It seems that summer just decided to dip out real quick this year. The temperatures have been cold, we have even had frost at our house already up here in the hilltowns.
Tim got out on the Connecticut River in Hinsdale NH for their end of year championship tourny. He reports that they chose to search out smallmouth bass and were able to put 19.84 lbs in the boat using ned rigs and Carolina rigs dragging on the bottom in 10 to 20 ft water. He reports that they had some action on top water and on spinnerbaits as well. Day two they returned to the same spot and caught a small limit on the ned and c-rig. Unfortunately the largies were still biting for the other teams and they out weighed us. We were able to boat a bunch of walleyes as well on the same baits.
Jerry started his outings off for the week last Thursday, looking for trout and bluegills for a multi-species tournament. The first stop that afternoon was at Richmond pond where he reports a water temperature of 67 degrees. Apparently the state had just stocked rainbow trout because within ten minutes I caught a 14.75 incher and proceeded to catch a dozen more all in that size range, releasing all of them back in the water for others to enjoy. Jerry said after a couple hours he decided to hit Ashmere lake until dark, looking for some big bluegills and found a school of them all around a 9 inch range in fifteen feet of water.
Saturday was the MAKB Championship on Quinsigamond Lake in Worcester which Jerry had pre- fished the weekend before and caught eight bass a mix of largemouth and smallmouth in the eleven to fourteen in range with a kicker a 20.25 largemouth in five to eight feet, on lily pad and milfoil weed lines. Jerry said on tournament day he went to the exact spot the twenty came from and found nothing. He said he decided to move about thirty yards to a large hole in the milfoil and caught his five fish limit in a couple hours, all around thirteen inches. He caught only nine bass all day and couldn’t come up with any bigger ones. Still plenty of time to get out on the water temps are cooler and the fish should be feeding up for winter. So get out, be safe and wear your PFD! Good luck this fall.
Shawn the Fisherman got out once this past week, going into the 2nd annual MAKB Championship cold, with no prefishing. With the falling temps around New England, he said he hoped the north basin of Worcester’s Lake Quinsigamond would be slightly warmer and fish there would be more willing to bite, but the opposite proved true due to a stream or spring feeding the lake from the north. Shawn ended up having some limited success fishing submerged weed beds in 5 to 10 feet of water with weightless and ned-rigged stickbaits. By the end of the day, he had filled a bag of small fish,but it wasn’t anywhere near enough to finish in contention. Huge congrats to the winner, Bruce Levy, and everyone that placed in the money!
This was a great end to a fantastic year, and we hope to see everyone back next year!
Cousin Jon got out once this week at hit local spot. He reports that the fish were pretty active and actually hit a wide variety of presentations including ned rigs, swim jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and lipless crank baits. Jon also said that natural colors seemed to be their preference, all smaller LMB nothing of size seemed interested in the lures. I also had 1 brave perch crush a chatterbait!
Nelson got out a couple times this week, with his first outing to compete in the Massachusetts Kayak Bassin Championship. He reported that the bite was tough for most all day, including himself. He caught his bass on top water, weightless soft plastic stick baits and drop shot rig and said that he found the fist in 3 feet all the way out to 20 feet. He said he got the bigger bite in shallow water. My first bass came at 7:03am and my last bass at 2:55pm which was a 5-3/4 inch upgrade that took me from 14th place to 8th place in the last 5 minutes of the tournament. Never give up!!! You never know when you’re going to get that one bite that puts you in a good placement in a tournament or take the skunk out of the boat. I finished in 8th place out of 38 anglers. Given the caliber of anglers in this one I was pretty happy with that finish.
Nelson’s second outing was to a small pond on his way home from work, where he was able to catch a couple smallish bass. He said it was quick and it was his first bank send in a long time. Nelson reported that these bass were tight to lay downs and took a weightless soft plastic stick bait. He reminds us that as the water temperatures drop, to look for bass around lay downs, wooden docks, shallow stumps and rocks/boulders as they will hold the heat of the day the longest.
Good luck everyone and be safe. Please, Please wear your PFD. We don’t need another tragedy like we had right here in MA this past week.
Bobby Roast Beef was able to get out for a couple of short bank trips this week. He said that he definitely noticed that these bass seem to be acting much more fall-like than weeks previous. His first trip out was late morning; although he was skunked at the first location, he managed one at location number two. Bobby said that wind was whipping but his typical baits for windy conditions seemed to produce nothing, and the bait that seemed to be the ticket was a 4″ paddle tail swimbait. I rigged it on a 1/4oz. Jighead and would drag it along the bottom, giving occasional hops, focusing mainly around 3-5 foot depths.
At spot number three, a totally different body of water, Bobby says he knew that there were a lot more snags so he changed out my jighead to something a bit more weedless. He landed two on that, both were shallow and tight to submerged wood. After working that area a bit longer and not having any additional success, he moved to another area where there was a dense weed bed during the summer. Knowing these weeds have certainly started to die off, I went back to that 4″ swimbait and managed 3 more fish by swimming it above the remaining weeds. One of those caught was a 14″ Chain Pickerel… on of the few I’ve hooked this year.
Bobby also did a short bank send again Tuesday to QC the latest episode of Jigs and Bigs, and managed a nice chunky largie on that swimbait. It was the only bite I was able to get in the 55 minutes I was out there, before the phone rang and brought me back to the office. I’ll take it though!
The weather looks like it’s going to hold in the 50’s up here this weekend, which means the fall bite is in full swing! With cooler waters, do NOT forget to stay safe and wear your PFD! Most importantly, have fun, and take full advantage of the long weekend! TIght lines!
Wild Woman 