MassYak85

Fished Quinsig yesterday from about 7am-2pm. Started with frogs shallow in the pads on Flint pond but no sniffs so I tried targeting the outer weed edges with big worms. Found a bunch of 10-12inch bass that were chasing dragonflies and got a couple to eat a Manns Jelly Worm (longer than the fish were ). Went out to the main lake where the water was surprisingly clear. Again targeted deep weed edges with better results. Used a 4" Keitech Easy Shiner on an underspin to catch most of them. Lots of dinks but did manage a few decent fish around 2lbs including a nice smallie. I also dumped a largemouth about 2.5lbs and another decent smallie. Not a bad day for numbers but I just can't seem to find the big ones this year. I might need to put the finesse gear down and grind it out with some bigger presentations. Probably won't be back down in MA to fish until labor day weekend so hopefully I can find some fish up[ in VT.

Lol this is how I feel. Super tough year for me here in MA. I haven't even broken 4 lbs this year. Probably my worst season since I started getting into bass fishing.

Got out yesterday in the morning until early afternoon. There seemed to be schools of bluegill everywhere. Once the sun was up the heat was intense, heat index was 98 I think. Most of the fish we were able to get were in the shade or on the deeper weedline. I got a couple decent ones on a shellcracker while the bluegill were still near the surface. Towards mid day I had some success on small paddle tails on ball head jigs and BIG worms (Jelly worm. Probably got about a dozen bass but most were dinks. I think I had four that were about 2lbs but no big ones. Water temps were still like 72-74.

Fished Qaucumqauisit on Monday. It was our first time there so I didn't know what to expect. All I knew is it's a popular trout lake. We were hoping to come across a pike (I guess they occasionally get in there from Quabog) but no dice. I did get a few pickerel (of course lol) and probably 5-6 bass. Most were small but I got a pair of decent ones around 2lbs. Both were largemouth which was a surprise since I figured the lake would be mostly smallies. We caught all fish on the deep weedline around 8-15ft. Also managed a crappie and both species of perch. The bite was TOUGH though. I tied a 5lb leader onto my spinning rod and was using tiny underspins and grubs all day. It worked but it was a grind. A lot of the fish seemed to hit while the bait was falling. Probably should have tried some of the deeper structure but the wind was blowing good and finessing fish out of 30ft of water with a dropshot while battling the wind was not something I wanted to do.

Yea my 13 Fishing Concept A always had a little play in the handles and plates, but it outcasted my other reels if I wanted it to so it was never a big deal to me. Only time I'd worry about tolerances as a "must have" vs "nice to have" in a reel would be the mechanical components which might start to wear.

I've got the original Tatula 7'4" Heavy and it's great. Very lightweight, I don't get tired out walking a frog and it's got plenty of power to really crack them with the hookset. I like the length but I'm also a tall guy.

If things go right I usually end up using the same 2-3 rods and same 3-5 baits . If things don't I usually have a nice pile of 20ish lures/hooks/plastics that I have to shamefully put away at the end of a skunk trip lol.

Drove by onata and pontoosuc on my way to hike Greylock with my friend, too bad he doesn't like fishing lol. Looked like a great day on the water for sure. I'm back in town for the week on vacation, in sure I'll get out a few times. Haven't gone fishing in VT yet but gonna bring my kayak up next weekend.

I was out on the CT river a couple weekends ago and they were scarce but definitely starting their run. We got a few in the 20-25" range and I got the biggest at 31".

I just moved to Vermont (South Royalton) and I was wondering if anyone on here has any tips for bass fishing. I'm walking distance from the White River so I plan on trying it from shore but I'm not sure what all is in there. Just looking at it I would think there would be some decent Smallies in there but I'm not sure. I'm mainly looking for some lakes within an hours drive (90 minutes max) that I could try from shore or a kayak for bass. I'd also be interested in knowing if there are any clubs or smaller tournaments to get involved with in the area (as a non-boater). Just looking to get connected to whatever bass fishing community exists up here.

I've got the smaller hardgill, still not cheap and I've only got one fish on it so far....but it was a 5lber. I haven't really fished it much either but I should this summer.

That is true, I didn't think about that there are definitely some decent options for travel swimbait rods. Probably OP's best bet IMO.

