Happy Thursday fishing friends! Not only is today the first day of fall, but the fall weather seems to be here too with the temperatures dropping quickly. The good news is that the cooler water is turning up the bite a bit, which hopefully will increase even more over the next couple weeks!
Ryan the Butcher got out a few times this week. Thursday he fished a Central Mass body of water and was able to land fish on crank baits and jerk baits. He said that the winds were blowing about 20 – 25 so he focused on wind blown points and shore lines. On Saturday he fished Lake Quinsig in Worcester for a small friendly tournament where he found success, once again, on crank baits and jerkbaits. The bite was very tough, he landed seven fish all day, but it was enough to take the win.
Sunday Ryan had another big tournament on Webster Lake. Right off the bat they had a limit and he reports that they caught about twenty fish in the first half hour, all topwater bites as well as on a 5-7 foot flat of schooling fish. Unfortunately, they were not the 3 to 4 lb average they needed and they spent the rest of the day trying to locate fish. Ryan said that he was unable to figure the pattern out until the last half hour, as they all ran back shallow. They then caught seven fish in the last 25 min to land them in the middle of the 35 boat field. Ryan said that there were a couple of key bites that would have moved them up as it was only a two pound difference from them to a top 5.
Fish are definitely moving and with the colder nights they will move into the more agressive feeding patterns. The next month of fishing should be lights out!
Tim got out on Onota lake in the Berkshires this past weekend where he reported water temperatures of 69 to 72 degrees. He said that he had some topwater action early getting a few blow ups and one spitting the bait. He landed a couple of decent size pike on a crank bait and a ned rig. Tim said that the smallie bite wasn’t happening for him, so he switched tactics and went on the hunt for largemouths. He was able to fill his limit with the chatter bait and a weightless soft plastic, and all of his fish came around wood and lily pads. It wasn’t a heavy bag but it was good enough for 4th place! Tim said that other anglers brought some good quality smallmouth to the scale with the winning bag totalling 16 lbs of smallies. The lunker largemouth of the day was 5.39 lbs and lunker smallie was 5.10 lbs. Some anglers figured out the bite while others struggled, but the fish were there and feeding.
Nelson, Jerry and Shawn the Fisherman all fished the final MAKB event for the season on Lake Ashmere.
Jerry made it out a few times this week with the first being the tournament on Ashmere. Jerry said that lines in was at six am and his first bass came at 6:36, a 15.5 inch largemouth on green pumpkin soft plastic neko rigged, which he had caught some on pre-fishing. After that Jerry tried a spinnerbait for a little while but after nothing happened there he went back to finesse techniques. He landed five more on a dropshot and one on ned rig. He also landed a couple pickerel and perch throughout the day.
Sunday morning Jerry headed to a Hampshire county pond and said that it turned out to be a “pickerel fest” catching twenty six of them. He says that it’s looking like they are starting to feed more aggressively up with water temperatures in the sixties. He said that he caught only eight small bass throughout the day, all coming on neko rigged soft plastics .
Monday morning Jerry got out for a few hours before work, hitting a large lake in Berkshire County looking for some pike action. He came up with two: a 24 incher and a 19 incher on spinnerbait around isolated weed beds. Tuesday afternoon Jerry fished a large body of water in Richmond for a couple hours and again reported that the pickerel were biting fairly well, catching eight along with three decent bass. He hit some deeper water for some trout drop shotting, but just kept pulling up bluegills out of the twenty foot range.
Shawn the fisherman reported a slow bite on Ashmere. He said that he was able to get some fish to bite early on weightless and ned-rigged stickbaits. The water temps are starting to fall, and while summer patterns are still holding on when the water drops below 60 degrees, get ready to start using autumn techniques.
Nelson reported that the fishing proved to be tough for most of the anglers who were a part of this tournament. He caught his first keeper about an hour and a half into the tournament and was lucky enough to fill his five bass limit in this small area in about 90 minutes. Nelson said that after not getting any more bites for a while, he went exploring other areas of the lake but still didn’t get any more bites. Then he decided to go back to the area where he caught fish in the morning and ended up getting a 5 1/2 inch upgrade. After catching his limit he was in first place and that’s where he would stay for the entire day. Nelson said that the first 5 bass were caught on a weightless soft plastic stick bait thrown deep into the cover of lily pads or very tight to structure. His last bite came on a ned rig in ten feet of water.
I knew that at any point someone could find some good fish and catch up to me or even take me out of first place. The bite never really turned on again and I was able to stay in first place and take the win. The second bass that I caught in the morning was a 20.25 inch largemouth which took the lunker.
With the cooler temps and rain in the forecast the water temps will be dropping and the fish will become more active feeding up for winter. Get out there and get ’em!! Good luck everyone!
This win gave Nelson enough points to take the Angler of the Year title for the Western Division. Congratulations man, that’s one heck of an accomplishment!
The temps are looking like they are staying cool, and trending down over the next few days. Tomorrow’s high here in the hilltowns is showing to be around 53 degrees, which I am definitely not looking forward to. The rain is also slighted to return on Sunday, so don’t wait. Get out and fish!
Tight lines everyone!
Wild Woman 