm waiting on a spinning rod still so I've been kind of forcing the power fishing more than I should.

I use a Tatula 7'4" HF. Light with enough tip to cast lighter frogs and plenty of backbone. I'll also use it for heavy t-rigs and punching cause I don't have a dedicated setup for that.

Depends what lure I'm throwing, but I can sometimes go full days without one now. Usually 1 or 2 if I'm diligent about line management.