fishing reports 2014

Fishing Report July 26 2014 Massachusetts

Conditions: Sunny skies, 60’s into 70’s air temperatures, 78-80 degree water temperatures, light breeze for the wind

Couldn’t make up my mind as to where I was going to fish on this day so opted to stay very close to home and hit a small pond up. Typically I will run the shorelines and just try and catch the bank runners and typically these fish are on the small side. I wanted to catch fish in deep water on the structure that the lake offers. So watching the electronics as I idled around a half of the lake that I haven’t mapped yet, I came across a long underwater point that had some rock on top of it. There were definitely fish on this structure but you could feel that they were mainly panfish as they would nip and tug on the plastic worm I was fishing. After not catching any bass here, off to the side there was another underwater hump that came up to 4 feet of water from 12 feet on the deeper sides. Didn’t take long and I was catching bass after bass but they all were in the 10-12 inch length range. After catching a number of fish here I figured that there were no big fish mixed in and moved onto another location. The next location is another shallow hump that is covered in sand, rock, reed and lily pads on the outer edges. Caught a couple of small bass on one side and the other side there is a narrow ridge that runs out from it and drops off on either side into deep water. Hit one area of this ridge and was catching fish after fish but the same size as all of the other locations. As I moved further out on this ridge, I came to a spot that was still catching the smaller fish but then there was a solid fish on and the battle commenced. After running all around the front and to the back of the boat, finally was able to land a nice 2.5 pound largemouth bass. I was catching all of these fish on a 4 inch French fry style worm in a dark watermelon purple color pattern. Took a couple of pictures and released it back into the water. A few casts later once again I set the hook into another solid fish and this one was a bit bigger but was very thin with a big head and had many war scars on it as well as you could see it has been around for quite some time. This fish fought just as hard as the previous one and now I was getting very excited as it has been a while since I have been able to locate quality fish on this lake. Another few casts went by and bam, another huge fish was on my line and this one was definitely a lot bigger than the previous ones. This one would come to the surface but was so big that it couldn’t get itself out of the water to try and shake the hook. Once I finally was able to handle the fish, it was this biggest one of my season so far. Not sure it would have gone 5 pounds but it was a short and fat toad. After catching these three fish in the last 15 minutes, it was getting a bit exhausting. I fished the area for a while longer but there were getting to be a lot of boat traffic and the bite, even the small fish, seemed to shutdown at this point. It was getting late morning and I only wanted to fish for a few hours so with three good fish out of the 30 or so caught, my day was quite fulfilled. The one thing that I did notice was that none of these fish were aggressively attacking the plastic worm. Instead, they were just there when you went to move it and you would sweep the rod and set the hook. It was a great trip out and I am really working my electronics this year and I am learning a lot more about the bodies of waters that I am fishing. Everything is getting marked on the electronics and this winter this information will be transferred to a hand held gps unit and will put us into the right areas for the coming ice fishing season.

Our next trip we don’t know yet where you will find us but where ever it may be I hope that the fish are in the biting mood...so until next time may your lines are TIGHT and you have a…FISH ON....

Fishing Report July 10 2014 New Hampshire

Conditions: Partly cloudy skies to full sun, low to mid 70's air temperature, 78-80 degree water temperature with no wind at beginning to breezy by noon

When you arrive at the boat landing and there isn't a trailer in the lot, that always makes the morning start out great. Basically for a few hours I had the whole lake to myself and for a popular lake, that is typically unheard of. The landing for this lake is way back on a creek so the long idle towards the main lake, brings you through some deeper water in the channel. I always stop and fish in this hole and once again, there was nothing willing to bite. One of these days it will finally come together and there will be fish and good size ones at that. Stopped at a large flat before that main lake and was nothing biting there but a lot of turtles swimming on the waters surface. Made it out to the main lake and this particular lake is long and has many arms and fingers coming off of it. Decided that for the time that i had to fish, I would concentrate on the main lake and look for abnormal features and try and catch fish off of those. Never fished the right hand side so started there as it is a deep shoreline and was hoping on finding some smallmouth bass. Didn't catch a fish until I was fishing between and island and main land and found a bunch of smallmouth there. Nothing of great size but they sure do give up a great battle. Followed around the island to the main lake side and caught a small largemouth. Decided to idle around watching the Lowrance electronics and found a rock field that I marked a number of fish on. After fishing the area for a while, wasn't able to coax anything into biting. Went across the lake and fished a number of shorelines fast with a shallow Rapala Scatter Rap and caught smallmouth and largemouth in many different locations. Tried a handful of deeper areas but this season for some reason is not working to well for the deep water bite no matter where we are fishing. One thing that I have noticed is that there are fewer weeds and the water is much clearer this sesaon at this time of year. The long cold winter has definitely changed the lakes in the New England region and hoping as the waters warm so does the fishing.

