Styguy922

I’ve fished Martin’s before. I don’t believe there is any real official boat launch. Place is basically a weedy bowl, getting to around 5-6ft at the deepest and no real interesting structure or anything. I would go elsewhere if you have other options!

Got out of remote work yesterday a little early and went out on an oxbow off the River. Water temp was 48-51 with the help of some direct sunlight. Figured with the warm shallows and bluegill moving close to shore I may find some bass in the vicinity. Sure enough, 3rd cast with a Ned rig and scored a 3.7 lb Largemouth. Not super long but real fat and fought HARD. Caught 4 other healthy fish on a red chatterbait. All shallow, close to deeper (10-12ft) holes. Was pleased with the performance of my new Tatula SV TWS too - all around good day for about 2 hrs on the water

I’d love to to meet/fish with some of you folks. If all welcome, I’d love to join! Merry Christmas, all!

Took the kayak out today on a small reservoir along the Nashua River in hopes of getting a couple bass before i succumbed to the cold wind. Wind was steady and cold and even with some good gear on, my hands were taking a beating - need some better gloves for fishing! Water temp started off around 42 so I immediately tried for some deep water. There is a relatively large (and deep) pocket on this section that gets down to around 12 ft - deepest part of the river in the general area so I figured it may hold some bass along what was left of the weed edge along the break. Wind was a pain so I used a ned rig and got bit on my first cast. Brought fish to the boat but he came off - bummer. After that, was a brief window of consistent action. I may have spooked the fish after a gust of wind pushed my kayak right over them. Managed to get 4 LMB really quickly on the ned which was real fun! After that, landed a HUGE pickerel and then the wind picked up, sun went behind the trees, water dropped to 39/40, and I had to go warm up. Fun little session. Sneaking out tomorrow in the AM before the festivities begin and remembering to wear a few more layers

Funny, I usually do terribly on the Sudbury too, but I managed to catch a nice 4.86 lb’er and several nice fish this spring in one outing. Other than that, very limited success. It’s highly pressured..... I am chomping at the bit to fish this week. Took tomorrow off to fish, gonna try and fish Thanksgiving AM if the family will let me ;), and then will try the rest of the weekend as well.

This isn't much of a report but got some nice return for little invested time or effort. Went for a 30 minute shore mission yesterday. Went to a small pond down the road. I think it used to be some sort of quarry or is man made as it's mainly rock and the sides appear to have been finished off to look uniform. I prefer bodies of water with more natural structure but this is all I had time for and hey.....there's bass in it! Got a nice chunky little bass slowly dragging and twitching a jig, super subtle bite! Looking to get out this weekend in the kayak for a more exciting trip.....

Definitely warmer than this same time last year. Really looking forward to the real cold water and seeing how everyone does

awesome! Had just finished saying in my post how I chickened out fishing today but in my defense I’m in a kayak and not a Lund ?. It really is awesome when the weather is brutal and you catch fish. Awesome job getting it done. What were the water temps like?

Billington Sea Water Temp: 50-54 Partly cloudy Wind: 2mph (morning) 10mph (1pm) Presentation(s): Vision 110, Ned Rig 2 LMB (5-8'), 10+ pickerel, 1 crappie Woke up early yesterday and made the pilgrimage down to Plymouth (ha ha) to fish Billington Sea for the first time since last November/Early December. Was an absolutely beautiful morning and water was like glass which would make for some great paddling. Water temps upon arrival were 50 and warmed up quickly to around 54 by 10 or so. From what I remembered from my previous outing here, shallow cover was scarce and vegetation was really thin at this time of year on this particular lake, so I didn't bother fishing much up shallow. Most of the bait I noticed was in 6-10' of water anyways. My plan of attack was to focus on extended underwater points and inside turns close to deep water as I figured there may be some green vegetation left. Could hardly find ANY which was surprising but proceeded anyways. Threw a Vision 110 the whole time and got 2 LMB relatively quickly. Both were in 5-8' of water and for a moment I had a pattern going! Then, it quickly turned into a pickerel fest and I started trying different areas (and re-tying my line). Caught a break from the pickerel with one huge crappie. Back at the launch I talked to some of the guys loading up their boats and they caught strictly pickerel all day (also using jerkbaits) so I'd say I got lucky with the bass. While loading my kayak, started talking to a guy who ended up being the owner of Bico jigs! He was a real nice guy and gave me a handful of his new trailers to try. They look great - nice subtle action which will be perfect as the water continues to cool. I've spent today reflecting on how I could have increased the bass to pickerel ratio and my only thoughts are to have utilized more of a pulling retrieve/less action with the jerkbait OR spent more time with the ned rig (or jig) trying for bottom contact action. Caught all my bass in the AM so perhaps their mood changed to more neutral/inactive as the day progressed..... Couldn't go out today with the miserable weather so tomorrow or Sunday, it is! Have a great weekend, everyone.

