Smaller water body skim ice is a harbinger of hardwater high times ahead, but not just yet! Not every year does mid-December offer up open water options and they are just begging to be taken advantage of!
Massachusetts Fishing Report
For as long as I can remember talking about things with him, Pete from Belsan Bait and Tackle in Scituate has been telling me of the near-mythical beastly bass that make their homes on the South Shore. There is a lady I know of who hails from the Duxbury area who has proven that hunch a number of times by landing double-digit Larrys! Her trick, and that of most who are aspiring to catch an awesome bucketmouth in the 12th month, is to offer the fish a big pond shiner! Although small yellow perch are a good substitute as well. As for how to procure pondies, a fly fisher would be right at home in this regard since small flies fished with the long wand or even fished with the aid of a spin bubble are ideal for culling out hawg baits. Locations where I have caught big bass can be divided into two categories those which harbor herring runs and those that are stocked with trout! The herring fry, and even in some cases the adults, provide the calories for out-sized black bass growth and as for trout, it’s almost as if the bass relish the stockings as much as the fishermen do! Trout water will not have the volume of bass a more shallow, weedy pond will but when a bass is caught it’s often a corker. As to where, snoop around for rivers whith runs and herring headwater. And of course ponds and lakes walong the route of the hatchery trucks!
Whenever I stop by Arlington Bait and Tackle the first thing I ask Rod about is – tiger muskies! There’s little wonder why as nearby Spy Pond has them! Rod did tell me that beasts up to 44” have been landed there and then there is that little matter of their pike cousins that swim there as well. Exactly how those pike got there is a mystery since Masswildlife did not stock them. One hint may be the ponds relative proximity to the Sudbury River where a self-sustaining pike fishery exists. As for that river, bays, setbacks and sloughs throughout the river are prime for pike right now! I expected Rod to point to pike shiners as the most effective bait but instead he said that white Booyah spinnerbaits had been the toothy ticket.
Captain Carl Vinning – the “white perch whisperer” – told me that his harbor river honey holes have gone dormant! While shorelines remained hotter than usual for this late in the season, December is finally acting like it with in-close water temperatures no longer hospitable for most gamesters. That doesn’t preclude pram or kayak anglers from launching and searching out schools of crappie which will be in tight clusters for the duration of the winter. Where you find one, you’ll find a bunch but you’ll need sonar to find them. Not all species shift towards neutral as the water temperatures plummet as Nick DiPhillipo has found out throughout the Merrimack River. Colorful, fat pike are on the prowl throughout the river and get especially aggressive before ice forms. Rapala X-Raps, paddletail shad baits and spinnerbaits will all work as will perch, big shiners, suckers and fall fish.
Leave it to Pete Santini of Fishing FINatics in Everett to come up with a saltwater option! Anyone who took advantage of the liberalization of the cod regs from September through early October knows full well how easy it was to catch that one keeper cod in close. Odds are that the cold water-craving cod are in even closer right now! While anglers cannot keep any cod until next April, you can catch and release them! If you took a peak into how our European counterparts sport-fish for cod, you’ll see that they treat them with all the reverence we show our striped bass. They catch ‘em up, admire them and then release with care!
In the past, Nut Island, Castle Island and Deer Island all held December cod and of course all three locations have spacious, well lit piers which offer convenient parking! I’d like to hear how one of Captain Santini’s Vella Rigs would work with clam or a mackerel chunk stuck on the hook! Years ago when I partook of that unique pastime the bite was always best at dark, which is perfect for the long nights which will be our reality for awhile! As for freshwater picks, Pete suggests Rivergreen Park in Everett for white perch and yellow perch and Jamaica Pond for rainbow trout!
While pike are still available in the “Housy” dropping temperatures have had a corresponding affect on their activity level! You can still catch them according to Spencer of Berkshire Bass but pike are reminding some of their muskellunge cousins, namely the fish of “10,000 casts”! Expect more follows than strikes until hardwater takes hold. Speaking of which, Spencer and the boys at BB hardly stop when ice is in but merely switch gears towards ice fishing. They are as versed at catching trout among the Hilltowns as they are gator pike and big browns among the big multi-tier lakes out west such as Onota, Buel and Pontoosuc. The shop carries the full lineup of gear and bait from augers to traps to shiners to suckers. If you’re wondering where is the best place to put all that gear consider a trip out west with the gang. They provide snowmobile access, shelters and every type of gear/bait you can think of. What they don’t have is limitless trips as they are booking up fast. Call now and schedule a trip before they are completely booked out. There’s nothing like a fun day on a frozen water body to take a big bite out of the winter!
A gentleman posted on last weeks column that landlocked salmon are part of the catch now at the West Bank of the Swift River. The catch-and-release Y Pool has been one of the places where the action is best. When I asked master fly tier Rodney Flagg of Flagg’s Fly and Tackle for a fly pick for the area without hesitation he recommended the Fire Smelt pattern. When asked if he moved many like that, he replied, “Yeah, I tied 300 last year!” He then added that he was almost sick of tying them but don’t worry he’s still tying them! There are big browns there also which are known to make a meal out of the much smaller native brook trout! The Wendell Depot section of the Miller River has also had fly action for brown trout with a wet-fished blue wing olive working well. Rod continues to tout the cat fishing at the Connecticut River with one of the shop regulars totaling 80 15-17” cats near the 90’ deep hole below the French King Bridge. While it probably wouldn’t be wise to make too many meals out of those bottom feeders, Rod did say that he sampled a fillet and it was delicious! For those counting the moments until there is hardwater, Rod said that the first two local spots which tend to freeze up are Clubhouse Pond and Moores Pond, both of which are in Warwick. These ponds not only are stocked with trout but hold big largemouth bass and yellow perch!
Massachusetts Fishing Forecast
When looking outside, hardwater junkies are not seeing Christmas decorations but rather – limbo! Odds are that at least as far as the western portion of the state is concerned relief is but a week or two away but closer to the coast open water trout and panfish remain the more reliable option. Ponds in Plymouth throughout the South Shore which are stocked with trout doubtless hold some heavyweight hawgs! A big “pondie” floated at the edge of a weedline or in a pocket in Lilly Pads just might catch the biggest bass you’ve seen in quite a while. Big swimbaits meandered over the tops at dark will look like an easy mark for a fish with an outsized maw. Pike and their kin are cooperating at Spy Pond, the Sudbury River and the Merrimack River. Out west, pike remain on the prowl in the Housy but a better bet may be to make haste towards hatching a plan for a trip to the Hilltowns or the Connecticut Valley Region for hardwater. While the east will have to contend with nothing more than skim ice for awhile, out west first ice will always be best!
Nice report, thank you.
(It would be wonderful if you could ease up on the exclamation points. Ouch, that almost hurts to read.)