MassYak85

A spoon. I've fished johnson silver minnows and daredevils plenty but I don't use those big jigging spoons.

I use the same waterproof thing you have but I have my phone on a ram mount in front of me. If I catch a fish I just switch to the front facing camera, have it on a 5 second timer and hold up the fish.

Yup, I use it for swimbaits. Actually I try and keep the knot out of the spool but that's for a different reason entirely. At max spool capacity the leader knot actually rubs against the thumb bar but goes through the line guide fine.

Unfortunately the way the T-wing operates is that the level-wind actually rotates when you press down the thumb bar, if you used a normal line guide it wouldn't line up correctly. But I agree, it's a pain to use braid to leader with anything greater than about 12 or 15lb leader I've found with the T-wing. I wish they'd redesign a new T-wing with shallower entrance angles and a slightly wider channel to accommodate leader knots, I think enough guys do braid to leader it would sell well. It's honestly at the point I'm just gonna buy feugos going forward because I don't want to deal with it. Largest I go for line size is 25lb mono leader with 65lb braid mainline and it is able to pass through the line guide on a Lexa 300 with no issue.

Hit the Charles today. Started out sunny with a little wind, my dad got a jerkbait fish pretty quickly. Things seemed to be going according to plan. Wind kicked up and the sun tucked behind clouds which made for a VERY different afternoon than what I had hoped. If there's one thing I hate more than fishing in heavy wind...it's finesse fishing in 40° water in heavy wind. I ended up using a chatterbait for most of the day both slow rolled and lifted off the bottom like a blade bait since it's what I could keep in contact with in the wind. No bites though. First skunk of the year.

War Eagle, Nichols, and Stanley's have all been consistent and hold up well for me. War Eagle is probably may favorite though.

This. I'd still fish because it's fun but a very large portion of my drive to go fishing is the "what-if" factor. You wouldn't see me out in 40 degrees and gloves if I knew I had already caught the biggest fish in a given lake.

Same here. I'm itching to put some jerkbaits to use.

I take the reel apart down to the frame and clean everything except bearings with simple green and rinse them with warm tap water, and then soak the bearings in pure Acetone and let air dry. DO NOT use acetone on any plastic parts (also make sure the bearings do not have a plastic cage...and don't use it for anti-reverse bearings), it will destroy them. As far as lube I use Cal's drag grease on the drag stack and where two parts are sliding past each other. For bearings I use lightning lube from Boca bearings, but this year I am experimenting with greasing the frame and handle bearings to see if it makes it any smoother. I use quantum hot sauce on the worm gear because it's a higher viscosity than the lightning lube and will stay on it better.

....?

My philosophy is if I you are "under-gunned" (finesse gear, light line, light wire hooks etc.) then you should "play" the fish because the fish has the upper hand from the start. A wrong move on your part trying to horse in the fish and your gear will fail you. But heavier techniques generally the fisherman has the upper hand from the start and you can afford to horse the fish in. It may not be as "fun"....but you will probably land more fish, which I consider more fun. You don't see swimbait guys "playing" fish. They have the upper hand with their gear and the only way to keep that upper hand is to have control of the fish all he way to the boat, which means horsing them in usually. Letting the fish run means they can turn around, wrap you up, jump etc. Any time I feel my gear, line, and hook are up to the task I get the fish to me ASAP.

I usually have extremely good hookup and land ratios for chatterbaits but if it's near the boat and shakes violently then sometimes it's just bad luck. But a rod that flexes deep into the backbone will help absorb those headshakes. I've thought about getting a long (like 7'7) mod-fast for chatterbaits and spinnerbaits before but opted for a shorter rod with less flex because I usually fish them in cover and a long rod would make things awkward to cast accurately. I know I've lost 3+lb smallies at my feet because I was using a jig rod to throw treble hook topwaters. And like someone else said I might try just grinding on them with a tighter drag. Unless you're worried about snapping a light leader with that braid I don't think you'd bend out a chatterbait hook with any bass we might have here in MA. I am always surprised how much my drag slips n a hookset even when it feels like I'm using a lot of force to pull it out by hand. You could set it tight for the hookset and then just back off the drag star with your thumb if you feel like it's a big one.

Both are very nice for kayak and even boats in some areas. Some big pike come out of there on occasion for sure. I thought all the 13 fishing side plates were held on with a long screw to prevent just that? At least that's how my Concept A works. I was checking out some ponds and lakes from shore, seems most of eastern MA should be open and good to go for this weekend. I took the jerkbaits and a rod along and managed to get a pair of pretty decent perch on a perch jerkbait (cannibals lol). I put those Gamakstsu nano finesse trebles on a few jerbaits last year....those things scare me. Those suckers are sharp. Both perch had two of the trebles in them and I was praying they weren't going to shake one into my hand. I might go again from shore for an hour or two tomorrow but I don't want to be on the water with the forecasted wind, probably will be out on Sunday though. Also take a look at that forecast....LETS GO!

Honestly, probably anything other than swimbaits or cranking (excluding squarebills or lipless which can be burned effectively).

