Saltysmalljaws

Welcome Frezzy. Those are some absolute slobs! If you are a Chu fisherman, do you happen to know my buddy Chris? He loves wandering the shores up there with a Jackall rerange

The jerkbait is legitimately my favorite presentation. It is a year round tool for me. Any time of the year apart from the dead of the winter, get in the wind, find bait and toss the JB and you’ll get results. With the depth ranges available it’s easy to call them out of 20+ fow. Also a shallow diving or high floating jerkbait has been a great alternative when the smallies Don’t want to fully commit to topwater. Long lining them is a great way to get more depth and approach a highly pressured or extremely clear fishery.

Can’t ever have enough electronics haha. They’re great units. Once you get the hang of them it can be like clockwork

Fished for smallmouth on Saturday 51 water temp. Not a sniff until the wind picked up. One just under 4 and 3 under 3 lbs. Deep diving jerkbaits and blades did the damage. Went shallow Sunday amidst the rain and wind and the largemouth were up and feeding. Water temps topped out at 54. Chatterbaits and jigs flipped into emergent lily pads, bull rush, and lay downs was the deal. 4 out of 9 Larry’s were females with bellies full of eggs. Marked a lot of good fish offshore but they did not want to cooperate. We should see waves coming shallow if we can get some warmer, stable weather.

@Dunks N Dinks seems you live very close to me and you also have the bronze back bug. I’d love to chat and pick your brain. My two daughters are out of school. I’m home with them so haven’t gotten out on my tiny boat lately. For a character reference ask @DogBone_384 haha

Water has been warming quickly and packs of active fish are congregating in staging areas and occasionally pulling up to feed. Especially in areas where the sun is beating down or the wind ya been directly blowing. Small differences in water temperature has been a player too. Sorry about the hiatus. I have been fishing and catching all winter. A lot of my cohorts are on the Massachusetts bass fishing page on Facebook. Look forward to sharing knowledge with the guys on here as well. Truly was a pleasure to fish with @DogBone_384 . There is no better time to fish ladies and gents. Virus or no virus, I practice staying outdoors and social distancing on a regular basis ?

Dogbone I’ve had good luck from the shoreline by the boat launch at shubaels. I’ve caught big largemouth and a 2.5 smallie out of there.

This past weekend was a struggle. Couple largie’s Saturday on a drop shot suspended in 14 feet of water; deep clear body of water 48 degr. One largemouth Sunday in a stained pond full of submerged veg on a Neko 51 degrees. Yesterday however the chew was on. Two ponds one stained visibility 48 degrees. Second deep clear water temp 47. First pond 7 smallies and one largemouth biggest smallie around 2 lbs 8 oz, all on the jerkbait. All out of 5-12 feet. Second pond 6 largies. 4 on a jerkbait one on a drop shot one on a Ned. Above around and in submerged brush piles on drop off in 15-20 feet of water. Biggest Larry 3 lbs 10 oz

Great work dogbone. I can’t wait to fish that place. A smallie is a smallie no matter what size. I’ve been having great luck with trout lately so i went out this afternoon on a local cape pond that’s stocked and also loaded with bass. Took my boat on her maiden voyage this year. Water temp was 43-45. I got into some great largemouth action catching ten fish in just a few hours. The biggest of which was just under 4lbs and came on a Swimbait. All the others came off the drop shot, gold blade bait, and marabou hair jig. Caught them out depths varying from 15-30ft. Fun day. Game on gentlemen!!!! The season is upon us!!!

It all depends on the forage base of the body of water you’re in and the vegetation/bottom composition. More fragile species like minnows, alewives, smelt will search out deep water for consistent, less harsh conditions. In bodies of water where perch and bluegill/pumpkinseeds are the main forage they will tend to be more shallow and will heavily relate to any love grass/hydroplane/Mille foille because that’s where the food for the perch and sunfish will be. Both largemouth and smallmouth need to feed in the cold water to survive but they play a balancing act between the need to feed and the amount of energy they are willing to spend to do so. Also keep in mind some smallies will actually start producing eggs in late fall/early winter and absolutely need to feed and a decent amount in order to keep those eggs viable.

Absolutely I’ll be there. Let me know if you’d like to meet up. I can take you to some very discreet private ponds I have access to.

Yessir. An old girl

I actually met you at hinkley’s one evening last year. I caught the smallie on the northwestern corner of long pond

Been out shore fishing a lot lately. Hopping from semi iced over to open water. I live down on the cape. Hooked into a big smallie on Sunday and caught a rainbow trout yesterday. Both on a yellow perch painted blitz blade bait 1/2 oz. I’ve been out as much as possible lately. My fiancée and I went shore fishing on Valentine’s Day and she caught a nice largie on a modified hula stick; drop shot 1/4 oz 8in leader

Cold water today but no ice on my deep water go to. One nice perch and one near 3 pound smallie both on a 3/8 oz vmc neon moon eye with a 3.3 keitech fat swing impact. No skunk! It’s been a hell of a year a lot of memorable fish and memorable days. I may get out Saturday. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and I want to thank everyone on this thread for their input and information. I’m glad to be in the company of bass junkies like myself ✌️