MassYak85

I think it's good for everyone to tinker with their reels at some point. I'll pony up the money for nice gear where it makes sense. But honestly, most of the time, reels aren't one of them. I fish the Tatula/Feugo platform for most of my reels. The Fuegos can be had for 80 bucks on sale a lot of times and are very easy to work on so I upgrade them where it makes sense. Cheaper reels are a nice way to learn anyways in case you make a mistake. I'm not familiar with your reels but some things you can (probably) do... - Carbontex drag washers + Cals drag grease - Uprade the spool bearings + a low viscosity oil like TSI - Upgrade any bushings in the handle or levelwind to bearings - If you haven't cleaned it since you bought it already and are comfortable doing it, tear the reel down to the frame. It will give you good experience knowing how it goes together plus you can go easy on the grease when you relube everything. They usually pack it in there more than they should from the factory to get it past the warranty period. - New handle. You can go as crazy as you want. There's cheap carbon ones out there or you can get some really nice handles that will cost you. - New spool, there's aftermarket ones out there for not too much. You can make a BFS reel if you really wanted. -

No I'm dragging bottom it would just hang me up. Plus I don't like fishing the bigger softbaits with belly stinger hooks. I feel like the chances of gill hooking a bigger fish are just higher than I want to risk.

Gut hooks can be easily removed most of the time. There's techniques to maneuver the hook to pop free father easily. You can look them up on YouTube there's some good videos. Gill hooks, unfortunately are almost entirely unavoidable (don't use belly stinger hooks on larger baits if you can help it which helps). Just do the best you can and release ASAP. But some will die its just part of the sport. My PB was gill hooked and while I didn't do a ton of damage getting the hook out it did bleed a lot. I don't know of it died or not.

I got bit on an 8" hudd for the first time in a while today. Set the hook and the bait came back with teeth marks everywhere behind the hook. Figures. Bites like those you just tell yourself it was a small fish lol.

If the bite is right I won't turn down the opportunity to run and gun down the bank fishing a spinnerbait around cover at light speed.

Cold fronts and taking time off to fish...name a more iconic duo. Here I sit while 45 degree rain pours out of the sky, while this coming week is gonna be in the 70s. Hmmmmm.

Thanks. I can't tell the way he's holding it anyways haha.

Finally got a good prespawner. After hours and hours of grinding with swimbaits this spring I finally broke 5...on a spinnerbait lmao. Hey I'll take it. She hit right off a shallow flat that drops into a 9 foot channel on a craw colored spinnerbait.

Are there pictures at least? I'm sorry you can't just say you broke the record without any proof whatsoever.

I have never had to max out the brakes on a baitcasting reel...until today. The wind was absolutely brutal. I did manage a very chonky 3lber on a craw spinnerbait. Pickerel were chewing on jerkbaits and chatterbaits.

Never fished that far upstream but I do remember paddling that section when I was real young. I think there's a small pond that connects off the main river somewhere around there. I've heard there's small pike too.

Who's getting out tommorow? Gonna be a hurricane! In the kayak I dread the wind but in wind that intense I have done well in the past. My best day this year was the windiest day I've fished.

Who got out in the cold? I'm taking a break this weekend gonna hit it hard again next weekend I got a few days off.

Went home defeated after my early morning mission. Took a much needed hot shower and nap lol. My dad wanted to go out again so I tagged along. We hit one of our usual spots and actually did fairly well. Fish weren't on beds or anything but with 58 degree water we found some males just outside some spawning flats and got 4 to 5 each on swim jigs and spinnerbaits. They weren't super aggressive some of the bites were subtle. I missed a good one that pushed several feet of slack into my line and I whiffed the Hooksett. Weather was raw but tolerable. Water is very warm for this time of year I feel like we'll have several waves of warmth and cold fronts before we break 60 consistently in a lot of places.

