54 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

Cool! Got a pic?

 

It's nothing more than a piece of 1/2 sched 40 electrical pipe I heat up and mold to the nose.  I use a lot of contact cement to hold it in place.  When that one wears through it can be removed with a heat gun and some patience.

 

 

7 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

can't get a picture of it below 1.1M

What kind of phone do you have? Some gallery apps have an option after you click edit to "resize" a photo, usually it lists options as percentage in 20$ smaller increments.

 

 

I belong to the Mac cult. 

On 5/10/2025 at 12:44 PM, DogBone_384 said:

I belong to the Mac cult

There is hope

There is freedom

There is Android

 

In the meantime here's the long way ios makes you do it, or use a third party app because android let's you do it natively

 

https://www.howtogeek.com/726913/how-to-resize-or-reduce-photo-size-on-iphone-and-ipad/

46 minutes ago, Banned User said:

There is hope

There is freedom

There is Android

I’m too old & set in my ways to change now. The next step is to put the white rotary phone back in the kitchen and toss technology in the river…. 😉

On 5/9/2025 at 6:54 PM, Banned User said:

We're you on a yak?

 

I'll take numbers of small smallies over 0 smallies any day, just throw some finesse rigs and every 1.5 pounder will feel like a monster

 

You ever watch Tackle2thepeople on YouTube? Dude from around here that really found a way to milk the algorithm and blow up. He hits the Charles sometimes, other spots across mass. Solid channel for some random tid bits, I think he focuses on shorts, great for the adhd haha

Yes I was on a kayak, wind wasn't so bad for most of the day so I was able to get a good amount of distance. It did get pretty bad later in the day though. 

 

The smallies I get on the charles are real feisty, so much fun on 6lbs test. That section I mentioned also has real skinny water too, so anything over a medium light spinning rod is total overkill imo.

 

I love that channel LMAO, I definitely would appreciate more longer form videos from him but I really enjoy the commercial fishing aspect he's focusing on now. 

Weekend report 5/9-5/11

 

Lots of family time this weekend meant I wasn't able to go fishing as much as I wanted, but I will take the valuable memories and wonderful moments.

 

Now onto the fishing:

 

I was able to go out on Friday and Saturday for about 1 hour in total in the mornings, nothing too crazy; small bass and crappie in a small pond. The bass seemed to be off the beds and in full post spawn mode, but the small size of the water probably meant that the temps were higher than in other areas. Other than a finesse swimbait, the megabass karashi might be the best small pond lure I have ever used, the strikes are absolutely vicious. 

 

Mother's day I spent down at the cape with my girlfriends family and I had some time in the evening to explore the many ponds I have yet to fish. I decided to go to Peters Pond in Mashpee, what a cool place. Really clear waters in the mid-high 60s meant I saw no bedding activity, but I did see massive schools of yellow perch and trout out in deeper water. I got no bass but a nice rainbow hit my swimbait and a big ol brown trout demolished the perch colored jerkbait I was using.

 

If anyone here has any idea how to fish these deep clear cape waters I would gladly accept the advice. There were large fish suspended underneath schools of perch between 15-40 feet of water and neither swimbaits, dropshots, or jerkbaits were working.

18 minutes ago, AverageAngler said:

If anyone here has any idea how to fish these deep clear cape waters

 

Looks like we have to put out the Smallmouth help flag out so @Saltysmalljaws sees it.  He's an islander and a stick when it comes to Cape SMB.

 

I do OK on my kayak down there,  I stick to fluorocarbon line and 'match the hatch' baits.  Keep a Ned or small swimbait handy.  Most of the ponds down there have little structure, so finding smallies requires a 'run & gun' mentality.  

 

Oh yeah, keep a jerkbait tied on too.

 

If you fish Cape waters that have herring runs, go somewhere else this time of year.  There's so  much food for them, it doesn't matter what you throw, they're not biting.  That's my experience, anyway.

38 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

 

Looks like we have to put out the Smallmouth help flag out so @Saltysmalljaws sees it.  He's an islander and a stick when it comes to Cape SMB.

 

I do OK on my kayak down there,  I stick to fluorocarbon line and 'match the hatch' baits.  Keep a Ned or small swimbait handy.  Most of the ponds down there have little structure, so finding smallies requires a 'run & gun' mentality.  

 

Oh yeah, keep a jerkbait tied on too.

