Eastern Ma & New England Area Fishing Reports

[padlin]

We have a pond out here that sound fairly similar. Has a lot of smaller bass, sub 2 lb, very stained. I’ve noticed that of the 3 ponds I regularly fish, this is the only badly stained one, and the only one with no pickerel. The other 2 are fairly clear, are about 50% pickerel, and have much bigger but less bass, largemouth that is.

[Don51]

Dogbone, that sounds like Wampatuck. Tough place. I caught one around 6 lb many years ago out of one of the smaller ponds in the park.

[DogBone_384]

I got @Fishing Rhino on the water for the first time in two years yesterday.  We fished his home pond.  We caught 30 - 40 fish between us.  We each got 3 or 4 LMB over 3 pounds and a mix of pickerel, yellow perch, white perch, crappie, and one bluegill (for good luck).  Tom stuck with soft plastics and I threw a perch Rapala Shadow Rap Shad, 3.8" Keitech/underspin, and a Keitech creature. 

 

The jerkbait was the top producer, by far.  In fact, I got TWO '2-fers' (two fish simultaneously) on it.  The first was a LMB and pickerel and the second was two white perch.  A first for me. 

 

All in all a great trip.  I'm going to try to get Tom out once or twice more before it gets cold.

On 9/16/2023 at 2:32 AM, Don51 said:

Dogbone, that sounds like Wampatuck.

Yep, that's the place....

[MassYak85]

I'm heading out tomorrow. Got one of those Spro KGB glides I'm excited to try, and some more spinnerbaits. Going to see if we can find them in the outside grass lines chasing gills and perch around but if not I might have to get the jerkbait for the first time in a while.

[Swamp Girl]

On 5/20/2023 at 1:19 PM, Mr. Aquarium said:

Haven’t gone out bass fishing since mid April. I need to get out. Did a shore trip. Brought my surf rod to bomb baits out there 
Spot one was good a big fish spot. Had a few whacks on the crawler. Put on the PG. They loved it. Few whacks. Stuck twin 5-11s from 2 different areas and a 3.  Hit spot 2. Water was really high couldn’t fish the spot well. It fishes well with lower water.  When the waters high it’s really shallow can’t reach the drop offs. But I tried. Had one big blow up on the PG. Got one smaller fish and missed a decent one on a T rig rage bug.  Tried the DS crawler. Immediately got smoked. Thought I had my 3rd 5er. But couldn’t get that extra ounce to get her over. She was            4-14. Then got a nice 3lb smallie on the crawler. First smallie for me on a DS bait.  The 3rd pond was dead. Couldn’t get a sniff 

 

WOW!

On 6/18/2023 at 1:34 PM, MassYak85 said:

Well the bass didn't cooperate this morning for my dad but I was able to snag a nice one. Absolute blimp of a fish that had a bluegill in it's throat went after a 3pc PB rat. It's not often I feel outgunned with a swimbait rod but this fish hit hard and managed to get a few good headshakes in. The first headshake I thought it was a giant as I caught a glimpse of it's side. It only ended up being 20 inches but had the girth to still come in at 5lbs 10oz. Fattest fish I've ever caught at that length. That thing has some genetics for sure. 

 

This bass makes me laugh! I think she's my favorite bass at BR. Tom Brady would hate her. Sure, she's a football, but she's way overinflated! 

[Swamp Girl]

I live in Eastern MAine. I do hope I'm in the right thread. J/K

[MassYak85]

17 hours ago, ol'crickety said:

 

This bass makes me laugh! I think she's my favorite bass at BR. Tom Brady would hate her. Sure, she's a football, but she's way overinflated! 

Fattest bass I've ever caught (not my PB but just the girth). I thought I finally had a 7lber on when I saw her come to the surface.

 

 

 

I got out again today to kick off the fall. Had a pretty decent day, got most fish on spinnerbaits but there was soooo much bait in the water. As soon as we launched there were just clouds of what looked like tiny little shiners roaming above the shallow weedbeds. Managed to get a few but I think we could have capatilized more had we got there a bit earlier. Out in the main lake we got some off a weedy point that seemed to be chasing perch. My biggesy was just over 3lbs on a spinnerbait and had a huge perch in it's stomach. My dad got a slightly bigger one later on as well.