Well that didn't go as planned lol Saturday was okay. Managed some dinks and a 3lber on a jerkbait that I was reluctant to lean back on again, but it was a tough bite. Today I was on a mission. I hit the water at 4am and got some decent time in in the dark before sunrise. Was trying to fish the big baits hoping the front moving in would have them briefly fired up. Nope. Clouds rolled in, wind did a 180 and all of a sudden I was fishing in some raw 45 degree weather getting blown around I my kayak with nothing to show for it. That's fishing sometimes I guess. I'm curious how some of you did if you got out today. I thought before the front would be a slam dunk conditions wise. Maybe I was too stubborn with the big baits. Usually this time of year I'd have fished a swim jig at the place I went.

I wish there were more grub offerings. A doubletail is one of my go to jig trailers and I'd use a single tail a lot more on stuff like spinnerbaits if I could find a 5" that I liked

Cold front rolling through Sunday. Get out there guys! I'd expect some pretty good fishing at some point this weekend before it hits. I'll be grinding pretty hard tommorow and might launch the kayak for some night ops at one of my local spots.

@BigEyedF11sh Nice! Yea I was out Monday too. Those are the kind of days you hit the water thinking "man maybe I should have just stayed home" but leave thanking yourself that you didn't. The wind blown shores were on fire. I got them on a chatterbait and spinnerbait. I stuck with bolder colors on Nip cause of the heavily stained water. That looks like a Herring to me though. I've had bass at webster cough up smaller landlocked ones before.

Got out with my dad in SE MA. We started early hitting Agawan Mill. I broke off a nice fish earlier in the year there and wanted some payback so I grinded it out with the swimbaits to no avail. Pops got a few pickerel on a jerkbait but no signs of bass. I called an audible and we decided to finish the day at The Nip. That saved our day. Winds were absolutely howling when we got there. Not ideal considering we have never fished there before and have no idea where to start. Well it turns out that wind was a blessing. We loaded the boat with 8 healthy bass between 2 and 3.5 lbs. It was the first time this year I've felt dialed in to a pattern. The wind let up a hair and shifted a bit around 4 and that was the end of our bite. I also got a few very healthy pickerel with one being just shy of a pin.

Been a tough bite for me. I've been getting a couple bass every time out but they've been small (<2lbs). The only consistency I've found is a jerkbait worked in areas outside spawning coves and flats. Which, makes sense but I'd expect to have run into at least a couple females. Do you guys find they stage a little deeper than where the males are? I've tried slowing down and yo-yoing a lipless or blade bait on the bottom near deeper drops but not too much luck.

I'm pretty stubborn and will force myself to fish in some pretty miserable conditions. I enjoy the grind for the most part. This was the first time I just sat there for a couple minutes like, "am I even enjoying myself right now? Nope, time to go".

Had the day off so gave it a go this morning. Ice on the guides, slipping antireverse, and real feel temps in the teens....yea, it was cold. Nothing to show for it either. My rule is usually cold, wind, and rain. I'll deal with 2 of the 3 but not all 3. Well I guess I need a new rule...if the air temp minus the wind speed is below 20 I probably should find something else to do lol. I was mentally defeated before even making a cast. First time in a long time I didn't actually enjoy being on the water fishing.

Agreed I'm never gonna stop fishing conventional. But I upsize when I can. I might fish a crankdown hard swimbait as a search lure instead of a chatterbait or crank for example. Topwater I'd rather be fishing a bigger wake than a spook. But jigs will always have their place as well as small baitfish imitators like tailspins and blade baits. Everything's a tool but you can upsize when it makes sense.

Wind can be nice if you're on the bank or in a boat. It's the Bane of my existence when kayak fishing. I've slowly sprinkled in big baits over the last few years but I'm like 75-25 now it's just so fun. I can't describe it but like, grinding out tough days is easier and I have more confidence sticking to a few baits. Whereas conventional I'll switch baits like 20 times on a tough day and leave the lake scratching my head clueless.

That's my guess but again, I've only heard rumors and the catch happened way before my time so who knows. I wouldn't blame him either way. Most lakes in MA are small, Sampson is only 300 acres and the other rumored place is about half that. I know if I personally caught a record I wouldn't disclose the spot. Too easy for places to get mobbed after rumors spread.