Dunks N Dinks

@Saltysmalljaws and I got onto LPH at zero-dark thirty Saturday and cracked a handful of nice smallies in the fog. First bite was an angry 3lber at 5:10am out of 25fow, while salty had his heart broken more than once on a walking plug as big smallies were busting on juvenile herring all around the boat at sunrise. Later in the afternoon, we hunkered down over a deep ledge and milked drop-shots and counted down spy-baits for a couple bonus fish. Fun morning all around before the "Crazies" came out to play on sea-doos and pontoon boats.

Been out Tuna fishing most weekends since mid-June...been a great start to the year (3x 200lb+ "keepers" on the board so far)...but I did sneak out after work last night on Long Pond with a buddy and snatched up a mixed-species limit. Found 3 decent larries up shallow around docks and pads, then dialed up a couple smallie bites on spy-baits on a deeper wind-blown flat. Water was a balmy 76 degrees...wild sunset too!

CC Update: Friday Night Bites @Saltysmalljaws and I hit up Wequaq after work in the wind and rain. Conditions couldn't have felt any more "bass-y", the mist and drizzle putting a nice pattern on the surface, low-light conditions and a prevailing gust activating the food-chain. Given the consistent westerly over the prior few days...eastern shores temps were as much a 3 degrees warmer, with some pre-spawn fish still bulking up despite prime-time spawning temps. After hunting and pecking around with a few welcome interruptions from pickerel, we also found an area with a few beds and made blind-casts with top-waters. After seeing an ominous shadow tilt up and make a pass at a walking bait, i pitched a t-rig past the nearby golden circle and crept my offering slowly into range. With my bait almost back to the closest lip of the bed, about 30yds from the boat, I felt *that TAP* and knew it was game-on. I crow-hopped back, snap-set the hook, and immediately lost about 15 yds from my spool before I even realized which way the fish was running. Crashing to the surface, she wallowed sideways and then ran headlong into a weed-clump, leaving me helpless with 12lb flouro melting off my reel in stop-go fashion. Finally, regaining some momentum, I got her head turned and half-slid and half-prayed the fish back to the boat and towards Salty's outstretched net. She gave one last wallow and a tail-walk before finally being enveloped in the safety of the rubber mesh. With a pic snapped and the beautiful girl back in the drink to go-on with her courtship, we finally exhaled and both just laughed our butts off. With a memorable fish already in the proverbial live-well, Salty and I relaxed and got dialed into fishing the moment; we ran a few wind-blown eastern shores and went with a dual-pronged approach of a chatter-bait and swimbait. Salty ended up chalking up four or five 2-3lbers in the next hour slow-rolling a bladed-jig, while I scored two decent ones on a BC swimbait and got my first glide-bait bite of the year on a 7" perch model. Memorable bite and night for sure.

Just trying to keep my distance lol, not much of a binge-watcher unless its Tactical Bassin youtube videos

CC Update: Bedside Manner Hit up Cliffs on Friday after work...water temps were 57-58 with a gnarly 14-17mph W wind. Smallies were hunkering down on beds but very wary and hard to see...so i was had to lock downwind and blind-cast out to the tell-tale pale circles. Found a few decent 2.5-3lbers in 9-12fow on a slowwwly-dragged wobble-head jig, and then turned my attention to the largemouth, who were making a shallow pre-spawn push into bushes/reed-beds. A furious jig bite materialized for an hour or so on an outside reed-line, allowing me to fire off a few slack-line full-power hook-sets that ive been missing so much hahaha. Overall, one of my favorite sessions of the year so far. Kept the party going on a new pond (to me at least) Saturday morning, somehow squeezing my tin-rig into the notorious West Rez timber minefield. Wasn't really sure what to expect, but things got exciting pretty fast. Water temps were a balmy 65-66 degrees in a warm rain/fog setting, with bluegill beds all over the place, suggesting a pretty textbook post-spawn playbook. Sure enough, I scored pretty quick on a two-pronged approach of flipping shoreline bushes with a 1/2oz jig and winding a chatter-bait and spinner bait around the submerged grass and timber (chatter for grass, spinner for wood). As i worked my way (slowly and carefully) deeper into the pond, I also saw some bass beds and even some largemouths crashing on some herring way up under some fallen trees. I switched up to a wacky-rigged senko and skipped that around for a bit and got rewarded with one decent 3.25lb chunker and then had my heart-broken by a ~5lb fish that chafed off my 8lb flouro on a submerged limb after taking my senko for a 20yd dash out of the lily-pads. Definitely coming back here for revenge. Sunday I took my dad out on the salt looking for keeper stripers in Stage Harbor, but didn't strike pay-dirt. A few fish in the 18-24" range on jerkbaits and ronZ's but no bigguns just yet. Plenty of bait (herring, pogies) around.