 

It was a weird day, we saw dozens of dead perch floating around all over the lake, seemingly with no injuries, and they seemed to be the only affected species (yellow perch). Anyone ever seen something like that before?

 

Oh and we gave back a bit to mother nature. There was a struggling pigeon in the water that seemed exhausted and couldn't fly so we returned it to shore. That's a first haha.

[DogBone_384]

Drove to my favorite pond in Plymouth Friday morning.  Did well.  5 SMB, 4 white perch, and one pickerel.  Three smallies were over 2 pounds.  Everyone but the pickerel went for a stealth shad Stunna 112+1.  

 

I marked bait balls on the bottom in ~ 20' but caught all my fish in 8 ~ 12, except for the pick and one white perch.  Surprisingly, one perch was in 3 - 4' of water.  All the smallies fought above their weight class.  

 

Water temps were 71.x.  Winds were light when I launched and about 10 mph when I left.  Air pressure was 30.4.

 

Looks like the fall feed is on.  I'll be on Cape Cod the 27th to the 29th with my Ranger.

 

Good luck to everyone getting out there.

[MassYak85]

6 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

Drove to my favorite pond in Plymouth Friday morning.  Did well.  5 SMB, 4 white perch, and one pickerel.  Three smallies were over 2 pounds.  Everyone but the pickerel went for a stealth shad Stunna 112+1.  

 

I marked bait balls on the bottom in ~ 20' but caught all my fish in 8 ~ 12, except for the pick and one white perch.  Surprisingly, one perch was in 3 - 4' of water.  All the smallies fought above their weight class.  

 

Water temps were 71.x.  Winds were light when I launched and about 10 mph when I left.  Air pressure was 30.4.

 

Looks like the fall feed is on.  I'll be on Cape Cod the 27th to the 29th with my Ranger.

 

Good luck to everyone getting out there.

The bass we were catching were full of energy, the largies were fighting like smallies.

[DogBone_384]

I had a mixed bag on Cape Cod the last few days.  Did well on Wednesday, fishing two ponds.  Totaled 30+ fish between the two, with a mix of SMB, LMB, yellow perch, white perch, and pickerel.  Jerkbaits were the lure of choice.  My biggest bass was a smallie just over two pounds.

 

The fish were SHUT OFF Thursday.  I fished three ponds (luckily, two of them had HP restrictions but let me run on TM only) from dawn to dusk, throwing the kitchen sink, and couldn't buy a bite - not even from a perch or pickerel.  Needless to say it was a TALL pour that night....

 

Boss lady's calling more later ...

 

It's later ... I fished one pond in Sandwich Friday morning and was rewarded with a 4-6 Larry in short order on a 5" orange/brown Senko.  Adding a 1-13 SMB, 14 oz sunny, and decent pickerel to the mix by the time I had to leave.  

 

Water temps were 66.x - 67.x.  I'm not sure what was going on Thursday, but Wednesday & Friday made up for it.

[Don51]

Don't be afraid to throw a rattle bait this time of year.  ?

[MassYak85]

I haven't been able to put down the spinnerbait. It's just so consistent for me and I can cover so much water this time of year. That and a tailspin especially on lakes with alewives.

[guidoStow]

I got up to try to find some cooler water and find some pike. First contact was a >30" jumper that spit the fly fly right at the net. It was followers I couldn't get to sign the deal the rest of the day. Landed one the next day but it was smaller 24". Caught some bass along the way including a 21" largemouth.

 

 

 

 

[Don51]

That is a strange pattern on that LM.  ?

[guidoStow]

The board dropped this one from that last post:

[Don51]

Well, this is it boys! This month offers a very good chance of hooking into a new pb. The bass know what's coming and will be feeding hard. Right place, right time, right bait. Get out as often as you can and hope you hit it just right. I always had my best days fishing shallow, bog type ponds as opposed to the deep sand bowls.  ?

[DogBone_384]

I got @Fishing Rhino on his home pond again.  We didn’t kill it like the last trip, but Tom’s pond never disappoints.  It was pretty busy for the first hour and trailed off quickly.  I got a mix of everything and Tom got a couple good bass and picks.

 

There’s a pickerel with my favorite Rapala jerkbait stuck in its face … good thing I keep spares of my top lures in the garage.

 

Gonna try for stripers tomorrow afternoon.