Fished Pleasant Pond in Wenham on Saturday. Last time I had fished this body if water, the shallows were choked with weeds but the mid depths were clear with some secondary points and flats. Main basin of the lake gets to be about 40' deep and is stocked with trout. With the cold night prior and bright sun during the day, I anticipated fish would be deeper as conventional wisdom suggests bass shy away from unstable/highly variable water temps in the shallows (temp at 11am was much warmer - around 57 degrees whereas in the AM only around 49). This, combined with the blue bird skies had me using lipless cranks, small swimbaits, and jerkbaits in 10-15 feet. I saw plenty of fish on sonar but assumed they were trout due to overall volume and 20'+ location around no real visible structure. Made my way around the lake and noticed some signs of bluegill jumping up shallow. Sure enough, I could see them all around my kayak as I paddled though the remaining lily pad rhizomes. At this point, I had limited time left before I had to leave and head out for a meet up with some friends. I instantly changed my lure choice to a Beast Coast Miyagi Swimbait in a bluegill pattern and started targeting patches of semi-dead vegetation and laydowns on a thin, shallow flat, adjacent to a drop off into deep water. Instantly caught a small LMB and missed 2 others (only keel-weighted EWG hooks I had were 2 sizes too small so my best luck at sticking them was if they were able to really get their mouth around the bait. Bad prep on my part!). After that, it was a pickerel fest and before I could hit that productive stretch again, it was time to head out. While not a stellar day, it was fun to try and figure out what the fish were doing. My company is taking an org-wide day off on Friday and we received Veterans day off as well so I will have plenty of time end of this week to head out again! Hope everyone else had a chance to get out or is planning to this week!

Yeah - probably big smallmouth because they aren't harvested/pressured due to the lack of fishermen! Concord river has some decent bass fishing as well. Pike are pretty elusive there - I think you really need to put the time in or just go out to Western MA they're more plentiful there. I go through periods of targeting them but I'm primarily a bass guy!! I went a few weeks ago to the Concord and to @guidoStow's point, the water level was super high and made things tricky.

Awesome Synopsis! I can second the small bait focus based on my experience last year. I was amazed how well they were biting with truly cold water and small baits

Great looking fish, dude. How do you like the dobyns fury? I have a couple they’ve served me well

Sure do! I actually have both of those brands so I’ll work them into the rotation

Thanks! Next time I’ll hopefully catch some fish to put some pics along with it...... well, that makes me feel a bit better haha. It’s funny, in retrospect, I did read some similar feedback around Walden but saw one or two reports that said it was good. Guess some old fashioned confirmation bias and curiosity around that body of water, combined with an ego, led me to believe I would be one of the few who would do well . I’ll try chebacco again soon - they hold tourneys at that lake so they’re in there. I almost made the drive down to Plymouth earlier this AM for some combined LM and SM but traffic had already piled up at 6am so I figured maybe next weekend I’d try.

Went out for most of today. Started around 7am at Chebacco Lake, fairly large body of water in Hamilton that is alewife/herring fed. Have never really fished there before but have heard good things. Water temp was around 48 when I arrived but warmed up to 55 or so by 11:30. Threw chatterbaits, 110’s, Ned rig, jig. Tried shallow, deep, drop offs, inside turns, and couldn’t get anything but one crappie to bite ?. Of the bass I saw on sonar, most looked to be pretty pinned on the bottom. Wondering if the terrible weather this week dropped the temp at a rate they were less than comfortable with. Packed up and drove to concord to fish Walden Pond. Water temp was around 60-61....... Kettle hole similar to the cape ponds, has a large population of trout and smallmouth bass with a few largemouths mixed in according to what I found online and by world of mouth. Nothing there either. Threw the same baits and mixed in a flat sided crank. At this point it was 3pm and had plans this evening so packed it in until Sunday when I’m going to try again! What a rough day though lol.....I haven’t had one that bad in a while. All it tells me is I need to be better on rough days...or perhaps there’s something I’m doing wrong.....either way, onward to Sunday! Hope you guys get out this weekend!