 

If you fish Cape waters that have herring runs, go somewhere else this time of year.  There's so  much food for them, it doesn't matter what you throw, they're not biting.  That's my experience, anyway.

Good to know with the herring ponds LOL. Run and gun is more of a challenge for me due to being restricted by paddling, but I do love a good workout.

Gave up on bass, been trying for stripers, still not catching fish! 

It's about to be hiking season for me so the fishing will take a back seat this summer unfortunately. Still got a couple rods in my car for "unplanned emergencies" though 😉

8 hours ago, AverageAngler said:

wasn't able to go fishing as much as I wanted, but I will take the valuable memories and wonderful moments.

Sounds like the kinda guy I'd go fishin with

 

Since my first girl was born about 90% of my fishing has been after the girls go to bed. Hard for me to give up that time, especially when they're young. 

 

I love a finesse spinnerbait for smallies, keeps my feelings like I'm fishing even when I'm not catching. 

The cape lakes. Use dropshot, Senko, blk &blue 1/4 oz jigs, Carolina rigged lizards. The usual. Blk & blue flake Senko and the natural shad color senkos, will catch smallies, practically year round.  Most lakes with smallies in them, will have big largemouth too. Early morning and late evenings, beat the banks. They chase bait up shallow. Late morning to the early evenings, find the drop offs and any vegetation in 12 to 15 feet of water. 

On 5/23/2013 at 5:04 PM, Jigfishn10 said:

grampa1114 and I fished Cochituate today from 10:00 am to about 3:00 pm. I must say that fishing with grampa was pretty boring...He caught all the fish and we had a lot of laughs. Alright so I told a white lie, I had a great time and couldn't be happier with the outing we just had.

 

I had 3 fish come off a lipless crank and 3 missed fish on a jig. I did manage 1 bass on a jig and 1 pickerel on a lipless crank. grampa cleaned my clock as he got at least 6 or 7 bass, 4 or 5 crappie and at least that many pickerel.

 

He fishes with a 3" Fluke on a 1/16 oz ball head made on a #4 hook. I would have never in my life would have thought that a rig that small would entice the bass and pickerel sizes he caught. My hats off to grampa as I have learned a great deal today watching him fish such a light rig.

 

Thank you grampa for fishing with me. I had a lot of laughs today and had a great time.

 

I'll post up some pics later tonight.

Grandpa had the jighead minnow vision way before the rest of the world found out.

Fishing Report May 16th

Went to the same lake since the last report.

Fished until 1pm.

Very calm winds all morning. Air and water temp averaged in the high 60s.

Bass were hitting the top water as well as jerkbaits.

I'm trying different kinds of jerkbaits ever since I lost two Megabass lures in one day, before I settle in on which ones I prefer.

Besides the Megabass, i.e.,  the Vision Oneten SR, Vision Oneten Jr and the X-80 Trick Darter, so far I have tried:

• Berkley Stuna 112
• Realis 85SP
• Livingston Jerkmaster Jr
• Strike King KVD jerkbait 100

They have all caught fish with the Jerkmaster Jr catching the largest bass so far. Has one outperformed the other? At this point, I can't say for sure.

Cheers.

 

Tried a new pond yesterday, shallow, weedy fishery; 10 foot was the max depth I found.  Fished some topwater, a soft plastic jerkbait, jig head minnow, and gave my tiny bull shooter a shot.  Milfoil fields made fishing treble hook baits tough. 
 

water temps were 67° and most bass must have been in post spawn mode as not a whole lot was doing up shallow, and found a lot of empty beds.

 

Fooled 2 bass in my couple hours of work. One on a Zara spook which was my first top water bite of the year and a 3 pounder on a jig head minnow in about 8 feet of water.

 

Junk fished a ton but never figured much of a pattern out. Caught a pickerel that was flirting with state pin size as well as a boat load of crappie on the jighead minnow.

 

conditions were strange, muggy, hazy, intermittent sprinkles. Sun was coming and going all day along with the sprinkles. Thought it could have been a recipe for a mean bite but unfortunately it didn’t pan out that way!

 

Re: Cape Ponds

 

Others have given good tips here, structure can be hard to come by so running and gunning with a jerkbait has always been my most successful method on those clear sandy bottom-smallmouth type fisheries.