[MassYak85]

16 hours ago, Don51 said:

Well, this is it boys! This month offers a very good chance of hooking into a new pb. The bass know what's coming and will be feeding hard. Right place, right time, right bait. Get out as often as you can and hope you hit it just right. I always had my best days fishing shallow, bog type ponds as opposed to the deep sand bowls.  ?

I'll be getting out Friday. Hoping the leading edge of the front yields some good ones.

[guidoStow]

Has anyone been out to western/central MA recently and gotten a water temperature reading? TIA

[guidoStow]

I was out at dawn to catch the major period and the front's approach at a mid state pond containing bass and pike. Got neither, just a yellow perch and a black crappie swinging above their weight by taking a fly over half their length. Drizzle and finally steady rain chased me off.

[MassYak85]

4 hours ago, guidoStow said:

I was out at dawn to catch the major period and the front's approach at a mid state pond containing bass and pike. Got neither, just a yellow perch and a black crappie swinging above their weight by taking a fly over half their length. Drizzle and finally steady rain chased me off.

I did okay but was a bit dissapointed as well. Managed 8 bass on spinnerbaits but the bite was definitely off. It was weird too cause the ones that did end up hitting were hitting like freight trains. It was very much a shallow reaction bite they didn't want to go after much else. And I only caught them in areas near startled baitfish in shallow vegetation. Didn't catch anything over 2.5lbs but man did I think I was gonna need the net on a few of those hooksets. Seems like every time I think it's definitely gonna be a good day I get thrown a curveball by nature haha. I can't complain with the 8 fish but I had visions of some heavy hitters when I launched haha. Took a few hours to get on the bite that I did. And the rain made for some unpleasant conditions.

 

This rain has done a number on my reels, two of my workhorse reels crapped out on me so I had to do some rod swapping. One the AR bearing went, and the other had gotten a little too wet recently and the handle bearing fused to the handle with rust. Gonna need a new handle smh. But the thing that really took it out was the retainer clip for the spool bearing came loose and jammed itself between the drive gear and the pinion geat and seized it up.

[ne_dan]

River levels/flow finally came back down to normal levels around here after last weekend.  Took the kayak out for 3 hours, over 20 bass.  Biggest went 3lb 9oz.  Jig and Spinnerbait all afternoon; didn’t have to change lures the whole time (except for the jig that got bit off by a pike).  Hopefully the rain next weekend isn’t too bad.

[Frezzy]

On 10/7/2023 at 7:32 PM, ne_dan said:

River levels/flow finally came back down to normal levels around here after last weekend.  Took the kayak out for 3 hours, over 20 bass.  Biggest went 3lb 9oz.  Jig and Spinnerbait all afternoon; didn’t have to change lures the whole time (except for the jig that got bit off by a pike).  Hopefully the rain next weekend isn’t too bad.

Looks like the bulk of the rain will stay south.  River levels shouldn't be impacted.  I will be out on them this weekend.  Good luck!

[DogBone_384]

I had a mixed trip on the Cape this week.  Tuesday afternoon was my best performance where I fished my favorite kettle in Plymouth, coming up with a bunch of smallies between 1.5 - 2 pounds and a couple of yellow perch that came in around a pound. A perch 3XD was the lure of choice.  From Plymouth I went to Harwich, where three yellow perch made it to the kayak and two SMB got the better of me before I could get them in.

 

Wednesday morning went well in Chadham with a baker's dozen mix of LMB and pickerel.   Thing is, most were under a pound.  I struck out at the second Chadham pond and managed a dink yellow perch and a rainbow trout on a shad 3XD in Brewster (a reportedly great SMB pond I struggle badly at 😡). 

 

I fished in Sandwich this morning and couldn't come up with more than a few half pint smallies via wacky Senko and a 3 1l2 pound pickerel on a small Spro deep running jerkbait.  I marked most targets in 20'+ but couldn't get anyone else to commit to a lipless or drop shot.

I saw a few groups of minnows at the shoreline, but not in giant numbers, at all ponds I fished. Sandwich was the only pond where there were clouds of them suspended in 20-25’.

 

The weather yesterday afternoon & this morning was very bluebird-ish.  Air pressure was steady at 29.9 and water temps were 65.x - 67.x.

[MassYak85]

Got out for a couple hours today in Central MA. Tough bite, only got one. Going to try again tomorrow.