MassYak85

@Janderson45 Beautiful markings on those smallies! This weekend was reeeaaallly slow for me. Only thing I could consistently catch were pickerel with a few bass mixed in. Edit* Went to A1 from shore for a couple hours this afternoon with just a handful of swimbaits. I got my first bite on a slammer slowly waked near a patch of pads. I swear the fish know when I'm not paying attention with slammers because I had my head turned when the fish bit, and I missed it. I fired a hudd 68 back to the same spot hoping for a second chance....surprisingly the fish cooperated and I got a nice solid hookset, fought it for about 2 seconds aaaaaaaand it popped off. Didn't look that big, maybe 2.5-3lbs but frustrating for sure to lose the same fish twice in a row. No other bites after that. I just made the switch to braid to leader on my jig hook swimbait setup for hudds and stuff and I'm really liking it so far, I can feel the tail kicking at the end of a cast it's pretty crazy. That hookset was pretty fun too there's no "did I set it hard enough?" after you lose one, you swing the rod and it just stops dead.

Me and my dad hit Webster on Friday. Water surface temps were in the low 60s. The morning started off well, sun came up and right away my dad caught a couple on a spinnerbait. A bank of clouds rolled in shortly after and it got downright COLD and we couldn't find fish after that for a few hours. Early afternoon the wind died a bit and the sun came out, it was much more comfortable so we tried a few spots out deeper. I managed to get some pictures of an absolute massacre of baitfish we came across (sorry pictures are pretty crappy). I thought the electronics were acting up but nope...a huge school of bait throughout nearly the entire water column. To be honest I'm not very confident fishing deeper than like 25ft usually, and fishing middle of the water column or chasing schooling bait is something I'm even more uncomfortable doing, so this was definitely a learning experience. We got over the school and immediately my dad got a nice smallie on a spinnerbait near the surface. I decided to try deeper with a blade bait jigged through the school. That definitely did the trick, I had like 4-5 casts in a row of bass crushing it. Unfortunately they were all aggressive little ones (mostly largies), with one keeper smallie thrown in. But man were they fat little butterballs, they had clearly already gorged themselves down there. Unfortunately we didn't connect with any big ones and the school seemed to break up rather quickly and we couldn't relocate them after that. Any tips for approaching these kinds of situations? I've always heard the bigger ones like to wait at the bottom and "clean up the scraps" but have no actual experience with that. And from the sonar shot it seemed like the bigger ones were darting in and out of the school pretty actively.

@Janderson45 I thought they were doing ramp reconstruction at Cochituate? I haven't been by so I don't know what kind of progress they've made or if you can still use any of it but they were supposed to start a 1 million dollar total revamp of that entire parking lot and ramp area starting this fall. No idea on timeline though. I've fished it a couple dozen times probably over the years, nothing over 4, a few 3s. I never do well there, numbers wise or size. I mostly fish the middle and north pond. There are some decent weedlines that drop off into 40+ feet in the middle pond and one point/shoreline on the north pond that seems to hold some. I did catch a nice pickerel over the summer there though, just got my pin in the mail today actually. Structure and cover are pretty scarce away from the bank from my experience. Like @Chris186 said the south pond has a VERY narrow archway but I've heard of people doing well in that section. I think most bass boats can squeeze through but it's tight, any high windshields and you can basically forget about it. I've also never fished there later into the year (other from shore during the winter) so I'll be curious to know how you do. I'm sure there's some nice ones in there somewhere but I am usually frustrated trying to locate fish on that lake.

Is that standard closing for the quabbin? I don't fish it but that seems really early to me.

Site is still up and running so I assume so

Just use what's more comfortable. IMO the whole "your dominant arm is stronger so use that" argument is silly. It's fine motor skills that make one arm or hand dominant not your raw strength, and even if one arm IS stronger for some reason, no one is using their full strength to set the hook anyways...nor should you for bass fishing unless you want broken rods. I'm a righty, I reel with my right hand for spinning and casting because it feels easier to make a circular motion with my hand.