Our next trip we will be back in New Hampshire again on a lake that we fish a lot and hopefully the fish are in the biting mood...so until next time may your lines be TIGHT and you hav ea FISH ON....

Fishing Report June 28 2014 Massachusetts

Conditions: Sunny skies, upper 70’s air temperatures, water temperatures ranged from 74-77 degrees and little wind to speak of

This particular lake we generally fish only in the spring and fall as it gets very busy from the pleasure boaters and water skiers. By fishing in the spring we are able to find the fish getting ready to do their spawning activity and allowing you to catch a better quality fish. Fishing here in the fall it is the opposite situation  and these fish are feeding heavily for the upcoming winter and you are still able to catch a better quality type of fish as well. Plus with the Lowrance electronics that we are running now it is allowing us to search and locate fish much differently and this is giving us better opportunities at catching fish in locations that we didn’t even know existed. Wasn’t on the water very long and the water skiers were already running all over the lake. As we would idle around and watch the locator we would mark locations that fish were stacked on and come back to the a bit later to fish. Was having a similar problem that would go back and fish those marked locations but wasn’t able to get the fish to bite. They were there but there was no aggressive feeding going on at all. So ended up going back to the old reliable shallow running crankbait and cast to the shoreline weeds in search of fish. Fishing the shoreline weeds produced fish in a variety of locations and was catching largemouth bass, perch, sunfish and pickerel as well. Never was able to find any large fish but all in all the day didn’t turn out to bad. By noon though there were getting so many boaters and skiers on the lake that we just needed to get off.

The last two days didn’t really turn out the way that I had hoped they would but was still able to put fish into the boat…have a number of days on the water coming soon and may find us way up into New Hampshire again on a lake that we haven’t been to since giving up tournament fishing…so until next time may your lines be TIGHT and may you have a FISH ON….

Fishing Report June 27 2014 New Hampshire

Conditions: Sunny skies, mid 80’s air temperatures, water temperatures ranged from 69-75 degrees and winds got breezier as the day went along

Decided to head for New Hampshire and fish a lake that we have never seen or fished before. Located one on the map that is supposed to have a good population of largemouth and smallmouth bass and the trip was planned. Looking over this body of water it is a damned reservoir that has some good flow going through it. Near the dam the water is deep and can get to 50 feet deep but on the opposite end where the river comes in, there is a lot of shallow water with and without weed cover. So headed to that end and use the electronics to try and find some active biting fish. Was different type of fishing as either it is deep or very shallow and haven’t fished in this kind of water before. On the Lowrance Elite 7 HDI I was marking fish and coming back to those locations to try and get them going but for all of the places that we were marking them, I was not able to get anything to bite. Plastic worms didn’t seem to be the ticket as well as they were fished deep and shallow and didn’t get a bite on them as well. So stuck to the shallow running crankbait and covered as much water as I could and that did produce crappie and largemouth bass. Not the numbers that we were looking for but at least we were catching some fish. I was able to take the boat up into the incoming river and look for some smallmouth bass as the water temperatures were 5-8 degrees color and there was a good flow rate of water happening. Worked both sides shorelines and also in the eddies from where the river met the reservoir but was only able to catch perch and pickerel. After being disappointed not finding the fish where I thought they would be, went back down the reservoir on the opposite side and tried the same thing for marking fish on the electronics but it just wasn’t happening. The pleasure boaters were starting to come out more in force and since there were not a lot of shallower waters to fish, decided to call it a trip.

Was really hoping to find some good fish at this lake but that happens when searching new lakes and that is always the fun part about trying to figure out new water…tomorrow will find us back in Massachusetts at a local lake and typically only fish here in the spring and fall so will see what can be caught…until next time may your lines be TIGHT and may you have a FISH ON….

June 24 2014

Conditions: Partly cloudy skies, upper 70’s air temperature, water temperature mid 70’s and gusty winds

We made the trip up to New Hampshire to fish a lake that we haven’t been on for a number of years. This lake typically will produce numbers of fish and at times they were a nice average size. I had heard that there is a couple of underwater humps that supposedly hold smallmouth bass as I never knew there were any in this lake. We were able to find one of these humps and fished it for a while but wasn’t able to get any bites on it. Also worked the shoreline on this side of the lake with no bites either. There were a couple of other bass boats on the lake and they were constantly moving around so that meant to me that they were working as hard as we were to find a few fish. Decided to go to the back side of the lake and there is a rock hump that never could catch fish from. Today is was the only spot that did produce a few fish, nothing of great size but they gave up a good battle. Was fishing plastic baits with light sinkers and working this through the weed growth on the hump. The fish were buried down in the weeds and if you could get the bait through the weeds without hanging up, you would get bit. After battling the wind coming down the lake we moved back to another underwater point that have done fairly well on for size of fish but with the winds howling now, it was very tough fishing there. in the middle part of the lake there is another hump that has weeds sticking above the water and fished the backside of this only to get a small pickerel. We were getting ready to head off the lake but seeing the boat ramp was tied up, found another small underwater point that was loaded with weeds to fish. Tried fishing this area the same way we did where we were catching fish but wasn’t able to get any bites there and at this point called it a day.