CC Update: Family Lines Friday - @Saltysmalljaws and I got out on Long Pond in the early evening with smallies on the brain. Unfortunately, despite the 60 degree air (shorts weather!!!) and 55 degree water, we didn't run into any aggressive shallow cruisers. Instead, the several quality bites we did get were all deeper pre-spawn types who were seemingly pushed back by the recent front. Biggest was a 3.89 that hit a jerkbait in 17ft of water. Saturday - Woke up early and hit Wequaq around 6am, hoping for a nice topwater bite to start the day. While my buddy got one about 2.5lbs on a popper next to a dock, the topwater pattern never fully materialized. Instead, we ended up piecing together a decent pre-spawn largemouth jerk-bait program into the late-morning, yielding a ~13lb limit and a 3.43 larry that knocked slack in the line on a shad-rap style bait. Sunday - Flipped the switch to salt for the first time this year and nabbed my first half-decent striper of the year. At least according to the guys down at north chatham outfitters, most southern cape estuaries are loaded with bait and the bass are in hot pursuit right now. Not too many keeper-size fish out my way, but just a matter of time.

Quick outing on @Saltysmalljaws's home court last night yielded a couple nice bass bites and one mega-fauna of a brown trout. Water temps were inching higher towards the 53-53.5 mark when got there and we did spy a few deeper smallmouth beds that presumably were made late last week, though no one was home. Indeed, the smallies we found (mostly on jerkbaits) were all "backed off" (by the recent storm), chasing bait in 9-12ft on windblown shores. I also found a chunky larry tucked up in a cove next to some reed-heads acting as current break of sorts. The pinnacle of the trip though was a heat-seeking missile of a brown trout that peeled 20yds of drag off Salty's jerkbait setup and must've jumped at least 3ft clear of the water just before sunset.

Hard to beat when the smallies get on the bait....more erratic the retrieve the better. That's too bad, I'll try to keep ya updated (at least until Tuna season kicks off).

CC Update: Bait Balls of Fire Made it out on Long Pond for two hours last night and it was immediately clear the herring migration has made an (ecological) impact; my screen was lit up with bait traversing deep flats, while smallies were up shallow on wind-blown banks blowing up bait at sunset. Despite all the natural competition, I managed to get 3 smallies to commit to a yo-yo'd underspin in 5-7' before I pushed up even shallower and started throwing topwater (in 52-53 degree water!). While it probably wasn't the most efficient bait of choice, I did eventually get one to commit to being my first topwater smallie of the year.

CC Bassin' Update: Almost on the Dance-floor On Friday, @Saltysmalljaws and I took a few hours after work to hit up a small kettle-hole on the upper-cape that has quite a reputation as a herring-run monster pit. I think we did hit it just a bit too early (season/temp-wise ~52 degrees), BUT we did get a little taste of what could go down there. Right after we launched, I marked a few big arches on the electronics, and as soon as I flipped a jig out in front of the boat, my rod bowed and I was in a vicious fight for maybe 5-6 seconds before i became disconnected. ticked off, I flipped out again with a ned rig and hooked up AGAIN and this time we managed to boat a chunky 4.25lber that took my finesse setup for a nice joyride. Over the next few hours, we only got 2-3 more bass, but there was a ton of herring/bait activity and everything was moving towards the bank as the sunlight waned (muskrats and turkeys included). We also had some huge picks on swimbaits around sunset, but no larrys. On Saturday, I hit up sheeps in the morning and had a decent session. All smallies for a buddy and I, mostly in textbook pre-spawn locales (points and boulder-strewn flats 5-8ft). Temps down here are creeping up for sure, 51-53 depending on the area, with jerkbaits and tubes the ticket. We probably whacked 8-9 fish before calling it around 1pm, biggest around 3lbs, with another 3-4 rainbow/lake trout a-piece as well (on in-line spinners). Yesterday, I went to Peters Pond for the first time in a long time, and the smallies were right where I left them about 3 springs ago lol. With the wind rippin out of the southwest, my buddy and i sat right behind a few northern-facing wind-blocking points and fired out into the deep and crawled jigs back up adjacent to the wind. While the action wasn't super consistent, we had a few nice little spurts of 2-3 fish whenever a wave of them would push up onto the points. We really dialed in the presentation once we found a few craws in the live-well too (see below). Most of our bites were in 8-9ft but they definitely got shallower as the day wore on....all signs pointing to a pretty imminent smallie spawn down here.

