MassYak85

Are most places in SE Mass open rught now or should I plan on hitting one of the bigger lakes down there?

Crazy mild winter were having. Still a solid 8 to 10 inches of ice up here in VT/NH but the long term forecast has the start of February looking pretty warm. I might take a trip down to MA with the Kayak in a couple weekends if it holds.

I've got some Titanium leaders I use for swimbaits so pike don't steal them. I would think they would still be heavy enough to throw off the action of a jerkbaits but I've never tried.

I've still got 2 out of 6 to clean. Just out of curiosity how long does it take you guys to do one reel (assuming you're tearing it down to a bear frame)?

Anyone get anything good at the show? I saw on Instagram that Mike Bucca had a ton of custom painted bullshads, they looked sweet wish I could have been the to grab one. Same with the Lanciotti Psycho Gills. I will try and make it next year I think.

Is he coming himself or is MGC gonna have them? I've been wanting a Psycho gill for a while..

I almost want to just go to snag a couple or those custom painted bulk shade, those looked sweeeet. But I imagine they'll get scooped up Friday unlews he holds some for the other days. MGC is supposed to have some special colors of the FOM baits as well I think.

You guys are making me jealous lol, that's a FAT white perch @Mr. Aquarium.

I hope you guys take advantage of the weather this weekend. 60 and sunny on the Cape it looks like for Saturday. I was tempted to pull out the open water gear and kayak and make the long drive down there this weekend but the 20mph wind is gonna make that a no for me. 60 in mid January though is insane.

Outside of just reading forums like this one Matt and Tim have by far had the biggest impact on my fishing. I've tried so many things I wouldn't have otherwise from their videos.

Ended a 3 day ice fishing stretch today. 2 ponds, probably 15 total hours on the ice, about 40 fish with a mix of picks, bass, crappie, sunfish, and perch. Got to try out my new Jig rod and did fairly well on that. Tipups yielded most of the bass but the size just wasn't there. Today was the slowest day, with rapidly deteriorating ice conditions as the temperature got up to 55. Beautiful day, and a bit surreal to be standing on the water given the weather. Saw a few Eagles too, they are really making a come back for sure. Gonna take a break for the holiday to do stuff with family and then might be back out at the end of the week depending how well the ice holds up.

It's weird, when open water fishing I don't want the season to end and go to great lengths to extend the season, but as soon as I sniff safe ice I don't want hardwater to end. Something about chasing flags gets me excited in a different way than normal fishing. Ice season is short so I try and make the most of it. Doesn't mean I won't have my kayak racks back on in March though haha.

I didn't catch squat that day lol. If you look on Google maps there's a small airfield along the river near the assabet wildlife refuge. That spot in the river is where I focused and it seemed promising. But I launched upstream there's a few places to launch cartop, most of the bridge crossings have a spot for a few cars on the side of the road. It's crazy you were on open water probably an hour away from me and I was on 6 inches of ice lol. I'll be on hardwater until late March I think, I don't think I'll be all that tempted to pull the yak out this winter.

Yea I haven't had much luck with mine.... Buuuuut the one fish I did get on it was a 5lber so I can't complain too much.

Last year I launched my kayak in the Assabett River in February on a fairly warm (maybe 35 degrees) day. Flowing water this time of year is your best bet. Charles might even be open still idk.

Doing some yearly maintenance on a Tatula CT and the spool bearing that sits in the sideplate with the magforce inductors is stuck. I've never had this much trouble with any of my other tatulas, they usually come out fine. Any tricks or am I SOL if this bearing goes bad? I've tried adding some oil around it and no luck.

Just curious, how did those work? Did one of the gears have multiple sets of teeth on it that engaged, disengaged?

I mean they're light Hooks you can't horse on them, I just bakc my drag off a bit when using them. But like others said I've heard you should leave the stock Hooks on the 110s since the lure is so finely tuned with those Hooks.

Those Nano finesse trebles legit scare me. They're the sharpest Hooks I own and light enough wire to sink deep if you're not careful unhooking fish. Not a bad thing but I'm on my guard when unhooking fish.

Tacklewarehouse apparently just said screw it and released every day of the 25 days of christmas sale at once this year. Sales still unlock each day but nice to be able to see the full sale and plan ahead. Some good deals by the looks of it already, gonna have to show some restraint cause I really don't need much right now.

Yea I went once by myself last year... When the bite is off its mind numbing boredom. Luckily that was my best day of the year so I was constantly chasing flags. Sketchiest ice I've been on though, I was 50ft from open water and was on 5 inches of rapidly deteriorating white ice. Temps got into the upper 40s with sun that day. Wouldn't have done it if I wasn't extremely familiar with the pond.

I still haven't pulled the trigger on a shelter yet. I had zip, zero, for jigging equipment so I just ordered my first decent ice combo and some tungsten jigs. Pales to what I spend on open water but I also got some stuff to upgrade some bait coolers, a bag for tilts, and a chair so it wasn't a cheap endeavor overall. But I feel pretty prepared now, only things left would be a power auger and the shelter but I'm gonna wait until next season at least to look into that, if I see some deals in the spring I might be tempted. Wouldn't mind getting together if schedules work out. Speaking of ice...I'm in central MA and we scouted some local places, let's just say I would have been out today if I had bait. Warm rain the next couple days will ruin things for sure but I don't see that as a bad thing. The places that looked promising were all white ice through and through, they had enough before the storm to hold the snow and the frozen snow is mostly what there was. The places that were a little behind and the storm "reset" had nice black ice. Soon though. I think I'll be out around christmas if the weather stays cold after Tuesday. Next weekend I'm staying up North in VT and will try and find some places to test out the new jigging rod at least.

I got the ice sled ready today, feeling good about this winter season. I always debate whether to keep the rod I use for jerkbaits ready to go juuuuuust in case I get that itch and want to find some flowing water but I think I'll be chasing hard water well into March most weekends.

Yea you and me both lol. Between Black Friday deals for open water gear and getting everything ready for ice fishing season I put the 'ol card through a workout. I picked one of these up as well. Out of the package they exude that same quality from an S-waver. I read an article about BP talking about the design of the bait, and getting Rapala to go through with a big bait like that. I changed the hooks and snap for my own sanity but the bait seems great. I love the rotating hook hangers. Nice to see some big bait offerings from more of the big tackle names.

Most of mine have been said already. I think the only ones I'd add are... Come on man! If you're making a quality spinnerbait/jig at least put on a good trailer keeper? Come on man! If you're gonna package your baits in clamshell packaging could you at least make it so the packages stack on eachother so they don't take up as much space?