On 11/20/2025 at 6:31 PM, Angler Andy said:

Since the marine vessels are covered for the winter,

 

BOO!

 

Keep one of those covers loose.  Cape Cod is nearby and has only frozen over once in the last six years.  Keep your blade baits, hair jigs, and small paddle tails ready to go. 

I forgot how to catch bass. The bass gods haven’t been good to me this year.  I haven’t broke 3 lbs this year. Rain all day until about 2. Fished sunrise to sunset 
Fished 2 new ponds never easy this time of year but it’s always good to explore.  
Spot 1 was a total bust. Not one fish or hit. Real prey 5 inch alewife, Jigs, chatter c jerkbait, tube, under spin and bama rig worked the whole edge in the weeds.  Pond is normally clear but it was cloudy today, foot or 2 of visibility. 

Spot 2 after lunch.  Clear water,  worked my way around the edge. Caught a few  decent pickerel , 2 dink bass, a nice white and a nice yellow. Saw lot of bait fish on top.  
The bass and picks hit the jerkbait. The perch wanted the Dixie jig. Tossed a blade, chatter, jerkbaits, tube, underspin, real prey

Got out again today. Still no bass. Went to a smallie  pond. Fished all the right baits. Jerkbait, blade, jig, tube  and finesse swimbait. Bunch of pickerel, few nice whites and yellows.  Loved getting to use my new light panfish rod with 6lbs braid.

Once again a frigid weekend, these cold temps are really tough to get anything going on. I went to Wachusett yesterday for the afternoon and skunked hard, even the shiners weren’t enough to coax a bite from anything, and today I tried for a shallow bass pond. I got three yellow perch and one bass on my 110jr before I snapped off on my first cast after the bass… I retied my line since there was a kink at the leader to main line connection but somewhere halfway down there was another kink. 😭 

 

I may be able to get a good morning session on Thanksgiving day, but man these days are getting tougher and tougher… I did learn a lot today however, I gained confidence in a new retrieve that will serve me well in these cold times. 41-42° 🥶

Caught in 5 ft of water 30 yards off a point.

I fished a pond on the Cape and another in Plymouth today, and came up empty at both.

 

Water temps were 45.x on the Cape and 44.x in Plymouth.  Both ponds were as low as I've seen them in a few years.

Props to you guys still trying to get out there this late in the year.  For me, it's not worth the effort and grind being this cold and bass being lethargic. I guess it gives me an opportunity to do some of my other hobbies on the weekend that I've neglected in favor of fishing all year 

I went back to Plymouth yesterday and redeemed myself at one of my 'regular' ponds.  I picked up one LMB, one pick, one white perch, and one yellow perch (sounds like a remake of 'One Bourbon, one Scotch, one Beer'...) on an Ito Wasakgi V110+.  I hooked onto what I assume was a good SMB in 40' of water with a gold/black Damiki Vault that let go about half way to the kayak.  I marked most targets on the bottom in 30-40' and found a couple bait balls in the Southern end.  I threw an A-rig for the first time, hoping to pull something out of the bait balls, but nobody wanted to play.

 

Water temps were 46.x, air pressure 30, and the rain held off until about lunch time.  

 

I also saw a mink in the canal that joins the two ponds and a couple of loons that were doing loon things.

Helped my dad put his boat away over the weekend. Still have a couple rods in the car in case but definitely did not fish as much this year, probably the least in my last 10. This spring I plan to do more again. 

November was a bit of a bust for me, I had two good days but the others were skunk city or a grind for one or two panfish. Once that water dropped below 49 degrees I was completely out of my element. I plan on going out this Sunday to get at least one bass then I'm targeting trout for the time being.

I got out three times in November. Bass fishing was dead but the pickerel and panfish were chewing hard 

It was a cold one out there! Fished 2 ponds. Deep clear smallies and largies was the plan. All my fish were from pond 1 in 30 plus feet of water . Lost a decent smallie on the jump early. Got a few  nice white perch on blades sitting on the bottom in 40 feet. It’s not winter fishing without a pickelre. Thought it was a decent bass from 30 feet. 
The smallies and pickerel were on the beast coast open water sniper with a grub trailer. 
Water temps were 41 at pond 1, 38 at pond 2.
Pond 2 was a bust
Saw a school of bass shallow at pond 2 and bait up top.

7 minutes ago, Mr. Aquarium said:

It was a cold one out there!

 

Battery powered hand warmers....  I also use Milwaukee M12 tools, so naturally I have their heated clothing ...  AKA hoodie ....  ALWAYS wear your PFD and keep a change of clothes in your truck too.

