Happy Thursday! We are officially into August which is hard to believe. The jig heads have been busy this week!
Andy fished all day on Monday at Otis with water temps cooler, at 70-72 degrees. He started off throwing a weighted soft plastic craw with moderate success near the boats in the marina, with a 14 inch pickerel as the largest on the craw. He reported catching a lot of smallmouth and crappie on small jigs and crankbaits. Midday he picked up a 20 inch pickerel on a jerkbait in shallow water and a rocky bottom. After that Andy headed into Dismal Bay for some late day topwater frogging catching more 12-14 inch smallmouth and losing a lure to what was clearly a toothy slimedart as it sliced effortlessly through his 40 lb braid.
Ryan reports that this week has been an absolute blast for him. HeI hit South Pond again in Brookfield and killed them on the shaky head and neiko rig, all in about 10-12 feet of water. Ryan said that the fish were extremely aggressive. He also got a nice size pickerel on a crank bait along with 2 bass. Over the weekend and yesterday he hit a few different shore sports between Worcester and Sturbridge, landing fish on spooks, plopper, frog, and more soft plastics. Next endeavor is Lake Shirley Friday night!
Nelson only got out once this week but hit two different ponds in North Central Mass, Where water temps at both ponds were right around 70 degrees. He and Shawn got on the first pond at sunrise and were the first ones on the water, but it quickly became crowded. After fishing along the shallow water with no luck, Nelson moved out to deeper water and found the nibblers willing to take a weighted creature bait in 8-10 feet of water, around isolated clumps of weeds. Nelson said the biggest fish between him and Shawn was a 13.5 inch bass, so they decided to go check out a pond that they both had never fished. It was a great decision, for me anyway. I was able to quickly figure out that the bass were very tight to shore next to cover. Nelson proceeded to catch a few more nibblers and a couple better bass including a 19.75 inch, 4lb 9oz. piggy. He caught all his bass on a weightless soft plastic around wood or deep in the lily pads.
Shawn the Fisherman said it frankly: Nelson kicked my ass Sunday. Twice. At 2 separate ponds.
Shawn also reported getting out on Tuesday evening with Tim and Russ, stalwarts of MAKB’s Western division. They were joined by their buddy Mike and Tim’s girlfriend Cindy. They hit one of their favorite local waters in Springfield, a place known for being a “feast or famine” fishery.
Shawn said famine was the word of the day, as he was the only one to land anything, which were two nibbler Largemouth.
Tim hit his local spot once again hoping to have another killer day, like last week! He said there wasn’t much wind out on the lake which, he thinks, led to a slower day. Tim still managed to put 15 in the boat on a mix of weighted worms and finesse ned rigs. He also reports that he had some luck with Shawn the Fisherman’s favorite technique… drop shotting off, shore playing video games.
My bit of advice this week is to pay attention to your surroundings. While I was beating the banks and hitting docks I was watching the surface out in the middle of the lake. I noticed bait on the surface and every now and then fish busting the bait on top. I had a soft plastic jerk bait handy and fired that into and around the bait. Each time the bait would get slammed! Those fish tended to be the smaller ones for the day but, man did they hit and fight. I caught one fish on a topwater.
That’s all for now folks, so get out and fish! Also, don’t forget to check out the latest Jigs and Bigs episode which aired on Tuesday, with all kinds of great segments for tips and tricks, and my favorite FTG (if you know, you know).
As always, tight lines!
Wild Woman 