Massachusetts Fishing Report | December 18-30, 2014

Whether you prefer taking your December on the ice or with open water, there’s something for everyone. It all depends on your home base and how far you’re willing to drive. Regardless how you take your fishing, the principle quarry is trout and there are some real beauties being taken out there!

Massachusetts Fishing Report

Pete from Belsan’s in Scituate told me that trout are the talk of the cold-water cadre who are still at it. Some are making the pilgrimage to Plymouth and finding willing rainbows, including some holdovers, from Little Pond in Morton State Park. If bass are more your bag, than the nearby Billington Sea should be high on your list. Pete also recommended Lout Pond, which is a clean-water little kettle pond in Plymouth that is fun to fish. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Pete tipping me off to some local wild brook trout honey holes! According to Pete, this colorful native New Englander can actually be found for those who don’t mind bushwhacking and snooping around tributaries as well as the Third Herring Brook and the Indian Head River. Some saltwater diehards decided to give it a go from the shore recently and were casting clams out toward Toddy Rocks off Hull. When the cod stock was healthy this was a favored from-shore spot especially this time of the year.

Eric from Lunkers in Ashland feels that there is untapped potential for local trout fishing since so few are fishing. He’s recommends for those suffering from tight-line withdrawal to float small shiners by the Route 85 section of Hopkinton Reservoir. Another alternative here is where the stream passes under the bridge. Ashland Reservoir is always a possibility especially by the point at Ashland State Park. White Pond has a nice mixture of stocked trout and holdovers with the latter often found at the harder-to-get-to back side.

Just because Wachusett Reservoir is closed doesn’t mean all is for naught in that area according to Eddie of B&A in West Boylston. An experienced regular recently picked up a few Thomas Rough Riders and Colorado spoons and said he was working some of the deep pools of the Quinapoxet River for trout. Years ago I recall the late Bobby Danico, who owned Wachusett B&T, displayed a big brown trout in his shop which he took out of just such a pool in the Quinapoxet. There has also been fly fishermen working the Stillwater River. For a variety of trout including brookies and tiger trout consider Comet in Hubbardston. A patron of the shop has been grabbing a bucket of small shiners and hitting the Route 68 side and finding a real mixture of trout species.

For the hardwater junkie who cannot kick the habit redemption is waiting for you out west and up north. Jim from JCB B&T in Cheshire said his sons and others are already catching on Cheshire Reservoir and through the ice no less! Please take this news with a big cautionary caveat and exercise good judgment should you decide to give it a go out there. Always assume that no ice is safe and take every precaution you can imagine so that you’ll have a safe outing. Folks have been out on Plainfield Pond and Windsor (Dukes) Pond as well. The best news just may be that when Jim and I spoke on Thursday morning the water bodies were still making ice!

Just when I was ready to send all hopes of much of a smelt season for 2014 into the trash bin, I received a hot tip of some very good fishing in Salem. Collins Cove has been really good and there have been impressive catches coming out of Palmer Cove Yacht Club as well!

New Hampshire and Southern Maine

As if on cue with the trout theme, Tim Moore of Tim Moore Outdoors on Thursday sent me an awesome account, with pictures, of gorgeous broodstock brook trout taken from some high elevation water bodies in Northern New Hamsphire. While understandably keeping his spot close to the vest, it shouldn’t take much homework to research online where the NH Department of Fish and Game has stocked broodstock brook trout recently! He did say that the fishing was a hardwater version of “sight fishing” with the bite happening in 18” of water just under gin-clear ice. He could actually see the brookies bearing down on his offering. The brookies belted Clam’s new blade bait lure tipped with Maki’s new fish heads. Go light if you want to tempt one of these trophy trout, Tim downsizes to 3-pound P-Line.

Dylan of Dag’s in Auburn Maine told me that the ice is tenuous in Southern Maine with the hard ice of a few days ago weakening significantly during the last two days ago, but if the weather forecast is accurate he’s betting it should tighten up again by this weekend. If and when it does, Dylan suggests some put-and-take brook trout water such as Little Pennesseewassee Lake, Worthley Pond and Little Ellis Pond which is farther north and because of that a better bet for a sure freeze. For brown trout consider Hobb’s Pond as well as the four Otter Ponds near Sebago Lake.

Fishing Forecast

Higher elevations among the western part of Massachusetts have folks ice fishing right now! Check out Cheshire Reservoir where pickerel and pike prowl. Windsor Pond and Plainfield Pond are the places to go if you’d like to set your traps over trout. The central portion of the state has Comet Pond as a multi-species trout producer and some less harried fly fishing opportunities in the Stillwater and Quinapoxet Rivers. Closer to the coast, consider Concord’s White Pond for a possible holdover rainbow trout. Over the border, brookies rule in Worthley Pond and Little Ellis Pond and there are higher elevation honey holes in northern New Hampshire where the aesthetics of the environment are only topped by the colors of the broodstock brook trout!