Well folks, it is THAT time of year again. Time to FISH! We had a nice little teaser report last with with Ryan the Butcher showing us all how it’s done with his fat bag of chonky bass and NEW PB!
The weather has not been friendly so far this spring making me (and Joe’s boat) very upsetty spaghetti – and if you have never heard this phrase before go listen to the latest episode of the Jigs & Bigs Podcast. They have some great new show segments you WON’T want to miss! If anyone has an extra hay hook laying around I might be in the market.
Saturday on my way home from Attleboro, I got off the highway and decided to throw a line at a favorite little spot of mine in Hatfield – only to be skunked, and I lost one of my favorite lures, the trusty ol’ silver Thomas Buoyant.
Tuesday it was so nice out that I decided I had to fish on my way home from work, so I hit one of my favorite places to fish – Ashfield Lake. Ashfield Lake has already been stocked by the MA F&W Program with Brooktrout and there are a lot of other species in that body so I was excited to throw a line. To be honest, I brought a bobber set up because I just wanted to say I was fishing when I was just getting some much needed vitamin D. That being said, when I first got to the bank spot I like I saw 4 good size trout swim off that had been sitting in the sunshine enjoying the warmer shoreline – and that was enough to decide I was catching a trout.
I started with a gold and red Thomas buoyant which yielded zip, I didn’t even have a bite. Next I tried good ‘ol worm and bobber set up because I wanted to veg out for a little while and enjoy the sun, but the wind was all wrong and my patience for that did not last. Next I went to a small minnow looking lure which if I am being completely honest I have no idea where it came from (most likely a hand-me-down) but it is nice and heavy for a breezy day. My 2nd cast I thought I snagged the bottom but it ended up being a chonky perch! I wish I had a my Ketch board with me because it was one of the larger ones I have ever caught.
I threw that lure for a while, missed 2 other bites and then it all stopped. Next was a neon green rooster tail, which also yielded nothing, but when I switched to the white one I caught a nice brookie! That was my last bite of the day I fished for maybe another half hour and after taking off the rooster tail tried an all gold Thomas but no stabs. The water levesl are really hight and the water temps are still cold especially from all the rain, so if you can get a sunny day closer to shore you might find some fish!
Mr. Tim Jaques, or STJ as I am going to also refer to him (iykyk) has also been out fishing a couple of times this week on his local lake. He said that the water temperatures the first time out were near 50 degrees and that Jerkbaits and other reaction baits were the hot ticket.
HIs next outing was for a benefit tournament, and he reports that the water temp dropped to 45 degrees. Unfortunately that coupled with high winds seemed to keep the fish down. They did manage one fish on a jerkbait and one on a rattletrap. I suspect dropping temperatures coupled with post earthquake threw the fish into lockjaw mode. A lot of teams struggled! Tim said that looking back he wasn’t seeing much on his active target moving around and said that he thinks the fish were probably belly to bottom and should have slowed down even more. The winds made that a tough deal though. We were banking on the wind being helpful for the reaction bite. Log everything so that the next time out you’ll have past information to look back on.
If you are looking to get after some trout, don’t forget to keep track of the MA Trout Stocking Report! Oh and if you’re fishing off shore and you ask someone in a boat to scope out the fish for you, don’t believe them when they tell you they’re everywhere….
That’s all I got for you this week folks, get out there and be safe! Tight lines!
Wild Woman 