Wednesdays are quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week, because that’s when I get the reports from our Jig Heads. What a week it has been. The weather’s been great, and the fishing has been stellar. Lots of great things are happening on the water!
I spent my Saturday last weekend Way up North on a body of water where bass on beds were just crushing ned rigs. Smallies, largemouth, rockbass, and bluegill were all happy to hit neds throughout the day. We also had a little luck with top waters. The water was about 70 degrees. Sunday I went for a little while on the Mill River in Hatfield and a thomas buoyant landed me a pickerel, perch, and a brown. Monday I was finally able to land my first fish, a largemouth, out of the kayak! It was the only bite I had in the hour I was able to get out after work. The water was just shy of 70 degrees, and the lily pads that are taking over the lake are about halfway to the surface.
Cousin Jon got out once to Congamond for an after work trip with his wife, 9 months pregnant, and largemouth and pickerel were hitting swimbaits and ned rigs in 1-6 feet of water. They welcomed their daughter late last night! Congratulations to you all! Momma and baby are both doing well. As such, Jon said his reports may be a touch dull for the next little bit.
Joe at Old Glory wasn’t able to get out much this week, but many of his patrons did. He reports that Finesse is still the key right now for the bass. Finesse jigs, ned rigs, and shakey heads have all been a good bet, although he caught his biggest this week on a fluke. Central mass is also still seeing some trout stocking. Joe says he’s seeing a lot of luck from shore at all locally stocked water bodies. Power eggs and in-line spinners have been the weapon of choice. When it comes to South Pond in Brookfield, the big browns are still biting. Joe said they are moving down on the water column, but drifting shiners is still going to be your best bet
Andy was only able to get out to Otis for about two hours this week. Although he didn’t catch anything himself, he spoke to a few other fishermen that reported catching some bass and four trout. They also reported that the trout had been stocked again just this past Friday.
Berkshire Brett reported that due to scheduling conflicts, and the second trip for his car to the garage, he was unable to get out on the water, but he did get IN the water. Brett hit his local brook. He says that they have hit all the secondary streams with the stocked trout, mostly browns as far as he’s seen. They were hungry! Brett was using a spinner that was actually a bit too large, but they were still hitting it hard. He was unable to set the hook on all but two. He also gave one of the larger pools a go and landed a beautiful brookie. Brett also reported that they just had a major hatch of some sort of fly. How did he know? Because they peppered his windshield for a quarter mile, like it was raining.
Nelson started his fishing adventure this week in Joe’s neck of the woods. He went to Lake Lashaway for the first time, looking for smallmouth bass. After catching several largemouth and a good sized pickerel, all caught on various soft plastics, (weighted and weightless) he finally found some smallies on the southern end of the lake. He hooked into a few of them using a squarebill crankbait and all of them jumped 1-2 feet out of the water and came unbuttoned. One of them that let go right next to the kayak spit up a yellow perch that was still alive. Water temps were in the high 60s and the bluegills were on beds.
On Nelson’s next outing he hit two very different lakes. First Lake Mattawa, again looking for smallmouth. He reports he never found the smallmouth but the largemouth and pickerel were loving the soft plastics I was throwing. He also saw something here that was very disturbing: Hundreds of soft plastic stick baits (aka Senkos) all over the lake bottom. So many that he said he doubts it’s just from losing them while fishing. PSA: Please don’t throw your plastics out in the water. Water temps were in the high 60s. After Lake Wattawa, Nelson headed over to Lake Rohunta for only a couple hours. He said he was surprised to see only one vehicle there with 2 people fishing. His next surprise was the water temps being 78 degrees already. He did find some bass and big pickerel in the shallows on a chatter bait.
Ryan started his week out on a small body of water throwing around one pole with 50lb braid and a frog. He said the bite was absolutely phenomenal. He reported water temps in the low 70’s and that the bite was nonstop. Ryan said as he threw the frog into grass and weed lines, it was getting nailed over and over again. The average weight of the fish was about 2 1/2 pounds with the big one going 4.8 pounds. His next stop was the boag pond where he had already anticipated a tough fight trying to find them. He ended the trip there was one pickerel who proceeded to rip the plastic swimbait into pieces.
Ryan also got out yesterday with a good buddy on Lake Lashaway where they had a phenomenal day. The morning bite was fantastic with his shaky head and rubber worm, followed by smallmouths on the ned rig all day. None of the smallies were of great size but they were definitely hungry. The water temp at Lake Lashaway when they got off the water was 71 degrees. Ryan’s next battle will be a club tournament on Friday night on the boag!
Tim hit congamond last Thursday where he was still finding them on beds, this time in middle pond. He reported that small plastics enticed them. Tim’s biggest was a random cast into a deeper drop off of the spawning areas with a weighted flute worm. His next stop was Candlewood Lake for a club tournament. Tim fished the far north end where he found a solid bag of 3 lb smallies in 68 degree water, around beds and in and around rocky hazard areas. His co-angler pieced together a solid 4th place finish, fishing random casts in and around spawning flats. All of their action was before noon.
Now, this was smack dab in the middle of Shawn the Fisherman’s adventure as he was dodging boat traffic while carp surfing. Shawn said that he was begging Tim for help with diverting jet skis and water skiers away from him while battling this monster carp, and being told to “Go pound sand, I’m busy fishing.”
“Not sure I said pound sand, but I did not leave the action to make the 20 minute or so run to watch him going nuts. (Which you all may have watched on the Jigs & Bigs live feed when he and Bobby were on the phone!) If Shawn really needed me, I would have! I was confident in his kayak maneuverability!”
Shawn had a crazy weekend at Candlewood. He landed that 34 inch carp, a new personal best, after what he described as a 50 minute Nantucket sleigh ride. He also landed a new personal best smallie, coming in at 20.25 inches. This was one of 2 smallies over 20 inches. Shawn also placed in the top 20 both days in a loaded KBF field on a heavily pressured lake. Way to go man!
Don’t forget the Jigs & Bigs Tournament is still in full swing! You have until June 6th to get your entries in via Fishing Chaos. They’ve got 46 entries as of today! Don’t do what I did on my first fish on Saturday, and forget to include your identifier….bring a sharpie, and write it on your hand.
Good luck out there this week. Tight lines!
Wild Woman 