@DogBone_384 Yikes, sounds like a no-go for the boat then, thanks. Looking at the Navionics map Snippatuit looks a bit deeper. Also, anyone know about Quacumquasit pond? Quabog flows into it, which I've fished a bunch of times with decent success but I've heard Quacumquasit is more a trout pond (although some BIG pike have come out of there). I'm not sure how well the bass do there since it seems like there's minimal cover and a good portion of the bass would be on the food chain. Although I do have the itch to get a pike after I'm 95% sure I dumped a good one in Quabog last summer on a frog (I swear every time I use Trokar hooks they give me a reason to hate them more).

I explored a little bit into some of your guy's territory today with the car. Checked out the ramps at Snipituit, The Nip, and Monponsett. I've heard good things about them and they looked like very nice lakes from the shore (isn't that always the case though lol). Any tips/recommendations for these? I helped my dad get his boat "un-winterized" this weekend and we're thinking of trying one of them. Only thing I do know is The Nip is insanely shallow (too shallow for a full-size boat?). Oh, all three were wide open by the way. But I think that's the case for pretty much everything south and east of the taunton area at this point.

I never understood this part of the rules. What are they trying to accomplish...just prevent people from going fast? I'd think if you had a couple guys and gear in a small boat half the horsepower rating would mean you couldn't even get on plane?

Tell me when you find it because I still haven't. The issue is a completely waterproof glove either has no insulation and is cold anyways, or has too much insulation and doesn't have the necessary dexterity. The closest I found were some waterproof gloves from TW. They sell a couple different types including some expensive ones aimed at guys that steelhead fish freezing cold streams. I got the cheaper pair which are amazingly waterproof but not that warm. You want to know what I finally settled on this year and was pretty happy with...$3 fingerless wool gloves. They stay reasonably warm even when wet, had the necessary dexterity and are so cheap I can carry 3 or 4 pairs with me for when they get slimed or wet. Then if it's really cold I'll shove my hands in my pockets with some handwarmers for a few minutes to warm back up. I also recommend wearing tight fitting long sleeves and keeping a couple handwarmers around your arteries (I think they warn against direct skin contact, just be careful).

Just like a weightless senko or something, probably 9/10. I always get those random dinks that will grab half the worm and then I'll rip it in half on the hookset.

Never fished the Q. The system seems like a huge hassle but I have to respect it if that's what they feel they need to do to protect that lake. Almost seems like you nee to dedicate a smaller boat to the lake if you're serious about fishing it. I've heard some guys have "Quabbin Rigs" just for that.

I'm a righty. For BC and spinning I reel with my right hand. I cast with both depending on the situation and angle I need to make the cast at. But no matter which hand I'm "casting" with I always have the other hand on the but of the rod to cast. I feel like it gives me more leverage and control than just using one arm. Most of my casting if I get to choose is done with my left, including pitching, so I don't have to switch hands to reel.

60 and sunny forecasted for next Saturday! This might be the first time I've transitioned seamlessly from ice fishing to open water ever, there's usually a couple weekends in between.

This. I love my tatulas but I'm also a braid to leader guy and it can be an issue with larger lines having the leader knot hang up on the way back into the reel. I'm hoping some day they'll re-design it or offer a different version that has wider entry angles to account for this. But I love the Magforce braking system so I still buy them.

x2 to everything he said. I actually cut a small piece of shrink-wrap to make a plastic keeper like the ones on the roboworm re-barb hooks.

How did you guys do? I ended up back on the ice at A1. I looked outside in the morning and saw a couple dried up leaves twitching on their branches so no winter kayak fishing for me lol. It got fairly windy when I was out today so I'm glad I called off the kayak trip. I actually had my best day of the season! Ice was honestly sketchy and this was truly the last day I would set foot on it, at least for this lake. Started out with like 8" of total ice around 11:30 which was like 5" of white snow ice and 3" of remaining cracked black ice underneath....totally fine. Temps got up to around 50 and the top couple inches turned to slush and it was starteing to get iffy around 4:00 when the sun came out at full strength so I left. The shorelines I was fishing near were also starting to open up. I was literally 75 feet away from ducks swimming around in the shallows but where I was was fine thickness wise, definitely a weird situation. Swans were also out. What a day fishing-wise though! I had 6 bass over 2lbs and a couple that were mid 3's as well as some dinks. I had five tilts and a dozen shiners to start out and I ran out of bait and was down to just 3 tilts by the end of the day despite re-using many of the shiners long after they had died and been down the throats of multiple fish. Pickerel were equally as hungry as the bass and I got some good ones and got bit off a few times. At one point I was scrambling around dealing with fish on 3 out of 5 of my tilts! Probably got around 15 fish between both species. Overall one of my best days ever on the ice and definitely the bets day this season! I've heard people say that the end of the ice season is usually the hottest bite but I hadn't experienced it much until today. Also nothing like being on the ice in weather this nice! It truly felt like spring with the temperatures as well as hearing all the birds I don't usually hear this early. Red-wing blackbirds were making a racket at one-point. Couldn't have asked for a better day to cap-off the season! Finally time to break out the open water gear though!