zack137z

So after Hurricane Neil yesterday at Billington, I shot Damon a text letting him know I didn't hook up my fish finder and asking when he would be able to do it. He called me and we decided I would swing by on my way home from the Cape this morning and possibly head out to one of his honey holes nearish his house (we'll call it Pond X). Damon hooked up my new fish finder and off we went to Pond X. We probably got on the water right at 12, I had to get off the water for 2:15, so a short outing it would be. Following Damon's Yoda like instruction, we headed to some coves that he knows bass would be spawning at shortly, so he figured that they would be beginning to head up, water temps were around 44.

We both started throwing jigs and working em slowly and it didn't take long til we both failed a setting into a few of em. Damon switched a shakey head and bagged the first pounder or so. I continued to repeatedly miss hooksets like an utter noob and Damon decided he was going to try his 100" hudds because that's what he does. We worked our way around a few spots Damon liked and he missed a couple hooks up with his car sized swimbait. It was close to 1:45 and we decided to head back to the first area we started because we were getting bites there.

Damon hooks up again with his volkswagon but never saws the fish. I am stilling throwing my jig at this point when I get the tell tale tap and pressure on the line. I set it (all with gear only being used once yesterday) and the games on. Damon sees the flash and is like "yeah I'll grab the net." We finally see the girl and she's a bigun. Damon nets her, she spits the jig in the net. Took the obvious pictures and weigh her, 5lb15oz, my new personal best. I guess my new goal is 6lb this year. Sorry Shawn but no new boat curse for me.

Seeing as tomorrow is my holiday on, I decided to head out on the kayak today to my local favorite. I brought my cranking rod and my trout powerbait rod. Last time I was there I caught a trout, I had no idea but they stock it, so I was throwing a jerk bait and had powerbait behind me soaking. I guess the trout were hungry today cause they decided to just hammer the jerk bait all day. Ended up with 5 rainbows, biggest around 18inches smallest 12 inches. Atleast I didn't get skunked. Merry Christmas all

Since the calender hit December, I've been trying to get my first December bass, and have been failing miserably (but have been bagging trout on jerkbaits and cranks like mad). I headed out on my kayak around 12:30 today, barely 38°, to Paradise Lake. Fall/late summer, this place is the type you catch like 15-20 fish in an hour, but only 1.5-2lbers, I have yet to catch any bigger myself. I started throwing a jerkbait for around 35 minutes to no avail so I decided to switch to a squarebill (lake is only 10 feet at the deepest but water levels are down so prob 8 at the moment). I was just bored and ripping the squarebill as fast as I could, pausing for 3 seconds and repeating. Finally caught a 12 ounce little dinker. Few more casts, couple tiny perch. And then I got the best of the day, 1lb3 ounce. I know it's not a giant, but I am just happy to finally catch some December bass. I ended up with 5 total, 4 on the squarebill and one on a BHB jig. Tomorrow to try somewhere else, cause I am bored.

With finally finishing school, getting a job and such, I only work 3 days and have 4 off which is nice for fishing. So I was able to get out today on the kayak. I started in Longmeadow at this little pond I go to just to catch fish, ended up with 7 less than 1 lbers all on my favorite River2Sea Ish Monroe Biggie Smalls squarebills, that's when I decided I had a case of dink-itis. I decided to head to another pond nearby in Springfield that ended up with just 2 dinks in the 45 minutes of being there.

My last spot I hit is Spec Pond in Wilbraham, it's tiny and I get at least pounders there usually. I was throwing my squarebills/spinnerbaits/senko for around an hour with no bites. I got around 3/4 of the edge of the pond when I finally got a bite on the Biggie Smalls and I could tell it wasn't a dink immediately. When I get her on my lap, I weighed her and it was 4lb5oz, my first above 2 lber it seems like in 2 months. I see a guy fishing from shore so I paddle my little heart out, make him snap a quickie and watch the fish swim away. Caught two more dinks before taking off, was there around 1.5 hrs. Too bad tomorrow's supposed to rain, I have it off too.

Only had a half day at work today, so I decided to head out somewhere new in Western MA. A friend of mine lives in Granby so I decided Aldrich Lake would be my choice (after making her drive there and take pictures to determine if I could launch by myself which I could).

I had no idea anything about the water and my stupid fish finder stopped working so I couldn't even get water temps or depth. I made my way over to a small section of the lake where someone from MAFF had a trip pinged there a few years back.

