It’s hard to believe that this is the second fishing report of May already. Last week was still a bit chilly, but the last couple of days have brought much warmer weather. Hopefully this means that the bite will pick up!
I was able to get out on Sunday with my brother and a friend on one of our favorite spots in Vermont, only about 90 minutes from where I live in the hilltowns. We hit the water early, and it was brisk and windy. Water temperatures ranged from 48 – 57 degrees and the bite started out slow. As we finessed the boat around the lake, mainly trying to get out of the wind, we found perch, small pike, and a few smallies in 4 to 7 feet of water mainly on ned rigs. We pulled in a couple on a swim bait, spinner, and creature baits, but the ned rig seemed to prevail as the most successful. Structure and warmer water gave us some consistent action. We saw consistent pre-spawning activity, including lots of forming beds.
Then on Tuesday I hit a local river in the hilltowns to try to entice some stocked trout. The water levels are decent, but I had no luck in the short hour I spent trying to find what would get me a bite.
Tim hit up Congamond again midweek where water temperatures were 55 degrees. He also reported that he found one pond where temps were up to 58 degrees. Tim says that the rattle traps were the key for him, as he hit four in a couple hours, again in fairly shallow waters. Today he was out pre-fishing, with water temps around 56 degrees. He said he continues to hit shorelines, especially in the windy areas.
Shawn the Fisherman got out a couple times last week. He went to a Western Mass pond with Bobby, where finesse techniques in clear water of 12-15 fifteen feet turned up a multi species bonanza.
Bobby Roast Beef says that he is finding all his fish in the shallows, mostly holding close to cover. He said that slow presentations have been the most effective. For Bobby, dragging a drop shot, ned or shaky head have worked well. Painfully slow moving presentations have also worked. Specifically, slow rolled spinnerbaits, underspins, squarebill cranks.
Nelson competed in the MAKB Western Division stop number three at the East/West Waushacum Ponds where he fished West Waushacum where the water temps were 52 to 55 degrees. He found bass and pickerel both shallow and deep but reports that the better quality bass were in shallow water and the deeper fish were on the smaller size. He reports that he was able to fool some very quality sized bass with a chatter bait and spinner bait in the shallows, around the very few weeds that were starting to come to the surface and the deeper bass fell to a ned rig. Two of the bass that Nelson caught were of very high quality: one coming in at 22 inches 6lbs.13oz and the other at 21.50 inches, 5lbs.14oz. Those two combined with 3 other good sized bass enabled him to take first place with 98.25 inches (about 22lbs.) and lunker for this tournament. One of my best days on the water bass fishing. Way to go man!
Nelson says that although water temperatures have stayed low for this time of year, the larger, more quality bass are moving into the shallows and getting ready to spawn, or may even be in the spawn in some bodies of water. The next few weeks will be one of the better times of year to set a new PB. With the warmer weather forecasted for the next week, fish activity should increase each day.
The Connecticut river is giving up good numbers of stripers, with some bigger ones mixed in and the shad fishing is still going strong. Looking forward to the weekend, it looks like we are going to continue to have some nicer weather, so get out and fish
Tight lines everyone, get out and fish!
Wild Woman 