Rocky Ledge Tackle out of New Hampshire has some pretty cool stuff

Don't worry, you're not alone. I bought a small food scale this year to do stuff like tune jerkbaits by weighing split rings and hooks to adjust sink rates. I've used it to weigh some lures as well.

Today was dink city at Manchaug and then Quinsig in the afternoon, mostly fishing a spinnerbait in the wind. A couple came on a power worm, nothing over 2lbs. I lost one on the worm I think may have been closer to 3 due to a combination of me having the drag too tight, using too small a hook for the worm, and letting the fish dig into the weeds....all of which let the hook bend out enough for the fish to get off. Today was also the first day in a while I can remember the water being considerably warmer than the air.

I just wanted to follow up on this. The bait I had an issue with was a Cambio Spinnerbait which had the back blade come off within minutes of it's first use. I contacted them through Facebook shortly after posting this and they said they'd contact me through email. Email never came so I asked again through Facebook. They eventually helped me out and sent a very generous package from Japan of replacement baits, that I received this week. I got out today to fish one of them and it held up to many fish so I am very pleased with how they handled it and I trust that the bait I had break was just a fluke. Thanks Duo!

Oh my lol. I've had one almost that bad once with braid. I was using 65lb braid and I DID spend the time to pick it just to pause and regain my composure to keep fishing. Took about 45 minutes and I still had to cut some of the line out.

I'm thinking of using it as a spinnerbait and chatterbait trailer myself. I usually fish a paddle tail on those but sometimes I feel it becomes "too much" and a "dead" action trailer like this (where action is imparted by the bait or angler rather than the shape of the trailer) might do better.

Try hiking the eastern shore of the reservoir, there are some steeper banks I've done okay at.

This isn't to promote the longevity of the bait. It's to make sure the bait stays rigged correctly and doesn't slide down the shank of the hook midway through a retrieve.

His channel pretty much singlehandedly convinced me to start throwing big baits here in MA. Seeing him crush his PB on that shellcracker was awesome. Just goes to show you got to grind through the tough times and not quit.

MS Slammers are a bread and butter bait here in New England. Guys use everything from the mini to the Super Slammers with success, but the 9" is VERY popular. 8" and 68 Hudds get a lot of love, Swaver has been mentioned. Mattlures ultimate gills and hardgills are a good one because bluegill play an important role as a forage species here. Real Prey swimbaits out of MA here makes some KILLER Perch, Alewife, and Golden Shiner soft baits. Gantarels are a solid choice so don't get discouraged. Spro Rats and G2 shellcrackers are relatively cheap but flat out work too.

Figured I'd post this for anyone else who wants to do it. I settled on the heat shrink tubing and it came out great! Just like the roboworm hooks. I did this to 2/0 and 5/0 Gamakatsu round bend worm hooks, and used size 1/16" and 3/32" heat shrink tubing respectively. 5/0 2/0

Bending them!? Can you post a pic? I have a few CTs and to bend them I would think you would need a tremendous amount of force.

If you were catching 5lbers on a hotdog in a NYC pond I'd say you were doing SOMETHING right lol.

This is how I view it.....it's why I get away with using 4/0 straight shank worm hooks on 15" worms. The hook gap should match the thickness, not length.

I got a bronze pin pickerel out of Cochituate earlier this summer but IMO the bass fishing leaves a lot to be desired. Rarely do I do well numbers wise, and I think my best fish out of there was just over 3.

Exactly what I do. I go to the 3/0 Superline EWG when fishing them on heavy casting gear in thick cover.

I sometimes fish mine on 2/0 EWGs when using lighter tackle. I don't know if I'd go any smaller but I think you could probably get away with it for the time being.

Yup, I think that's the one!

Yea, my father got a Lund (a deep V though) with an Evinrude a few years back and he said some marina in Connecticut was the closest he could find that would put the engine on the boat. He thought it would probably be his last boat so he didn't want to settle for a different motor. Sure beats fishing out of my kayak when I get the chance to go with him ?