Well it’s that time of the week again, time for the Fishing Report!
My brother Karl was lucky enough to get out on the Oxbow with a friend, and landed some bass. He said that they were fishing in the weeds and using a finesse nedrig with water in the mid 60’s.
Nelson was only able to get out this week on Lake Champlain for the Elite Kayak Fishing stop number two. He pre-fished on Friday morning for a few hours and was lucky enough to find some bass right away and decided that’s where he was going to go for the tournament. Nelson spent the rest of Friday fun fishing and hoping to put some multi-species on the board for Chronic Trip and Lake Champlain did not disappoint. He landed several bass, a giant pickerel, and a huge sunfish. Most of my fish were caught on a dropshot rig and others on a NED.
On tournament day, Nelson reports that it was sketchy right off the bat while wind and waves made it tough to get to the area where he had seen bass on beds. He pushed through and got there just in time for lines in. The wind also made it tough to see the bass on their beds and the blind casted for a while, eventually finding some protected areas where he could see the beds. Nelson ended the tournament in 12th place (with 93 inches) out of 62 anglers. Pretty awesome in my book. I would have to agree, congrats man! If you have never been to Lake Champlain you are definitely missing out on some of the best fish in the country. Make it a point to get up there. Good luck everyone and be safe!!
Tim was able to get out on the Otis Reservoir two times since our last report. The first time was pre-fishing for his club tournament last Friday, and he said that the bite was as hot as the weather. The water temperatures were 71-73 degrees and the topwater bite was on for both smallies and largies. Tim almost reported that a finesse soft plastic was the key in about 1-6ft, their biggest fish coming off the weeds and was all of 4lbs. Tim also managed a first for him… a fallfish, and it turns out it was a pin fish at 18 inches. On tournament day the weather was completely different with the water temperature at 63 degrees and the air temp was 20-30 degrees cooler than their pre-fishing trip. Tim was able to catch over 20 fish, but the size just wasn’t there. Finesse soft plastics got me a limit that placed me 5th overall. I needed one kicker fish to get to the top of the leaderboard.
Shawn the Fisherman did some more fishing in high winds this week. He got out up da ‘shires Monday, battling nature to land a couple smaller Bronzebacks. He reports that the bass seem to be mostly spawning or in post-spawn, and reminds us that the bite may be tough for a bit. Try deeper waters and finesse tactics to entice some action!
Jerry also managed to get out on the water a couple of times since the last report. His first outing, he fished a 160 acre reservoir in Berkshire county where he reports the water temperature was 64 degrees, and wind was blowing 12 mph. Jerry said when he arrived there was an environmental company with electrofishing boats, doing a species study I assume. He said that he wasn’t sure if the fish would be biting with that going on, but it didn’t seem to bother them. Jerry lande a largemouth bass first cast and a pickerel on second cast with a large soft plastic swimbait. He reports that there were still some bass on beds while others seemed to be feeding up. He caught eleven largemouth and four pickerel in just a few hours and reports that the Neko rigged stick baits were working well for him. Jerry’s second outing was on another Berkshire county lake much larger than the first, 653 acres, where the water temperature was 63 degrees, and there was a northwest wind, but that didn’t make it an unproductive day! He managed to find a number of 12 inch and under smallmouth bass up shallow, a large pike stole a chatterbait, a few crappie and bluegill on a dropshot, and with a small pike.
Although not sweltering anymore, it looks like we are in for some sun this weekend and temps in Western Mass in the high 60’s and low to mid 70’s. Be safe out there, have fun, and tight lines!
Wild Woman 