MassYak85

@Mr. Aquarium I gotta admire how much you enjoy catching other species even if they're tiny lol.

That launch is good and has lots or parking. Only issue is that section of the river has so many rowers. Some are good about looking where they are going, some are not. Trying to fish the shoreline is like playing in the middle of a street sometimes. If you're in a kayak, bring a whistle.

I grew up in that area. A1 (Assebett Resevoir Number 1) in Westborough is a great spot for kayak fisherman. Not exactly a secret at this point and you'll have busy days on there but it can be good. Whitehall is another good lake, also very busy with both fishing and recreational pressure. Lots of tournies there, tons of variety for cover.

I always love fishing the Charles. Never do amazing there but occasionally you get rewarded and it's just so cool to be fishing smack in the middle of major city. Also you can get out and cross the street to get Dunkin Donuts!

Tried to use the punch rig again on a different lake...no luck. Tried chucking the citizen 6 around for a bit, got 2 bites. First was was definitely a bass but I missed it. Second one I briefly hooked up, fish came off. Might have been a pickerel. Those 8/0 beast hooks are no joke trying to set lol.

Was going to stick to swimbaits today but it didn't work out. We started shallow early fishing sparse lily pads near shore. I got a decent 2.8lber on a PB rat, my dad got a nice 3-8 on a frog. But that was the end of that bite for a while. We went out trying to fish some deeper weedlines we found earlier in the year only to find them gone...absolutely non existent. I think they treated parts of the lake. Which was a shame cause it blew up my strategy going into the day. So we started shore banging which only produced one fish just over 2lbs on a jig off a tree. It's a very shallow lake without much true "thick vegetation"...but that's where we found them later in the afternoon. The thickest lily pads doing some true punching. Not something I have much experience doing but today opened my eyes a bit to some possibilities on other lakes I fish. Not giants but a few solid fish and some missed bites as I got used to doing it. I was using a 1oz weight and it probably wasn't enough. Don't have any 1.5oz or 2oz (yet) so had to stick with it and wiggle the bait down through.

Rain can definitely help but I just think whenever you have changing conditions whether that's rain, clouds, wind...it all plays a part. Shifting wind is one thing I've started to pick up on more. Prevailing winds here are NW usually. If I see it's supposed to do a 180 and start blowing south or SW the next day I do what I can to get out there. Doesn't always pay off but it seems to more often than not.

Question for you guys... If you could choose two weekends this Fall to take some days off and make long weekends to fish which would you choose? Typically Thanksgiving weekend is when I call it quits for the year, get gear put away and prepare for ice fishing. I usually do decent during this weekend and I already have the 4 day weekend. I'm thinking the days before the October 20th full moon and the Friday of the November 19th full moon. Is it worth chasing the moon phases in the Fall do you think or does it not matter much? I feel like for the spawn it plays a role for sure but in the fall when they're just feeding up idk, I don't have enough experience to really say for sure. I did get my biggest of the year last year in November on a full moon but that could be pure coincidence. September usually sucks for me lol. Mid October until Thanksgiving is when I personally have done the best in the past. How about you guys?

I like longer rods in general, all of mine are at least 7'. My frog rod is 7'4". You don't have to spend a lot since sensitivity is irrelevant, buuuuut finding the right action and balance you like can be hard. I fished an Abu 7'6" HF Vendetta for a while. Had plenty of power but was tip heavy, made walking a frog for hours very exhausting on my wrist. The tip itself was also non-existent so any frog under 1/2oz didn't load it enough to make accurate or far casts. I currently use a 7'4" HF Daiwa Tatula (older version). Enough tip to cast lighter frogs, light and balanced well so it doesn't wear me out as fast, and plenty of power for hooksets and horsing fish. Straight 65lb braid always. I punch with the rod too.

I don't think any zoom products make my list but there's probably 3 or 4 baits where if I heard they were going out of business or weren't gonna be made anymore I'd straight up buy 100 packs.

Another benefit of braid to leader is you're not losing line because of retying, cutting off bad stretches that brushed against rocks. Braid isn't cheap but neither is quality Fluoro. I hated getting halfway through a season having to respool with sunline sniper because of losing line. And backlashes don't get me started. You get one where it kinks the line...you gotta cut that out of the reel cause that kinked loop is a weak spot and I've broken off on a hookset multiple times 25yds up the line because of it. Overall I save money with braid tbh. Really it's all what you're confident using and what works for you. I'll crank on braid to leader cause the reduced diameter of braid helps get some depth, but I also make up for the lack of stretch with my rod. It's all in how you put together your entire setup. There's no hard and fast rules.

I use a leader for a variety of reasons. Abrasion resistance is one of the main ones. It gives me a little more confidence personally too. 20lb braid is light stuff if this is a baitcaster were talking about. I don't go less than 30 and my jig and trig rod has 40 on it. 20 will snap like nothing on a bad backlash with a 1/2oz weight and will dig in bad on itself as well.

Yea I see tons of 5s and 6s posted. That cutoff once you get to 7s and 8s seems pretty sharp. And I hear about one or two 9s a year maybe.

That's my favorite part about fishing in MA. You don't have to drive hours to go fish the only Reservoir in reach that everyone 3lse is going to. You've got 20-30 smaller options within half an hour drive depending if you want to shore bang, kayak fish, launch a boat, fish deep, junk fish shallow. Sure we don't have teeners to dream about but for just catching some fish it's pretty nice.

I think a lot of guys just lock their drag on baitcasters and tbh, a lot of times you fan get away with it. But the times you don't are the fish that will break your heart.

The bait monkey always gets his way

@Mr. Aquarium Tank dude! Congrats! I really gotta start mixing in my softbaits I haven't done great on wakes like the Psycho Gill this year. Which is weird cause last summer I did great on it. Maybe I'm just fishing it less idk. No slammer fish this year for me either which is odd.

Oh gotcha, probably a good idea with nail cleaner tbh cause it does have other stuff in it. I got a can of pure stuff a while back I'm still using.

Curious why the alcohol? Pure acetone is far more volatile than alcohol and should have no problems drying.

I bought one. Idk, I think they might have their niche but if I'm looking for a stealthier option than a normal chatterbait...well I'm not gonna fish chatterbait. The blade doesn't have that classic vibration you expect it's much more subtle. Which I'm sure is what they were going for but again, I feel other lures fill that niche better.

War eagle is one of my favorite brands, definitely defective I've never seen one like that. Their hooks are usually very good and don't bend easily.

You got any of the new real prey weedless models yet? I want to try a weedless shiner.

Did you check to make sure there aren't any bananas in it ? ?

Hitting the trolling motor or the water during a quick roll cast is probably like 90 percent of my backlashes now. On the positive side...I usually go multiple trips without one. On the negative side...They're ALWAYS bad.

I'm not catching double digits or teeners here in the Northeast so I don't give it a lot of thought usually but anything over 5lbs I try and support the tail during a picture. But I'll lift it out of the water by it's jaw. Juts make sure not to stress it at weird angles, straight up and down is the way to go.