Ah, it's good to be back on Quabbin Reservoir in central Massachusetts. Here's my #1 for the season, a healthy smallie which took a 5/8 oz. blade bait made from barlowstackle.com components. This is the third season I've been using a single 1/0 Siwash and the first time I gussied up the body with prism tape.

 

This is my 5th annual early season trip with Bassmaster Brad, a versatile and exceptionally good bass fisherman. His first fish of the day was this 4 1/4 lber. which hit a gold blade bait:

 

 

We were fishing a flat at 10' - 20+' depths. Much of it was covered in slime or sandgrass but there were areas clean enough to work a hair jig through without fouling. I spent the hard water months in my tackle room molding, painting and tying jigs and I was ready to see if the smallmouth approved of the pewter football that came out of the 1/4 oz. mold cavity, got a coat of TJ's Crinkle Copper and then got dressed with brown bucktail and orange neck hackle. While dragging slowly through the clear, 49º water I felt a "tick" telegraph up the 8 lb. fluoro . . .

 

 

Brad and I were happy with these fish, of course, but there really wasn't a lot of action. We then checked an area that more often than not is productive for me, but not this trip. Brad had a spot in mind and positioned the boat not far off a steep breaking point with a rock garden underneath. Brad cast out from the boat and I thought I'd see if a bass might snag the hair jig before the rocks did casting toward the point. Brad hooked up with the gold blade and a few seconds later a smallie inhaled my jig.

 

 

 

This 4 1/4 lber. ate what looks like a short length of orange string. Here's a pic of it dried out and ready to go again:

 

 

To sum up, we didn't find a lot of active fish, but a few good ones: 4 smallies and 2 lake trout for Brad; three smallies for me. Cloud cover and a heavy ripple in the morning changed to mostly sunny with not enough of a breeze in the afternoon - Quabbin is real tough when the surface is flat.

 

I'll be out again tomorrow and will report with another true tale from the Big Q.

 

Tight lines, all!

 

WW

Beautiful fish, and beautiful jig!

Nicely Done ~

Congrats and Good Luck tomorrow. 

A-Jay 

Great to be back at them.

Great looking Brown Fish!!  Can't wait for our annual trip to Lake St Clair next month!!  

Nice smallies, good job!

I definitely need to get down there this Spring 

Glad to have you back reporting on the quabbin smallmouth . Nice fish !!!

Great looking fish & thank you for the report on what they were chomping on.