@Saltysmalljaws and I finally teamed up for an afternoon session on Long Pond. Conditions were pretty solid (decent west wind putting some chop out, 50 degree water and air) but with a limited time to fish I don't think we really narrowed down on a single presentation. In fact, at least 4 fish came on 4 different baits. That being said, we did find quite a bit of congregated bait (see below) on a long sloping point, and the bass were definitely in the neighborhood. Anyway, Salty came firing out of the gates with a solid ~3lb smallie on the first cast (possibly bad luck?) on an under-spin. I followed that up with a smallie on a ned rig off a ML point. Then salty gave another solid smallie a neon jerk-bait root canal, and i nabbed a chunky largemouth on a tube. No fireworks, but the next couple weeks do look to be setting up for some.

CC Update: Pond Hoppin' Fished Cliffs Saturday morning from 8 to 11, post-frontal calm and bluebird skies made for a slow session, only 3 smallies to show for it (biggest ~3lbs) on finesse plastics. Decided to make an afternoon move to Wequaq, which turned out a little better as the wind picked up and sun peaked out for a few hours. Water temps were just above 50 in the calmer pockets, but we found 5-6 smallmouth on windblown banks with jerkbaits and a few largemouths hiding under docks in bearses pond with jigs. Really hoping the weather turns here in the next few days...we could be looking at a wave of smallies moving shallow under the right conditions....Full moon may 7th

sure thing Salty, shoot me a PM

A buddy and I battened down the hatches, only took the essentials (hot pockets and bud light), and fished Long Pond in what turned out to be nearly gale-force westerly winds yesterday. Thankfully we did most of our damage before it got too ugly to traverse the main-lake, and my recently replaced trolling motor batteries (2x 31group blue tops) performed well, allowing us to lock down and make repetitive casts upwind. With water temps backing off the 50 mark amid the recent cold-front down here (back to 47-48), the pre-spawn pattern was pretty text-book; main-lake points and inside turns, fish a bit deeper in the morning, rising shallower as the day went on. With a healthy chop on the water and quite a bit of bait getting blown around the bite was decent, as we went 10 for 12 in 5hrs, adding up to one of the better limits i've put together here in the last few years (around 17lbs and change). My buddy caught his PB smallie at 4.4 and i got a 4.2lb chonker.

Snuck out of "remote" work early yesterday to hit the home lake with some decent results: got a pair of 2.8lb and 3.5lb smallies in 2hrs and jumped off another decent one. The smaller of the two came on a ned rig directly under the boat "video-game" fishing in 22-24ft, while the bigger specimen crushed a finesse swim-bait crawled off a ledge in 15-17ft (chartrz-white). The big smallie also coughed up what looked to be a 5" alewive (or digested perch) so i guess the 3.25 inch bait i was tossing was just dessert. Water temps keep creeping ever so slightly higher despite the relatively stable air temps of late (longer photo-period helps), with the highest i saw yday at 49.7 .

Hey Peter, welcome to the forum. I'd just bring those two baits with you, but only commit to throwing the jerk-bait from the start. If there are fish in the area, a painfully slow jerk-pauuuuuuuse retrieve (literally 8-12 seconds between jerks) is really hard to beat when water is in the 46-54 degree range. This can be super frustrating since you want to be "covering water", but this time of year you'll just be pulling the bait past the fish if you're fishing it too fast. Throw it out into deep water areas near spawning areas and make sure those fishing looking up have plenty of time to rise and see it dart erratically before mouthing it. You'll want a bait that suspends or ever-so-slowly sinks (floating up, away from the fish, is not good). Only throw the ned rig if you know there are fish in the area or are getting short strikes. Hope this helps.

