MassYak85

I can't say I hate it but there's a lake in MA that's more of a trout lake, supposed to have some decent smallies. I might go there once a year to scratch my curiosity but I never do well there. Lots of rocks and boulders so bottom fishing can be a struggle. But it's tucked in a state park and has extremely clear water, it's beautiful to be on but as a fishery....meh.

Gonna be a COOOOLD holiday weekend. 45, rainy with some wind....hopefully the fish like it cause I sure won't lol. I think most fisheries are post spawn by now, maybe some inclement weather will have them feeding back up out of their post spawn slump. But that's just me being hopeful.

I've never caught a Pike in MA. A few summers ago though my dad pulled a 36" fish out of the Concord just swimming a big rapala down the center of the river. They're in there but you'll work for them if that's what you want to target.

I'm fine giving them a pass on inventory, nothing they can do there. But the shipping is a bit much. I'm not gonna hold it against them cause I'm sure the state regulations and such tied their hands a bit but I'm also not "loyal" to them by any means. I've paid the 2nd day shipping once but I've been ordering stuff elsewhere for the most part during Covid.

Did anyone else struggle hard today? I managed one dink bass and the only other excitement was thinking I hooked a Pike twice only for them to be big pickerel both times (I was on the concord river). I'm not super familiar with it so maybe it wasn't the best call fishing there during a tough time of the year. The "overcast" forecast while I guess technically accurate, did not shield the sun as the clouds were paper thin. It got HOT. My gameplan was to find sandy/rocky banks and fish the weed edges outside of those hoping to run into post spawners (water was upper 60's). Found the areas I thought would work but they didn't produce squat. Fished on top with a frog, slow with a jig, and covered water with a spinnerbait.

Frogs are the worst too. It's such a tease to be able to get so deep into cover with a kayak and then whiff on every other frog bite.

Idk well see lol I plan to fish both days. They're calling for clouds tommorow. I'm hoping the warm temps and cloud cover will have them out and chewing. Gonna try for my first frog fish of the year! If we get high sun and 90 it's gonna be a struggle for sure. Right? I got out probably a dozen times when the water was just hanging in the upper 40s for what seemed like forever. Then once it broke the low 50s it went up to 60 like a switch. Those low to mid 50s are my favorite time of the year.

I feel like depending on the year we start the spawn earlier than people think. As soon as we get warming trends in May I think they go at it. I definitely saw a big postspawn female moving around lethargically outside a shallow flat where it drops deep quick and there's a bridge piling it was just kind of clinging to. Main lake temps were still below 60 and shallow areas in the low 60s. I think those big females find areas like that where it drops quick and they can just find a rock or something on the drop and bed right beside it. Quick access to deep water, they can use the first opportunity they get to spawn and get right back out of there. I'm no biologist though just a theory. I usually feel like I "miss" the spawn sometimes. But that's because I only fish weekends most of the time so I might have 3-4 trips where they're spawning and that's it for me usually.

You seeing a lot of spawning fish down your way still?

I think rod selection is key for smallies especially. I've lost big ones using too stiff of a rod where they're able to just completely unload it with a headshake.

That's kind of what I've been seeing. My local lakes this weekend were in the low to mid 60s and I did see a lot of fish shallow but mostly males. A couple 3lb females but I always feel the truly big ones spawn first and a little deeper. Anyways, it's been a good spring I'll probably hit up some deeper lakes the next couple weekends to find some fish still spawning. I'm gonna take a more relaxed approach to this summer and enjoy some of my other hobbies. I went hard last year and didn't really have much to show for it until the Fall, felt kind of burned out. I did what I set out to do this Spring in breaking my PB so I'm okay taking a step back until the Fall.

What usually signals you guys to look for postspawn fish? I know we're not there yet but at least around me it seems we've had at least some fish make the push and are done. Seems a lot of fish were still waiting to spawn but I saw very few on beds today (but the beds were there). I've always felt the fish spawn in "waves" and it seemed like I was fishing in between. Water temps were 57-62 (main lake - shallow) and most of my bites were juuuuust off a shallow area but not many fish actually shallow and sitting on beds it seemed.

Didn't get out last weekend but the weekend before was the first time I saw fish on beds (mostly males). Still pre spawn IMO with water temps still staying in the mid 50s where I fish. But they're thinking about it and it won't take long once we get some consistent warm weather. Smallies might have already started getting at it they usually start before largies.

I saw someone from your tournament nailed a TOAD! Seemed like a lot of fairly modest fish otherwise though? I definitely have mixed feelings about Quinsig. It's one of the lakes I'm most familiar with since I fished it growing up. But in the heat of the summer if you can't get on a shallow bite it can definitely be a challenge disecting all the offshore structure while every pleasure boat in Worcester is buzzing around you. But it's one of those places in the Spring that I always spend some time. I've seen some big fish pulled out of there. I broke my PB twice there including this year. I think it gets a bad wrap sometimes.

I tan quite easily but it takes a lot to give me a really bad burn. It's funny this is the first year I've gotten tanlines on my wrist because I started the season so early and have been wearing sweatshirts for a couple months so my hands have gotten a head start. I'm fairly good about using sunscreen but I also have a bunch of sun gear I'll break out in the worst months of the summer. But no matter what I do all my hobbies are outdoor so whether it's from fishing or something else I always end up with a bad farmers tan.