Friday will find us in New Hampshire once again and this time a bit further NW and on a lake that we have never seen. It is a dammed up river reservoir with flowing water and suppose to have smallmouth and largemouth bass so hopefully we can unlock this lake and find some fish… until our next report…may your lines be TIGHT and FISH ON…

June 22 2014

Conditions: Sunny skies, upper 60’s air temperatures, mid 70’s water temperature and light winds

We only wanted to get out for a few hours and there is a small local pond that offers us a landing for getting the boat into the water. Typically you can come here anytime during the day and be able to launch as most only fish here for a few hours and head out. Did notice that when we arrived you could tell that the lake levels were down as more of the landing was showing compared to any other time that we have fished here. As we were driving around looking for any new types of structure, we ran over a rock pile and the prop was stirring up some good sized rocks and we were very surprised that this was happening, been through there before and never had a situation like that before. Started fishing deep in hopes of locating some bigger fish but that just didn’t pan out. My son did catch some sunfish in the shallow water and that kept him entertained for a while. Since we were not locating any deep fish we went to what generally works and that is running the shoreline and casting shallow diving crankbaits and that did produce some fish but as usual, on the small side. There was a time that this lake would kick out some very nice fish but the last number of years, they are non-existent and 12 inch fish are the norm now. We did find some new structure that we weren’t even aware was there and will be fishing that the next time we go to this lake.

Going to have some time off work this week so we will be heading to New Hampshire to fish a lake we haven’t been to lately and also a new lake that we have never seen before…until our next report…may your lines be TIGHT and FISH ON…

June 15 2014

Conditions: Sunny skies, air temperatures upper 60's, water temperatures 70 degrees and gusty winds

With this being Fathers Day, my plan is to head to New Hampshire and spend a good portion of my day fishing a favorite lake. Arriving at the lake at sun up and having the whole lake to myself, where does one start with so many locations that can be fished. Not sure how the lake was going to fish because every where we have fished so far this spring, it has been fairly tough with the late winter affecting the lakes conditions. I am not one that likes to fish shorelines looking for bank runners and would rather fish deeper structure looking for a better quality fish. So starting on a fairly large flat where typically catch numbers of fish, fished all around and started noticing that this lake as well as others, is void of the weeds and I attibute that to the thick ice and lots of snow this past winter. Throughout the day I moved from deep water to shallow warm water to calm areas to wind blown shorelines. Fished a number of baits from small worms, jigs, crankbaits, carolina rigs and weightless plastics as well. Was picking up a small pickerel here and there and the lake was really going to make me work today. I finally connected on a good fish on the edge of a drop and didn't even feel the bite as there was just weight on the line. Caught this fish on a small plastic worm fished Texas style and was the only fish that was caught that I was fishing for. I spent a lot of time idling around the lake watching the electronics and was finding areas that there were schools of fish hanging, but with the high winds was fairly hard staying on the area and try to get them fired up into biting. I like catching fish just like the next guy, but my real enjoyment is just being on the water and trying to figure out what the fish are looking for and wanting.

It is going to be a fun few weeks coming up as I am being forced to take vacation and my son won't be at camp yet so we are going to be on a number of different lakes around Massachusetts and New Hampshire...until our next report...may your lines be TIGHT and FISH ON...

June 8 2014

Conditions: Sunny skies, air temperature 80 degrees, water temperature 74 degrees and zero wind

Arrived at the lake early as I wanted to do some sonar mapping with the Lowrance Elite 7 HDI. This unti allows you to record sonar as you move around the lake and Lowrance has a online program that allows you to upload that data and they send you back a detailed contour lake map. The maps that are available on the East Coast are very generic and be doing this process, this allows us to see a lot mot things on a body of water that a good majority of anglers have no idea what is down there.