CC Q-tine Update Fished Sheeps on Friday and finally got that big swimbait bite i was looking for. 5.4lber (first 'younder' of the year) on the huddleston trout in 16ft. She absolutely devoured the bait, made the 8" profile look small in her throat. Definitely has been eating stockies all Spring. Fished John's Pond on Saturday, wracked up a decent 13lb limit with a buddy of mine while scouting for a tourney that may or may not happen next month. Had 7-8 bites total, so kinda slow, with most fish in 20-24ft of water...drop-shots and deep-diving jerkbaits the ticket. Fished Mashpee Sunday and it was a total bust, caught 3 smallies on finesse stuff and bagged a trout for dinner by 2pm and called it a day. Re: herring - I've only had limited success chasing herring-eaters during the actual herring run, but usually throw a herring color swimbait when im on herring-run-access waters... But if you go on the MA gov site and look where the major runs are and then scout on google earth, you can usually find a few "untouched" kettle-holes with dirt ramp access. I'm going to check an upper-cape herring run this afternoon and i'll report back.

Mission Accomplished - first hefty girl of the year. 4.39 smallie on the home turf after work. Water temps are closing in on the magic 50! She came in 22ft on the nedward. Also got a bonus smallie on the Magdraft in shallow water just before sunset. This quarantine thing aint so bad after-all...

Took my dad out on Long Pond last night after work and nabbed a few brown ones. He's a saltwater guy but picked up the subtle stupidity and effectiveness of the ned rig in no time. Actually out-fished me on 3 to 2 while i was chunking the swimbait. Our 5 maybe went 11-12bs, not much, but honest work for 2.5hrs.

(Semi-)enjoyed a beautiful but brutally-tough post-frontal outing on Mashpee yesterday. Bluebird skies for the most part, high 40s temp-wise (46 degree water), and no wind whatsoever. Marked plenty of arches in typical pre-spawn staging locations (secondary points and ledges near spawning bays), but the fish just weren't getting after it unfortunately. Ended up just getting 4 bass bites all day, the largest being a "square" 2lb larry (attached) on a super-finnessey ned rig in 8ft of water. The silver-lining however was that the stocked trout were busting the surface all morning as if they'd hadn't had a meal in months. I guess this is the whole "empty the hatchery" plan in progress. So i managed to get a few in the livewell early which turned into a lovely evening dinner project (as seen below). Anyhow, hope everyone's keeping sane and sanitized. Hoping to get out a few more days this week after work and get my first >4lber of the year.

Gotta a hold of a couple brown popsicles in the crazy wind today. Tucked into a lil cove on Sheeps and found three smallies chillin in 8ft near a rock pile. They all ate a shad-rap style bait on the a long pause.

FYI hearing all tourney permits are cancelled thru May 4th

Regarding the trout stocking...I had someone tell me similar last night when i stopped by Sheeps to take a few casts after work with the Huddleston. While I didn't see any lunker largemouth stalking the freshly stocked trout, I did manage a nice fat smallie on the swimbait...which was pretty surprising given the size of the bait.

Got some more home cooking on Long Pond on Saturday. While the conditions were a bit more of a challenge than Friday afternoon's slugfest, my buddy and I did figure a few things out to put a solid limit in the boat. With water temps backing down a tad to 45 and the sun only peeking out for a few hours in the early afternoon, we backed off a bit depth-wise and had to finesse em into the boat early. The most productive areas early on were points and steep depth change areas, while coves/shallow flats proved effective when the sun peeked out late in the day. Ned rigs, finesse swimbaits, and the trusty 110 got the job done for a ~13lb limit.

Got out for a quick post-work sesh on Long Pond today. Glad I made the effort because the bite turned out to be pretty hot for the last few hours of daylight. Got bit on a jerkbait, finesse swimbait and a tube, depths ranging from 6 to 14ft. Went 7/9 on bites, best 5 fish going for 12/13lbs....dumped a +4lber right at the boat as well. Water temps were a balmy 46 degrees...