If it's a largemouth, rod down and grind them in as hard as you can. If it's a smallmouth...like others said, pray.

Rounded out the weekend with a matching pair of 3 lbers and a few more dinks. The water was warming up, about 56 to 59. I saw bass on beds for the first time this year. Males are definitely making the push shallow getting the beds ready.

The Land of Dinks Hit up Manchaug today with my dad and his friend. 2nd time ever fishing it. Wind was howling again so started on a windblown shore that's near some shallow flats, hoping some pre-spawners were staging there feeding up. We got a few fish quick, one of which was a very healthy 3.5lber I got on a chatterbait. Unfortunately that was to be the last decent fish we got all day. We probably got 10 more between us but they were all dinks. And I do mean dinks, not 1+lbers, absolute dinks. Oh, and I don't think I've ever seen so many pickerel in my entire life. I'd guess close to 50 between us all day. And they were all...you guessed it....dinks. The pickerel must have had a pretty freaky time a couple years ago because there must be more 10-12" pickerel in that lake than bluegill. They would not stay off our lines and made slowing down with jerkbaits and finesse a pain. Have you guys fished Manchaug before? If it wasn't for the good one I got in the morning I would have worried about the health of the lake with how stunted the fish seemed. Average size was just not there at all. Also the wind giveth and the wind taketh away. Giving me a new PB last week and costing me over 40 bucks today in lost lures. My jackhammer chatterbait I got the 3.5 on went flying early in the morning, and then later in the day I casted off two Jackal Rerange jerkbaits on two consecutive casts. Oh and let me tell you...they suspend so you'd expect to find them. NOPE. They hit the water like a dart because of the weight transfer system and you can kiss them goodbye cause they're now suspending about 10 feet down in the water. I'm a pretty calm dude but I've never had the urge to snap a rod over my knee more than today lol. I kept my cool, can't get too worked up o we something that's supposed to be relaxing.

It's magical

Jig is definitely a close second but spinnerbait gets my nod. It can get that reaction bite the way a crank can deflecting off cover. It can go through almost anything. Can be fished at almost any depth and at any speed.

Once the wind gets over 15mph I don't enjoy the conditions, but can't deny the results. If I see 20mph gusting 30 around here, I make sure to go, somewhat reluctantly, because almost every time I have a good day even though it's an exhausting day between windburn, maneuvering around, and trying to make casts.

I've got one tied on almost all year. They're my go to search bait. It's funny my dad almost exclusively fished spinnerbaits when I was young, and I was the rubber worm guy. Many years of just those baits for us.. It wasn't until I was in high school that we both really started getting into bass fishing more seriously. We started learning new techniques and he started leaning away from spinnerbaits. I started leaning back towards them haha. Definitely a confidence bait for me and one of my favorite "bites" in bass fishing. Nothing like feeling those blades just stop turning and you swing on them. Thanks man! Gonna take a bit of a mental break and then set my sights on that 6 before we get to post spawn. So cool to see the stripers though! I wish I got into it more. One of these days! It's like a once a year deal for me right now.

This. The best days of fishing are usually when I have a few lures to put away at the end of the day. It's the days where I have 20 different things laying out that usually suck. Now rarely do I just grind out the whole day without at least trying one or two other things. I always "check the bite" so to speak. For example if I'm killing them on a moving bait and hit a stretch of no bites I might slow down with a worm or jig or something. Or even if I'm catching a bunch I might do the same to upsize my bite.

New PB!! (well not technically I got a 6.5 in VA but I don't really count that one when I talk Northeast fishing) Wind was brutal again today. It was blowing hard over 20mph sustained NW. We started early so it drove the wind chill near freezing. Not fun! We started on a wind blown rocky shore that has some depth nearby. I started off with a couple decent fish on the spinnerbait that kept spirits high while our hands froze. Red did it again! Broke my PB fiiiiinally on the same red craw spinnerbait I caught the 5lber on Saturday with. She went 5-14. I honestly didn't think she was that big until I pulled her out of the net. Definitely a healthy fish with a big frame, but didn't quite have that massive belly. I feel the fish could go 7 with the frame it had. Just needs to find itself a nice Crappie to chow on. Didn't get a length measurement wanted to let it go ASAP. She swam away strong. I think I've mentioned before I've caught 3 separate fish at exactly 5.40 as my previous New England PBs so it felt good to finally snap that a by a decent margin. Anyways, my long weekend ended up pretty good. Two fish over 5 I'll take it. Water temps were still low 50s so we should be moving into the spawn within the next couple weeks as warmer temperatures arrive. I'm sure some of you can probably relate but man it feels like a weight off my shoulders to catch that fish. You spend countless hours on the water trying to get that next biggest fish, it's kind of freeing mentally to actually do it. My goal this year was to go hard in the Spring and Fall and ease off a bit in the summer to relax, hike, go to the beach and focus on my other hobbies a bit. I wanted to get 5 fish over 5 this year I think I can pull it off.

I've been meaning to do this to one but don't have a rod or technique in mind to do it with. I really love the fuegos though. With the malformed brakes they're really great value for the money and are a workhorse.