Happy Thursday folks! The Jig Heads were busy this week taking full advantage of the beautiful late summer weather.
Andy got out with Shawn and fished Littleville Lake in Worthington early Saturday morning, hitting the water well before sunrise and yielding good results. He said that just after launching the boat they had the first fish of the day on a topwater strike. Andy reported that the water was 71 degrees and calm making it ideal for the plopper. They caught a few more on those but as the day wore on the fish started to tuck into the shade and they had to finesse them out of those areas and along weed lines with soft plastics. There were very few people on the water and as the days drag on I can only assume those numbers will dwindle. Good news for anyone fishing there, we could tell by the fish we caught they were starting to put some weight back on for the long New England winter.
Tim got out locally again for a few hours over the weekend where the water temperature was 74 degrees0. Within the first half hour he landed three quality fish on a ned rig off of a point in fifteen feet of water. Then he moved shallow to see if he could get a dock bite going as the sun came up, and nothing. Next, he chucked a spinnerbait when the wind picked; again, nothing. Ended my morning with a nibbler bass on 1/16 oz weighted worm off a weed edge. Get out there and fish before the water freezes, there’s still plenty of time.
Shawn the Fisherman made it out 3 times this week. His first trip was up da’ ‘shires where he ran Squarebill crankbaits over submerged weed beds for a number of Northern Pike and Smallmouth Bass. His second jaunt was with fellow report contributor Andy, for largemouth in the foothills of the very same ‘shires. Shawn said the bite was a lot lighter, but between Andy’s topwater propeller baits and Shawn’s dropshotting, they bagged well over a dozen bass.His third time out was another journey to da’ ‘shires with Nelson at a water neither of them had fished prior. Shawn said there was heavy recreational traffic during the remaining hours of light, and thick shoreline cover made bites few and far between. This time, topwater frogging and ned-rigging landed him a largemouth and rock bass. Every water has behaved differently this week. Good opportunity for traveling anglers to hone their water-reading skills. Pay attention to what nature tells you!
Jon got out once over the long weekend. The first place they tried was entirely overrun with weeds. Their back-up spot was a little bit more open but still weedy but he did manage one decent largemouth on a floating Rapala just after sunrise and had one smaller pickerel on a dark ned rigged creature bait.
Nelson got on the water a few times this weekend, with his first outing being on a very clear water recreational lake with plenty of traffic. He said he found the bass doing what they usually do on lakes like this one: staying off the bank. Nelson caught several bass in 19 to 22 feet of water on a dropshot.
His next outing was a salty one when he headed down to Niantic, CT where he was on a mission to try to find some fish for dinner. He said that he quickly found some top water action with 2 – 3lb bluefish. Perfect eating size so I put two in the fish bag. Nelson also did some drifting for fluke and seabass and although he landed both, there were no keepers. A one ounce Castmaster caught most of the bluefish and a jig and teaser Hi-Low rig caught the fluke and Seabass. Fall fishing is in full swing right now on the salt. Get out there before it’s over.
Nelson’s last outing was to a new pond where he found bass around small isolated patches of lily pads including a GIANT that broke me off in the weeds. It was a weightless soft stick bait dropped on the edge of the pads that was getting some bites but as light diminished and into the dark he had a great hollow body frog bite around the edge and through the lily pads. Nelson pointed out that some of your best chances to catch a giant bass will be at night when they are more active. Don’t be afraid of getting out there at night. I will suggest that you go to a pond that you are familiar with for your first few times. Fishing at night can be fun and the chances of a big bass are great but it has its challenges.Fishing has been pretty good lately and should only get better as temperatures start to drop. Get out there before it’s too cold.
The next couple of days look like the heat is sticking around, quite literally with all of the humidity, so get out there and get some fishing in before it gets too cold! Good luck out there folks, and tight lines!!
Wild Woman 