I don't think anyone even makes a true swimbait rod that short. You might find other rods rated to that weight at that length but they will probably be really stiff and not suited well to playing fish, plus your casting distance will not be great and you're going to be wearing yourself out....a lot. Unless you truly cannot use a longer rod because of storage or transport limitations or you are fishing close quarters from the bank or kayak, go straight to 7'9 or 8' and don't look back. You will not regret it, but you WILL if you start with a 7' rod.

This is what I use, on the end of like 50 ft of paracord wrapped on a tournament marker buoy. TW has them for 10 bucks. I don't think it's failed me yet. Works great for everything from cranks, jigs, T-rigs, you name it.

I've got two 9" slammers I think I paid like 75 or 80 for. Expensive....yea. But I don't really fear losing them since they float and I'm usually in a kayak. No muskies or monster pike where I live to steal them. Plus, it's not money down the drain even if I were to not use them (which I do), I could sell them for close to what I bought them for. That's the nice thing with swimbaits, you can essentially rent baits because of the resale market.

Got out with my friend for a few hours this afternoon. We found some fish shallow in a spawning cove, I managed four 2-3lbers on a tube. Water temp was 63 pretty much everywhere on the lake. Seemed like the males were pushing hard into the shallows but the females weren't around. I did see some good sized females from shore cruising that same cove on Sunday when it was really warm so I think one wave may have gotten the chance to spawn but it seems the cold rain the last couple days may have reset things again.

Got out on Sunday night hoping for that night bite...didn't exactly work out as planned. With the warmer temps I was hoping enough would be shallow that I could get some decent bites with wakebaits. Only fish I got was a dink that hit a shellcracker cranked down. Also had a blowup on the same bait deadsticked near a log but of course I wiffed on the hookset. Going to try and take a friend out tomorrow for a few hours, we'll see what happens. If the bass aren't cooperating we might just beat up on some Crappie at a spot I know where they eat underpins like candy. I'm moving this Saturday so that will probably be my last time out (at least here) for a while. Although I'm sure I'll be paying plenty of visits back to the area, it's not too bad of a drive.

Make no mistake, if it came with a travel case I would not have even hesitated lol.

I managed to hold myself back lol.

@Janderson45 Were you fishing on Whitehall today? My friend and I were hiking the loop trail that goes around the lake early afternoon and I swear I saw a Lund bass boat with an Evinrude through the trees lol. Parking lot was packed with trailers so I assumed a tourney was going on? We finished up hiking around 3 and it was too nice out not to go fish lol. So my dad and I headed to Quinsig and fished the Flint pond area. Water temps were higher than I expected, about 65-67 so we stuck to the shallows looking for fish around spawning areas. Got a few smaller males and a bunch of pickerel but no big ones. Tried a few different things but the ones we did catch wanted something slow with a little flash. My dad did well with a johnson spoon fished through the emerging pads and I opted for a light spinnerbait that would stay higher in the water. Bite seemed to shut off once the front of clouds moved through.

This. One really bad backlash with a heavy bait would probably shred the gearing in a Fuego IMO. Don't get me wrong, I love my Fuego...for jigs. I would never toss a hudd on one. Also the spool capacity for heavy line just isn't there. That is unless you go braid, but then you're back to ruining the reel if you make a mistake on braid since it's much less forgiving. But if OP is just looking to toss 168 Swavers, shellcrackers, and at most a Hudd 68, he could get away with it paired with some 50lb braid probably. Might even be able to get juuust enough 20lb copoly or mono on the Fuego.

How "big" are we talking?(G2 shellcracker?...SWaver 200?...8" Hudd?...Deps 250?). I don't think you can go wrong with CXX like others said for most baits, 20lb is basically rope, just a little wirey especially in cold weather. But if you do mean BIIIIG then you might want to upsize to 25lb or go with something like 30lb Berkley Big Game.

I've heard good things about F5 so I probably would have jumped on that deal if I saw it. I'm generally pretty level headed and systematic about what I buy but a good sale usually gets me lol. *Edit: Damnit...the sale is still going on. Why did I have to see this lol. Only thing holding me back is that they don't come with a travel case but I also saw they were restocking travel cases soon....uggggggghhhhh.

The "zero adjust" thing is just a spool tension knob. The reason Daiwa call it that is because they tell you to tighten it until there is almost no side to side play in the spool when casting, and then just leave it (hence "zero adjust"). All your adjustments after that should be with the magforce brakes.