And just like that, here we are at the last Thursday in August. We have lots of great stuff this week, so let’s dive right in!
Tim had a tournament on Wentworth Lake in New Hampshire this weekend. He said that they pre-fished on Saturday and found a few patterns that they relied on for the tourney day on Sunday. They found schools of white perch in a shallow cove with 20 to 30 largemouth and smallmouth hanging around, and soft jerk baits and ned rigs were the key. Then, the went deep with c-rigs in 15 to 35 feet of water and were able to fill their limit and cull to a second place finish with 19.73 pounds for 8 fish.
Jerry reports that fishing has been a bit on the slow side this week. He said he took his uncle to the Cheshire Reservoir for a day of just catching numbers of dink size bass. In five hours they landed 21 bass and 2 bluegill, but no pickerel, perch, or crappie. Jerry said that the bite here came on black and blue and green pumpkin soft plastics. Sunday was a fun fishing get together with fellow tournament competitors and friends on a central Massachusetts reservoir that some of them had been to previously, and others hadn’t, but the bite was slow for most everyone. Jerry said they fished from 6:30 am till 1:00 pm and he caught 10 largemouth and 1 perch on a ned rig, drop shot rig, and wacky rig stick baits in natural colors. Last for this week he hit Onota lake in Berkshire county for a few hours in between thunderstorms on Tuesday afternoon with only a small smallmouth and a 16 inch largemouth, which came on a white and gold chatterbait with a paddle tail trailer.
Shawn the Fisherman got out both days this past weekend. Saturday he was in Connecticut for the final regular season Three Belles Outfitters Tournament Series outing, and Sunday in Western Mass for an impromptu trip with some very fine individuals.
Shawn reported that both days sported similar weather, where the clouds burned off around 9:30 am, and the bite seemed to dry up soon after. He caught fish both days on weighted plastic creatures and supplement bites came courtesy of floating jerkbaits and lipless crankbaits. Finesse tactics were the order of the weekend. If you’re heading out, make sure to bring a healthy dollop of patience, as fish seem to be switching on and off quickly. Try finesse presentations to coax a bite or two.
Nelson also hit the water a couple of times this week, with his first outing also being down in CT for the last stop of the Three Belles Outfitters Tournament series on Aspinook pond. Nelson had action on top waters, drop shot, jigs, and weightless soft plastics. He said that all but one of his winning fish were caught on weightless soft plastic stick baits fished on the edge of shallow weed edges. I put 73 inches on the board which was good enough for the win and my 16.5 largemouth took the lunker pool. This win also helped me take the Angler of the Year title after a tiebreaker. My first ever. Now on to the championship. Thank you to Deryk and Ted from Three Belles for putting together a fun and challenging tournament trail.
Nelson’s second outing was “up da shires” where he took his nephew for his first ever kayak fishing adventure the water temperatures were in the low 70’s, about 5 degrees lower than the weekend before. He reports that the fishing was a little tougher than he’d expected but they did catch some bass. They found bass willing to take chatter baits, drop shots, ned rigs and weightless soft plastics. The highlight of the day was that he caught his first ever chatter bait bass. In fact he caught two of them. He was very excited and did not want to leave. We had a great day on the water and I can’t wait to get out there with him again. Good luck out there!!
Bobby Roast Beef reported that his week started out very tough. Sunday morning a large group of anglers met at a lake in Charlton where he reported the fish were not quick to bite, and he ultimately left with a skunk. Based on the number of any quality fish that were caught by the others, was fine with me. He said he truly spent the day junk fishing looking for a bite anywhere, with no luck. If there was one thing that was a point to be made it was this, “remember the plug in your boat”. Upon loading up, we saw a small boat actually begin sinking as it was headed out from the ramp. Luckily, another boater was quick to make it over to them and assist and aside from getting a bit soaked and having a bruised ego… all turned out just fine.
Monday, Mr Roast Beef finished editing the show and handling some work and rewarded himself with a little kayak session at the local Western Mass pond that he’s been dedicating most of his time to this year. He launched his kayak around 7 pm and started with a small buzzbait looking to cover the shallows quickly and find some bites, then followed with some jigs on anything he might miss. After being chased out of a very shallow cove by some unbelievably aggressive beavers (I made sure to inform them that Nelson did in fact have their number!), I headed out to a secondary point where my plan was to start covering with the buzzbait and work my way back down to the ramp and head out as the skeeters 🦟 weren’t helping my motivation to stay out. As he drifted up toward a grassy flat, full of dead grass from previous treatments, Bobby said he tossed the buzzbait up close to the bank under some overhanging brush, when a largemouth EXPLODED on his bait with what he called one of the most exhilarating topwater blow ups of the season! He swung for the fences on his hookset and managed to land my new PB Largie for that body of water, coming in at 18.5 inches! Two casts later I hooked into another at 13″, up shallow in similar cover. No other bites that night aside from the skeeters.
Bobby said that this week he has also been hitting the bank of that same body of water, just biding time while his daughter was at her school orientation. Tuesday he was throwing jigs around the dam and had a good size fish take a swipe at my bait less than a foot from the bank, but he said he flubbed the hookset. Wasn’t able to get a second shot and no other bites on that short session. Wednesday he had the same window of opportunity to fish, and headed over to work the banks. Bobby said as he closed in on the dam he figured it was worth a shot to recreate the presentation and see if lighting could strike twice, and it did! Only, this time he managed to set that hook and land this 16 inch beauty! I then worked on another similar cover and landed another nibbler that was riding under some small clumps of grass mats. Pitching my jig right along the edges or swimming it by the edge managed to be the ticket for the two on this day!
Ryan reports that it was a great week for him on the water, fishing three times; each outing better than the last. He started off on a central Mass body of water to play with some new electronics he’d installed and was able to find smallmouth and largemouth. He reports that he was able to get into the smallies in 18 to 24 feet of water using drop shot and was able to pinpoint them down.
Saturday, Ryan got out in his first tournament of the weekend. He went after the topwater bite first thing in the morning which paid off as he had a limit of bass within the first 20 minutes of the day. They were schooling on bait fish in the shallows, then flipped docks and big grass patches to upgrade through the day, my go to was 1 oz ark tungsten with falcon flipping hook paired with my X zone trailer. Got the job done for the win!
Last, Ryan got out on Sunday where he fished another small tournament at Webster lake and, again, the day did not disappoint. Ryan said he had a good top water spook bite in the morning and had a limit by 9 am; good thing too because he said once the sun came out and fish scattered. He reports that it took him a little while to figure them out but when I found out they were chewing on my DT14 it was game on. It was cull after cull. Slamming that bait into rocks and timber to get them riled up. I took another win held down by my 5.11 lunker. So all in all it was a great week of prolly 100+ fish and non stop action!
It’s looking like this weather is going to be staying in the high 70’s throughout the weekend with a chance of some rain on Friday up here in the hilltowns. It’s been cooling off at night so the water temperatures are starting to trend down a little bit more.
Don’t forget to check out the latest episode of the Jigs & Bigs podcast! Bobby Roast Beef and Shawn the Fisherman really know how to put on a great show – don’t miss it!
Get out and fish this weekend folks. Enjoy, be safe, and above all have fun! Tight lines!
Wild Woman 