Another week has come and gone, here we are again on Thursday for the fishing report! Personally my efforts have been focused on getting ready for archery season and fishing has taken a back seat, but the jig heads have been busy!
Cousin Jon only got out once this week briefly in Rhode Island on a freshwater pond. He reports that the water was extremely low due to the recent drought. He did have some follows by pickerel on finesse presentation, but no commitments.
My brother Karl and his buddy got out on a Berkshire County lake over the weekend on Sunday in the kayaks. They said the fishing started off slow, and although it took them some time they found success on blue and black ocho ned rigs. They landed several largemouth, a few crappie, and perch which all came home for a fish fry.
Jerry was busy this week, he fished 6 Berkshire County water bodies, some short outings after work and some 6 to 8 hours. Two of these lakes are the largest in the county, and in six hours of fishing between them he only landed one smallmouth and a few bluegill. He says that he tried all sorts of baits, finesse and power, but just wasn’t happening.
On another lake in southern Berkshire county Jerry said his luck was much better, landing a dozen largemouth bass, a few pickerel, rock bass, and bluegill all on soft plastics. He reports that another lake was also fairly productive catching eight largemouth, two pickerel, and a few bluegill with some of the bass caught on spinnerbaits the rest with finesse techniques. Last, on Wednesday afternoon, he hit a pond looking to score some large pickerel for the Chronic Trips Multi Species Tournament. He caught a few, the largest coming in at 23 inches on a ned. Sometimes the biggest fish come on the smallest baits.
Ryan reports that the chatter bait bite and crank baits have been his go-to for the past couple of weeks. He said that the fish are getting much more aggressive with these cold nights. He went out a few times and focused on his 10-15 foot points and just picked them off. He said he grabbed roughl 30 fish off one point with a twleve foot diver.
Nelson got out once this week for the HoodlumFest Tournament on Quaboag Pond where the water level was down 3 to 4 feet; hopefully this rain has helped bring that back up. He said that the fishing was very tough for most. Nelson caught a bass right after lines in on a frog and thought it was going to be a great day. Unfortunately, that would be the only bass on that frog and he says that he struggled to find bites. After covering most of the pond and part of the river he had three bass with the last one coming in the last 15 minutes. He caught the second and third bass on a weightless soft plastic stick bait. Nelson noted that all three bass were caught in three completely different areas of the pond, and that the day was so tough his three bass were good enough for a 3rd place finish.
Only half the field submitted a fish and only 5 caught more than one fish, a tough day for sure. Congrats to those who were able to find them! Stay tuned next week for a report from the Elite Kayak Fishing Championship on Lake Champlain going down this weekend.Good luck out there!!!
Shawn the Fisherman got out twice this week. His first trip was the Saturday of the 2022 edition of the Hookset Hoodlums’ HOODLUMFEST on East Brimfield Reservoir. Shawn said he headed up the river on the southern end of the reservoir, and managed a few small fish on small stick-worms. He said that it was a brutal day on a holiday weekend, and finesse tactics were the best option for him
His second outing was a rainy affair “up ‘da ‘shires” at the beginning of the week. Shawn met up with fellow Massachusetts Kayak Bassin’ angler Dan Regan, and they had plenty of action before getting totally soaked. He reports that bladed jigs, suspending jerkbaits, and even a little bit of frogging (by Dan) turned up fish. The water temps in the valley have been slowly slipping downward. With football starting this week, waters should be emptying out their summer crowds, so if you’re looking for some good fishing and some peace and quiet, now is the time to get on the water
Bobby Roast Beef got out over the weekend on the fringes of Western Massachusetts for Hoodlumfest 2022. He reports that new water and a tough day only yielded two largemouth, both caught on ned rigged soft plastics. Bobby said that the only bites he was able to get were tight to vertical cover in the shade. It was a rough day, even took a nap in the kayak it was so slow!
His next outing was on Tuesday in the middle of all the rain, for a bank mission. Bobby managed to hook a decent size largemouth, but the fish managed to shake the hook right at the bank. Decent sized fish for that spot too, shame I didn’t get to count him!
Wednesday he was out again, and had the itch to toss a drop shot on his lightest gear, hitting the bank at the same spot as the day before. He landed 5 fish in the 64 minutes I was able to fish before being rudely interrupted by a ringing business line. He said it was the same story here, his fish were all caught in the shallows tight to cover for the most part, all of them dinks and nibblers ranging from 8 to 12.5 inches with the last one being the biggest and also caught on a ned rigged creature. Fun little morning session on light gear too!
Hoodlumfest sounds like it was a great time, and if you want more on that then listen to this week’s Jigs & Bigs episode! Bobby and Shawn cover the tough conditions they faced over the weekend as well as all the shenanigans that went on.
The weekend looks like we are going to stay in the 70’s during the day for the most part, getting down into the 50’s at night.
Get out there and fish!
Wild Woman 