2 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

 

Battery powered hand warmers....  I also use Milwaukee M12 tools, so naturally I have their heated clothing ...  AKA hoodie ....  ALWAYS wear your PFD and keep a change of clothes in your truck too.

I had a few layers on.  Long sleeve, hoodie and a grudens jacket.  The rains and wind was cold 

I took the long way around doing errands today. 

• Houghton's has some open water by the beach.
• Sunset lake is locked up.
• Blue Hills res is open.
• St. Moritz is locked up (that's the little puddle behind Shea rink.)

4 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

St. Moritz

Is there actually fish in there? I tried once mad long ago but I have actually fished in puddles before so I thought I was giving into my baser instincts 

I caught them there 45, or so, years ago ….

33 minutes ago, DogBone_384 said:

45, or so, years ago

Mighta caught that last one haha, I can see a couple rough years killing off the bass there. I thought it was just runoff pooling but I had to check, just in case

Some of those smaller kettle ponds have big bass. They are spring fed and deep so they won’t have a winter die off. 

the smaller pond you guys are talking about looks shallow and could’ve had one. 

20 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

I caught them there 45, or so, years ago ….

I never would have thought of St Moritz as a viable fishery. I’ve overlooked it for 25 years 

Canton res was locked up. Buckmasters as well. I went by a res in Lexington I fished at for years and that was locked up. They did a boatload of work on it, I may have to visit that little body of water in the fall

 

I think my 6 year hiatus to freshwater fishing will be coming to an end. I have a 10’ inflatable I’ll be bringing back and forth from Maine 

I use this to row out to my boat and looking for a small trailer for it 

3 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

I never would have thought of St Moritz as a viable fishery

I wouldn’t call it that at all anymore. I just drove by it the other day.

 

Blue Hills Res up the street used to have good bass. I fish it once or twice a year just because, and haven’t seen any signs of life in a few years.

4 hours ago, Jigfishn10 said:

I think my 6 year hiatus to freshwater fishing will be coming to an end.

We’ll have to remedy that. @Fishing Rhino was generous with the back seat of his Nitro. I’ll just have to return the favor with my little Ranger.

8 hours ago, DogBone_384 said:

We’ll have to remedy that. @Fishing Rhino was generous with the back seat of his Nitro. I’ll just have to return the favor with my little Ranger.

Yes. I fished with rhino a few times when we used to get together as a group. Lot of fun. Those guys were great ppl. 
 

Let’s connect in the spring 

Well, it looks like my 2025 season is over (FINALLY).  I caught one five, two fours, some threes, and fished NH and VT more.  I also upgraded my bow unit to an Elite FS12 and added Live Target 1.

 

I also spent more time focusing on jigs, taking twelve trips with only jigs.  I skunked 8 of the 12.

 

I succeeded in catching fish in MA in open water every month this year, but still call the year a bust.  I couldn't put together any consistency, even though I fished waters I'm very familiar with.  I got a lot of help from the membership and ReelNorthernBass, but still couldn't break out of what I call 'third grade fishing'.

 

The only goal I'm setting for '26 is to make fishing more fun again and not fish alone 99% of the time.

 

Feel free to share your '25, and Merry Christmas everyone.

Yea my season is over too. Bass fishing was a bust.  But I didn’t fish nearly as much as I used to. No longer single.  Had some great trips for other fish.  Couple great trips for big stripers bunch of 20lbs fish crushing spooks. Still looking for my 40lber. Had a great kayak saltwater trip to Ri, bunch of bones, fluke, scup, sea bass and tog most of them on my hand tied jigs. 
Went to Ny Memorial Day weekend. Crushed it. Bunch of fat smallies, walleye and drum, couple lakers, a white bass and musky. Crossed off all 3 bucket list species, and broke a new PB.

I took the long way around to do errands today.  Everything I passed from Braintree to Canton and back is very locked up.  

 

Hopefully Cape Cod still has open water.

 

My ice fishing gear is ready to go, if necessary.

Didn’t get to fish as much as I usually do this year but I caught some great fish. 
 Couple new species and new PBs
First ever musky, drum (caught a bunch)white bass, lumpfish and tessellated darter 
PB walleye 5.5lbs 
Couple lakers, bunch of smallies
Smashed the stripers a few times

Dixie jig fish 
Lake trout, king salmon, smallmouth, bonito, tog, sea bass, fluke ,squid and stripers 

Heres a funny story. I broke off a fish last March in some weeds. A week later I caught the line to the lure with the fish still attached and alive.