I cannot believe we are officially halfway through July! The heat and the rain have all proved to make the fishing a little tricky, but the jigheads are still out there after ‘em and catching!
Tim hit Congamond a couple times this week,with the first time being early in the week and he was able to only land five fish.He said that most of my fish came from site fishing: I was able to see cruisers, pitch over to them and land a couple three pounders with a soft stick bait. Tim reported that his other fish came off weed edges with a ned rig.
Tim’s second outing was yesterday and he reported water temperatures of 83 to 85 degrees, and a slow day of fishing; 7 fish, only 3 keepers. He said that everything came on a 16th oz weighted soft plastic on weed edges, weed mats, and deeper drop offs. The dock pattern for him with the Sanko has been pretty much nonexistent this year, which he said is surprising, but he believes that the heat has pushed these fish down into deeper water. Try something different, go a little bit deeper, hit some deep drops, some deep humps, deep holes, anything deeper where you think the fish may have moved.
Jerry was able to get out and fish a few times in the past week. He spent three hours fishing in Stockbridge and reports that with the hot humid weather, the water temperatures have jumped in the Berkshires into the high 70’s and even up to 80. He caught three different species of sunfish: pumpkinseed, bluegill, and red breasted sunfish. Jerry also landed a few crappie and a couple largemouth bass that were hiding out in deeper grass.
Next was Sunday where Jerry spent a day of fishing with family on a smaller Hampshire county lake with his niece and uncle taking the time to just do some fun fishing! They caught a bunch of pickerel and twenty five or so largemouth bass. Jerry said that they used green pumpkin ned rigged soft plastics, old school daredevil red and white for the pickerel, and nightcrawlers for panfish. His last outing, Jerry fished a pond regularly known for trout fishing in Berkshire county that has been on fire for some big largemouth lately, catching them fishing for them with different finesse techniques.
Nelson was able to get out this past weekend up north on the border of Vermont and New Hampshire on the CT river/Moore Reservoir for the Elite Kayak Fishing stop #3. He said that with reports of anglers catching mostly small fish up and down the area, he tried to find something different; something out of the way that most people wouldn’t try to do or access. Unfortunately after a 5 mile round trip to an area that looked great on the map, I found that it wasn’t accessible according to the tournament rules. Water levels were too low. His next and last pre fishing spot had a lot of bass in the area but they were mostly small, 8-10 inches. Not up to snuff for this tourney. Nelson said that on the morning of the tournament he went to check if the water levels had come up after getting some rain overnight but they were actually lower than previously and that was a huge bummer. He said that with no real plan he looked at the map and just picked a ramp and I went fishing.
He found bass in 6 to 8 feet of water in and around grass clumps as well as in 12 to 15 feet of water around rocks and boulders. Nelson reported that the majority of the bass he caught were on a drop shot, but he caught his biggest bass with a NED around the grass clumps. Although he reports that the fishing was great, there just weren’t many bigger bass around. I ended the tournament in 18th place. Should have been 16th place but I made a mistake with 10 minutes left. Lesson learned. Water temps up there were in the lower to mid 70’s. That area of the river is absolutely beautiful and if you want to catch 50-100 fish in a day, this is a great place to go. They will be mostly small though. Good luck out there and be safe!!
Bobby Roast Beef was at it again this week also, starting on Saturday heading up da ‘shires yet again – only this time with pike and pickerel on the agenda. He said that it was a tricky morning to try and figure out; 85-90% clear skies with almost no wind, and thunderstorms in the forecast in the afternoon. He said that his mind was thinking that if he was looking to appeal to pike, a spinnerbait or chatterbait would be the move to make but the weather had him thinking that maybe less would be more. He ended up going with a swim jig instead, starting out by following weed edges while focusing on a slower retrieve and shaking loose out of the weeds when needed. Within 3 casts, I hooked into a 15″ LMB. I stuck to it, only throwing a weightless plastic as a follow up for a missed strike. No dice on the senko however…He managed three fish all about the same size all day, and reports that the key was SHADE near healthy grass. I even had a decent sized pike follow my swim jig right to the boat, but he never bit.
Tuesday, Mr. Roast Beef went at it again, this time looking for pickerel, crappie, or possibly a smallmouth bass. Epic fail on that! He did however manage to catch three nibbler largemouth all on topwater, fishing over shallow grass beds. It was mid day, the worst time to be out there; and they couldn’t seem to get enough of my topwater baits. They had to be slow. Wouldn’t take a buzzbait or toad. But they killed a plopper style bait and a popper real good!
We have some storms rolling in today and then clouds tomorrow here in the hilltowns with temps hovering around 81 degrees. Stay safe out there folks, don’t forget to hydrate! As always good luck and tight lines!
Wild Woman 