Hello fishing friends and happy September! The jig heads have been busy this week!
Tim only managed one outing which was his club tournament at Pontoosuc Lake in Pittsfield where the water temperature was 75 degrees.. Tim said that without any pre-fishing, and his last jaunt up there probably 5-6 years ago, he relied on some pre-tournament research. He did his homework online to look for depth changes and then matched up the wind to fish a deeper drop. Tim said he knew they had just treated the lake for weeds so he was looking for 5 bites. He got 6 bites and unfortunately lost a solid smallie at the boat and broke off two around dock posts. He said he then downsized his presentation to an 1/8 oz jig head with 8 lb test. The bite was undetectable, which led to him losing the fish around the docks. When the fish pick the bait up like that, you really need to focus and pay attention to your line and feeling the tension of the fish! That’s FISHIN’!
Andy went out to Otis reservoir Sunday with his nephew. The water temperature was 72-74 degrees. He said there were not a lot of recreational boaters out thanks to the overcast weather. They started out pretty well catching a largemouth, perch, and a pickerel on a crank bait just above the weeds. Andy reports they switched it up to a Texas rig creature bait and then a ned rigged creature bait getting down in the weeds. The fish were plentiful and much bigger in size aggressively going after those baits. Andy’s nephew ended the day with his personal best largemouth and smallmouth in one day!
Nelson fished the MAKB Western Division stop #6 at Cheshire Reservoir on Saturday where the water temperature was 75 degrees. He said the catching was great and he brought about 35-40 bass to the kayak. Nelson reports that although most of the bass were small, he managed to catch a few bigger ones that had him in 2nd place with twenty minutes left to fish. In the last fifteen minutes Shawn the Fisherman and Jerry Howes caught some bigger bass than Nelson had and he ended the day in 4th place. Great job to them for grinding until the end! He caught all but two of his bass on a weightless soft plastic stick bait fished near some kind of structure; boat docks, trees, and solitary weed clumps. He said the other two bass came out of deeper water on weighted creature baits.
Nelson also fished lake Garfield which is the next MAKB Western Division stop #7. He reported finding a very tough bite but he did manage to find some bass, yellow perch, and a large bluegill. He also had a beautiful rainbow trout follow a crank bait out of twenty feet of water and smack it at the surface but it missed the hooks. Nelson said that overall, it was a great weekend of fishing. He also reminds us of one of the upcoming tournaments!
Don’t forget to join the September Jigs and Bigs multi species tournament. If you’re going to be fishing anyway, why not try to win some prizes. It’s a lot of fun.Download the Fishing Chaos App and look up Jigs and Bigs.
Shawn the Fisherman was only out once this week, hitting Cheshire Reservoir for the 6th trail stop of the MAKB Western Division. He had no problems landing fish, with 46 largemouth over the day, but reports that fish over 14 inches were prized commodities. Shaw said that all of the fish were in vegetation and caught on a variety of plastic offerings. Give that place a go if you’re looking for some fun fishing or taking kids out!
Brett only got out once this week as well, but said that it was a blast. He did some rock hopping along the bank of the Housatonic river and blasted some smallmouth all on simple spoons and in-line spinners. eHe said that every hole and little backwash he could hit with his line, he got a hit in return and said the cooler temps are getting everything spun up. Brett said he thinks this week is going to really kick off the fall fishing season. He did not hit any big smallies on this outing with the largest probably being a little over 12 inches, but on a 5’6″ ultralight with 6lbs mono in fast water it was a blast! Also had a Crappie in the mix which was a surprise.
Ryan is still finding fish in the shallows on weightless plastics along with some weighted flukes. He said the water temperatures for the few lakes he fished this week were between 75-79 degrees. He reports that he moved to a lot of fluke-like presentations in the fall and said that tends to do him good. Ryan also is still finding success on his big swimbaits as they are still chewing. Ryan pre-fished for the Old Glory Outdoors big boat tournament. He said the Quaboag was its typical crazy hard, and it was not easy to find fish. His top 3 baits of the week were white fluke, bucca bull shad, and hookset hoodlums soft plastic stick bait. I am excited to pinpoint some fish in the tournament and compete! Next up tournament on Tully Friday and OGO tournament on Saturday!
Here are the upcoming tournaments that you can check out in the area, including the September Jigs & Bigs multispecies tournament!
9/1-9/31, State Monthly Challenge
9/4, Eastern Div, Lake Cochituate, Wayland and Natick launches
9/9, Thursday Night Throwdown, Lake Snipatuit, Rochester
9/16, Thursday Night Throwdown, TBD
9/18, Eastern Div, Walkers Pond/Upper Mill Pond/Lower Mill Pond, Brewster
9/18, Western Div, Lake Garfield, Monterey
Jigs and Bigs
9/1-9/30 September Nationwide Freshwater Multispecies Tourney
Chronic Trips
10/1-10/31 October Nationwide Freshwater and Saltwater Multispecies Tourney
The upcoming weather shows lower temperatures which hopefully will keep water temperatures down, and kick off a heavier fall bite like Brett predicted. Temperature predictions are showing 67-72 degrees this weekend, with minimal rain (yay!).
Enjoy the long weekend folks and stay safe. As always, tight lines!
Wild Woman 