I took the entire day off tomorrow to fish lol....will see how it goes. Checked local water temps today they’re around 54 degrees which looks good to me. Intended to fish more today and log off of remote work early but kept getting caught up. Really hope I can stick a few good ones tomorrow!!

I don't - I probably should, I just figure it's another piece of equipment to lug around.....but maybe I'll give one a try! Thanks, both. I do understand the safety concern too though. Fishing tomorrow - can't wait!!

Love fishing over thanksgiving. I went through December last year and actually did better in Dec than Nov for some reason. I'm trying to go as late as possible, provided there is no ice.....will see.

Went out today for a couple hours and the wind was killer - so tough to deal with in a kayak. Caught some pickerel but no bass......taking Thursday and Friday off of work to fish. Really want to take advantage of the moving bait bite before I have to switch to fishing jerkbaits and Ned rigs painfully slow although nothing beats catching bass real late in the year around Christmas time. What’s everyone’s plan of attack been lately? I feel like I’m still seeing a lot of fish out in mid/deep waters rather than up shallow in a classic fall pattern so from a bait perspective I go from chatterbaits, to buzzbaits, squarebills, jigs..... I don’t believe turnover has happened yet in my lakes so that may be why. Water seems to still be hovering between 58-65 degrees.

@guidoStow That's pretty awesome. You know if it was a tiger it had to be pretty big because the last time they stocked was 2015 and those fish don't reproduce......VERY cool. Otherwise, seen some big pike on ice fishing forums that came from there...also cool. @gjfisher Agreed.....been real warm and the water temp in most of the places I fish has still been 64-66ish so I'm thinking the shallow fall bite is just getting started/delayed.....which is fine by me because I am one to savor/extend fall bass fishing as much as possible. Have a bunch of spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and 110s ready to go!

Fished Lake Champlain last weekend, got a few nice SM bass and some average sized pike. Was pretty fun. All the bass were in 8 to 10 ft of water, 71 degrees, chatterbaits did the trick. Looking to get out this upcoming weekend and snag some largemouth as opposed to the SM bass. Anyone notice if they've moved shallow yet for their fall feed? Went out last week and it seemed like they were still a bit deeper. Hoping to try a few spots on the north shore and then head back inland towards home in the Groton/Acton area. Was catching bass last year through early December in northern MA - hoping to repeat that pattern and then head down to the cape for open water bass later than that. But for now, it's Oct and some good fish to be had if I can find them!

I've been looking into finding them in MA. There's a bunch of spots in Western MA, and some out east where I've seen people managed some nice specimens, but I have yet to find such success in MA ......maybe this fall/early winter when they're supposedly most active. Haven't really targeted them since spring and even then they were fairly lame attempts.

Haven't tried Wequaquet yet but really want to - are there herring there? I see the centerville river feeds it so it begs the question....... In general, I've been trying to take note of a body of water's forage and how it impacts the health of the bass population in terms of total population density and average bass size. I fished a few smaller ponds in Chatham and Harwich last week and did well. Found an isolated hump in about 12' of water with some vegetation and caught one fish after another on a slow rolled keitech and a creature bait on a swing head jig (all LMB). Most bites were on the fall or shortly after dragging a few feet. All were around 2 lbs but real fat with smaller heads and healthy looking. The pond is routinely stocked with trout so they might be feeding on them. Water temps were around 76. Fished a kettle pond near Nashua NH on Sunday and caught pretty much every fish on a senko in shallow. Was really trying to force a moving bait bite but gotta do what you gotta do. Biggest was around 3.5 lbs and the rest were smaller. All were skinny but there are a ton of bass in that pond so I'm guessing that may be why?

Awesome!! Thank you x 1000. Definitely will hit up those stores - would be great to see them in person too