Began circling the edges, looked around 1-3' of water. I got to tree lay down and my jig was smashed, ended up being a 3lb11oz. Two casts later on the same tree I got another, this one just looked a lot bigger and scarred the crap outta me by decided to swim around the trolling motor, thank god for braid. Lipped it and got excited at the size. Being the picture creeper I am, I asked some random 13 year old kid to take a picture of me with it, being my new personal best. It was a 4lb12oz pig.

Nothing else besides a few stupid slime darts, but overall a good 2 hours of a day learning some new waters.

Decided to get out on the water today so I got my buddy and we headed out. Went to Red Bridge Pool, which is just the Chicopee River that was dammed off and made into a fishing area. When you get on the water there is this little bridge that allows access to another section and only people with car toppers can fit under it so we headed straight there, average water depth is like 6-8 feet. Fish finder said water temps was 51°F.

Started with a cheapie BPS jerkbait and got bored rather quickly so I switched it up to3/8 oz Boag Hog green pumpkin/black flake jig with a green pumpkin Havoc slop craw trailer. Now, see I have only ever caught little 10-12inch dinks here in my previous 4-6 trips so I expecting absolutely nothing large, just a nice day on the water. Boy was I very wrong, in the best way.

Trolled over a down tree on the edge of the water and tossed the jig, and bam. At first I was like "damnit I set the jig into a tree," then my line started moving. Got the fish to the boat, 4 lber. I'm pumped. Boag Hog jigs are now my favorite and need to order more.

For the next 1.5 hour we tried many spots, hitting a decent size slime dart. My buddy wants to leave soon to get some stuff done so I spot another area of down tree limbs and I say that our last spot and we can go. I toss my jig right into the middle of the giant crap pile of tree limbs (I am using mono, not braid, so very stupid idea by me cause I could've lost the jig). As soon as it punched threw the pile it was immediately smashed by a fish. Lipped it at the boat, 3lbs. Not bad. Very next cast throw a little more left of previous cast, bam. Really? I must be lucky today. Got to the boat and lipped it, 3lb6oz.

Not a bad day on a body of water that I never have caught anything bigger than 1lb at before, smallie or larry. Thanks Boag Hog baits!

Since I put the boat away, been just trout fishing as much as I can (when the weather isn't too bad). Here are a few pictures of the trout I've caught at a catch and release section of the Swift River in Belchertown. The small ones were caught on Rooster Tails and the one bigger one is on power bait trout dough.

The other picture is just of a brook trout I caught in my town of Hampden on the Scantic River, power bait for him as well.

Back on the weekend of August 13th, me and a friend of my mine decided we wanted to bring my boat to Cape Cod and do some fishing. We dropped into Middle Pond in Marstons Mills and from Middle you can access Mystic Lake.

We got on the water around 6:20am and headed straight for the cut thru into Mystic Lake. We both tried some topwater action for to start the day and got nothing. He switched top a tiny Rap crankbait(pictured) and was banging off yellow perch left and right. I ended up with my biggest smallie of the season, a decent pickeral and a few perch. A townie told us that they had used that chemical to kill off an algae bloom last year and he was surprised to see us fishing there, oopsy.




Went back to my new found pond of choice on Monday around 11:00am cause I was bored out of my mind. My third cast landed this guy, from the fight I would've guessed equal to the 4lber I caught last week. Weighed in at 2lb10oz, still not too shabby. I plan on dropping my boat in here relatively soon.

My uncle told me about this pond in Palmer near the Pike that until recently had had a private property/can't fish here sign. Well the signs been taken down and I decided to head out there tonight.

I had been there 2 times previous, like 2 hours total and both of those hours I was fishing in the complete wrong end of the pond, it had down trees so I assumed bass would be there. The other half is down logs and lily pads so I went there today.

I arrived around 5:30 and started throwing Gary Senko's, green pumpkin with black fleks. I got my first and only bite at around 5:55pm and this is the fish. My biggest of the season/my fishing career(aka only this season). A nice 4lb1oz large mouth. Safe to say I will go back to this pond.

Me and a buddy of mine wanted to do some bass fishing so we decided to head to a little pond that is only accessible by having a Barnstable resident pass. It's a little pond behind Joshua's pond and I had previously pulled a decent 3lb large mouth out of it before. My friends from Cape Cod and he mainly only salt water fishes so I had to let him use my tackle(bad life decision). I was throwing Booyah jig with a Berkley Havoc Slop Craw and he was using some crankbaits and spinnerbaits. These are the two biggest I caught, forgot my scale at home so no weights.