 

Jerkbait for suspenders and ned rig for bottom huggers has always been my MO. I’ve also had luck on smallmouth specifically on a 1/10 oz black bucktail jig. 
 

Went to the dark side this spring and bought live scope for my rig and have been catching a lot of fish on the jig head minnow.  Scoping is nice but I’ve been catching just as many fish blind casting and strolling it in high percentage areas, I know this method would kill down the cape.

 

if all else fails either get there early enough or late enough for top water hour! Nothing beats catching smallies on a spook or a popper. Vicious strikes. 

I'm not sure where to post this but, I'm in Central Mass and looking to get my Nitro 882 SC (2005) recarpeted. Searching gives me plenty of suppliers of boat carpet but no actual installers.

Any guidance will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Frog bite is on.. on the south shore.

 

even a pickerel wanted the frog.. 

Saturday fishing done and dusted. Went out for a cool 6 hours this morning. Perfect conditions for topwater out in Central Mass. I hit a spot that I have been itching to master due to its legendary reputation, and wasn’t totally disappointed. The downside was no bass but the upside was 10 pickerel all on different moving baits. I missed a HUGE bass that just couldn’t get the hook lodged good enough. It was on a newer frog I had and I didn’t do my usual boiling water trick so the plastic wasn’t soft enough I bet. The bite was weird though. Almost all of my hookups came on a follow up cast because the fish just didn’t commit to it fully.

Haven't been out but saw some bass on beds at a pond in Andover this past week. Once we get into post spawn I usually get out the big 10" curly tail worms which is one of my favorite bites throughout the year. 

On 5/17/2025 at 9:25 AM, Nitro 882 said:

I'm not sure where to post this but, I'm in Central Mass and looking to get my Nitro 882 SC (2005) recarpeted. Searching gives me plenty of suppliers of boat carpet but no actual installers.

Any guidance will be appreciated.

Thank you.

Keep me posted if you find someone, I had some mice get into the tracker over the winter and did a number on the carpet. Found nests in the rod locker comprised of mostly that same carpet fiber.

Took a short trip to Plymouth this morning, launching at first light.  It was a perfect topwater morning, so I started with a bone Zara Spook.  I hooked up & unhooked with two nice SMB in short order.  Shortly after I got a hit & miss from a LMB.  Luckily it came back for a second try.  It weighed 4_0 and was 21" long.  I had a couple more SMB hit & misses, and that was it.

 

That was it.  Water temps were 59.x - 60.x.  Air pressure was 30.  Winds were near calm at launch but picked up to 10+ by 0900.

 

I might get out again this afternoon.  It'll be a game time decision.

 

Good luck to everyone else getting out there this weekend.

Incredible weekend  trip to Ny. We fished Friday Saturday day and half day Sunday! 

I crossed of 3 new species off my bucket list!  I caught a total of 7 different species.  Broke my PB 6 times. 

Bunch of smallies! 
3 walleyes. Caught a 4-10 on Friday, then a 5-13  28 inch on the last day. New PB.
 3 drum, new species for me.
A 35 inch musky on 8lbs test jigging for walleye.  Also a new species, cant believe that happened. Still in shock. 
A white bass. Missed another, 2-2lbs. 
2 lakers one hit the Dixie jig. 
And a rock bass! 

I missed a few really big fish. One was a giant walleye, I think I hooked a sturgeon that bit the Dixie jig. Also lost a big red horse sucker at the net, which would’ve been a new species! That also hit the Dixie jig!

1 hour ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Bunch of smallies! 

 

WAY TO GO MIKE!

1 hour ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

Incredible weekend  trip to Ny. We fished Friday Saturday day and half day Sunday! 

I crossed of 3 new species off my bucket list!  I caught a total of 7 different species.  Broke my PB 6 times. 

Bunch of smallies! 
3 walleyes. Caught a 4-10 on Friday, then a 5-13  28 inch on the last day. New PB.
 3 drum, new species for me.
A 35 inch musky on 8lbs test jigging for walleye.  Also a new species, cant believe that happened. Still in shock. 
A white bass. Missed another, 2-2lbs. 
2 lakers one hit the Dixie jig. 
And a rock bass! 

I missed a few really big fish. One was a giant walleye, I think I hooked a sturgeon that bit the Dixie jig. Also lost a big red horse sucker at the net, which would’ve been a new species! That also hit the Dixie jig!

 

Amazing fishing from a spot like that.