Ponkapoag Pond Fishing Report

Comments

• anything_for_points

  Nice fish man!

• tomp

  Thanks to everyone for their input. Nice to see the videos, Ken! Jacob, good having you join us! All the best with your move!

• jacobageller

  After 2 tourneys in a row of nothing but dinks, I finally got on the board at Ponkapoag.
  
  I got all 3 of mine (1.37lb, 2.14lb, and 2.47lb) relatively deep in the middle, in and around the hydrilla and other vegetation. Didn't really look for lily pads or anything, the vegetation is scattered all over the place. It was *not* very thick and matty, if you ask me, in fact the water quality and clarity were both excellent, and there were plenty of rocks and boulders and hard bottoms, especially in the northern half. Dealt with the wind and covered a lot of ground by heading all the way north and then letting the wind drift me down south through the middle.
  
  Caught all 3 on a pumpkin Berkley Havoc Pit Boss, T-rigged with a 16-oz weight pegged tight up against the lure by a bobber stopper. That is an incredibly versatile bait right there -- can be fished dead-stick, topwater, as a swimming search bait, hopping along the bottom, on the pads, in the grass, totally weedless, even in heavy cover I got barely any salad. It can be a frog, a crawfish, a bait fish, whatever... all different kinds of action.
  
  I think I could have really crushed it today with that pattern, but I spent too much time working the shallows with various other strategies. I didn't catch anything until about 10:45am, and got all three over the course of the next 1 hour. (Opposite experience as PurpleTurkey, who got all 5 of his keepers by 9am.)
  
  Moral of the story: Bass like the deeper water in summer. I have spent WAY too much time this summer working what appears to be excellent structure in parts of the pond that are just too shallow, while others catch them in the deepest part of the pond, out in the open water.
  
  This is the last MAFF tourney for me in a while... moving to Thailand in 2 weeks. But I'll be back. ;-)

• kenwood

  I think so, yeah, but with only 5 1/2 hours of fishing time I definitely dialed in too late. Aside from the 3+, I had nothing over 2lb. With more time I think I could have ran into a few bigger fish.
  
  Next year! =)

• baystateangler

  ya nice vid Ken. By the looks of it it seems you really dialed in on 'em Saturday.

• purpleturkey

  KEWL Video Ken!

• kenwood

  Just posted a video from this one on YouTube. =)
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_YemvHKiBA
  
  

• kenwood

  I started out by heading west, flipping a Crack Craw into the pads and slinging a white/blue spinnerbait. I got nothing on the spinnerbait, but caught three small keepers flipping and lost two.
  
  Once the wind picked up, I made my way toward the northern shore where the wind wasn't blowing so hard. There I worked the spinnerbait again and quickly caught my fourth keeper, then my fifth, which was my biggest at 3lb 4oz.
  
  I basically repeated this pattern for the last two hours. I flipped some isolated pads here and there and all the rocks out in the northeastern section of the pond, but couldn't get a bite.
  
  I ended up weighing eight fish, but I lost a few, caught some dinks (and thankfully only three baby pickerel), and didn't bother weighing a few other keepers that I knew were too small to cull with.
  
  Not a bad day overall. I wish I'd stuck with the spinnerbait all day and not just the last few hours. I think I spent too much time flipping and trying to grind out a limit that way. I could have, I'm sure, but I definitely wouldn't have caught as many that way. Plus it would have been tough in the wind.
  
  Oh well. Third place is okay with me!
  
  Congrats, Don! Ryan, too, and Joe with lunker. =)

• thelucky

  "I caught everything Dropshotting Stick O Worms in the isolated Lilly Pads/Hydrilla/Grasses in the middle of the Pond."
  
  That is the ticket. Always fish out there.

• don51

  I'd like to fish over there but the parking is brutal! Last time I went over there I broke a tie rod. DCR does a terrible job with that place!