After doing this for a while, and still thinking that the fish may be spawning, I started the morning on a flat in a creek mouth that generally holds a number of fish this time of year. Fairly shallow water, from 2 - 8 feet of water and generally there are good clumps of weeds that the fish can hide in. After fishing around the area I am seeing that with the late winter that we had, The vegetation isn't close to where it should be at this time of year. In general, I am finding that consistently wherever we have fished this spring. Fishing this area produced nothing for bites so went back to mapping a different part of the lake. This area is a cove that has some very irregular contours with a few underwater humps as well. Started fishing on one of these humps and it is around 6 feet deep and has a good amount of vegetation on top of it. Didn't take long and connected on the first fish of the day, didn't even feel it bite as it was just there. Was fishing a lizard plastic bait Texas rigged with an 1/8oz weight. The fish gave a great fight and was a solid 2 pound largemouth but was long and thin. Basically continued doing the same thing all around the lake and just looking for different little things that maybe the fish were concentrated in. Made for a tough day of fishing as the heat and no wind really started taking a toll and we left the lake before noon.

We will probably be heading back to New Hampshire soon again and head for a lake that we fish very frequently...until our next report...may your line be TIGHT and FISH ON...

June 1 2014

Conditions: Sunny skies, upper 60's air temperatures, mid 60's water temperatures and no wind

Since all of the local lakes were busy having tournaments going on we decided to hit the road and drive up to New Hampshire and fish a lake that we fished this past winter a couple of times. Apparently this lake is busy is the warmer months as we arrived at the landing fairly early and it was busy with anglers already. The landing is shallow so needed to take a bit of a walk into cool spring waters and it wasn't long and we had finally gotten the boat into the open water for the first time. I wanted to spend some time working with the Lowrance electronics and get a feel for the lake as we have a new lake mapping software, Insight Genesis, that allows you to create very detailed lake maps. We motored across the lake to where we wanted to try this winter and started fishing a rock flat searching for smallmouth bass. We fished the top and outside edges and just couldn't find any active fish. We moved to an close shoreline and watched to see if there were any spawning fish in the shallow sandy shore. We seen a few small bass cruising but never seen anything that looked to be spawning. We arrived at an underwater point and followed that out into the lake where we caught perch on crankbaits off the end of the point. Spent sometime doing the mapping and after getting home and uploading that and taking a look at it, I will definitely be doing a lot more of this mapping this summer. We moved over to the area that we fished a lot this past winter and still was unable to find any actively biting fish. We watched a few of the other anglers out there and you could tell that the bite was very tough and we didn't see anyone catching anything. Other than the few perch we caught the sun was getting very strong and without any suntan lotion, we needed to get off the lake and head out.

The local lakes should quiet down now with tournaments and we will be on one of them this coming weekend...until our next report...may your lines be TIGHT and...FISH ON...

May 27 2014

Conditions: Cloudy skies, 60's air temperatures and little wind

The fish in this lake have got to be getting ready for the spawn this spring or maybe the late winter and cold waters, they may not even spawn this year. That is never a good thing if the fish absorb the eggs back into their bodies and the lakes will lose a year class of fish. Going to keep searching for some shallow, cruising active fish and eventually they will be found. Today's location is a shallow shelf that is covered with gravel and rock and should be prime smallmouth spawning area. Was fan casting from one side all around to the other side and on the last cast before moving, connected on a fiesty smallmouth. The fish gave a great fight and jumped out of the water a few times as well when it was coming in. The bait today was a Zoom finesse straight tail worm in watermelon color and fished with a 1/8 oz weight Texas rigged. After leaving this area moved down a bit to a trough location that has some good green weeds growing. Fan casted all around the area for a bit and wasn't able to find any biters in this location. I am fishing fairly fast as time is limited and only going for the aggressive fish instead of taking my time and working any fish that are there that may be a bit more non-aggressive.

Hopefully this weekend we will finally get the boat wet and still haven't decided if we are making a trip to NH yet but definitely need to get out on the open water at least...So until our next report, may your lines be tight and...FISH ON...

May 19 2014

Conditions: upper 60's air temperatures and light winds

This spring has been one crazy time with the late winter and spring just not wanting to come around at all. Luckily I am fortunate enough in my work location, to be back near a great body of water with nice variety of species of fish to catch. This time of year the smallmouth and largemouth bass are spawning and once you can locate the spawning areas, you are able to catch some nice fish. So I will be fishing a few times during the week at different locations around this lake and will be interesting to see what kind of fish will be caught. The fish that I caught today was caught fairly shallow and came as quite a surprise as it hit the bait on the fall from the cast. Using an 1/8 oz sinker and straight tailed pumpkin Zoom worm, was able to trick the fish into biting and gave up a great battle. This was the only fish for this lunch break, and hopefully we haven't missed the smallmouth migration as there are some very nice smallmouth bass in the lake and nothing like catching them in the spring.

Until next time, tight lines....